This publication is the result of the author’s Ph. D research and is the fifth publication in the series Contributions to Philosophical Theology, edited by Vincent Brümmer, Marcel Sarot, and Gijsbert van den Brink. This book should be read in conjunction with the second publication in this series Identity and Change in the Christian Tradition by Marcel Sarot and Gijsbert van den Brink, as background.
The book proposes an alternative to essentialism as a means to determine Christian identity. The point of departure is the Aristotelian view on identity which the author regards as one of the roots of theological essentialism—the other root being German idealism. Theological essentialism determines an immutable essence of Christianity to answer what is meant by ‘Christianity’ (meaning); what the difference is between Christianity and other religions (distinguishing characteristics); what Christian identity is through time; what the indispensable core and dispensable husk of Christianity are (indispensability); which aspects of Christian traditions are authentic (authenticity) and which are inauthentic and how the value of a tradition can be determined.
The author intends to show how these questions, pertaining to Christian identity, can be answered without recourse to essentialism. Essentialism is linked to Aristotelian metaphysics and the author responds to essentialist metaphysics in the language of metaphysics itself. He could have followed a different method, but the choice he made has the advantage of communicating with essentialists in language well known to them. That the author writes from the perspective of Christianity and firmly wants to maintain that which is most important to Christians add to the value of this book.
Unfortunately, he never spells out who today’s essentialists really are. In fact, many theologians and Christians may distance themselves from essentialism. Still, this is not to deny that most people revert to essentialist ideas from time to time. Essentialism is still deeply embedded in the creeds, confessions and values of many churches.
The importance of this study can hardly be over-estimated since Christianity needs to move to a non-essentialist position to have a credible voice in our day and age. De Jong contributes towards this effort. Essentialism is an obstacle in the quest for church unity, is a central problem in ecumenism, and directly influences missionary work and the question of inculturation.
Some aspects of the work of Schleiermacher, Newman and Von Harnack are critically discussed to point out several stances on and problems with essentialism (see also the old problem of ‘Mitte’ in the Old Testament). Essentialism concerns the question of identity and much attention is given to clarify the term ‘Christianity’.
The effort to find a definition for Christianity may sound very modernistic and foundational. The author, however, moves in a post-foundational way trying to give a non-essentialist and open meaning to identity. He uses the analogy of personal identity to describe the identity of Christianity. Christianity is a polysemous and vague concept which makes it difficult to determine its distinguishing characteristics and boundaries. After discussing the nature of definitions, Christianity is narrowed down to two distinguishing aspects: the religion in which Jesus Christ is acknowledged as ultimate authority and secondly the Bible which functions as holy scripture. With reference to Hans Küng, Thomas Kuhn and George Lindbeck the author concludes that the distinguishing characteristics of a religion are those aspects which are present within the mainstream of a particular religion during most of its history and which distinguish it from the mainstream of other religions.
In order to refute the essentialist claim that it is not the identity of Christianity which is determined by an essence but that of traditions, the author proceeds to investigate the nature of religious traditions. He finds the Christian tradition to be composed of two features: a prepositional tradition and a tradition of rites practices and prescriptions. Traditions can be individuated only by looking at the churches in which they are transmitted which means that the normative boundaries of the church’s tradition need to be established. The author provides a historical description of some actual boundaries which have been drawn by churches and found that these boundaries are intersubjective (not objectively given) since they are defined within the tradition itself or in dialogue with other churches. It is senseless to define boundaries of past traditions a posteriori. Boundaries are drawn contingently by people who participate in a tradition.
In discussing the nature of doctrinal boundaries and their regulative function, the author finds that the regulative function operates very indirectly by way of doctrinal reflection and discussion within the church. The question whether tradition is cumulative is critically discussed, as well as the role divine providence plays in the truth of traditional doctrine. The author is critical of a common standard of rationality or a common framework of basic beliefs to assess the validity and argumentative force of the participants.
In dealing with the changing ideal (read ‘indispensable aspects of ?’) identity of Christian traditions, it is stated that the core of a tradition varies with time and with the context of faith, which means that Christian identities are not changeless. The author takes the individuality of persons and objects as point of departure to discuss the identity of Christian traditions. With reference to Plato, Brümmer, MacIntyre, and Ricoeur, narrative identity (one’s life story) is singled out as a satisfactory model to view identity. Personal identity is embedded in the sense-giving life story that makes up one’s identity.
The individuality of Christian and religious traditions is seen to be very similar to that of people. A distinction is made between that which is most important in Christianity and that which is uniquely Christian. The idea of an ‘ideal identity’ is considered suitable to replace the notion of the ‘essence’ of tradition. The ideal identity was, however, never codified by churches. It is rather the doctrinal and scriptural background which was codified, against which tradition was discussed. Reasons are given why the notion of ideal identity promotes a too exclusivistic attitude towards other religious traditions (only one’s own tradition is valuable and all others are worthless). The author moves on to discuss examples of the historical variety of ideal identities of Christian traditions (the Donatist crisis and the Palagian movement). The point is made that different people identify different problems in the same context. To adopt the notion of ideal identity as a workable model the author distinguishes between strong, medium and weak changes in ideal identity. Strong changes occur when a tradition abandons a practice or adopts a new one; medium changes occur when goals or internal goods of a practice are reinterpreted; weak changes occur when there is a change in the aspects of the tradition which are considered indispensable for the achievement of its goals. The ideal Christian identity is context-dependent. Changing contexts may lead to the gradual adoption of new Christian practices. Substantial changes in ideal identity, i.e. in what is considered to be indispensable in a certain context, is a prerequisite for Christian traditions to remain relevant and credible. Indispensability must thus be seen in a concrete historical and not abstract supra-historical way.
The author then investigates the authenticity of creative developments in Christian traditions. He poses a moderate form of historical relativism to accommodate the influence of different contexts on tradition. With reference to Swinburne and Van den Brom, the author views the epistemological account of how we determine whether we can know the original account of revelation to be dependent on receptor cultures (receptor cultures in this sense includes one’s own community in its specific historical context). Although God’s revelation can be viewed as accomplished in the Christ event, the reception of this event by the church remains an ongoing process.
The concept of narrative identity is used to determine what is to be considered valuable in a tradition. It is through telling stories that Christians discover what is true and meaningful in their tradition. Any current practice has a narrative history which must be known to understand the present state of that practice. The value of a practice in a community is conveyed by the life stories of the members of that community. Different theologies are related in different stories. This does not guarantee a standard interpretation of tradition. Different communities may come to different conclusions on basis of the same historical documents. The multi-interpretability of stories in new, different contexts contributes, however, towards the richness of faith. A further advantage of stories is that they meaningfully unify the significance of a tradition. A hermeneutics of suspicion to the Bible and its traditional interpretation can aid communities in identifying what they consider to be authentic in their context and in the light of their understanding of ideal identity. The question I have, is whether church members know the tradition well enough to tell a meaningful story. Stories may also differ so widely that their meaning becomes quite diversified. Even if theologians were to tell the story, many versions may be produced (which is, however, not per se undesirable).
The work concludes with the discussion of Christian identity and church unity with the focus on ecumenism. As can be expected the author proposes a non-essentialist view on church unity and tradition as a feasible solution for ecumenical practice. He applies the distinction previously made between strong, medium and weak changes to ecumenical practice. Ecumenical practice requires consensus about the sources of faith and a common understanding of authenticity. Churches that engage in the ecumenical practice deepen and modify their appreciation of the value and meaning of unity between churches. Different types of unity between churches are discussed and the Leuenberg criterion for fellowship is taken as a non-essentialist guarantee for authentic cooperation in the future.
This work is a must for all those who grapple with the meaning of bible, doctrine, church, tradition, missions and unity today. It helps and brings about a better understanding of the nature of truth and meaning not only of one’s own tradition but also of those of others. Hopefully, this work may contribute to the important task of reformulating creeds and confessions to speak in a credible and appealing way to present-day church members. It may also encourage some to retell the story of their experience of faith.