# Post-Modernism



## Founded on the Rock (Oct 2, 2006)

(Just so you know I am not at secular school, I go to Moody Bible Institute) So... My philosophy teacher was opposed to postmodernism until he spent the summer studying and reading it. 

He says that at the basic level, postmodernists believe that there is truth, but that truth is looked at differently at different points in history and in different cultures(postmodernists diverge from there but this is a tenet of all postmodernists). As a result, our perceptions cannot be trusted because they only show a jaded view of reality.

Now the first thing that came into my mind, was presuppositionalism. I asked my professor if presup's generally embraced postmodernism and he said that many of the Christian postmodernists he read were presup in their apologetic.

I figured this was all good and well but didn't really examine the ramifications of that way of thinking. Today in class he basically said that our hermeneutic's are imperfect and that we only believe what we believe because of where we come from.

He used this example, 

"I am a Calvinist. Why am I a Calvinist?
Because Scripture and came to the conclusion myself? No. It was because my youth pastor was a Calvinist and taught me to interpret Scripture that way. This is what I can respect those of other beliefs, like the Arminian or the Covenantal theologian (he is dispensational). The underlying question is why do we believer our hermeneutic is correct? What Scriptural reason to we attribute to our hermeneutic? I think many times our systems don't allow the Spirit to move and clarify things."

I asked him why he believed the Spirit needed to illuminate Scripture and he replied that it did. I said, how do you know that without your exegesis of Scripture and he didn't really respond.

Sorry for all the background but here is my question, We know that we must come to the text subjectively. There is not one person that can come to the text completely objective. This is in some way influenced by where they are culturally and in time. I think this is clear. So how can we believe anything about Scripture if our interpration of Scripture is completely subjective?

I doubt there are many postmodernists on the board, but how do we devise a meaningful hermeneutic in the postmodern system? Or is that something that is just simply a faith proposition and we must just believe.......


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## R. Scott Clark (Oct 2, 2006)

Brandon,

Read Mike Horton's _Covenant and Eschatology_ for an intelligent critical account of "post-modernity."

See also Kevin Vanhoozer's recent work adapting narrative theology for evangelicalism. Horton is better, but both are useful.

FYI, most secular scholars don't speak about PM'ism much any more. The only folks still talking about it are evangelicals and fundamentalists. 

Most of what has come to be described as "postmodern" isn't. Its really "most" or hyper-modern. Most all "pm'ists" still accept basic modernist assumptions about reality, truth, and our relations to them. 

See Zygmunt Bauman, _Liquid Modernity_ (Cambridge: Polity, 2000); idem, “Postmodern Religion,” in Paul Heelas et al., eds _Religion, Modernity and Postmodernity_ (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1998).

rsc


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## Ivan (Oct 2, 2006)

I'm surprised that there is a professor at Moody that appears to be sympathetic to PM.



> I asked him why he believed the Spirit needed to illuminate Scripture and he replied that it did. I said, how do you know that without your exegesis of Scripture and he didn't really respond.



Did your professor really refer to the Holy Spirit as "it"? That's even more of a problem.

[Edited on by Ivan]


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## Founded on the Rock (Oct 9, 2006)

Ya he is more than sympathetic, he is PM. The "it" reference was one of my own stupidity  (forgive me Spirit).

PM is not as terrible as everyone says in my understanding... but it has problem areas. I don't think anyone can disagree that we see the world through our own experiences and understandnigs. It is some of the applications of it that concern me... Or maybe it is my misunderstandings.


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## WrittenFromUtopia (Oct 9, 2006)

PM is just a nuanced version of Pyhrronian skepticism, except not as hopeless, probably. At least we have language between us.


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