A Radical Theology of Conflict and Contestation

In radical thinking, things are never as settled as they seem. Underneath the appearance of continuity lie ruptures and interruptions, underneath identity, difference. Hence, the identity of the one theology, the one Christian revelation, the one history of Christianity, is contested at its root. That is not meant to demolish Christian theology but to show that it is not identical with itself. This project is undertaken not from a love of chaos and confusion but to keep the future of Christianity open. The most effective way to contest something is to write a meticulous history of it, as illustrated by the early history of Christianity before it was canonized and Neoplatonized by the councils, which is where the myth of the one Christianity was invented. Christianity does not have an essence; it has a history. Tradition, the Catholic principle, means transmission, which implies constant process and reinvention, in the name of the coming of the future, of the promise of Jesus which the tradition is committed to transmit. The one thing that is uncontestable is always still to come.