Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

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Chapter II
Postmodernity: The Essentials
Postmodernity is perhaps more accurately called ultra, or hyper-modernity. Depending
upon whom you ask, postmodernity is either the worst thing that has ever happened, or a
long overdo challenge and corrective to the modernist, or Enlightenment, Western
worldview. It is a widely used concept and terminology originally used by artists,
philosophers and social scientists. It speaks to cultural changes that have taken place over
the past several decades, beginning in the early 20th Century. It is not ‘pro’ anything, but
it is thoroughly anti-modern.
Ernst Gellner believes postmodernity is not just a culture shift in the West, but the
product of a larger global shift -- a landslide if you will -- begun by the collapse of
Colonialism. The first wave of colonial contraction began (c.1947) with the European
states, and was followed a few decades later with the collapse of the Soviet bloc (c.1989).
Several prominent postmodernists were deeply, personally influenced by colonialism,
especially by French involvement in Algeria (e.g., Sartre, Foucault). As such, we find
that postmodernity, post-colonialism, and post-Christendom, are all more inter-related
than they initially seem to be, and the reason why each needs to be considered herein.
Postmodernism -- the philosophical dimension of this anti-modern cultural wave -- is
anti-foundationalist, especially in its post-structuralist stream. Postmoderns do not
believe in absolutes, claiming that objective and absolute truths are practically
impossible.
The postmodern challenge to modernity
manifests itself in two separate but equally
devastating, forms. One is cultural and the
other is philosophical (epistemological).
On the cultural front, postmodern
manifestations in the form of new social
movements whether in art forms, politics or
lifestyles, are joyously disrupting the neat
University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa