The Postmodern Logic Behind Emergent Calvinism

Pt. 1: Postmodernity’s Submarine Races

Suspicion Has A Long History

Postmoderns were not the first to be deeply suspicious of motives. The suggestion by talking serpent in the garden to the woman was a whisper of suspicion. Later the creator’s suspicions were aroused by the man and the woman’s game of hide and go seek. Things beneath the surface matter and we are suspicious of concealment.

Augustine and Suspicion

Among the different Christian traditions Calvinism in particular earned a name for being suspicious of our capacity to do good. Calvinism picked this up from its Roman guide Augustine of Hippo whose most famous book “Confessions” is a treatise on being suspicious of one’s own motives. In one of its most famous passages Augustine contemplates the moral quality of his desire to nurse from his godly mother.

7, 11. O God, hear me. Alas for the sins of humankind! A human it is who here bewails them, and you treat him mercifully because you made him, though the sin that is in him is not of your making. Who is there to remind me of the sin of my infancy (for sin there was: no one is free from sin in your sight, not even an infant whose span of earthly life is but a single day);43 who can remind me of it? Some little mite who is a tiny child now, in whom I might observe conduct I do not remember in myself? What then was my sin at that age? Was it perhaps that I cried so greedily for those breasts? Certainly if I behaved like that now, greedy not for breasts, of course, but for food suitable to my age, I should provoke derision and be very properly rebuked. My behavior then was equally deserving of rebuke, but since I would not have been able to understand anyone who scolded me, neither custom nor common sense allowed any rebuke to be given.

St. Augustine (2007-04-01). The Confessions, Revised (The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, Vol. 1) (Kindle Locations 798-806). New City Press. Kindle Edition.

While postmoderns look suspiciously at those around them, Augustine poured the acid of suspicion on himself and any impulse of moral self-construction. The LORD our God is a suspicious God.

A Catechism of Suspicion

The Heidelberg Catechism, one of the most famous Reformed statements of faith is deeply suspicious about our capacity to do good and fully embraces the idea that poor motives contaminate the quality of external moral behavior before the eyes of God.
In the Catechism’s opening section on misery it turns out attention to the law of God. This law teaches us our misery.

Now just in case you wish to point out your compliance of specific laws in the Bible the Catechism will cut you off and go to Jesus’ summary of the law in Matthew 22. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”

This may seem like a nice way out of Biblical lists of laws that look unreasonable, inconsistent, inapplicable, knotty and unreasonable, but the Catechism doesn’t buy that either. Love cannot be equated to polite or nice. If you skip over to the Gratitude section you’ll discover just how high the Catechism sets the bar for love of neighbor.

105 Q. What is God’s will for you
in the sixth commandment?

A. I am not to belittle, insult, hate, or kill my neighbor;
not by my thoughts, my words, my look or gesture,
and certainly not by actual deeds;
and I am not to be party to this in others;
rather, I am to put away all desire for revenge.

This is why the Catechism, like Augustine, finds self-convenient motivation behind much of what we do.

91 Q. What do we do that is good?

A. Only that which
arises out of true faith,
conforms to God’s law,
and is done for his glory;
and not that which is based
on what we think is right
or on established human tradition.

In other words unless our best actions come out of true faith (motivation), conforms to the law of God (love) and is done for his glory (motivation, love of other, not for our own sake, pride, satisfaction or glory) it is not good. This application of suspicion of motive makes suspicious postmoderns look like wimps.

Why has Calvinism experienced a resurgence in this Postmodern context? Perhaps it is because there is an alignment operating beneath the surface. A deeply suspicious age will likely nudge people towards a deeply suspicious creed. If we are finding fault in the professions of others, some honest and reflective people may begin to apply the same acid test to their own constructed narratives and find fault with themselves. If they do so, where can they find hope?

Next: The Emergent Bizarro Twins of Mars Hill