Kultuurkritiek, eerste-eeuse kulturele wysheid en die alternatiewe visie van Jesus van Nasaret

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.