Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture

A Contemporary Guide for Christians

A Contemporary Guide for Christians

To open a Tabletalk Article  Titled:

==> The Key to C.S. Lewis by Gene Edward Veith, JR. <==

Click inside the Red Arrows

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To listen to a Ken Myers  Mars Hill Audio discussion with the author click here  => Postmodern Times  and then click the triangular button on the far left on the audio bar to begin the interview.

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==> An Amazon Link <==

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The modern era is over. Assumptions that shaped twentieth-century thought and culture, the bridges we crossed to this present moment, have blown up. The postmodern age has begun. Just what is postmodernism? The average person would be shocked by its creed: Truth, meaning, and individual identity do not exist. These are social constructs. Human life has no special significance, no more value than animal or plant life. All social relationships, all institutions, all moral values are expressions and masks of the primal will to power. Alarmingly, these ideas have gripped the nation’s universities, which turn out today’s lawyers, judges, writers, journalists, teachers, and other culture-shapers. Through society’s influences, postmodernist ideas have seeped into films, television, art, literature, politics; and, without his knowing it, into the head of the average person on the street. Christ has called us to proclaim the gospel to a culture grappling with postmodernism. We must understand our times. Then, through the power that Christ gives, we can counter the prevailing culture and proclaim His sufficiency to our society’s very points of need. “While pundits wring their hands over the radicalism of political correctness, speech codes, and outrageous art, Gene Edward Veith takes unerring aim at the intellectual roots of it all. The most important book for anyone who wants to know what’s behind the political correctness movement.” –Chuck Colson, founder, Prison Fellowship “An ideal guide for Christians who don’t want to be like the notorious military strategist preparing to fight the last war instead of the next one.” –Herbert Schlossberg, author, Idols for Destruction “Pinpoints the strengths and weaknesses of postmodern thought and points the way for Christians to take advantage of both.” –E. Calvin Beisner, Covenant College

——————————- An Amazon Review —————————-

By Eric Blievernicht on October 23, 2000

Format: Paperback
In daily conversation I notice the tenets of postmodernism cropping up all the time. People who have no idea what “postmodernism” is are nonetheless deeply influenced by it, mouthing its words, speaking its assumptions, believing its claims because they have been so deeply inculcated with it without even realizing it. I don’t think people realize just how distinctively different a philosophy of epistemology it really is, compared to historical norms.
That said, Veith’s book is a good introduction to the subject, and worthy reading for every person who is seeking a well-rounded education. From a Christian perspective (more specifically a Lutheran, not protestant, one) Veith traces the rise of Modernism from a biblical worldview, and the inevitable transformation from Modernism’s empty claims to certainty to Postmodernism’s notorious uncertainty and relativism. Between the two Veith charts a path that seeks to avoid the errors both of pompous Modernist dogmatism and Postmodernist denial that truth can be reasonably ascertained. Veith’s book conveys understanding and insight, if not a straightforward guide to helping others out of the morass of Postmodernism.
Ultimately Postmodernism fails because it is so internally inconsistent (how can one argue rationally for it if rationality itself is suspect?) Rather than point to the internal inconsistencies, I suspect a better route will be to present a positive epistemology that is more consistent than the Modernist ideology that Postmodernists abandoned; in short, the biblical worldview.

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