In contemporary theology, much has been made regarding the so-called "narrative" or "theory of disenchantment." Such narratives generally seem to assume that in some bygone age there was a way coherently relating the material and the spiritual, and that modernity has wrought deleterious effects on this synthesis. Often the solution proposed is to rehabilitate or even return to the understanding from a previous time in order to restore such unified vision of reality. For many, the term "sacramental ontology" been pressed into this service.
In this paper, I will do three things. First, I will briefly elaborate Barth's method of interdisciplinary theological method, as employed in his theological anthropology. Barth critically appropriates insights from Karl Jaspers, Nietzsche, and others, while remaining loyal to the subject matter of theology as he conceives it, namely revelation. Secondly, I will utilize the work of Hans Joas to challenge any straightforward "narrative of disenchantment" as a woefully inadequate theory of modernity. Third, I will propose as an alternative to "disenchantment" a particular aspect of Hartmut Rosa's social theory of Resonance. Namely, our relation to the world as characterized dialogically by way of call and response.
Though I will appropriate insights from both social theorists, I will do so in order to offer a theological account of their insights. It serves as an attempt to foster a form of interdisciplinary engagement that does not succumb to a bland reduction of disciplinary distinctions. In theology, if we elaborate the questions we want to have answered by revelation in advance of our knowledge of revelation, then we run the risk of hamstringing theological outcomes in advance. We must continually allow our theological questions to be shaped by the answers God has given. This is not hermetically sealed formula guaranteed to conceive of the truth but rather a never-ending task of more adequately perceiving God.