Our contemporary culture immerses individuals into perpetually changing contexts that require novel responses. Communication increasingly relies on a progression of ad-hoc experiences, where meaning is constructed and interpreted within specific, situated contexts (Mauri 2021, 3). This reliance on ad hoc language requires we create novel features in our language to navigate fragmented contexts.
How does one speak about God if situated ad hoc language is the primary mode of interpretation?
This paper will focus on Ordinary Theology—the study of how individuals without a formal “scholarly theological education” articulate their beliefs (Astley and Francis 2016, XV). Most churches are filled with individuals who lack formal theological training, yet that majority voice shapes how we think and talk about God.
Ordinary theology unfolds through dialogue. Individuals rely on the rules of speech shared grammatical structures to make sense of their faith (Astley and Francis 2016, 84). How people talk about faith does not necessarily require the truth conditions of a semantically driven theology so long as it contextually fits. This ad-hoc immediacy profoundly influences how Evangelical Christians approach and express their faith. If talk about faith is defined by contextual activity, it evolves into a theology of relevance. A theology of relevance follows the concepts of relevance theory, an “epistemic engine” that works to develop the most positive cognitive effects based on input (Downes 2013, 179). What follows are ad-hoc options that are satisfied situationally without having to be theologically accurate.
This kind of linguistic plasticity is an “imaginative informality” that treats the language of faith loosely (Luhrman 2012, 75). It develops an ad-hoc reflexive regression—where personal experiences and preferences become the lens for understanding who God is, rather than Scripture, doctrine, or the historic Christian creeds. Reflexive regression results in a faith that lacks any external reference, it cannot directly refer to anything reliable other than the self, eventually creating what Dorothy Sayers calls the “worship of nothing in particular” (Sayers 1995, 19).
Creedal continuity serves as a necessary anchor, grounding the language of Christian belief into the historic and orthodox nature of the church and shared faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The creeds provide a necessary and explicit language that anchors the interpretation of our faith, remaining rooted in Christ rather than on postmodern cultural trends.
This paper will explore how relevance theory drives ad-hoc reflexive regression in Ordinary Theology and will argue for the necessity of historic Christian creeds in sustaining a stable and reliable faith in the modern church.
References:
Francis, Leslie, and Jeff Astley. 2016. Exploring Ordinary Theology: Everyday Christian Believing and the Church (Explorations in Practical, Pastoral and Empirical Theology). Routledge
Luhrmann, T.M. 2012. When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God. Vintage
Mauri, Caterina. 2021. “Ad Hoc Categorization in Linguistic Interaction.” In Studies in Language Companion Series. John Benjamins Publishing.
Sayers, Dorothy. 1995. Creed or Chaos? Manchester, NH: Sophia Institute Press.