Gud i en postmodern tid. En feministisk reflektion om teologisk flerstämmighet

Abstract

This article discusses the postmodern challenge to theology by asking about what can be said, and what images of God that can be made useful to humans in an era marked by lack of center, authority and epistemological anti- foundationalism. In line with Huston Smith’s model of pre-modernity as two leveled,celestial and terrestial, and modernity as one leveled, terrestial, «the sea» is suggested as a metaphor for understanding post-modernity. The theological task is understood to be «God talk» in a time where we know that there is no unmediated and therefore unpositioned knowledge from«above», nor trustworthy experience and reasoning founded «below».

In the post modern sea, fluid, porous and unstable, knowledge about God and human life must be negotiated without anyone claiming an unbiased position. Suggesting a pragmatic criterion for truth in line with Gordon Kaufman, the question of theological democracy comes into the foreground. Who is partaking, and who is not allowed to take part in the negotiation? The advantage of facing also religious truth claims from a post modern perspective is that it makes salient that also «religious truth» is about politics, power and the presence or non presence of democratic order.