Postmodernism 101: A First Course for the Curious Christian
Finally, here's a book about postmodernism that you don't need a
philosophy degree to understand.
In Postmodernism 101: A First Course for the Curious
Christian, Heath White offers a brief and accessible
introduction to the ideas of postmodernism and its relationship to
Christianity. White paints the historical and philosophical
background underlying postmodernism in understandable, but not
oversimplified, language. He then describes what postmodernism
means to our view of self, language, thought, the search for
knowledge, and culture.
White invites Christians who otherwise might have avoided
postmodern theorizing into this important dialogue with questions
for further thought after each chapter and suggestions for future
reading. This book is ideal for students as well as curious pastors
and lay readers.
Top Highlights
“I will be using ‘postmodernism’ throughout this book in the broadest possible sense, to name a mind-set, a worldview, or a family of similar worldviews, a set of perspectives shared by many people who have come of age rather recently.” (source)
“First, the modern hope in progress depended on the assumption that reason would be used in the service of humanity, or more briefly, that humans were innately good or at least were being transformed in that direction.” (source)
“Some of the elements of that change, both causes and effects, include: the Scientific Revolution, including the ideas of Galileo and Newton; the declining influence of the Catholic Church in politics; the rise of nation-states out of feudal kingdoms; the slow changeover from monarchy to democracy; capitalism; and the Industrial Revolution.” (source)
“Premoderns placed their trust in authority. Moderns lost their confidence in authority and placed it in human reason instead. Postmoderns kept the modern distrust of authority but lost their trust in reason and have found nothing to replace it. This is the crux of all postmodern thought.” (source)
“This book will deal with two tectonic movements in ideas, two truly major developments in intellectual history. One occurred in the years around 1600, and the other is happening right now.” (source)
Product Details
- Title : Postmodernism 101: A First Course for the Curious Christian
- Author: White, Heath
- Publisher: Brazos Press
- Publication Date: 2006
- ISBN: 9781441234780
Heath White (Ph.D., Georgetown University) is a philosophy professor at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.