Saturday, December 27, 2008

deconstruction... 1st thoughts

Recently i have begun to tip my toes into the deep, deep ocean that is deconstructive philosiphy. My introduction was the emergent podcasts on the subject and since then i have begun Jack Kaputo's book entitled, "what would Jesus deconstruct". I don't find it universely understandable or applicable but here is the most salient point that i have come upon so far (if i understand it correctly).

Kaputo argues that when MLK preached "I have a Dream" he was doing an act of deconstruction (he also references Lincoln's Gettysburg Address but I don't know that well enough for it to be illustrative for me). By painting a picture of what Justice and freedom really look like (King's daughters going to school with my son, etc.) Kaputo says that King deconstructs every myth of justice and freedom that existed at the time. And when King's dream caught hold of the imagination of the people, then reality as it is was was already on its way out. By stating how things could be King made it so that how things were would never again be ok.

Kaputo argues that Jesus did the same thing, particularly in the sermon on the mount, and that deconstruction is the way of the KOG. Jesus pronouncing the reality that the the poor, the meek, the peacemaker will be blessed, is the carrion call for the way of the world where the rich, the proud and the powerful rule. But (and these are just my thoughts here) if King had spoken to an empty room, or had his message fallen on deaf ears, then nothing at all would have been deconstructed. The question for us is, then, I think, has the image Jesus paints of the KOG caught our imagination enough that we are forced to deconstruct our own realities which are not the KOG?

I don't know that it has.

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