Postmodern Challenge Research Articles

Postmodernism and the need for story and promise: How Robert Jenson's theology addresses some postmodern challenges to faith

Modernity’s belief that we live in a narratable world (a world with a story) and its confidence in progress (a world with a promise), are terminated by postmodernism’s insights. This is how the American Lutheran theologian Robert Jenson understands the impact of postmodernism. If this is true, it poses great challenges for the Christian faith to be communicated and accepted within this context. This article assesses how Jenson’s theology attempts to address postmodernism’s need for a new story and promise. It concludes that Jenson’s theology, as a Trinitarian theology, forms a coherent answer to these challenges because it is a narrative and eschatological theology. This article indicates, amongst other things the importance of Jenson’s understanding in his theology of the relation between God and time. The significance of Jenson’s approach is that it, firstly, understands the church as a narratable world, with a visible promise, and that it, secondly, follows a characteristically postmodern methodology in addressing these challenges.

Relational agency and pre-service trainee teachers: using student voice to frame teacher education pedagogy

This article explores the nature of the reflective learning undertaken by pre-service trainee teachers training to teach in the lifelong learning sector in the UK. The argument made is that reflecting on the student voice can support novice teacher’s boundary-crossing and legitimate peripheral participation (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Heggen, 2008). This article frames student voice practices as essential within teacher education pedagogy. As a counterpoint to post-Fordist and post-modern challenges to education in late capitalism, student voice practice is used to demonstrate to novice teachers the pedagogic and democratic value that ‘listening to learners’ brings. While recognising the highly contested nature of voice, value is held in both listening to trainee teachers and their anxieties and concerns and providing a reflective and reflexive context through which these can be expressed; and the value to be had for (new) teachers to listen to their own learners. Student voice practice is held to have significance for teachers’ iterative identity (Giddens, 1991), and is seen to provide pedagogic opportunities for the framing of relational agency (Edwards, 2005).

Paul Ricoeur’s Hermeneutics of the Self and Pastoral Theological Anthropology

This paper pursues an understanding of Paul Ricoeur`s concept of the self and its implications for pastoral theological anthropology. As a philosopher whose main concern is the phenomenological hermeneutics, Ricoeur took a profound interest in narrative and selfhood. The main portion of this paper is devoted to depicting a contour of Ricoeur`s hermeneutics of the self. In order for this goal, first, I present Ricoeur`s theory of text interpretation. For Ricoeur, interpretation is not an inquiry of the text through imposing our finite capacity for understanding upon the text, but exposing ourselves to the text and receiving from it an enlarged self. Second, I deal with Ricoeur`s understanding of the narrative identity. Inquiring into narrative is pivotal for Riceour, since he thinks that narrative is the mediator which leads us to the hermeneutical understanding of life, self, or identity. In this section, I point out Ricoeur`s appropriation of time, plot, mimesis, and identity. Third, I present Ricoeur`s hermeneutics of the self. In this part, I aim to suggest the self as the focal theme of Ricoeur`s hermeneutic theory. Ricoeur denotes that it is the self that will be changed and enlarged through the process of text interpretation. Based on my understanding of Ricouer`s concept of the self, in conclusion, I conceive some implications for pastoral theological anthropology confronted with the challenges of postmodernity in which the self has been forced to give up its solid and permanent foundation.

HISTORY'S DEMARCATION PROBLEM

ABSTRACTIn his 1998 book Heterocosmica: Fiction and Possible Worlds, Lubomír Doležel put forth a theory of narrative fiction based on the interdisciplinary framework of possible worlds. In Possible Worlds of Fiction and History: The Postmodern Stage, Doležel takes his earlier theory further and applies it to historiography as well, with the specific aim of showing how the study of history might be defended against the postmodern challenge via the use of possible worlds (PW) semantics. Doležel's book is essentially an argument against the postmodern views expressed by Roland Barthes and Hayden White, who have claimed that fundamentally, there is no difference between fictional and historical narratives. According to Doležel, this difference can be saved if the focus of attention is shifted from the textual features of these narratives to the fictional or historical worlds that the narratives project.Doležel's comparison of fictional and historical worlds to each other is quite illuminating and thorough. However, the question remains whether the application of PW semantics does anything besides offering a detailed analysis of the structure of the different types of narrative worlds. After all, one should not overlook the perhaps more practical way of differentiating between historical and fictional narratives through their institutional status. Furthermore, we argue that by focusing on the properties of the end products, that is, the resulting narratives, Doležel concedes too much to postmodernists. A stronger way to give postmodernists a taste of their own medicine would be to argue that the rules that historians follow in the process of generating, constructing, and evaluating weighed causal explanations (or historical models of the past) are fundamentally different from whatever rules govern the generation and construction of fiction.

The challenge of postmodernism to rationality in Practical Theology

As with previous eras, the postmodern age presents great opportunity and grave peril for the church and to Practical Theology as an academic discipline. The article gives a meta-theoretical description and evaluation of the development of the theological rationality of Practical Theological paradigms. To enable the researcher to explore the challenge of postmodern paradigms, the article describes the rationality of the Newtonian epistemology, followed by a discussion of the ecosystemic and the communication actions approaches. Postmodernistic approaches are evaluated in view of the developments. The rationality of correlative approaches is described as a viable approach to the challenges of the postmodern culture. Two examples of South African researchers are discussed to illustrate the role of rationality in Practical Theology. It is proposed that a rationality of correlation poses a hermeneutical key to a practical theological paradigm.

»There’s more to the picture / than meets the eye«

By means of French, Anglo-American and German texts this article depicts a central similarity in the way Nine Eleven has been processed in literature, even though the texts exhibit various differences in detail. In contrast to the postmodern challenge to the concept of reality on the one hand and the dominance of the visual media on the other,writers such as Beigbeder, DeLillo, Lehr and Goetz react by emphasizing the logic of fictional narration. Real-life incidents, especially visual ones, are incorporated into the literary discourse, that is, they are rewritten and therefore they claim an aesthetic autonomy that is opposed both to the idea of reality and to the epistemic and aesthetic primacy of (public) visual media.

儒家生命倫理之基礎與方向——一個初步的分析

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.雖然越來越多研究者認識到儒家倫理資源對當代生命倫理研究的價值，但“儒家生命倫理學”仍然是一個頗具爭議的提法。本文試圖表明，儒家生命倫理學是一種以本土文化傳統為主體，從完整的生活世界出發，以糾正原則主義偏狹的理論努力。因此，一種構建儒家生命倫理學的理論努力成功與否，取決於它在多大程度上能夠在現實生活中恢復儒家的生活世界（如儒家共同體）以及與之相應的道德關懷。依據這一視角，本文嘗試為儒家生命倫理學建構提供一種合法性論證，並對儒家生命倫理學的方法、結構和方向作出初步的探討。Although increasingly more scholars are realizing the significance of Confucian intellectual and moral resources to bioethics in China, the phrase “Confucian bioethics” remains controversial today. What is Confucian ethics? Is there such a thing? Is it even possible? The debate on bioethics has gone global due to a rapid growth in biotechnology and life sciences that impact people all over the world, and there is heightened demand for understanding the many associated issues from various socio-cultural and philosophic-ethical perspectives. Yet some people argue that current bioethical considerations should be couched in terms of “universal principles” that render a specifically Chinese or Confucian bioethics irrelevant. What that position ignores is the importance of cultural context in determining how such principles should be understood and implemented. This essay argues there are elements in bioethics that require it clearly to be Chinese (and Confucian). It pointsout that Confucian ethics should be reconstructed and based on a life-world in which Confucianism is a lived tradition rather than a piece of art exhibited in a museum. From a contemporary perspective, the Confucian way of living is a new form of creation, meeting the challenge of modernity and postmodernity in terms of ethics in general and bioethics in particular. The essay also addresses issues concerning the methodology, structure, and direction needed for the creation of a Confucian bioethics.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 413 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

Touching the void: Affective history and the impossible

The contention of this essay is that historical research is an affective experience of such intensity that it has been able to withstand the challenges of post-structuralism and postmodernism. While the intensity of the archival encounter is not often admitted in print, it continues to motivate the efforts of individual historians. The abstractions of theory cannot intrude upon the physical experience of holding a piece of the past. It demands our attention. But the intellectual consequences of the physicality of the archival encounter need to be effectively theorised: what is the role of touching and feeling in the pursuit of knowing? The archive is the place where historians can literally touch the past, but in doing so are simultaneously made aware of its unreachability. In a maddening paradox, concrete presence conveys unfathomable absence. In the archive, researchers are both confronted with the absolute alterity of the past and tempted by the challenge of trying to overcome it. It is suggested that this impossibility underpins the powerful attraction of the historical endeavour. Without an understanding of this attraction, theory and research will continue to talk at cross purposes; the one insisting that the past is unknowable, the other unable to ignore the vitality of its sources.

Islamic Philosophy and the Challenge of Post Modernism

This paper briefly describes the Post Modernism philosophy, introduces the work of its key proponents, provides a critical appraisal of Post Modernism thought and finally it compares the Post Modernism philosophy with philosophical heritage of Islamic faith and civilization and recommends ways to cope up with the challenge of post modernism.

DISCIPLINE, PHILOSOPHY, AND HISTORY

ABSTRACTGorman proposes to investigate historical practice under the rubric of a philosophy of disciplines. Such philosophy must first “recover historically” the self‐constitution of the discipline in order then to appraise its procedures for warranting claims. Gorman's concept of discipline would have profited from consulting the substantial body of empirical research and theory regarding disciplinarity, and his “historical recovery” of the discipline of history leaves a lot to be desired. These insufficiencies vitiate the interesting arguments he has to offer concerning the question of the truth‐claims of whole historical accounts. A better reconstruction of disciplinarity might also have provided him with stronger rejoinders to the postmodern challenge to historical practice that he sees himself called to rebut.

Sacred Scripture as a Catalyst for Creative Expression: An Endless Ocean of God's Ancient Inspiration

Why is scripture a catalyst for cultural expression and how can the writings of Bahaullah infuse a fresh dynamic into this process This paper examines the relationship between visual art and scripture through examples taken from the visual art practice of the author. Specific pieces of artwork are described and illustrated along with the verses from Bahaullah's The Hidden Words that inspired them. These pieces aim to translate the verses into visual metaphors and through this interpretation discover more about the direct correlation that exists between visual art and sacred text. This unfolding process provides a framework for exploring wider implications that are relevant to contemporary life and philosophy. Comparisons are made with other creative practitioners who have drawn their inspiration from spiritual teachings and particular interest is placed on the cultural expressions of the Islamic tradition. The metaphorical meanings of key motifs such as veils, layers, light, gems and silence are described, along with examples of how they have been used by artists throughout history. These examples attempt to open the reader's eyes to an awareness of the signs and symbols of the divine that penetrate all aspects of creation. The cyclical energies of the creative process are compared to the cyclical nature of divine revelation and the spiritual progress of individual souls. The power of minimal art is seen as a reflection of the ineffable and the challenge of postmodernism is highlighted as an attempt to unify this emptiness once more with the diversity of contemporary life. These observations illustrate how academic study and contextualization of an artist's practice can provide a framework that, far from restricting creativity, offers a deep grounding and springboard into the freedom of spontaneous improvisation.

Utopian Studies, Environmental Literature, and the Legacy of an Idea: Educating Desire in Miguel Abensour and Ursula K. Le Guin

This article examines the concept of the of desire, which undergirds literary utopian studies' response to postmodernism's challenge to the modern utopian impulse. analysis returns to two classic utopian texts—the work of Miguel Abensour, who coined the term of desire, and Ursula K. Le Guin's novel about ecological sustainability, The Dispossessed—to argue that the education of desire involves a more intimate relationship between desire and domination than literary utopian studies has allowed. This article not only transforms our understanding of a mainstay of utopian studies; it relates this discussion to utopian strains in environmental thought, tracing the tension between the desire for ecological sustainability and the social, political, and economic prescriptions this would entail.

‘Inhabiting a space on the outer edges of religious life’: The Radical Emergent Christian Community of Ikon

What has come to be known as the ‘Emerging Church’ (or colloquially as the ‘emergents’) amounts to an innovating, if somewhat controversial contemporary Christian movement that attempts to be spiritually relevant in the contemporary cultural setting to both its adherents and those outside of its loosely demarcated boundaries. In this paper I overview one significant example of the movement’s more radical wing, the Belfast-based Ikon community in Northern Ireland. i The paper argues that, on the one hand, Ikon exemplifies the means by which a distinctly innovating and even intentionally provocative religious constituency endeavours to forge a juxtaposition within postmodernity. On the other, Ikon self-consciously attempts to avoid conforming to any typology and deliberately escape conceptualization, even underlining its own failures in what it aspires to be. The paper will indicate that the attempt to resist constricting characterizations is embedded in the very nature of the philosophical standpoints and theological leanings (such as they exist) embraced by the community as it seeks a unique but definitive Christian response to the challenges of postmodernity.

Postmodernism and its Challenge to the Discipline of History: Implications for History Education

There is a confusion over and inchoate understanding of how the past is made understandable through postmodernist historical orientation. The purpose of the article is to outline the characteristic features of the postmodernist movement in social sciences, to explain its confrontation with history, to document its critique of the conventional practice of history, and to discuss its implications for history education. The postmodernist challenge to the foundations of the discipline of history is elucidated with an emphasis on its epistemological underpinnings. Implications of postmodernism for the teaching and learning of history are discussed.

‘Not the obstacle but the means’: Film history and the postmodern challenge

This article consists of two main parts. The first part provides a brief summary of the historico-philosophical debate between so-called modernist and postmodernist historians, before moving on to an investigation of how film historians have responded to the challenge posed by postmodern historiography. As it turns out, they have very rarely taken into account the epistemological issues raised by postmodern historians, possibly because the field of film history for so long was rather out of sync with most other kinds of history, relying as it did on anecdotal accounts of heroic individuals. Only after turning to methodical, archive-based research in the early 1980s could postmodern historiography become an issue, for presumably there has to be a body of accumulated knowledge to critique and be reflexive about in the first place. The second part of the article considers the possible practical consequences of postmodern historiography by looking at two competing accounts of the transition in American cinema in the late 1970s and early 1980s from the Hollywood renaissance to the blockbuster era. The two accounts are not postmodern, but I hope to suggest a different epistemological ideal from which to consider them that might be thought of as postmodern.

Da ecologia à eco-ideologia. Da prevenção à precaução

The present study focuses on questions about environmental law in the post-modern society, not only at ecology and prevention, but beyond them: from eco-ideology to precaution. In these scope, from technological and scientifical revolutions rises the law challenge beyond the risk society. In this changing age, it would be necessary a review of concepts of responsibility for building a true environmental law. It is the post-modern challenge. Key words: law, risk, ecology, precaution.

Da ecologia à eco-ideologia - Da prevenção à precaução

The present study focuses on questions about environmental law in the post-modern society, not only at ecology and prevention, but beyond them: from eco-ideology to precaution. In these scope, from technological and scientifical revolutions rises the law challenge beyond the risk society. In this changing age, it would be necessary a review of concepts of responsibility for building a true environmental law. It is the post-modern challenge. Key words: law, risk, ecology, precaution.

From Historical Adventure to Historical Responsibility ― Focusing on Hans Jonas’ Response to Postmodern Challenge ―

From Historical Adventure to Historical Responsibility ― Focusing on Hans Jonas’ Response to Postmodern Challenge ―

Paired Opposites

■ Over the past two decades, anthropological studies have highlighted the ways in which overtly progressive ideas of `development' have been used, paradoxically, to consolidate inequality and perpetuate poverty on a global scale. Such critiques have fed into a wider `postmodern challenge' which has importantly questioned previously held assumptions about development. However, this prevailing critical approach has led to a number of problems. In particular the deconstruction of development discourse has unwittingly re-inscribed many of the binary oppositions it seeks to overcome, without appreciating the complex ways in which development workers employ these. Moreover, a critical impulse to uncover what development practice `hides' focuses attention away from the ideas and practices that development practitioners actively privilege. In this article I argue that it is necessary to go beyond a critical, deconstructive approach in order to appreciate the socially and discursively complex ways in which development workers employ such oppositions. Through an ethnographic account focusing on how oppositions between `local' and `global' and `policy' and `practice' are used to frame a variety of development interventions in Ghana, I outline the mobile ways in which such oppositions are deployed and highlight the diverse ideas and agendas that they are used to articulate.

Toward a Sustainable Myth of Self

The self has come under considerable attack in postmodern times. Amidst many deconstructions and reformulations of the self, various myths of self have lost their sustainability. This article reviews various theoretical perspectives on the self along with many postmodern challenges to the self. It is proposed that the self is a socially constructed entity which can be conceptualized from a variety of perspectives; however, not all myths of self are equal. In particular, premodern and modern myths of self are inadequate for postmodern times. Building from an existential—integrative perspective, we propose Schneider's paradoxical self as a promising myth of self for postmodern times.