Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

More documents

Recommendations

Info

oundaries of morality By what standard of right and wrong do we then live Sartre continues: If existence really does precede essence, there is no explaining things away by reference to a fixed and given human nature. In other words, there is no determinism, man is free, man is freedom. On the other hand, if God does not exist, we find no values or commands to turn to which legitimize our conduct. So, in the bright realm of values, we have no excuse behind us, nor justification before us. We are alone, with no excuses (Sartre, 1947:27). William Lane Craig, like Francis Schaeffer, contends that Sartre is utterly inconsistent, a trait common to postmoderns as well. Sartre argues there is no meaning to life, yet argues that one may create meaning for life. Craig wonders how Sartre can find meaning in life without God, yet never does so, which is an exercise in self-delusion. “Sartre is really saying, ‘Let’s pretend the universe has meaning’” (Craig, 1994:65). Craig goes on: If God does not exist, then life is objectively meaningless; but man cannot live consistently and happily knowing that life is meaningless; so in order to be happy he pretends life has meaning. But this is, of course, entirely inconsistent -- for without God, man and the universe are without any real significance (Craig, 1994:65). The Nazi atrocities during WWII are recurrent fuel for philosophical argumentation. From this, it is argued that without absolute values, our world becomes like Warsaw, or Auschwitz. Even Nietzsche had to surrender in the presence of this grand evil, breaking ranks with his mentor Richard Wagner, an anti-Semite and German nationalist. Sartre, too, condemned the actions of the Nazi’s, identifying his objections not as a matter of opinion, or personal taste, but as something greater. In his important essay ‘Existentialism Is a Humanism,’ Sartre struggles vainly to elude the contradiction between his denial of divinely pre-established values and his urgent desire to affirm the value of human persons. Like [Bertrand] Russell, he could not live with the implications of his own denial of 48 University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, <strong>South</strong> Africa
ethical absolutes (Craig, 1994:67). Sartre, Russell, Nietzsche, and many others, have argued that moral absolutes are possible without a transcendent source (i.e., God). Sartre and others also argue that there is no inherent human nature, that man is not ‘imprinted,’ as it were, from birth, with character traits, or predispositions. “There is no human nature. In other words, each age develops according to dialectical laws, and what men are depends upon the age and not on a human nature” (Sartre, 1947:87). According to this assumption, people are a socalled, ‘blank slate’ from birth and consequently shaped by their environment and the choices they make. William Lane Craig, along with Francis Schaeffer, J.W. Montgomery, and many others, disagrees. Craig claims the conscience is instilled within all human beings by God, providing an innate sense of right and wrong. This is precisely what the Apostle Paul said: “For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them” (Rom. 2:14-15). Thus, when Sartre and others condemn the Nazi atrocities, they actually do so from their God-given conscience, and from their Judeo-Christian cultural conditioning. Rev. Richard Wurmbrand, who was tortured for years in Ceausescu’s [Communist] Romanian prisons, said: The cruelty of atheism is hard to believe when man has no faith in the reward of good or the punishment of evil. There is no reason to be human. There is no restraint from the depths of evil which is in man. The communist torturers often said, ‘There is no God, no hereafter, no punishment for evil. We can do what we wish.’ I have heard one torturer even say, ‘I thank God, in whom I don’t believe, that I have lived to this hour when I can express all the evil in my heart.’ He expressed it in unbelievable brutality and torture inflicted on prisoners (Wurmbrand, in Craig, 1994:68). 49 University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, <strong>South</strong> Africa
Page 1 and 2: 1 POSTMODERNITY: IMPACT AND IMPLICA
Page 3 and 4: 3 Key Terms Postmodern, postmoderni
Page 5 and 6: 5 An Apologetic Response 115 Compro
Page 7 and 8: killed massively in the name of goo
Page 9 and 10: 9 together in an eclectic, rather d
Page 11 and 12: 11 Postmodernity: Impact and Implic
Page 13 and 14: 13 heights” (Veith, 1994:30). For
Page 15 and 16: 15 autonomy proper to human reason
Page 17 and 18: inviolability and Divine origin, th
Page 19 and 20: diminished” (Bosch, 2000:6). The
Page 21 and 22: ‘god’ to keep and to save him.
Page 23 and 24: Occultism flourished among the Brit
Page 25 and 26: He was a passionate, powerful chara
Page 27 and 28: 27 record reveals that the church o
Page 29 and 30: 29 eliminating poverty, hunger and
Page 31 and 32: may simply transform the nature and
Page 33 and 34: Contrary to Christian notions that
Page 35 and 36: 35 ‘modernize’ the nation. To b
Page 37 and 38: 37 expression. This “first respon
Page 39 and 40: 39 of his own awareness of God” (
Page 41 and 42: 41 Existentialism understandably em
Page 43 and 44: depends upon our decision makes our
Page 45 and 46: group Socialisme et Liberte. During
Page 47: 47 The Mind of Sartre Sartre’s vi
Page 51 and 52: 51 Chapter II Postmodernity: The Es
Page 53 and 54: 53 Postmoderns promote individualis
Page 55 and 56: meaning and language. The postmoder
Page 57 and 58: pointed out that science, far from
Page 59 and 60: 59 Ferdinand de Saussure at the tur
Page 61 and 62: considers the Greek logos (i.e., λ
Page 63 and 64: 63 models and then try not to subve
Page 65 and 66: marginalized and to the historical
Page 67 and 68: without essential foundations (Khan
Page 69 and 70: maximum voluntary community agreeme
Page 71 and 72: 71 something akin to the virtual re
Page 73 and 74: 73 During the 1960’s, Foucault wa
Page 75 and 76: generally agreed that his views wer
Page 77 and 78: had been trapped. Through Nietzsche
Page 79 and 80: Foucault also seemed to delight in
Page 81 and 82: elieve the conventions of modernity
Page 83 and 84: 83 Will 'Po-Mod' Endure Ernst Gelln
Page 85 and 86: 85 referentially incoherent. That i
Page 87 and 88: 87 the second postmodern wave, whic
Page 89 and 90: action. During the colonial period,
Page 91 and 92: interpretation. It again gives sugg
Page 93 and 94: 93 There are three basic forms of (
Page 95 and 96: diverse immigrant populations becom
Page 97 and 98: desperate population to believe tha
Page 99 and 100:
99 but hardly in entirety. Keeping
Page 101 and 102:
salvation. Here again we see how Go
Page 103 and 104:
103 and sick, conquered ignorance t
Page 105 and 106:
with relativism, pluralism and no a
Page 107 and 108:
107 our first love -- Jesus Christ
Page 109 and 110:
109 and the life. No one comes to t
Page 111 and 112:
Those who truly know Jesus Christ a
Page 113 and 114:
future was no longer heaven, but a
Page 115 and 116:
115 An Apologetic Response Beyond t
Page 117 and 118:
uilding constructed on a shifting s
Page 119 and 120:
component of the overall package, b
Page 121 and 122:
irrelevant. The postmodernist, like
Page 123 and 124:
123 terminate this inquiry with the
Page 125 and 126:
consider the spiritual truths the B
Page 127 and 128:
people are to effectively participa
Page 129 and 130:
witness among the Gentiles, by usin
Page 131 and 132:
131 Chapter VI Postmodernity and th
Page 133 and 134:
Postmodernism enhances the process
Page 135 and 136:
135 Yet, with few exceptions, the W
Page 137 and 138:
137 Rome, ‘The Way’ (i.e., Chri
Page 139 and 140:
were the changes made to the clergy
Page 141 and 142:
of transforming it... Christendom i
Page 143 and 144:
society. State authorities quite of
Page 145 and 146:
“The subtle assumption of Western
Page 147 and 148:
The church should instead take a Ch
Page 149 and 150:
149 Christendom West. For example i
Page 151 and 152:
not know what it means to be indepe
Page 153 and 154:
creative times has been, about doin
Page 155 and 156:
155 Ours is not a faith rooted in i
Page 157 and 158:
157 of Washington, D.C., have now d
Page 159 and 160:
says, “Homosexual practice is inc
Page 161 and 162:
the position held by the non-Wester
Page 163 and 164:
163 Chapter VII Postmodern Spiritua
Page 165 and 166:
With the dawn of the Enlightenment,
Page 167 and 168:
contemporary West look not to the c
Page 169 and 170:
adherence overall declined from 86.
Page 171 and 172:
171 (Johnson, 2004). Contemporary n
Page 173 and 174:
173 The postmodernists undertook th
Page 175 and 176:
deconstruction leads to a foundatio
Page 177 and 178:
177 postmodernity has opened the do
Page 179 and 180:
Pagans are usually worshippers of t
Page 181 and 182:
most Catholics in Brazil. Many Musl
Page 183 and 184:
which is one of the key factors tha
Page 185 and 186:
185 1980:viii). For example, when t
Page 187 and 188:
187 the higher religions. The pleth
Page 189 and 190:
whose wrath has been and will be di
Page 191 and 192:
in the movies, further fulfilling t
Page 193 and 194:
to ancient Greek writings, the post
Page 195 and 196:
195 more, the atoning work of Jesus
Page 197 and 198:
197 to develop. Even after several
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
Page 205 and 206:
McMichael, P. (2004). Development a
Page 207 and 208:
207 Riss, R. (1988). A Survey of 20
Page 209 and 210:
209 Bibliography of Electronic Sour
Page 211 and 212:
211 Foucault, M. (1982). Truth, Pow
Page 213 and 214:
Montgomery, J.W. (2002). Defending
Page 215 and 216:
215 The University of Zululand Esta
show all

Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?