faith + postmodernism = humble mumble jumble

Do you think a Christian can believe in multiple truths? Of course it is possible for God to be as real to me as Guanyin is for a Taoist. This statement doesn't have to imply that both God and Guanyin are truly real. But does it even matter, so long as God is real to me? Is his reality in my life supposed to negate the universal reality, the truth, of Guanyin?


For me, faith is a fragile thing, yet it won't break. And that's how I like it. In order for me to live with myself, and in order for my faith to truly be strong, it must be weak. It must be humble, it must be receptive to questions and challenges.

My Kindle is obese with postmodern mumble jumble, that "other voice" that tempts me to question what I once believed was the only truth. Heck, Derrida's thought-children have me in agreement with those arguments that are premised on the idea that metanarratives are supreme bullshit, that all the world is (con)textual, and that Truth is an arrogant fantasy.

Yet metanarratives and faith are empowering, and they are not, I hope, inherently harmful. There is something awesome in their mere potential to unite people irrespective or race, sex, class, etc. Anyone can believe. But then we go and fuck up a beautiful thing. We create the categories of "believer" and "nonbeliever," of "right" and "wrong." We feel entitled to name things as false simply because we believe we know truth.

But do we know the truth? If we "knew," we wouldn't be asked to believe, would we? Scientific proof of the creation story is not necessary for us to be thankful for what has been and can be created - by evolution, by a higher power, by accident, by genius invention, by imagination.

Anyhow, I must disagree with a big part of the Christian community that sees postmodern works as crap authored by garden snakes. From time to time, postmodernity's intellectual criticism, its merciless questions, turn my faith inside out. They allow me to air out the stale aspects of my faith. They humble me in how I believe in the Christian God. They remind me of why I believe in Him. Faith and postmodernity do not have to be enemies. Postmodernity need not play devil to Faith, and vice-versa. Humility makes such a coexistence in the heart and mind possible.

Can a Christian believe in a non-hierarchical order of multiple faiths? Can she believe that all faiths are created equal - that as much as we are created by God, we in turn attempt to create Him? I believe so, if her faith is true. A true faith is a humble faith.


On a side note, even when my faith is so precarious that it seems as if it's on the brink of snapping, articles like these make me glad to have been part of Bluewater Mission, a super cool anti-slavery team:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/us/27runaways.html?_r=1&hp