Particularity, Reality, and Reparative Thinking: Another Reformation by Peter Ochs

Abstract

Particularity, Reality, and Reparative Thinking: Another Reformation by Peter Ochs Another Reformation: Postliberal Christianity and the Jews. By Peter Ochs. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2011. ix + 278 pp. $30.00 (paper).There are very few books that transcend their subject matter. Those that do address broader and deeper issues than their ostensive topic. They also come to serve models for others to follow-whether or not they are working on same topic. Finally, they provide substantive insights into not only the topic they explore but the task of writing a whole.Peter Ochs's Another Reformation is one such book. At first glance, his topic might seem relatively narrow-he wants to test a correlation he has noticed between different iterations of postliberal Christian and a position of nonsupersessionism regarding the Jewish faith. To define each of these terms requires that Ochs, a Jewish philosopher, delve into recent developments in contemporary Christian theology and philosophy. In the process, he displays his own formidable theological and philosophical skills, which serve a model that Christian theologians should follow. Specifically, Ochs provides insights into theological methodology and major theologians that should inform the broader work of theology in the future.The best way to see the range of this work is to trace Ochs's definition of and nonsupersessionism. Beginning with the first, Ochs develops an intricate typology to show the different iterations of this movement in contemporary Anglo-American theology. Ochs initially defines postliberalism the third of three epochs. During the Epoch of Formation, Christian thought was focused on communal self-definition, which it did primarily by differentiating what Christianity believed opposed to other religions. latter were seen as other-as an offense to its self-definition or a threat to its ideological and social boundaries. During the Epoch of Assimilation, the focus shifted from the particular to the universal Christians tried to translate their faith into a single of reason. In the current Epoch of Postliberalism, the compromises made during the second epoch, which created a religion of ethics and enlightenment for the new nation-states and market economies of Europe, became unviable.1 However, this does not mean that it is possible, or desirable, to return to the first epoch. In each epoch, theologies develop to reform the religious practices of their day. Consequently, to reiterate the theological answers given in an earlier epoch is to ignore the imperative of repair required today.The task today is to develop a theology that avoids the binaries dictated by the law of the excluded middle2 regnant in modernity. This means avoiding the dyads of matter/spirit, reason/revelation, intellect/ emotion, authority/autonomy, dogmatism/modemism, scripture/ tradition, confessional/academic, public/private, church/society, and so on-dyads that plague contemporary theological reflection and modernity in general. It also means reforming the ground from which these dyads grow and flourish. Specifically, Ochs sees this the tendency to differentiate a novel theological position by portraying others the logical contradictory of what one advocates. In its place, Ochs articulates a pragmatic, relational logic that is grounded in a context, community, and narrative.One might be tempted to characterize this logic hermeneutic, and this is appropriate to the extent that Ochs is advancing a theory of interpretation. However, Ochs justifies his logical project much on scientific on humanistic grounds. dyads that theologians have used to organize their thinking are unwarranted by empirical evidence, argues Ochs: The world is not divided sharply between subjects and objects, knower and the known, mind and matter, the theoretical and the practical, what is active and what is passive. …