re-church network

By Zane Yi

This is the third  post in a six-part series in the re-church Summer Reading Group (click these links to read parts one and two). The six posts will correspond to the six chapters of What Would Jesus Deconstruct?, by John D. Caputo. Next week’s post will also be written by Zane.
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I like to think of myself as a generous person. This summer, my wife and I have had the privilege of attending several weddings. Each of my family members or friends received gifts from us. According to Derrida and Caputo, however, these so-called “gifts” came with some unstated expectation of gratitude or reciprocation. In other words, they are not really gifts and I am not really a generous person. I do not truly give gifts; rather my gift giving is a form of putting someone in debt to me!

The distinction between names and events is central to understanding Caputo’s provoking discussion of gifts and along with his thoughts on forgiveness, love, and hospitality. I will start by providing some further distinctions that I hope will clarify Caputo’s general claims regarding names and events, and then raise some questions for discussion. (By all means, feel free to add your own below, or to touch on topics I do not mention in the discussion below.)

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By Samir Selmanovic
This is the second post in a six-part series in the re-church Summer Reading Group (part one can is here). The six posts will correspond to the six chapters of What Would Jesus Deconstruct?, by John D. Caputo. Next week’s post will be written by Zane Yi.  Zane is completing his Ph.D. in Philosophy at Fordham University in New York.
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When I first opened this book, the title of this 2nd chapter, “Spiritual Journeys, Postmodern Paths,” seemed innocuous. I find myself exhausted by all the deconstruction that is going on around me, theologically, economically, politically, personally. So, I was glad Ryan assigned this straightforward chapter to me. The words were familiar. In the parlance of traditional Christian spirituality, terms journey and path have been a way of comforting us on the demanding race of Christian life towards achieving an overwhelmingly all-encompassing perfect image of “being Christlike.”

Traditionally (here by “traditionally” I mean “before the blessings of deconstruction entered our psyche”) the destination was clear, good, and certain—but far away. To get there—we would say in our sermons—we need to take the Christian journey. The concept helped us focus our efforts and be patient. It was a way to keep ourselves going towards that perfect image, a way for a pilgrim to make progress.

Such a journey or path was something concrete, something we could envision, choose to take, and be disciplined about. It had maps and steps. And, importantly, it had a history and there was a concrete future awaiting us at the end. We were to hold on to “faith delivered to the saints once and for all” and cling to “hope that will not fail.” My contention here is that although we proclaimed the text that was authoritative, future that was certain, the present that was doable, we were not really comforted. There were too many things on the map towards God that did not correspond to the landscape of life, and no matter how beautifully attractive was the map, it produced anxiety within. (more…)

By Ryan J. Bell
This is the first post in a six-part series in the re-church Summer Reading Group. The six posts will correspond to the six chapters of What Would Jesus Deconstruct?, by John D. Caputo. Next week’s post will be written by Samir Selmanovic, founder of Faith House Manhattan and author of the forthcoming book, It’s Really All About God.
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The title of the book, which we will be discussing here on the re-church blog, is a play on the title of the classic Christian novel, In His Steps, by Charles Sheldon. I distinctly remember reading this book when I was in college, over 100 years after it was originally published. It had a profound impact on me at the time. It helped me to see an important connection that I had mostly missed up that point in my life. Namely that my profession of faith in Jesus needed to have very tangible results in how I lived my life. Coming from a very conservative place at that time in my life, I was intimately familiar with the idea that my faith should make my life different. But that difference was always in the realm of personal piety and cultural taboos – “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” (Col 2:21). But what Sheldon was suggesting is that my faith in Jesus had everything to do with how I treated others and even the systems of oppression that keep people broken.

At that point in my life I knew nothing of the social gospel (as an actual movement or as an epithet). Nor had the Christian marketing machine yet gotten a hold of this slogan, “What Would Jesus Do?” and made a mint off bumper stickers, T-shirts, bracelets and Special Edition Bibles. Since that time, as Caputo rightly notes, the slogan, “What would Jesus do?” has been used as a weapon in the modern culture wars. (more…)