Critical Theory
“Men won’t be free until the last King is strangled with the entrails of the last Priest”
Denis Diderot 1713-1784 French Philosopher
“The deepest motive for mission is simply the desire to be with Jesus where he is, on the frontier between the reign of God and the usurped dominion of the devil.”
Lesslie Newbigin
My first memory of the Critical Theory was Lesslie Newbigin’s lecture on nihilism. The context was that nihilism posited in a strict sense that there is nothing. This is nonsense of course, so it seems superfluous to say that attached to nihilism is the belief that there is no absolute truth. This is not a good beginning for a philosophy that portends to give people a helpful answer to life’s mystery. The Critical Principle, as Newbigin called it, is deeply rooted in philosophy and its essential purpose is to criticize or take apart anything whole such as divine revelation, particularly in the context of western civilization, anything biblical. This puts humans in a dilemma articulated by Friedrich Nietzsche that we would not be able to say anything is true or false, good, or bad, the only thing left is the will to power. Nietzsche was skeptical that after discarding Judeo-Christian based morality, the secular community could find an able replacement - he was right.
The Critical Principle then is that all truth claims must be subjected to critical examination. This as Newbigin said, “…has been the crown jewel of western modern scientific civilization.” It is the same idea Hegel presented, that truth is a product of the dialectic, a critical back and forth between thesis, antithesis, and blending together into a new truth, synthesis. Truth then moves forward on philosophy’s escalator as humans evolve and become wiser, smarter, and more advanced toward some sort of utopia which, of course, means nowhere and based on nihilism, which is nothing. So, why spend time talking about this useless and morally bankrupt philosophy? Because it is slowly taking over western civilization, threatening to destroy the Christian faith, domesticate the church, and realign society into a dystopic nightmare. We can’t pretend to be engaged with the spiritual battle and not lock in on the battle for the minds and souls of the global community. Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ requires it.
The Basics of the Critical Theory
On the surface of culture, you may have heard of this in its more popular forms such as Critical Race Theory, political correctness, and cancel culture. You may recognize it as people trying to solve problems that aren’t really problems, like gender confusion, Hollywood not being diverse enough, a downturn in yacht sales, or point guards under five feet being under represented in the NBA. But it is in the deeper ideas where the real battle resides. The basic tenets of the Critical Principle are as follows:
1. God is dead, everything is power
2. Separate people by race, age, and class
a. Oppressor vs. Oppressed
b. Superior vs. Subordinate
c. Majority vs. Minority
d. Strong vs. Weak
3. Breakdown the status quo and rebuild society - divide, conquer, and win
a. Critical theory rejects divine revelation as pre-modern and pre-scientific. Once we learned that the sun was the center of the universe and that we are on a subservient planet in orbit, then all enchanting mythologies are ferociously destroyed. This particularly is evident in biblical criticism and the Hegelian dialectic process that led European theologians to deconstruct the biblical text. This traveled to the United States via American graduate students studying for advanced degrees in Europe, reading the works of liberal theologians and then becoming the faculty of American seminaries. We might call them Tenured Radicals.
b. Society is hierarchical, the oppressors must confess their sins, and provide the oppressed with what they need to be equal. If they will not confess and provide goods and services, it should be taken from them. Just yesterday I heard some “serious” people recommending a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, let the 21st Century Inquisition begin, revenge is on its way.
c. Freedom is not only equality of opportunity; it is also equality of result. The government must enforce equality of result regardless of the cost.
d. The ideas of equality of results advocates are so grand and virtuous, that even insurrection, military actions, imprisonment, and related penalties should be employed. This tyranny in the name of tolerance and social engineering has been most graphically attempted in the former Soviet Union, life behind the Iron Curtain, Cambodia, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, and China. It begins idealistically with grandiose humanistic theories of human life, that in the end do not square with the human experience. Humans have not changed since we were expelled from Eden, equality of result will never work until God changes everything and it does work – it is called justice.
e. Critical theory is anti-God, as Solzhenitsyn believed, “At the heart of Marxism is a militant hate of God.” but depends on Lucifer to accuse oppressors and their descendants that they are racists to the core and regardless of what they do, they will always be racists. It refuses to celebrate progress or reward reformation.
The Christian Response
Let it be stipulated by every Christian that injustice, cruelty, suffering, and inequity are present in life and sometimes in abundance. This is what we call the fall [Genesis 3:1-Revelation 22:21]. The story of God and humans is that innocence was lost, sin entered the human race, and with it came all the evils already named. But then came the promise of deliverance as early as Genesis 3:15 - Satan’s head would be crushed by a savior.
The biblical story tells us about God’s promises, him gradually unveiling his plan to redeem and reclaim his creation. It reached its apex when God visited us in the person of Jesus the Christ. Rather than an imperfect capricious god that requires people to sacrifice themselves for him, he turned the tables and sacrificed himself for humankind. This good news would be preached to every nation and then he promised to return and bring justice, establish a perfect and eternal society in a new heavens and new earth.
Critical Theory in the end has no answer except to force people to believe what they don’t believe and behave in a way they can’t behave and to create a world that won’t work. Their world will fail, but before it finally does, it will leave piles of corpses in the streets and prisons filled with dissents. It will be dark, ugly, and seem like hell because it is hell.
The Bible tells you what people are for. The Westminster Shorter Catechism put it as, “To worship God and to enjoy him forever.” The secular atheists who formed the Critical Theory don’t know the purpose of the human because they rejected revelation and are limited to reason and a good guess. They thought people exist primarily for pleasure and enjoyment because, without God, there is no other sensible purpose. And if you are hindered from that pursuit of pleasure, then society must rectify the problem, even by violent means. That is the lesson of the French Revolution.
The biblical answer to oppression, injustice, and suffering is repentance to God, reconciliation with God, and then endowed with a new nature to become a peacemaker. The answer is vertical. Then society really does change horizontally - to love your neighbor as yourself.
