Between relativism and fundamentalism
Peter Berger, an eminent sociologist of religion and a lifelong Lutheran:
Under modern conditions, where almost everyone lives in communities in which diversity has taken the place of consensus, certainty is much more difficult to come by. Relativism can be described as a world view that not only acknowledges but celebrates the absence of consensus. So-called post-modernist theorists like to speak of narratives and, in principle, every narrative is as valued as any other. The moral end result of this world view can be captured by imagining a television interview with a cannibal. “You believe that people should be cooked and eaten. I certainly don’t want to be judgmental, but the audience will be interested. Tell us more.” (Laughter.) This is not all that fictitious.Fundamentalists respond to the same situation of certainty-scarcity by seeking to regain absolute certainty about every aspect of their world view. No doubt is permitted. Whoever disagrees is an enemy to be converted, shunned or, in the extreme case, removed. The last two centuries of history have made it very clear that there are secular as well as religious fundamentalisms. Both relativism and fundamentalism threaten the basic moral order without which no society, least of all a liberal democracy, can exist: relativism because it makes morality a capricious game, fundamentalism because it balkanizes society into mutually hostile camps that cannot communicate with each other.
Read more at the Pew Forum's event transcript for "Between Relativism and Fundamentalism: Is There a Middle Ground?"
Berger statement that relativism and fundamentalism are two sides of the same coin is echoed in the Evangelical Manifesto (see The Lead's next post), which states:
Fundamentalism has become an overlay on the Christian faith and developed into an essentially modern reaction to the modern world. As a reaction to the modern world, it tends to romanticize the past, some now-lost moment in time, and to radicalize the present, with styles of reaction that are personally and publicly militant to the point where they are sub-Christian. Christian Fundamentalism has its counterparts in many religions and even in secularism, and often becomes a social movement with a Christian identity but severely diminished Christian content and manner. Fundamentalism, for example, all too easily parts company with the Evangelical principle, as can Evangelicals themselves, when they fail to follow the great commandment that we love our neighbors as ourselves, let alone the radical demand of Jesus that his followers forgive without limit and love even their enemies.
Posted by John B. Chilton![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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May 7, 2008 9:33 AM
There are at least twelve different kinds of relativism in philosophy, some of them quite good, such as Nelson Goodman's "rigorous relativism." In Worlds of Worldmaking, Goodman says that that there are many worlds and that when one is stepping off a bus there is really no need to take into consideration the earth is rotating or that the it revolves around the sun. In astronomy, however, it is crucial to know this.
Reminds of Wittgenstein's language-games, in which someone may engage in what looks like superstitious behavior and be perfectly okay as long as they make no knowledge claims. A tribe may perform rain dances and not be making any causality claims between the dance and rain because they generally do the dance in the season when it rains, etc.
In eucharistic theology, a piece of bread gets to be called the body of Christ. There need be no superstition attributed to this language-game. A chemical analysis would show bread. No molecule changes.
If there is a change, it is that the bread is called something different, used differently.
Postmodern philosophy is an attempt to look at different contexts and describe them rigorously. Berger seems not to have read the philosophy he criticizes, which is most unfortunate.
Gary Paul Gilbert
Posted by garydasein![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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May 8, 2008 12:36 PM