I happen to believe that the church, as any other human community, is a hermeneutical community. As you are suggesting, it follows that such a community is likely to spun off its own understanding of politics, economics, etc. What does not follow (and you are not saying this) is that the kind of interpretation of, say, politics that the church may produce need not result in a wholly disparate conception of political community as we have it. To put the point more pointedly: we, humans, continue to share the common earth and the sustenance of God (whether we acknowledge that or not) and the common reality, I am proposing, is likely to produce some significant overlaps between the “secular” and “Christian” interpretation of politics. This is where Keith and I may disagree the most: a degree of separation, or incommensurability, if you will, between the christian and the worldly (in a post-, or non-christian, sense).
sgassanov
Oct 14 2002
06:24 am
I happen to believe that the church, as any other human community, is a hermeneutical community. As you are suggesting, it follows that such a community is likely to spun off its own understanding of politics, economics, etc. What does not follow (and you are not saying this) is that the kind of interpretation of, say, politics that the church may produce need not result in a wholly disparate conception of political community as we have it. To put the point more pointedly: we, humans, continue to share the common earth and the sustenance of God (whether we acknowledge that or not) and the common reality, I am proposing, is likely to produce some significant overlaps between the “secular” and “Christian” interpretation of politics. This is where Keith and I may disagree the most: a degree of separation, or incommensurability, if you will, between the christian and the worldly (in a post-, or non-christian, sense).