Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary
Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary
196 Conclusions The working hypothesis for this project, is again: “I believe postmodernity is a Western cultural dynamic that can, and should be better understood, because of the impact it has already had within Western culture and beyond, and because of its present and future implications for global Christianity.” I believe this project has accomplished its intended task of answering many important questions and concerns about postmodernity, especially as it relates to the Christian faith in the West and beyond. Again, since postmodernity is still dynamic, study and discussion about it continues, and fixed truths about it will necessarily be left to future historians. To briefly summarize and conclude, the postmodern cultural wave hit full stride in the West around 1970, rooted in discontent with, and rebellion against modernity. Postmodernists, like Lyotard, Derrida, Foucault and Rorty, led this rebellion against what they perceived to be the wrong ideologies and fixed systems that drove and controlled Western societies. They believed these systems were suffocating social life and needed to be changed. To accomplish this, they worked for the deconstruction of cultural pillars, seeking to accomplish their ends through mostly non-violent means. After deconstruction, they hoped to reconstruct a better Western world. Roland Benedikter believes the postmoderns are products of the European revolutionary impulse, which began years before, with the French Revolution (c.1789). Benedikter suggests this, because most of the postmoderns were French, who had been affected by French colonialism in Algeria. Along those general lines, Ernst Gellner believed, “the more securely a society is in possession of the new knowledge [modernity], the more totally it is committed to its use and is pervaded by it, the more it is liable to produce thinkers who turn and bite the hand which feeds them” (Gellner, 1992:79), as the postmoderns have done. While deconstruction has done much to challenge and undermine some social institutions and traditions, it has certainly not gone as far as its progenitors had originally hoped. Further, the socio-cultural reconstruction the postmoderns had hoped for has yet University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
197 to develop. Even after several decades, postmodernity has really done little to substantively alter modernity, which has proven to be far more resilient than postmoderns anticipated. Even as previous romantic movements (e.g., Existentialism) failed to dislodge modernity as the primary worldview in the West, so now the postmodern cultural wave seems to have failed. Postmodernity -- in conjunction with Post-Christendom and Post-Colonialism -- has really been most successful in dislodging the moral and religio-cultural hegemony of Christianity from broader Western societies. Further, as the faith has grown in the non- West, it has diminished in all Western nations, save North America. Even there, these powerful cultural dynamics have produced significant changes in the faith. While Christianity is still quite influential in the West, the faith no longer holds a place of social privilege, as it did for centuries under the sway of Christendom. Christian moral imperatives are not as widely respected, nor deeply ingrained in Western societies as they once were. The growing division between facts and values that Lesslie Newbigin identified several decades ago is an ever-present reality. Science, the true passionate expression of modernity, continues its progressive march to ‘save the world,’ virtually unabated. The realm of personal values, however, has changed significantly over the past several decades. Western thought reached real frustration and emptiness in extreme postmodernism. Yet, the postmoderns have never been able to suggest a better way forward: they have always, only been critics. Because of this, the postmodernity is waning, little able to continue its battle against modernity and all the other long-established institutions and traditions so deeply rooted in Western societies. Again, as William Lane Craig said, the biggest problem with postmodernism is “that it is so obviously self-referentially incoherent. That is to say, if it is true, then it is false. Thus, one need not say a word or raise an objection to refute it; it is quite literally self-refuting” (Craig, in Cowan, 2000:182). One might add, postmodernism is self-destructive, shifting sand, wholly unable to support anything substantive, or lasting. Ernst Gellner concluded: “Postmodernism as such doesn’t matter too much. It is a fad which owes its appeal to its seeming novelty and genuine obscurity, and it will pass soon University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
- Page 145 and 146: “The subtle assumption of Western
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- Page 199 and 200: 199 excesses of scientism and reduc
- Page 201 and 202: Carson, D.A., ed. (2000). Telling t
- Page 203 and 204: Grudem, W. (1994). Systematic Theol
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196<br />
Conclusions<br />
The working hypothesis for this project, is again: “I believe postmodernity is a<br />
Western cultural dynamic that can, and should be better understood, because of the<br />
impact it has already had within Western culture and beyond, and because of its present<br />
and future implications for global Christianity.” I believe this project has accomplished<br />
its intended task of answering many important questions and concerns about<br />
postmodernity, especially as it relates to the Christian faith in the West and beyond.<br />
Again, since postmodernity is still dynamic, study and discussion about it continues, and<br />
fixed truths about it will necessarily be left to future historians.<br />
To briefly summarize and conclude, the postmodern cultural wave hit full stride in the<br />
West around 1970, rooted in discontent with, and rebellion against modernity.<br />
Postmodernists, like Lyotard, Derrida, Foucault and Rorty, led this rebellion against what<br />
they perceived to be the wrong ideologies and fixed systems that drove and controlled<br />
Western societies. They believed these systems were suffocating social life and needed to<br />
be changed. To accomplish this, they worked for the deconstruction of cultural pillars,<br />
seeking to accomplish their ends through mostly non-violent means. After<br />
deconstruction, they hoped to reconstruct a better Western world.<br />
Roland Benedikter believes the postmoderns are products of the European<br />
revolutionary impulse, which began years before, with the French Revolution (c.1789).<br />
Benedikter suggests this, because most of the postmoderns were French, who had been<br />
affected by French colonialism in Algeria. Along those general lines, Ernst Gellner<br />
believed, “the more securely a society is in possession of the new knowledge [modernity],<br />
the more totally it is committed to its use and is pervaded by it, the more it is liable to<br />
produce thinkers who turn and bite the hand which feeds them” (Gellner, 1992:79), as the<br />
postmoderns have done.<br />
While deconstruction has done much to challenge and undermine some social<br />
institutions and traditions, it has certainly not gone as far as its progenitors had originally<br />
hoped. Further, the socio-cultural reconstruction the postmoderns had hoped for has yet<br />
University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, <strong>South</strong> Africa
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