Though interest in critical theory may have once been limited to academics, it has become a lightning rod issue among the general public in recent years. Given the complexity of the debate, how exactly should Christians assess critical theory from the standpoint of Scripture? In response to that question, I spoke with Christopher Watkin, whose most recent book is entitled, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture. In this episode, we introduce critical theory in its broadest sense and discuss how any critical theory should be assessed from the standpoint of the Bible without succumbing to the common pitfalls of either naïveté or reductionism.
Christopher Watkin (PhD, University of Cambridge) is senior lecturer in French studies at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. He is a scholar with an international reputation in the area of modern and contemporary European thought, atheism, and the relationship between the Bible and philosophy. His published work runs the spectrum from academic monographs on contemporary philosophy to books written for general readers, both Christian and secular, and include Difficult Atheism, From Plato to Postmodernism, Great Thinkers: Jacques Derrida, and others.
Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture, by Christopher Watkin
