Szabó Árpád (szerk.): Isten és ember szolgálatában. Erdő János emlékezete (Kolozsvár, 2007)
Paul Rasor: Postmodernity, Globalization, and the Challenge of Identity in Liberal Theology
190 P R a a u s l o were authority and tradition, and the watchwords of modernity are reason and universality, then the watchwords of postmodernity are disorientation and relativism. In the postmodern world, our identities are destabilized. With all of our reference points in doubt, we can no longer be sure who we are or where we stand. These conditions have led to profound changes in the ways our identities are formed. In modernity, we acquired our identities through life experience and reasoned reflection, and through commitment to learned moral principles such as respect for others and shared social responsability. In postmodernity, we simply shop for them. Postmodern culture has generated an extreme form of sonsumerism in which everything, including personal identity, has become a commodity. As Canadian sociologist David Lyon says, our „identities are constructed through consuming. Forget the idea that who we are is given by God or achieved through hard work in a calling or a career; we shape our malleable image by what we buy”.2 In other words, we can forget about the inherent worth and dignity of persons; in postmodernity, our personal worth is determined by consumer products and brand names. 2 David Lyon, Jesus in Disneyland: Religion in Postmodern Times. Oxford 2000.12. 3 Herbert Anderson, „Seeing the Other Whole: A Habitus for Globalisation ”. In: Paul Ballard and Pam Couture, eds. Globalisation and Difference: Practical Theology in a World Context. Cardiff 1999. 3-17., at 7; quoting Robert J. Schreiter, The New Catholicity: Theology Between the Local and the Global. Maryknoll NY 1997. 5. These conditions raise profound challenges for religion in general, not only for liberal religion. Religion is most fundamentally about meaningmaking, about helping us orient ourselves in the universe. But postmodernity questions the very possibility of meaning. In a fragmented world, we are left with whatever meaning we can cobble together, or buy. These circumstances create some unique challenges for liberal theology. They exacerbate the identity tensions already inherent in religious liberalism. We have enough trouble with identity as it is; postmodern realities only make things worse. On a deeper level, we must remember that religious liberalism is unavoidably linked to modernity. This raises the question of whether liberalism can adapt to a postmodern culture and still remain liberal. My own answer is Yes; in many ways we already have. But it will take continued hard work on our parts. Globalization Globalization adds another layer to the problem of identity for religious liberals. Globalization has been defined as the „increasingly interconnected character of political, economic, and social life of the peoples on this planet.”3
