04.02.07

the will to act

Posted in emergence, formation, hermeneutics, postmodernity at 12:55 pm by len

Continuing the recent series on deconstruction, Jason Clarks posts on the will to act.

“Deconstructive theology can help us see the ‘other’, but is often so sceptical that it ends up having no responsibility to act to others, and can appear at best as the playful behaviours of the indulgent middle class, or something far more sinister at worst.

“The deconstructive theology can become more about the ‘subject’ showing off their skills at subversion of the ‘object’, and their right to do so, than any desire to close of discussion and take action, as agents of the Kingdom for the mission of Jesus.

“There is a responsibility to deconstruct, of openness to the other, but also of closing off, to be able to act. Whilst the emerging church finds an openness to the other, and humility in it’s beliefs, it must also learn the process of ‘closing off’, of moving from abstraction to the concrete, of the nature of action from within this new deconstructive freedom it has found.”

Jason brought to mind for me William Butler Yeats. When the center no longer holds we find ourselves in a strange desert place. Liminality offers many things.. but not direction, and not the will to act. I identify this same paralysis knawing at my bones, and at the bones of my friends. We have to consciously resist this creature, remind ourselves that Jesus is the center and embrace shared practices that root us in His life. Yeats writes,

“TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”

The Second Coming

2 Comments

  1. Malcolm McCabe said,

    April 2, 2007 at 8:59 pm

    Good stuff. I often stop in and see what you’ve got to say and get challenged, stimulated and inspired. But the dynamic that this post is identifying frequently lurks nearby – its all too easy to deconstruct the baby with the bathwater! Deconstructionists are, as a matter of course, critics. Critics of all persuasions inevitably assume some superiority which can’t help but resemble pride. The paralysis felt may simply be God resisting the proud. He’s amazing enough to do this while simultaneously pouring grace onto the humility he finds in us. To paraphrase and read some cause-and-effect into 1 Thess 5: Do not quench the Spirit’s fire by testing everything and failing to hold onto the good…

  2. len said,

    April 3, 2007 at 8:43 am

    Malcolm, a good word!