Comments on: Postmodernism 101: A First Course for the Curious Christian http://www.thinkingchristian.net/2008/07/postmodernism-101/ Do Christians "hold the truth?" No, the Truth holds us... Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:04:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Kevin Winters http://www.thinkingchristian.net/2008/07/postmodernism-101/#comment-7160 Kevin Winters Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:44:51 +0000 http://www.thinkingchristian.net/2008/07/postmodernism-101-a-first-course-for-the-curious-christian/#comment-7160 Ok, as you no doubt guessed, I have a few comments on this matter. First, thank you for providing the disclaimer at the beginning of the post. But, second, I do wish you could have included in the disclaimer that not all so-called 'postmodernists' are relativists, that not all so-called 'postmodernists' reject the existence of the world under the guise of a misplaced idealism. Yes, 'postmodernism' in its current <i>cultural</i> persona is relativistic, but the primary thinkers that these 'cultural postmodernists' tout as their champions (with the primary exception of Rorty, and perhaps Camus) are not relativists. While certainly not so basic in its writing, Calvin Schrag's <i>The Resources of Rationality: A Response to the Postmodern Challenge</i> should be necessary reading for students of so-called 'postmodernism.' His analysis of so-called 'postmodern' thinkers is more accurate than I've ever seen in any Evangelical writings (and many 'scholarly' critiques, often used by said Evangelicals) and his critique actually has some cogency to it (not the incredibly weak 'the law of non-contradiction is enough to destroy postmodernism' junk). Again, this is probably too much for the lay reader, but it is certainly better than pretty much all the resources Evangelicals use to educate themselves about 'postmodernism.' Ok, as you no doubt guessed, I have a few comments on this matter. First, thank you for providing the disclaimer at the beginning of the post. But, second, I do wish you could have included in the disclaimer that not all so-called ‘postmodernists’ are relativists, that not all so-called ‘postmodernists’ reject the existence of the world under the guise of a misplaced idealism. Yes, ‘postmodernism’ in its current cultural persona is relativistic, but the primary thinkers that these ‘cultural postmodernists’ tout as their champions (with the primary exception of Rorty, and perhaps Camus) are not relativists.

While certainly not so basic in its writing, Calvin Schrag’s The Resources of Rationality: A Response to the Postmodern Challenge should be necessary reading for students of so-called ‘postmodernism.’ His analysis of so-called ‘postmodern’ thinkers is more accurate than I’ve ever seen in any Evangelical writings (and many ’scholarly’ critiques, often used by said Evangelicals) and his critique actually has some cogency to it (not the incredibly weak ‘the law of non-contradiction is enough to destroy postmodernism’ junk). Again, this is probably too much for the lay reader, but it is certainly better than pretty much all the resources Evangelicals use to educate themselves about ‘postmodernism.’

]]>