February 19, 2007

• Introducing Dr. Vincent Bacote

  B"H

  Getting back on track again.

  Last week I wrote a few decent posts, but not here, obviously. I spend a good deal of time surfing the Net for interesting Blogsites as well as doing research on a variety of topics. This current post was originally drafted as a comment elsewhere, but after it failed to load due to a spam filter, I considered that it was much too long to post there anyway. If I have so much to say, then I should just post it here and not invade someone else’s turf.

  I’d like to introduce an Afro-American theologian whom I “met” a few years ago via e-mail and over the phone. Being that I’m such a shy person, not. After I read an interesting article in CT (Christianity Today) I looked up the contact info for this author and gave him a call.

   

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  Vincent Bacote is Associate Professor of Theology at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. He is the author of The Spirit in Public Theology: Appropriating the Legacy of Abraham Kuyper (2005). He is also co-editor with Dennis Okholm and Laura Miguelez of Scripture in the Evangelical Tradition (InterVarsity Press, 2004).

   

  For those of you who are interested in deeper theological studies I highly recommend you check out Dr. Bacote. If anyone remembers, I wrote a post last year about our need to build upon the legacy of those who have gone before us. In 1 Cor 1 – 3 Paul admonishes the believers in Corinth saying that because they are carnally minded in The Faith, therefore he is unable to teach them some of the deeper things of The Spirit. Who is Apollos or Cephas or even Paul himself, but mere servants of the LORD through whom they have received the good news. All things are ours, whether it is Paul or Peter or Wesley or Calvin or Abraham Kuyper. We need the humility to allow ourselves to be taught and then to add to The Tradition as we are led by The Spirit.

  Dr. Bacote has done, and continues to do, an excellent job in this regard by using the legacy of Abraham Kuyper. I like his approach in that he is not blind or unaware of Kuyper’s shortcomings, but neither is he willing to disregard his entire body of work because he was deficient in some areas.

  On the subject of race relations I think the following excerpt from an article he wrote in September 2005 is a good introduction to some of the work that we,The Family of Faith, must engage in if we are serious about seeing the advance of GOD’s Kingdom in our time.

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  “Fourth is the construction of theology that rectifies the deficiencies related to race and ethnicity. A friend once told me, "I don't think evangelical theology is sufficient" to address the challenges of racism and poverty. I was hesitant to believe him, but now I am convinced that he is correct. I admit that I still find myself perplexed when I read the comments on race from Kuyper and from evangelical stalwarts like E. J. Carnell. In both cases they were unable to surmount the cultural undertow of racism in spite of expressing theological statements which affirmed the humanity of every person. Remaining perplexed is not sufficient, so I and other theologians must do more than lament the imperfections of our predecessors as we appropriate their legacy. How might we move forward? First, we can regard "liberation" as an acceptable theological category. It need not be confined to the works of Cone, Ruether, Gutierrez, et al. Instead, we must find ways to articulate the intersection between the realities of everyday life and God's action in the world, without either collapsing the work of God into the exclusive interests of oppressed groups or limiting God's action to a generic application to the details of our existence.

  One key methodological task is arriving at the awareness of ways in which western post-Enlightenment culture has permitted the myth that "normal" equates with "whiteness." This mythology influenced Kuyper, Carnell, and countless others, and led them to articulate theology that is quite good, but with blind spots that affect the doctrines of creation, anthropology, election, and many others. Raising the awareness that our context helps us to see some things well, and blinds us to others, is important lest we fail to see our own contextual imperfections and limitations as we engage in the theological task. To put this more positively, we need to focus on and employ the theological resources that are present in the great tradition of the church so that these blind spots are addressed.

  If we fail at this task, many ethnic minorities have no recourse except to the more typical forms of liberation theology, or to be happy with an evangelical theology that validates the status quo. As a person who regards the Kuyperian tradition as indispensable, I know that I continually have to do a lot of work to demonstrate, for example, that Kuyper's thought is not racist at its core. I can only do this by exposing the failures of the tradition and by providing a remedy that makes the best of Kuyper's legacy as one that unquestioningly includes all people (without using election as an excuse for why some people are beneath us). It is hardly neocalvinism alone that must do this. As noted above, evangelical theology is also deficient, perhaps more so.”

   

   

  Recognizing the myth that "normal" equates with "whiteness" is an indispensable prerequisite in overthrowing the current assumptions that underly our contemporary worldview. “The fish doesn’t know he is in water” is an appropriate analogy for describing the condition of cultural blindness that many white people suffer from. Not only do white people need the healing that would come from a true sense of cultural connections, but the water which they presently inhabit is often toxic and in need of being purified.

   

   

  Blessings,

   

  Shlomo

   

  • 12:28 pm
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