Lecture 13: Post-Modernity and the Theological Task

Question 1

What is Postmodernism?

Answer 1

• Postmodernism is a critique of Modernism, especially Enlightenment philosophy
• Postmodernism began at the beginning of the 20th century, and became a dominant cultural movement in the 1960s

Question 2

Postmodern thought is characterized by:

Answer 2

• Lack of faith in human progress
• Rejection of metanarratives
• Suspicion of the possibility of reliable knowledge
• Denial of an accessible objective reality

Question 3

Postmodernism began when society lost faith in Modernism

Answer 3

• The Enlightenment had promised human progress and improvement of life
• The events surrounding the first and second World Wars showed this promise to be a lie
• Society began to question the Enlightenment, and its central claim of the reliability of human judgment
• As a result, postmodernism distrusts human reason to give reliable knowledge, but has found nothing to replace it

Question 4

Timeline

Answer 4

• Start of the Protestant Reformation
• The Thirty Years War
• Rise of the Enlightenment (Modern Period)
• Freidrich Nietzsche: earliest postmodern critique of Modernity
• World War 1 (the rise of postmodern ideas)
• World War 2
• Postmodern thought becomes dominant cultural forces

Question 5

Critiques of Modern Thought: 1. Critique of Metanarratives

Answer 5

Metanarratives: big, overarching stories that claim to be universally true, and are intended to give context, meaning, and purpose to all of life
- modern thought relies on metanarrative. Especially: the importance and abilities of scientific reason. and the inevitability of human progress.
- postmodern thought rejects the existence of metanarratives
- no ‘stories’ offer direct access to objective truth. All stories provide only one perspective on the truth.
- Therefore, no story can claim to be objectively true, and universally relevant, as metanarratives claim

Question 6

Critiques of Modern Thought: 2. Critique of Human Progress

Answer 6

Modernity asserts human progress as a metanarrative
- claim: humanity is going to keep using reason to overcome its problems, improve society, and create a utopian existence
- reality: the use of reason has not led to progress for humanity
Postmodernism points out that the metanarrative of progress is false. It was never a true metanarrative

Question 7

Critiques of Modern Thought: 3. Critique of Scientific Reason

Answer 7

Modernity claims that human reason, and especially the scientific method, grant us access to objective truth
Postmodernism argues that the scientific method is not actually an objective method of inquiry
- all approaches to knowledge, including science, are never more than particular interpretations of the truth, from a particular perspective-
- Postmodernism does not reject reason, but it rejects the Enlightenment claim that it offers objective knowledge

Question 8

Critiques of Modern Thought: 4. Critique of Foundationalism

Answer 8

• Foundationalism: a Modern theory of knowledge, in which knowledge must be based on a foundation of beliefs which cannot themselves be called into question
• Post-modernism rejects foundationalism, because it rejects the idea that any beliefs can ever be certain

Question 9

Claims of Postmodernism: Humans cannot directly access ultimate reality (soft postmodernism)

Answer 9

• There is no such thing as certain knowledge. There are only particular interpretations of reality, from particular perspectives
• Second umpire: “there’s balls and strikes, and I call em like I see em”

Question 10

Claims of Postmodernism: There is no privileged perspective on reality (hard postmodernism)

Answer 10

• there is no objective way to evaluate perspectives
• without an objective perspective there are only endless competing perspectives with equal claim to legitimacy
• third umpire: “theres balls and strikes, and they aint nothing til I call em”
• Questions of objective reality and universal truth becomes pointless

Question 11

Friedrich Neitzsche

Answer 11

• 1844-1900
• One of Christianity’s greatest critics
• Founder of the phrase “God is dead.”
• Nietzsche was the first to criticize Enlightenment rationality from a postmodern perspective

Question 12

Implications for Theology

Answer 12

1. our culture lacks a concern for objective truth
2. we tend to reject external authorities and trust in our own individual reason