When Biblical Critical Theory was published I saw lots of concerned people online. There were some who thought, “This looks great!”. I was one of them. But others, seeing the title, assumed it was like the other critical theories that have been devastating the land. They thought it was the same old critical theories dressed up in Christian lingo. They thought it a version of Christian wokeism.
The subtitle should have eased concerns. It points to the “Bible’s unfolding story” which criticizes modern life and culture. It helps us to understand it. That story is not about one thing: whether race or class or sexual minorities. It looks through the lens of creation, fall and redemption and how it all plays out.
The chapter Sin and Society is one of the most important chapters in this regard. To me it shows I was on the right path with regards to this book. Let’s look at it through the study questions to see how this is not some Christianized version of woke theory.
- Hot Take: If your memory of this whole chapter is about to be wiped in ten seconds’ time but you can keep only one thought from it, what would you choose to keep and why?
The problem of sin is out there (society) precisely because it is in here (our hearts). While duped by Satan, Adam and Eve also chose poorly as “becoming like God” became more important than knowing and serving God. We are both victims and victimizers, oppressed and oppressors, deceived and deceivers; not one or the other. The gospel addresses both our sin and our misery (including being sinned against) because we are both made in God’s image and depraved. At times I’m part of the problem, and at other times I suffer at the hands of others.
2. In your own words, what are the main reasons why the Bible’s account of sin is one of the “great overlooked resources for cultural engagement”?
The Bible’s account, including God’s sanctions (the curse), accounts for all that we see is wrong in our world. It accounts for “natural evil” because the curse affects the world, not just people. It has been subject to frustration and groans. We see earthquakes, volcanoes, “extreme weather events”, droughts, pests and more. These greatly affect us producing death, injury, illness, hunger, orphans and widows and more. The world doesn’t work as intended, and that creates problems for us.
It also accounts for the physical problems people experience: our bodies are part of creation and have been subject to frustration. They don’t work as intended. We suffer from birth defects, illness, devastating diseases and ultimately death. This is all traced back to Adam’s sin.
It accounts for the ways people hurt each other: adultery, murder, theft, deceit etc. It debunks the idea that people are basically good because evil is so prevalent among us. There is no one who does not fail to love, who avoids selfishness, and only helps other people. This accounts for why I do, think and say horrible things. It accounts for why you do, think and say horrible things to me and other people (and animals or other aspects of creation like just tossing your trash along the highway.
It accounts for why our social institutions and structures are instruments of oppression more often than not. If people are basically good, than why are our institutions so messed up? Systemic sin exists because sinful people build sinful structures. Every form of government will produce sin and suffering as a result. There is no utopia to be found because evil people seek power to exploit others. Every utopian dream becomes a nightmare (there is a short road called Utopia as an entrance to a housing development near my home. I call it the road to hell because the driveways are too short to park anything but a smart car or motorcycle, there are speed bumps aplenty and no parking zones to further complicate matters.)
This also means that evil is uncontrollable by us. It strips us of all these fantasies of controlling climate, the weather etc. It strips us of false hopes of ending poverty and disease. We can make improvements, but the same people who find cures can also be “mad scientists” who work on gain of function research and unleash new diseases on us. Our technology can produce energy for millions, or destroy millions through explosions.
3. “Making more of sin is good for society.” Why so?
In our cultural engagement we should make use of this category, and judgment. Apart from a rigorous view of sin and judgment, we cannot seriously engage our culture, explain its shortcomings, address injustice and provide hope for justice, and critique culture, including the church. We need to squarely face what is wrong with us, the Church, our communities, nations etc. before the cure (Christ and him crucified) makes any sense. We are just pruning weeds, not pulling them out by the roots.
In a world without a creation and fall, the categories of right and wrong, fair and unfair, just and unjust, good and bad just don’t exist. Society has distorted echos of this, often calling good evil and evil good, and proposing horrible solutions to the symptoms of sin in society.
4. In what ways might we consider Satan’s approach to Eve to be a ‘noble lie,’ and where do you see noble lies in society today?
The noble lie is “a falsehood told by an individual or group in power with the aim of manipulating those under their power into doing what otherwise they would not do, often with the veneer of a noble purpose.” Satan is clearly seeking to manipulate her. He does not yet have power over her, but seeks to have that power. Like his temptation of Jesus in the wilderness (“If you are the Son of God…”) he’s questioning her identity in a sly way. Though made in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1), he claims the fruit will make her “like God, knowing good and evil.” He’s offering self-actualization, freedom from seemingly arbitrary constraints opposed by God which are not good.
Watkin notes that she ends up doing Satan’s bidding, and working against her own best interests. This at its core is “the devilish genius of the satanic noble lie.”
Plato introduces a noble lie to maintain order: “the different classes of people are made of different metals.” This was to keep everyone in their lanes, preventing upward mobility as we’ve seen in numerous caste societies, and those having race-based slavery.
Today we see noble lies with the claims of misinformation if something deviates from the government narrative. Or it is denigrated as a “conspiracy theory”. Many of the noble lies, called conspiracy theories, have been revealed to be lies. The lie of “Russian collusion” has been exposed. The infamous laptop had already been verified despite claims it was a Russian trick, because it wasn’t about Hunter’s questionable pictures but evidence of the influence scheme. The Establishment had to be protected.
Many lies are told by the government, and the media, to increase division among the populace. They foment fear (“he’ll destroy democracy”), reminding me of the noble lie in The Village. It keeps the elite in power. Our two-tiered justice system produces on reality for the elites and their useful idiots (no consequences) and another for those who are ruled but question the elites.
Before and leading up to the 2020 election the Democrats often complained about stolen elections, compromised polling equipment, and illegitimate presidents. Suddenly it was wrong to talk about those things, they become conspiracy theories and are not subject to criminal cases in GA and AZ.
“God’s truth is one size fits all.” Colin Buchanan
God tells us the truth, not noble lies to control us.
5. Do you agree that sin is a foundation of equality, dignity, and democracy? State your reasons.
It is quite counterintuitive. Watkin argues that sin is the great equalizer because it is universal. All of us sin and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23). There can be no social hierarchy as if some are more pure and therefore worth more than others. Your ethnic background, gender, economic class, vocation etc. cannot be used to exalt yourself over others as more worthy to rule.
Our equality is found in God’s image regarding our dignity. Our equality is also found in our depravity as sinners. No one is more or less a sinner than anyone else. Our sins against other show their dignity in that God will hold us accountable for sinning against all we sin against. We can pity all because they are sinners: both the beggar and the king (Chesterton). Sin and judgment cut across social and ecclesiastical hierarchies (the context of the famous quote about absolute power corrupting absolutely).
In terms of democracy, no one’s vote is more important than anyone else’s. It is because we are sinners that we need to be governed, and the government must be held accountable (The Federalist Papers). In Dante’s Inferno, canto 19, there is a circle of hell reserved for popes.
“Sin is the great leveler of the lowly and the mighty.”
In terms of judgment, all of us “face God naked and on the same footing, as sinners needing grace.” I recently watched the original version of The Planet of the Apes. Taylor is on trial, so to speak. He stands before the ruling orangutans, and is stripped of his rudimentary covering (clothing does it no justice). Initially Cornelius and Zira must speak for him since apes rule and humans are far inferior. We will be like Taylor, unable to hid anything from the All-Seeing God who reveals our secrets.
6. How do thinkers like Marx, Freud, and Nietzsche develop the theme that human beings “suppress the truth by their wickedness” (Rom. 1:18)?
Freud’s thought resembles original sin in the disjunction “between the aggressive, destructive workings of libidinous desire and the achievements of culture” (Simon Critchley). Despite our cultural advances and growth in knowledge, we are still serving our most base desires. We keep destroying the civilizations we build. These thinkers don’t speak in terms of sin, but use parallel modes of critique. For Freud, it is repression that suppresses the truth of our past trauma. He, of course, seems religion and especially the Christianity surrounding him, as a symptom of our repression.
Marx developed the idea of “false consciousness” to describe the deceptive system elites have produced to mask us from the reality of class struggle and its mechanisms. Marcuse argues that in order to become free of our servitude we must become aware of it. We’ll remain in the matrix as long as we don’t know we’re in the matrix. As Christians, we try to show people they are sinners so they will cry out for salvation. Not thru revolution but redemption.
Nietzsche sees Christian virtues as a thin veneer covering all our resentment and jealousy. Morality is just a sham. Life is about power, not love and benevolence. Our “slave morality” keeps us as lambs who don’t take what they want.
7. Imagine you are giving a five-minute class presentation on how modern society and Bible present the fault line between good and evil. What would you include?
I would begin that despite disagreeing on the source and content of a dividing line there is one. There are things people say are wrong and things they say are right. We have an inherent need to know, distinguish, good from evil. This doesn’t mean that we may be self-serving or have distorted standards: I can steal from you (good) but you can’t steal from me (bad); heteronormativity is bad as is being against what you believe to be sexual perversions. We all make moral assessments every day.
Post-modernism has been captured by the “hermeneutics of suspicion” that seeks to see what is being hidden, not simply interpreting the facts as they are. Hidden meanings are the order of the day with a focus on dog whistles, microaggressions. They don’t simply critique the individual, but also the society.
Self-critique is important precisely because we are sinners. We are not consistent with our values and longings. We don’t want to perpetuate our inconsistencies and abuse. If we only critique others we become like the Pharisees. If we only critique ourselves healthy self-reflection and repentance can turn into self-loathing like what we see today as our society seeks not simply to correct errors but to dismantle itself. It also fails to acknowledge a difference between the past and present on key issues where there has been improvement because they absolutize injustice (all injustice have equal value). Victimization means that you can not commit an injustice. Yours are justified by oppression. This is different from self-defense. This means they become the monster, or oppressor, to defeat the oppressor.
These ideologies draw the dividing line between groups. Cultures and individuals become all good or all bad. There is no nuance, no evaluation of particular acts against an objective standard. It is the relative standard of oppression. Other ways this dividing line is between form & matter (gnosticism), grace & nature (Roman Catholicism), freedom/personality & nature/science. Critical theory, which draws lines between groups, dominates the intellectual landscape today.
Christianity sees each culture, and person, as part of the larger story of creation, fall and redemption. God provides us the standard by which all must be weighed. God also provides redemption for those who repent and believe. This line runs through our thoughts and our desires/appetites, groups and individuals. Creation, fall and redemption diagonalizes the divisions drawn by modern theories.
8. What is the Bible’s distinctive take on the logic of victims, oppressors, and liberators?
Just as the line between good and evil runs through our hearts, we are also both victims and oppressors. Not at the same time, or in the same sense. We are all sinners and sin every day in thought word and deep. We take advantage of others and manipulate them. But in this world of sinners, others take advantage of us and manipulate us. The rape victim is just that, a victim. But that is not the totality of life (and identity). At other times they are rude, may steal, or commit adultery. Having been a victim does not absolve one of their sins. Being an oppressor does not mean you can’t be a victim of another’s sin. Slave owners could be victims of theft, false witness, acts of unjustified violence etc.
Liberators are also victims and/or oppressors at other times. Some who have been victims begin to advocate for others. Someone like John Newton can leave the slave trade and begin to advocate for abolition.
Jesus was a victim who subjected Himself to that in order to liberate. While not an oppressor, He became an oppressor (He who knew no sin became sin), bearing the penalty of oppression as a sin to free oppressors from the justice due to them.
We need the Liberator as both victims and oppressors.
Leave a comment