Sarah Ahmed talks about happiness scripts, narratives or story forms that tell us a certain life part leads to happiness. A key example of this is marriage. These are called scripts because they pressure not only to conform that path, but they also pressure us to conform our desires. We conform not just in the end point, but on the whole path and even on focusing on the proper things throughout the journey. These are scripts because they often fail, l asking to what Berlant calls cruel optimism.
How do we, as theologians, avoid participating in the social control of handing out happiness scripts (which are often/always cruelly optimistic)? Reading Tonstad's summary of Sarah Coakley, I am struck by the specificity and depth to Coakley's concept of contemplative prayer. It has such a strict form & confidently expected results. It is centered in such a universal way.
Can my ideas of hospitable theology & the shared mystery of the God-Trinity...will they really be enough to avoid and resist happiness scripts?
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