Critical Openness

(post borrowed from J.R. Woodward's blog)

There are many areas of theology in which we need to grow in our understanding. If we are going to grow in our understanding, it seems to me that we need to be willing to engage in discussions with critical openness. We must allow people room to freely explore the truth under the vast umbrella of God's grace, not niavely, but with intelligence, wisdom and love. Critical openness allows us to fully listen to anothers perspective without pre-judging them or their viewpoint. It's about having mutual respect as we converse over revelation and reality. As we grow in Christ, our understanding should expand incrementally, which means our understanding will continually be evolving. Critical openness is like the opposite of indoctrination and it is necessary for nuturing.Abraham Lincoln when being criticized for changing his mind replied, “I don’t think much of the man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.” The more I study scripture and the life of Jesus, the more I realize how much I am like the disciples; half blind, thinking that I clearly see. Critical openness acknowledges this reality and gives people the permission to lovingly engage in the Grand Theological Conversation freely without leaving one’s heart and mind at the door.

Being open acknowledges the complexity of hermeneutics and the realization that we all tend to look at scripture, God, and reality through tinted eyeglasses. The tint on my glasses is different than others because our experiences, background and enculturation differ. Yet being critical is vital because as G.K. Chesterton once said, “Merely having an open mind is nothing; the object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.”

I advocate critical openness because to listen carefully and sympathetically to others is an act of humility. And according to James, with humility comes grace, perhaps grace to see as in a mirror dimly. Without grace I’m blind.