Extreme Makeover: Epistemology Edition

 Modern Evangelicals have a variety of terms they use to shut one another down. They may use the term “racist” themselves but they also have their own home-cooked brew of pejoratives. “Legalist!” “Pharisee!” “Arrogant!” “Extreme/Radical!” It’s this last concept I wish to explore here.

The idea that something is radical or extreme is an interesting one because it assumes a standard of normality that is often under scrutiny at the time one makes this claim. In other words, when one presents a view that the other thinks sounds extreme and is labeled as such, he is likely begging the question by doing so. This is the case because whatever is true should actually be the standard, not whatever one is used to.

Unfortunately, the standard of familiarity tends subjectively to assume that whatever a particular person is most used to is the standard and whatever he is least familiar with is extreme or radical.

Now, if one is making the claim because he is appealing to the revealed Word of God using the objective criteria of exegesis to mark the standard of normality then there is nothing arrogant about claiming that something is extreme or radical. However, this is often said before those arguments are put forth, precisely, because that is not usually the appeal. Rather the person assumes that whatever he is familiar with, whether from tradition, “soundslikegesis,” what he was taught previously by various teachers in the church, etc., is the norm and whatever goes too far beyond it is extreme/radical.

I cannot stress the amount of arrogance that this subjective criteria musters in order to make a claim that is not rooted in exegesis. It is likely the case that we have many blind spots and simply fail to realize in our desire to preserve our personal beliefs we tend to make appeals to things we should not.

Whatever the reason may be, the person doing this, ironically, may actually be the one holding a radical or extreme position that deviates too far from or even completely contradicts the true norm that only has the possibility of being found by employing all of the objective tools of exegesis.

If evangelicals are to get past their cult they must make a radical shift, an extreme makeover, in evaluating how they are actually arriving at their norms.