Onderbroken traditie: heeft het christelijk verhaal nog toekomst?

by Lieven Boeve

Not so long ago it would have been fair to say that the Catholic Church and the Catholic faith determined human life and social existence, more or less unquestioned, in Flanders and in a large part of Western Europe. The Catholic faith community in Flanders today, however, is struggling with the fact that the transmission of the Christian tradition has been flagging in recent years. This has not only led to diminished faith engagement and a massive decline in church attendance, it has also had its effects in the cultural domain: culture has become de-traditionalised; 'traditional' Christian culture is worn out. Even convinced Christians are having problems reflecting on the plausibility of their faith, precisely because of the chasm that has opened up between faith and culture.

The author of the present study argues that every new context challenges the Christian tradition to recontextualise its presentation of meaning and purpose in a cogent and credible fashion. Christians today do themselves a disservice when they withdraw into a world of absolute self-justification. At the same time, however, the author avoids any form of appeal for an extensive adaptation to the postmodern context. Only a new dialoque between tradition and culture, respectful of (and indeed thanks to) the growing division between both, can claim to offer a future.

In the first part of the book the author provides a pithy description of the visissitudes of the Christian tradition in modernity and postmodernity. Against this background, he attempts to clarify the situation in which the Christian tradition finds itself today. The second part of the book is devoted to an analysis of the actual context with a view to establishing points of intersection on the basis of which the dialogue between faith and culture might be revivified. The third part of the book endeavours to provide this dialogue with concrete form. The reader is introduced to a challenging image of Jesus, an image that is contextual and theologically motivated, prior to being invited by the author into a reopened reflection on God. The volume concludes by drawing renewed attention to the place of the Christian faith in relation to the other world religions.

The results of Boeve's study reveal that Christians do indeed have the capacity to reflect on their faith in a credible and relevant manner in relation to the actual context in which they find themselves and without relapsing into the extremes of traditionalism or relativism.

Genres: Religion

164 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Lieven Boeve is een Belgisch katholiek theoloog en sinds 2014 namens de Belgische Bisschoppenconferentie directeur-generaal van Katholiek Onderwijs Vlaanderen.
(Bron: nl.wikipedia.org)

Lieven Boeve is a Belgian Catholic theologian and since 2014 director-general ofKatholiek Onderwijs Vlaanderen on behalf of the Belgian Bishops' Conference.

Reviews

[Nithin · Rating 1 out of 5]

(1.5)

[Michel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ik vond dit een moeilijk boek , met veel herhalingen over het ‘open christelijk verhaal’. Sommige stukken bleven telkens hetzelfde standpunt herhalen.
Toch een interressante visie op christen zijn in deze moderen tijden.

[Jessicah Duckworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good descriptive text about identity, tradition, and the postmodern context. I appreciate his recovery of apophatic, mystical, and negative theology. Boeve writes, "Negative theology forms, nevertheless, the critical, questioning background to every positive theological endeavour." (pg. 161)