Second Naivete

Dr. Paul Ricour died recently. While he was associated with the University of Chicago and remained in that community as emeritus professor until his death, I was active at that venerable institution. Unfortunately, the closest I ever got to him was to read portions of his many books. I wish that I had at least met him. His most useful insight for me had to do with what he called "second naivete" a consciousness that was only possible on the other side of the application (to borrow his more famous expression) of the “hermeneutics of suspicion.”

“Second Naivete” implies that religious practice (and its associated supporting "formative theology") must finally move beyond the step of demythologizing required by the sense of distance that one inevitably experiences at the first encounter with our religious tradition and its basic images. It is a return back to metaphorical language, but this time the metaphors are imbued with spiritual depth.

I am constantly struck at the sort of mumbo-jumbo that passes for religious discourse in our religious communities. This sort of discourse is unfortunately often manipulated by very narrow ideological perspecives. For a community to genuinely appropriate its tradition with second naivete, a long journey requiring extreme honesty about its most sacred images and texts must be taken. We need a whole new generation of guides for these trips.