“Critical theory” will have been knocking on your door fairly hard in the last decade, even though you may not have recognised it. So, what is it, and how does it affect you?
Critical theory involves critiquing society and culture in order to reveal and challenge power structures that are abusive of minority groups. But here’s the question: Where does critical theory end? Does it end when nobody has any power?
A moment’s sensible thought should convince you that that is an illusory goal. Anybody who influences another has, by definition, power. This power comes in a variety of forms. There is the power of a bank manager, the power of an institutional religious body, the power of a person with knowledge, the power of a person who designs their image to look alluring, and it is the power of an academic body to craft the culture of a university.
We should therefore not be talking about the abolition of power, but rather the just use of power. This means forensically examining all power structures for injustices. Jesus was passionate about justice and care for the vulnerable and so this exercise should evoke a loud “amen” from all Christians,
The problem comes when critical theory’s battle cry against the repression of minorities and gender groups itself becomes unfair. I can’t help but wonder whether we might be seeing this when it comes to gender inequality in the educational testing of males and females in our schools. Feminist activism has resulted in academic standards in schools being increasingly loaded in favour of word-rich disciplines that favour girls. This has translated into the growing gender imbalance between males and females at our universities. It is worth asking whether critical theory should, or could, be applied to right this injustice.
Cancelling culture
Critical theory has been weaponised by “cancel culture.” Cancel culture is a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles, either online or in person, for ideological reasons. Significantly, cancel culture has been extended to include cancelling any positive reference to a nation’s heritage. This is called “critical race theory”. For advocates of critical race theory, only the cries of oppressed minority groups should be heard. Sadly, this plays out as dismissing, or cancelling, a nation’s Judeo-Christian foundation for justice, compassion and civility, so that all that is left is a cultural vacuum. This is an outcome dearly sought by Neo-Marxists. They want to sweep society clean of any vestige of Judean-Christian influence so they can impose their own ideology.
The big problem with Marxism is, however, that whilst it can thrive in privileged federally funded Western universities (that, paradoxically, have come into being because of a Judean-Christian culture), Marxism has only ever resulted in totalitarian charnel houses of horror when practiced in the real world.
Marxism and post-modern culture cancelling share the common goal of seeking to invert existing power structures. And therein lies its great weakness. Inverting existing power structures doesn’t solve injustice; it simply puts power in the hands of another group of power-hungry people. For real change to occur, there has to be a transformation of character… and nothing does that as well as authentic Christianity.
We should therefore not allow critical theory to play into the hands of Marxist ideologues. However, we should remain eternally vigilant to see that justice is sought and maintained.
The reality is, without Christianity, society lacks a moral compass, meaning and hope. A deficiency in these things is deeply wounding to the human spirit. History teaches us that with the demise of a Christian culture, humanity migrates to one of two extremes. It either turns left to Marxism and its dehumanising, brutalising control; or it turns right to Friedrich Nietzsche’s “might is right” philosophy which apes the morality of the animal kingdom – as demonstrated by Nazism.
It is difficult to overstate the civilising affect that Christianity has had on society – notwithstanding the sometimes very unchristian behaviour of its institutions. The historical author, Tom Holland, has documented in his book, “Dominion”, how Christianity introduced the concepts of justice for all, compassion for the needy, and the virtue of humility. This was in stark contrast to the culture of the pre-Christian Roman Empire that considered “dominance” over non-Romans and slaves to be a patriotic duty. Similarly, the distinguished Australian historian, Edward Judge, says that the Greeks and Romans at that time scorned the idea of humility. They saw it as a degrading of self.[1]
Christianity brought a massive cultural change.
The cancelling of Christianity should therefore be of great concern. Our children, and our grandchildren, will not do well without meaning, morality and hope.
Scientific naturalism
The tottering pillar of critical theory needs to lean on another tottering pillar in order to give it the appearance of standing upright, and that other pillar is “scientific naturalism.”
Scientific naturalism is a world without God. It is the belief that all phenomena, including human cognitive, moral and social phenomena, can be explained by natural physical causes governing the universe.
What does this mean in reality?
It means that you are simply the sum of tiny sub-atomic particles that have come together without reason and purpose. You are, when it comes to significance, nothing – and you are “nothing” in the most profound sense that nothing can mean. All you can do in response to the absurdity of existence is to invent a significance for yourself. But in reality, that significance has no foundation. It is simply an ephemeral self-delusion, a mental analgesic designed to help you cope with meaninglessness.
Fortunately, there is a logical absurdity to this thinking, for in essence it says: everything comes from nothing, i.e. everything that exists has its cause in something that does not yet exist. This, of course, is ridiculous and an affront to any philosophy that claims to be grounded in rationality.
As I mentioned in my last blog, scientific naturalism has been dealt a severe blow by recent discoveries in science. Quantum physics has, with its famous “double slit” experiment, revealed that “consciousness” appears to be a fundamental constituent of matter. And recent investigations into our universe’s black holes have resulted in the English cosmologist, Brian Cox, saying: ‘Space and time are not fundamentally a property of nature. They emerge from a deeper reality in which neither exist.’[2]
Science is now pointing us to a reality that is beyond physical matter. I hope you investigate that reality, and discover the God who intended you to exist… and who has an idea about your future.
[1] Edward Judge, see: https://www.publicchristianity.org/on-the-scandal-of-humility/(posted: 3rd August 2021).
[2] Brian Cox, The Universe with Brian Cox(film), Series 1, Episode 4, “Heart of Darkness: Black Holes,” 2021 (see: 41 – 50 minutes). https://view.abc.net.au/video/ZW3171A004500
