The Fullness of Time: Christological Interventions Into Scientific Modernity
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The Fullness of Time: Christological Interventions into Scientific Modernity by Kara Nicole Slade Graduate Program in Religion Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Willie James Jennings, Supervisor ___________________________ Amy Laura Hall, Co-Supervisor ___________________________ J. Kameron Carter ___________________________ Gerald P. McKenny ___________________________ Rey Chow Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Program in Religion in the Graduate School of Duke University 2018 ABSTRACT The Fullness of Time: Christological Interventions into Scientific Modernity by Kara Nicole Slade Graduate Program in Religion Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Willie James Jennings, Supervisor ___________________________ Amy Laura Hall, Co-Supervisor ___________________________ J. Kameron Carter ___________________________ Gerald P. McKenny ___________________________ Rey Chow An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate Program in Religion in the Graduate School of Duke University 2018 Copyright by Kara Nicole Slade 2018 Abstract As a work of Christian dogmatic theology, this dissertation proceeds from the primary theological claim that human existence in time is determined by the incarnation, passion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. It also examines how the predominant accounts of time in the modern West have been affected by, and produced by, claims of scientific authority. The implications of these accounts are not only a matter of abstract doctrinal and philosophical reflection. Instead, they have had, and continue to have, concrete ramifications for human life together. They have been death-dealing rather than life-giving, characterized by a set of temporal pathologies that participate at the deepest level in marking some lives as expendable. There are four particular pathologies that this project addresses in turn. The first is the mystification of theology by questions of human origins, especially as those questions are addressed by figures of scientific authority. The second is the problem of progress and politicized eschatology, in which securing a desired vision of the future becomes a human project. The third is temporal distancing, in which some human beings are marked as temporally retrograde or outside of history. The fourth, and final, problem addressed is the Hegelian perspective outside of time from which time is evaluated. This dissertation offers a set of Christological temporal recalibrations through a reading of Søren Kierkegaard and Karl Barth, highlighting the ways that both figures iv rejected an approach to time that is not coincidentally intertwined with a racialized account of history, and with the co-opting of Christianity by the modern Western state. It also suggests how the liturgical calendar may, and may not, provide Christians with the formational resources to think differently about their own time, and about their neighbors. v Dedication This dissertation is offered to the greater glory of God and in loving memory of Philip Earl Slade, Jr., Philas Jerome Burris, and Grace Drye Burris. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though this body be destroyed, yet shall I see God; whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger.1 The Book of Common Prayer 1979 1 The Book of Common Prayer 1979 (New York: Church Hymnal Corporation, 1979), 469. vi Contents Abstract ..........................................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... x 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Preliminary Expectorations ............................................................................................. 3 1.2 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 8 1.3 Chapter Outline .............................................................................................................. 10 2. Beginnings ................................................................................................................................ 15 2.1 Big History, Trowels, and Backhoes ............................................................................ 17 2.2 Homo Scientificus and the Transparent ‘I’ ................................................................. 24 2.3 For Then the Whole Thing Would Collapse ............................................................... 37 2.4 Yesterday, Today, and Forever ..................................................................................... 47 2.5 The Sphere of Sacrament ............................................................................................... 54 3. Endings ..................................................................................................................................... 57 3.1 Theologies of the Future ................................................................................................ 61 3.1.1 A Universal Law of Living Things: Charles Kingsley .......................................... 61 3.1.2 An International and Purely Human Religion: Walter Rauschenbusch ............ 63 3.1.3 Upward by Way of Forward: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin .................................. 71 3.2 The Permutations of Reaction ....................................................................................... 78 3.2.1 The Dark Enlightenment and Neoreaction ............................................................ 78 3.2.2 The Fourth Turning and Cyclical Time .................................................................... 82 3.3 The Fullness of Time ...................................................................................................... 86 vii 3.4 His Eternity for Our Future ........................................................................................... 95 4. Between .................................................................................................................................. 105 4.1 We Have Always Been ‘Coming Apart’ .................................................................... 108 4.1.1 The Best Men ............................................................................................................ 109 4.1.2 Patches of Barbarianism Within ............................................................................ 112 4.1.3 We Are Still ‘Coming Apart’ .................................................................................. 118 4.2 Against All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic ............................................................ 121 4.2.1 Fear of Falling .......................................................................................................... 123 4.2.2 Christianity Without Christ ................................................................................... 128 4.3 Duty’s ‘Shall’ ................................................................................................................. 130 4.3.1. Rescued and Preserved in All Eternity ................................................................ 130 4.3.2. You Shall Love ........................................................................................................ 132 4.4 Love and Praise ............................................................................................................. 138 4.4.1 The Particularity of Love ........................................................................................ 138 4.4.2 Love of God and Love of Neighbor ...................................................................... 141 4.5 Between Us Only Christ .............................................................................................. 145 5. Beyond .................................................................................................................................... 148 5.1 The View From Above ................................................................................................. 152 5.1.1 The Meaning of Human Existence: E.O. Wilson ................................................. 152 5.1.2 By Eternal Laws of Iron Ruled: Ernst Haeckel .................................................... 159 5.2 Becoming an I-I ............................................................................................................. 170 5.2.1. The Earth is Round ................................................................................................. 170 viii 5.2.2. Elevated Calm and Comical Thoughtlessness ................................................... 172 5.2.3. A Rash Anticipation ............................................................................................... 179 5.3 The Body of Weakness ................................................................................................. 182 5.3.1 Surveyed at a Glance ............................................................................................... 182 5.3.2 Eternal Laws of Iron ...............................................................................................