Ironic Christians and Wry Prophets

Today I want to ask you a question. Is it theologically acceptable to adopt ironism as your Christian stance?

Here is why I ask. My general approach to life is ironic. Thus, my Christianity is infused with ironism. And most of the time I feel guilty for this. Why? Well, my ironism, when juxtaposed with more ernest Christians, doesn't seem very constructive.

More specifically, Christianity seems to demand a level of earnestness I have difficulty mustering. Whether it is doctrine, missionary work, nationalism, or social justice, big important issues are on the table and the Christian witness seems to demand a degree of earnestness as we confront these issues.

But the trouble is that I generally find the earnestness in these conversations to be:

1. Misplaced

2. Self-serving

3. Pollyannaish

Which puts me in an ironic mood while everyone else is so serious.

It is not that I'm never in a serious/earnest frame of mind. It's just that my general tone/approach is ironic. And even if I do muster up a good dose of earnestness I often quickly find that I can't take myself seriously. So I lapse into irony again. Irony is my default.

Just to clarify, although there are lots of different uses/definitions of irony irony generally involves a gap between either the real versus ideal or the expected versus the actual or what is believed versus what is the truth. For me, irony comes from my psychological analysis of human foibles. I generally see humans as either deluded or pretentious. By pretentious I don't mean narcissistic. What I mean is how some Christians appear to believe that they speak for God. This strikes me as extraordinarily pretentious and puts me in an ironic mood. Oddly, I don't get outraged. I just wryly smile (inwardly or outwardly).

And, as you might expect, this analysis goes for my own self-evaluations (which is why I have trouble getting outraged: I find my own outrage ironic). Whenever I get earnest I look back on my long history of failed crusades, lapsed motivation, and self-serving Messiah complexes. Again, I see the gap between my ideals and my life and I find the whole display very, very ironic.

Generally, I think most would view this ironism as a bad thing. A defeatist move. But I wonder. I wonder. I think that ironic Christians might serve some function in the Kingdom.

I think ironic Christians might function as wry prophets. For example, the wry prophets, given their sensitivity to irony, do the following:

1. Comment on human, particularly religious, folly.

2. Falliblize religious pretensions.

3. Point out our epistemic limitations (i.e., point out the need for epistemic humility).

That is, whenever religious knowledge, folly, or pretentiousness get out of hand the situation grows increasingly ironic. And the wry prophets point out the growing gap, the incongruity, harming the Christian witness.

Dispositionally ironic Christians are perfectly suited to this task. They are not easily swayed by earnestness, emotion, or argument. They are skeptical about humanity and its motives. They are very sensitive to the scent of human pride. Thus, when then gap between pretension and reality grows to ironic proportions, these Christians can speak the truth to the faith community.

Let me hasten to say that a faith community cannot be made up solely of ironic Christians. They are more like seasoning than the main course. But you can't make up any healthy community with people possessing only one kind of spiritual gift, so this situation isn't unusual.

So, I think there is a place in the Kingdom for ironic Christians. They are the wry prophets among us.

(BTW, I'm assuming I'm not alone in this. Are there any ironic Christians out there?)