Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

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with reality. “Don’t words refer to something” I asked her. “If you are seeking an intelligible answer from me, mustn’t there be correspondence between my words and reality How then can this basic requirement be met in our culture” Of course, this student is only reflecting the spirit of postmodern thought -- No truth, no meaning, no certainty. We now hear that language is detached from reality and truth detached from meaning. So what we are left with is a way of thinking basically shaped by our bodies and by our proclivities. That is how defining our untamed passions have become and hence incoherence is now normal (Zacharias, 2006). Postmoderns doubt that any objective, or singular, truth exists. For them truth is a social construct, and is community-relative. Since there are myriads of communities, there are myriads of truths. The postmodern claims there are no absolutes, no one truth, or standard of truth, to judge one against another -- leaving only relativism. Postmodernity refers to a shift away from attempts to ground epistemology and faith in a humanly engineered process. The condition of post-modernity is distinguished by an evaporating of the ‘grand narrative’ -- the overarching ‘story line’ by means of which we are placed in history as beings having a definite past and a predictable future. The post-modern outlook sees a plurality of heterogeneous claims to knowledge, in which science does not have a privileged place (Giddens, in Gelder, 1996:153). Richard Rorty does not argue for total nihilism, as is sometimes attributed to him, but does emphasize the social influence of nihilism upon the individual and his beliefs. For Rorty truth is an inter-subjective agreement among members of a community that enables them to speak a common language and establish a commonly accepted reality (Rorty, 1991:21). The end-all for Rorty is not the discovery or even the approximation of absolute truth, but rather the formulation of beliefs that further solidify the community, which is “to reduce objectivity to solidarity” (Rorty, 1991:22). Rorty’s ideal seems to be 68 University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, <strong>South</strong> Africa
maximum voluntary community agreement, rather than some tolerated disagreement (Rorty, 1991:38-39). Rorty’s concept of truth has become nearly pervasive throughout Western societies, where solidarity without truth, is more important than truth attained through argument and objections. The Judeo-Christian, or biblical worldview, by contrast, is built upon the presupposition that there is right and wrong, true and false. Francis Schaeffer discussed often how postmodern [relativist] epistemology was undermining both the Christian faith and epistemology in general. Absolutes require antithesis, the existence of the contrast of opposites. Antithetical thought ultimately argues that God exists in contrast to His not existing. It relies further on the reality of God’s creation of what exists, in contrast to what does not exist -- and then to His creating people to live, observe and think in the reality (Schaeffer, 1990:228). Contrary to this, Georg Hegel’s dialectic model advocates compromise, rather than absolutes and antithesis. Beginning with the traditional dichotomy between thesis and antithesis, Hegel works toward a synthesis, or compromise of the two extremes. Rather than the polar opposites of right and wrong, true and false, holy and unholy, there are now just relativistic compromises: the synthesis of thesis and antithesis. For about a century this has been practiced in the West, though limited to the moral, not scientific realm. “Getting along” without controversy, especially in the moral realm has become more important that truths and absolutes. Philosopher William Lane Craig says: To assert that ‘the truth is that there is no truth’ is both self-refuting and arbitrary. For if this statement is true, it is not true, since there is no truth. So-called deconstructionism thus cannot be halted from deconstructing itself. Moreover, there is also no reason for adopting the postmodern perspective rather than, say, the outlooks of Western capitalism, male chauvinism, white racism, and so forth, since post-modernism has no more truth to it then these perspectives. Caught in this selfdefeating trap, some postmodernists have been forced to the same recourse as Buddhist mystics: denying that postmodernism is really a view or position at all. But then, once again, 69 University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, <strong>South</strong> Africa
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1 POSTMODERNITY: IMPACT AND IMPLICA
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3 Key Terms Postmodern, postmoderni
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5 An Apologetic Response 115 Compro
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killed massively in the name of goo
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9 together in an eclectic, rather d
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11 Postmodernity: Impact and Implic
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13 heights” (Veith, 1994:30). For
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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 and 48: 47 The Mind of Sartre Sartre’s vi
Page 49 and 50: ethical absolutes (Craig, 1994:67).
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: without essential foundations (Khan
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
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component of the overall package, b
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irrelevant. The postmodernist, like
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123 terminate this inquiry with the
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consider the spiritual truths the B
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people are to effectively participa
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witness among the Gentiles, by usin
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131 Chapter VI Postmodernity and th
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Postmodernism enhances the process
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135 Yet, with few exceptions, the W
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137 Rome, ‘The Way’ (i.e., Chri
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were the changes made to the clergy
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of transforming it... Christendom i
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society. State authorities quite of
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“The subtle assumption of Western
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The church should instead take a Ch
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149 Christendom West. For example i
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not know what it means to be indepe
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creative times has been, about doin
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155 Ours is not a faith rooted in i
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157 of Washington, D.C., have now d
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says, “Homosexual practice is inc
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the position held by the non-Wester
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163 Chapter VII Postmodern Spiritua
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With the dawn of the Enlightenment,
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contemporary West look not to the c
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adherence overall declined from 86.
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171 (Johnson, 2004). Contemporary n
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173 The postmodernists undertook th
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deconstruction leads to a foundatio
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177 postmodernity has opened the do
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Pagans are usually worshippers of t
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most Catholics in Brazil. Many Musl
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which is one of the key factors tha
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185 1980:viii). For example, when t
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187 the higher religions. The pleth
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whose wrath has been and will be di
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in the movies, further fulfilling t
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to ancient Greek writings, the post
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195 more, the atoning work of Jesus
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197 to develop. Even after several
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199 excesses of scientism and reduc
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Carson, D.A., ed. (2000). Telling t
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Grudem, W. (1994). Systematic Theol
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McMichael, P. (2004). Development a
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207 Riss, R. (1988). A Survey of 20
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209 Bibliography of Electronic Sour
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211 Foucault, M. (1982). Truth, Pow
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Montgomery, J.W. (2002). Defending
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215 The University of Zululand Esta
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