This blog explores both historical and current events guided by the thought of the leading thinkers, past and present, of this school or movement of theology. Refer to the Classic Posts, Great and Contemporary Thinkers, various links of all kinds, in addition to the Archives themselves. David is the founder and manager of this website, but many friends contribute to it on a regular basis.
Ugh. The piece by Steven Menashi and Barrett Thornhill is a very sloppy and over-generalizing write-up on postmodernism. Especially this:
"Dangling from this theory is deconstructionism, a rather intangible philosophy loosely rooted in relativism."
Every time one points out a lie that is commonly held as truth, one engages in deconstruction. When one points out all the lies that the Iraq war is founded upon, are you engaging in relativism? I think not. When one points out how our desires are all shaped wrongly by capitalism, are we engaging in relativism? Not at all! To defend the status quo as this piece seems to do is to defend greed, corruption, and all sorts of violence.
All those examples used about relativism or how things mean whatever you want them too are examples of what people have thought for hundreds, if not thousands of years already. If anything, this kind of thought has its roots in modernism. Postmodernity, I would argue, is merely a kind of hyper-modernism where the conclusions of modernity are taken to its fullest.
While much of postmodernism is in fact rooted in relativism (and I won't deny it's not), there are some very, very useful tools within it for Christians. Lyotard is famously quoted in his On the Postmodern Condition for saying "Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity towards metanarratives." This is helpful, especially for the Christian, because it helps us realize that the narratives of modernity (even postmodernity!), capitalism, liberalism, marxism, Americanism, and many other -isms, should not direct and order our lives. Christ is the one to order our lives.
The Merold Westphal piece is much more accurate concerning a Christian's use of postmodernity. Much of the 'Emergent conversation', as well as Radical Orthodoxy, totally uses a lot of the postmodern tools to dissect reality, without putting a foot into the river of relativism.
1 comment:
Ugh. The piece by Steven Menashi and Barrett Thornhill is a very sloppy and over-generalizing write-up on postmodernism. Especially this:
"Dangling from this theory is deconstructionism, a rather intangible philosophy loosely rooted in relativism."
Every time one points out a lie that is commonly held as truth, one engages in deconstruction. When one points out all the lies that the Iraq war is founded upon, are you engaging in relativism? I think not. When one points out how our desires are all shaped wrongly by capitalism, are we engaging in relativism? Not at all! To defend the status quo as this piece seems to do is to defend greed, corruption, and all sorts of violence.
All those examples used about relativism or how things mean whatever you want them too are examples of what people have thought for hundreds, if not thousands of years already. If anything, this kind of thought has its roots in modernism. Postmodernity, I would argue, is merely a kind of hyper-modernism where the conclusions of modernity are taken to its fullest.
While much of postmodernism is in fact rooted in relativism (and I won't deny it's not), there are some very, very useful tools within it for Christians. Lyotard is famously quoted in his On the Postmodern Condition for saying "Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity towards metanarratives." This is helpful, especially for the Christian, because it helps us realize that the narratives of modernity (even postmodernity!), capitalism, liberalism, marxism, Americanism, and many other -isms, should not direct and order our lives. Christ is the one to order our lives.
The Merold Westphal piece is much more accurate concerning a Christian's use of postmodernity. Much of the 'Emergent conversation', as well as Radical Orthodoxy, totally uses a lot of the postmodern tools to dissect reality, without putting a foot into the river of relativism.
See: almost anything by James K. A. Smith, especially his essay in Christianity and the Postmodern Turn.
Peace,
Eric
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