Listening and Forgiveness: A Conversation with Carl Raschke

The just shall live by faith,” represents the Scriptural hammer of the Reformation. Five hundred years later many Evangelicals have decided they are the hammer and everything else is a nail.

Rooting out the greatest dangers to Christianity has become a favorite past time, if not as cottage industry, among some in my own Christian tribe. It calls back to the days of my childhood and youth where we were always on the lookout for the Antichrist, never reasoning with John’s description that antichirsts have already gone out into the world. Numerology and a hermeneutic given to fearing the worst rather than facing the future with love and trusting God for our future meant advertising signs and symbols and backward masking on LPs were scrutinized while hunger and racial conflict were for others to solve.

Seventeen years ago Carl Raschke sought to get the attention of Evangelicals with his book, The Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary reviewed the book in an edition of its journal. Introducing post-structural thought and how it could be useful when speaking to wider culture was strongly resisted.

Today the gravest issue to threaten the Church today, according to some, is Critical Race Theory (CRT). Enter Carl Raschke, again. Five years ago Carl wrote, Critical Theology: Introducing an Agenda for an Age of Global Crisis. Last year InterVarsity Press remaindered this little book and I was able to catch it on the cheap. Circumstances beyond Carl’s control left this project dwindling in obscurity. Sad.

I reached out to Carl to talk about this book that offers a great intellectual history of Critical Theory (CT). Many today conflate CT with CRT. As Carl and I were discussing what to talk about he made a point to note this and suggested our conversation might be more profitable to talk about CRT, the Church and a new trend in global conversations, decoloniality.

Thanks to Carl for coming on the podcast to discuss these issues and challenge us toward a Radical Incarnation characterized by listening and forgiveness. And you thought philosophers had nothing to contribute to a theology that supports faith.

Here are some titles from Carl that are worth checking out, including a soon to be released book.

The End of Theology
The Next Reformation: What Evangelicalism Must Embrace Postmodernity
GloboChrist: The Great Commission Takes a Postmodern Turn
Critical Theology: Introducing an Agenda for an Age of Global Crisis
Postmodern Theology: A Biopic
Neoliberalism and Political Theology: From Kant to Identity Politics (Soon to be released)

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About the Author
Husband to Patty. Daddy to Kimberly and Tommie. Grandpa Doc to Cohen, Max, Fox, and Marlee. Pastor to Snow Hill Baptist Church. Graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Reading. Photography. Golf. Colorado. Jeeping. Friend. The views and opinions expressed here are my own and should not be construed as representing the corporate views of the church I pastor.

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