Abstract:
Culture criticism represents a critical position towards those culturally
oriented studies which advocate a positivist subject-object schema in
epistemology. In this kind of epistemology, knowing is a one-directional
process in which the objects of knowing are subjected to the manipulative
power of the knower. The article aims at discussing different perspectives
in continental philosophy (Peter Berger's phenomenology, Mary
Douglas's cultural anthropology, and the critical theories of Michel Foucault
and Jurgen Habermas). Aspects of the contributions of Immanuel
Kant, Friedrich Schleiermacher and Karl Barth, precursors in 'culture
criticism', are also considered. It is shown that in recent postmodem
thinking a symmetrical subject-subject schema replaces the subject-object
schema. This position is enhanced by taking into consideration the emphasis
in present-day historical Jesus research on the so-called 'alternative
wisdom' of Jesus of Nazareth, which challenged the conventional
wisdom of his day.
