For most of my life I've thought of myself as a radical. With my discovery that postmodernity and premodernity fit my perspective more than modernity, and judging by the reaction of some local friends to this part of my journey, I still fit the category.

Then again.. I am hopeful that more will join me. The root of radical is radix, meaning root.. and getting to the root of meaning, the root of culture and the basic realities of the inbreaking reign of God is where I want to be.

But is being radical really so.. well, radical?

And is even deconstruction really all that new? At least in some aspects, I don't think so.

It seems to me that the gospel must always be recontextualized for each generation, and that each generation has to reach back to the roots. Otherwise, the cultural accommodatoins and accretions of centuries eventually bury the message under human detritus.

Way back in the 11th century, after years of walking in the way of Jesus, and deconstructing the lost jewels of the kingdom all around him, Francis of Assisi was on his deathbed. To his brothers he said,

"Let us begin again. For as yet we have done nothing."