Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

The Kindness of Strange Thoughts

I've struck up quite a bloggery friendship with

AKMA. I love his blog. He's a teacher and
minister
with philosophical and theological training and
interests.

I came across his site because he amplified - improved - something I'd written about the nature of universal truth. Here's what AKMA says:

My way of putting this in an argument
with a colleague who believed fervently in universal
truths was, "I'll agree that we believe in universal
truths when the truths in question are so universal
that you'll let me tell you what they are." Of
course, Max wouldn't let me define what the
universal truths were; he wanted both universality
and the whip hand in defining the universal truths.
Does that smell fishy to anyone else? "You have to
believe in universal truths, and let me tell you
what they are."

Widely read and insightful, he's a sympathetic reader. In fact, his sympathetic nature has got him exercised about my offhand, snarky comment in Monday's blog in which I said that that a particular book by Foucault was not "his usual proof of his own cleverness."

AKMA replies, in part:

I thought it would be churlish to blog this, but there are plenty of people smarter than me with whom I disagree, and feel justified in disagreeing, without deriding their work.

One of the hazards of my vocation entails teaching conservative evangelical students whose version of Christian faith troubles me deeply. But both here at Seabury (where they're rarer) and in previous teaching positions, I worked productively among conservative students because I showed them at least minimal respect: I didn't ignore their arguments, I didn't refuse to let them cite their favorite books, I went to chapel the days they were preaching, I asked them to improve the arguments for positions they weren't going to change, not to abandon positions that were fundamental (so to speak) to their identity. And then I could ask them to extend the same courtesy to me, which they sometimes, pretty often, did.

I've taken this out of context; you should understand that AKMA is quite humble. But my offhand remark has caused him to testify, no doubt at least in part because he has learned a lot from Foucault.

My kneejerk response is to say: Hey, buddy, it's the Web. If I can't recklessly slap a dead French philosopher on the Web, then where can I?

But I know that AKMA is right. It's easy to think hard. It's usually easy to think clearly. It's damn near impossible for most of us to think kindly. My passing swipe at Foucault was intended to get me out of having actually to read him with the care and sympathy he deserves. Plus, it's a cheap way to puff myself up.