Postmodern Christian Research Articles

‘Forgive Us Our Trespasses’: The Critical Role, Responsibility and Rights of Ethics in Confronting the Enlightenment's Pride and Prejudice

While postmodernists have claimed that the failure of the Enlightenment was a failure of philosophical courage, this plenary address explores how its greatest shortcoming actually was its hubris. Paying attention to how Western scholars have centered pride in their elitist purview was their ultimate worldview, this article examines ‘pride’ as the doctrinal dimension of the good life in contemporary Western society and culture. Furthermore, it implores postmodern Christian social ethicists to reform their stewardship to the telos of the field's highest ideals and role, in order to confront the shortcomings of the Enlightenment and help realize its greater capacity for social transformation. Borrowing the Gandhian critique of ‘knowledge without character’, the author surveys how the existential crisis of higher education, the political manipulation of journalism, and the policy practices of politicians, public intellectuals, and pundits operate in addressing post-imperial/postmodern legacies have legitimated implicit biases and dehumanizing projects that pass off stereotypes as scholarship and hate as hermeneutics.

Pentecostalism, Postmodernism, and Reformed Epistemology: James KA Smith and the Contours of a Postmodern Christian Epistemology , by Yoon Shin

Pentecostalism, Postmodernism, and Reformed Epistemology: James KA Smith and the Contours of a Postmodern Christian Epistemology , by Yoon Shin

“Singing in Tongues” as Esotericism and Postmodern Christianity. A Study of Contemporary Nigerian Gospel Music

The Nigerian gospel music industry has over the years witnessed the emergence of many artistic, cultural and philosophical movements. One of these movements is the “singing-in-tongues” paradigm, particularly endorsed by the new generation of Pentecostal hip-hop musicians, many of whom seem bent on redefining the boundaries of Nigerian gospel music. Although remarkable, the singing-in-tongues paradigm (as deployed by Nigerian artistes) has remained understudied or virtually non-theorized by scholars. This paper seeks to fill this apparent gap in knowledge by exploring the singing-in-tongues concept in the light of two philosophical/religious currents, namely esotericism and postmodernism. What has been the place of the singing-in-tongues paradigm in the evolution of the Nigerian gospel music industry? How is singing in tongues esoteric? And how is it a subtle reflection of postmodern Christianity in Nigeria?

A Methodological Investigation on Christian Natural Theology

Summary The purpose of this article is to present a desirable understanding of Christian natural theology in terms of methodology. In the Enlightenment era, natural theology was understood as that which provides support for religious beliefs by starting from a premise that does not include any religious beliefs. The natural theology of this age was performed under the premise that humanity could prove God’s existence by universal reason without the revelation of God, and that everyone could reasonably agree with the proof. Today, however, the concept of universal reason, which all humans have in common, is being questioned. Today it has become clear that the human reason is conditioned by some sort of perspective formed within a particular culture, tradition, and community and therefore operates in a very diverse way. This article aims at proposing a natural theology which is required today methodologically in terms of postfoundational Christian natural theology. This investigation proceeds in the following order: the creation theology of the Old Testament (II; the natural theology in Christian history (III); the definition of Christian natural theology (IV); today’s Christian natural theology as a creation theology (theology of nature) and as a scientific theology (V); Jürgen Moltmann’s Christian natural theology in terms of methodology (VI); the postfoundational Christian natural theology as a model of postmodern Christian natural theology (VII); conclusion (VIII).

ВООБРАЖЕНИЕ И МЕТАФОРА В ТЕОЛОГИЧЕСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ

The paper investigates the religious language interpretation in the contemporary continental philosophic theology. The author presents the central role of the imagination and metaphor in theological language. The diacritical hermeneutics of Richard Kearney is analyzed as an example of the theological language transition from the theologics to theopoetics. Modifications in the theological language are associated with transformations in the understanding of theology itself, which becomes a topological and tropological study. It considers the interpretation of imagination in Kearney’s early works, his attempts to describe “paradigmatic shifts” in the human understanding of imagination in different epochs of Western history. The author highlights mimetic paradigm of the pre-modern imagination, productive paradigm of the modern imagination and parodic paradigm of the postmodern imagination. Analysis of Kearney’s “biblical” interpretation of imagination allows one to understand the imagination as the point of contact of God with humanity. She also considers how Ricoeur’s theory of metaphor influences the development of the poetic language in postmodern Christian theology and demonstrates that poetic and religious languages are brought together by an “imaginative variations”. The author argues that turning to imagination in religious language allows theological hermeneutics to move from the static to kinetic images of God.

A Confessional and Narrative Vision for Philosophy of Education: Justification and Basic Presuppositions of a Postmodern Approach

In this article, we attempt to justify and present the basic presuppositions of a (Christian) confessional and narrative vision for philosophy of education in a postmodern context. We argue that although the nihilistic strand of postmodernity challenges the viability of religious discourse, postmodernity also re-opens the world toward its pre-rational foundations by means of the rediscovery of the primacy of narrative. In a postmodern age, any philosophy of education implies a basic understanding of, at least, the (historical) present and the past, in order to establish its place in the scholarly community of educators and educationists. We discern between two different versions of postmodernity and then proceed to explore what constitutes the postmodern narrative identity. Because the rise of postmodernity is intrinsically linked both to modernity and to the pre-modern Christian vision of the world, we explore the justification of a (Christian) confessional and narrative vision for philosophy of education in this respect by means of three fundamental questions. By elaborating on a postmodern Christian vision and by attempting to answer these questions in a narrative manner, we propose that a confessional and narrative vision for philosophy of education may be justified for the contemporary age. Toward this end, we deepen the postmodern rediscovery of narrative further by exploring the work of narrative. We then present a brief confessional account of the nature and scope of philosophy of education. Finally, we propose some of the central tenets of the Christian faith as presuppositions of our vision for philosophy of education.

Relatywizm wartości i norm współczesnego świata z perspektywy filozofii biblijnej

The aim of the article is to investigate the contemporary relativism of values and norms from the biblical perspective. By means of biblical philosophy; we try to compare the situation of a post-modern Christian and the followers of ancient Judaism when they met with Hellenistic culture. The subject of our reflection are fragments of Ecclesiastes and the Book of Wisdom. The first chapter contains a discussion of post-modern and Hellenistic culture. The second contains an outline of the history of Israel in the Hellenistic era. The third point is the exegesis of selected passages of Ecclesiastes and the Book of Wisdom. The ending is an attempt to update the attitudes of biblical authors towards Hellenism in the context of postmodern Christianity.

The Relevance of Singing the Te Deum Laudamus in the Postmodern Era

This paper investigates the relevance of singing and performing the Te Deum Laudamus in the postmodern Christian era, especially in view of changing enactments and perceptions of the purpose of the hymn. The Te Deum has been used in various ways in church history, sung as a confession of praise and regularly used since the time of St Benedict during Matins (morning service). While the Reformers were critical of the late medieval worship, they did not query incorporating the Te Deum into their liturgies, because it brought meaning to the glorification of a benevolent God. This explains its use also by most Christian churches in their liturgies in the postmodern era. However, the pertinent question remains: Is the Te Deum still applicable to the postmodern church, which is characterised by secularism, charismatic sermons, and commercialised worship. The question is instigated by events and conceptions of the universe from the era of Gregorianism to Darwinism. In answering this question, the paper highlights the history of the Te Deum and its application within the church, and seeks to find out whether the hymn addresses the present needs of Christians, which have been affected by postmodernism. The paper contends that the Te Deum is still relevant and contributes to the glorification of God’s mission (missio Dei).

Cristianismo pós-moderno: midrash do tempo messiânico segundo a teologia de Carlos Mendoza Álvarez

Partindo do pensamento de Carlos Mendoza Álvarez, descreve-se os traços constitutivos do cristianismo pós-moderno como um autêntico midrash da temporalidade messiânica. Pretendese responder a crucial pergunta: Como viver a esperança messiânica em meio à crescente espiral de violência que caracteriza os tempos pós-modernos? Trata-se de pensar a experiência cristã de Deus sob o signo irreversível da subjetividade autônoma e o fim da metafísica clássica, para pôr em relevo a pertinência e a significação do cristianismo no contexto da pós-modernidade. A questão da esperança enlaça-se à pergunta pelas “representações do divino” e da “vida teologal” credíveis sob a cultura do fragmento.

Scriptural Spirituality as Postmodern Theology

Embracing David Tracy’s prophetic and christocentric vision for postmodern theology, this article argues that Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s evolving interpretation of the Psalms forms a paradigmatic example of postmodern Christian spirituality and discipleship. From the 1935 lecture on Christ in the Psalms, through Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible, to the unfinished exposition of Psalm 119, Dietrich Bonhoeffer came to find in the Psalter a privileged access to lifelong transformative experience of Jesus Christ and his redeeming power. Today, Jesus Christ is made incarnate not through abstract concepts and theories, but by means of prayerful personal participative involvement in the history of salvation.

Religious Senses as a Way to Forming of a "Postmodern Christian": Phenomenological and Culturalogical approach

Article actualizes the problem of the phenomenological and culturological approach to the analysis of religion. The working hypothesis of the article is based on three positions: the semantic interpretation of religious experience as an implicit intention of subject; the introduction of religious meaning into the problem field of cultural studies as a part of cultural semantics; study of a new model of contemporary religious identity, which is covered by the pattern "Postmodern Christian" and is based on the concept of "Transculture".The main items of work hypothesis:- Phenomenological interpretation of religious discourse as a implisite intention of subject.- The entering of the religious sense into the problem field of culturology as a component of cultural semantics.- The arguing of a new model of contemporary religious identity, which is covered by the pattern "Postmodern Christian" and is based on the concept of "Transculture". Its features are: dialogic, the tragic irony (tendency to gaming outlook), intertextuality.Many people whose identify themselves with a particular religious system may not be practicing believers and may not be included among the flock of one or another religious organization. Religious identity, therefore, consists of the following people solely on semantic grounds, as they tune with the spiritual intention and ontological (and ethical and aesthetic) style of that particular tradition of sacred experience. Moreover, such people can synthesize ideas and beliefs of multiple religious and secular humanist sources in a unique configuration of its own self; basis of their worldview is often philosophical attitude, which imposed observance of religious ethics without confession orthodox principles of faith. So, we have something like a personal "thread" of consciousness, which, like "beads", imposed arbitrarily (and often quite eclectic) sacred meanings from different religious, philosophical, esoteric systems. We must note here that it goes beyond personal religious "events". Relevance of phenomenological analysis of such models of religious identity is determined, first of all, - by philosophical view factor.Since acquiring social and cultural importance of the research that broadly philosophical discourse pose problem reflection of religious phenomena as tools of cultural identity formation in the semantic field of phenomenology. Phenomenological "neutrality" (often wrongly perceived as "descriptive" or "superficiality") actually provides impartial view of its own and other people's culture, their dominant ideology and myths - to ensure intercultural dialogue based on tolerance, which increasingly weakened prospects.Thus, the first item is our hypothesis - a phenomenological approach to religious discourse - allowed to interpret the latter as a personal sacred sense which is a part of culture. Under these conditions, religious intention as a cultural sense (second position of our hypotheses) causes the formation of a new model of the subject of faith ("Postmodern Christian"), which correlates with religion is not dogmatic, ritual and institutional shell (cultural artifacts), but with an internal cultural experience of faith - that brings the phenomenology of religion with cultural studies. Phenomenological and cultural approach to the interpretation of religious phenomena as cultural phenomena reveals complex mechanisms influence of religion on the formation of the world picture of different cultural traditions. Of particular importance is the implicit form of the influence of religion on culture, which would allow tracking prolonged impact of values on the secular religion of our tradition.The practice aspect of these effects (the third position of our hypothesis) can be considered by transcultural (trans-religious) identity of "Postmodern Christian". Characteristic features of transcultural identity are: dialogical openness to the Other in combination with the right to ownself; tragic relationship with the world of culture as a big Other; implementation of marginality in intertext, which is a form of expression of the author's existence through the reader. So as transcultural subjects often appear authors who, being natives of one culture, educated or experienced personal development in another (third, fourth and now look at ethnic world through the prism of the Other and / or himself as the Other. They can be freely combined and combined in his work of symbolic and spiritual senses, building them in the original image-associative array.In this survey remains unresolved questions about the prospects of mass transformation of transcultural / trans-religious identity, its becoming from a spiritual elite "game" штещ universal human quality of the XXI century, which is the subject of future research.

The ‘Comeback of Christendom’ or a ‘Christian Cosmopolis’?: Dialogical Possibility in the work of John Milbank

Often taken to be largely hostile to engagement in inter-religious or inter-faith dialogue, contemporary forms of conservative post-modern Christian theology such as Radical Orthodoxy have been dismissed as irrevocably closed to the possibility of meaningful dialogue taking place between them and alternative religious traditions. This rather fraught relationship has recently come to the fore through exchanges on the ABC.net.au website between Joshua Ralston, and John Milbank and Adrian Pabst over the relationship between Radical Orthodoxy and Islam. However, this article demonstrates that while Milbank’s later practice has indeed been characterised by a resort to a stance of out-narration in the context of inter-religious engagement, this does not fully reflect the space for dialogical possibility he allows for in his 1991 article, ‘The End of Dialogue’. Instead, the article examines the early proposal as containing within it an allowance for an alternative strand of engagement by Radical Orthodoxy, based on mutual co-operation of differing religious traditions where they share ‘coincidences of outlook’. The adoption of this strand as an addition to, not replacement of, the strand of out-narration displayed in Milbank’s mode of practice seems to point the way forward towards a more equitable arena of engagement for Radical Orthodoxy with manifestations of religious plurality, but also offers resources for a better representation of the internal foundational characteristics of the Radical Orthodoxy reading of the Christian narrative.

Emerging evangelicals: faith, modernity, and the desire for authenticity

The Emerging Church movement developed in the mid-1990s among primarily white, urban, middle-class pastors and laity who were disenchanted with America's conservative sub-culture. It is a response to the increasing divide between conservative Evangelicals and concerned critics who strongly oppose what they consider overly slick, corporate, and consumerist versions of faith. A core feature of their response is a challenge to traditional congregational models, often focusing on new church plants and creating networks of related house churches. Drawing on three years of ethnographic fieldwork, James S. Bielo explores the impact of the Emerging Church movement on American Evangelicals. He combines ethnographic analysis with discussions of the movement's history, discursive contours, defining practices, cultural logics, and contentious interactions with conservative critics to rethink the boundaries of Evangelical as a category. Ultimately, Bielo makes a novel contribution to our understanding of the important changes at work among American Protestants, and illuminates how Emerging Evangelicals interact with the cultural conditions of modernity, late modernity, and visions of postmodern Christianity. James S. Bielo is Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Miami University in Oxford, OH. He is the author of Words Upon the Word: An Ethnography of Group Bible Study (NYU Press) and editor of The Social Life of Scriptures: Cross-cultural Perspectives on Biblicism.

Study on Postmodern Media Literacy and Christian Education: Learning from the Animation, Toy Story

Study on Postmodern Media Literacy and Christian Education: Learning from the Animation, Toy Story

The Return of Religion in Europe?: The Postmodern Christianity of Gianni Vattimo

The Return of Religion in Europe?The Postmodern Christianity of Gianni Vattimo Thomas G. Guarino (bio) With the onslaught of recent books extolling atheism, speaking of the contemporary "return to religion" sounds a bit naive, akin to nervous whistling in the dark rather than to the rigors of critical analysis. Yet there is such a movement afoot, often linked to the rise of postmodernism. One of its most acute practitioners is the Italian thinker Gianteresio (Gianni) Vattimo, a philosopher well known throughout Continental Europe and rapidly becoming known in English-speaking lands as well thanks to the impressive translation project of his numerous works undertaken by Columbia University Press. Not that Vattimo has gone entirely unnoticed in the United States. The American philosopher Richard Rorty has said that Vattimo's "writings are among the most imaginative contributions to the tradition of philosophical thought that flows from Nietzsche and Heidegger."1 In this article, I would like to introduce the reader to the fundamental themes that characterize Vattimo's philosophical work—particularly his reading of Christianity's contributions to contemporary culture—and then offer an evaluation of his thought. Despite its patent opposition to anything resembling historic Christian [End Page 15] orthodoxy, Vattimo's interpretation of Christianity constitutes an influential achievement that has proven, either explicitly or implicitly, to be attractive to large segments of contemporary society. Gianni Vattimo was born in Turin, Italy, in 1936. After graduating from the university there, he went on to Heidelberg, studying with K. Löwith and Hans-Georg Gadamer. From the early 1960s until 2008, he was a professor at the University of Turin—with specialties in hermeneutics, Nietzsche, and Heidegger—as well as a visiting professor at several American universities, including Stanford and Yale. Vattimo has amassed an impressive array of publications, with scores of volumes and hundreds of articles both in professional journals as well as in general-interest newspapers and magazines. He has continued to engage the thought of Heidegger and Nietzsche (with his work on the latter sustained and even ground-breaking) and is the Italian translator of Gadamer's magnum opus on hermeneutics, Truth and Method. More recently, the Torinese's work has centered on the role of religion in contemporary life and thought as well as the possible convergences of postmodernity with the Christian faith. He has been a member of the European parliament for several years and continues to be involved with reform political movements in Italy. Vattimo delivered the prestigious Gifford Lectures at the University of Glasgow in 2010. Given Vattimo's contemporary influence, it is worth examining the fundamental linchpins of his philosophy and his recent reinterpretation of Christianity. Postmodernism A phrase frequently heard recently is the "postmodern return of religion 'after religion.'" This enigmatic expression wishes to say that postmodernity has shattered and transgressed the constricting canons of modern rationalism, allowing religion to reappear in the process, albeit in a changed form, differing from prior understandings of its societal role. Of course, contemporary definitions [End Page 16] of postmodernism are legion and even conflicting, so one is wary of invoking the term. Nonetheless, one may outline some broad contours of this movement. In general, the term "postmodernism" refers to the continually growing critique of Enlightenment construals of rationality. Modern rationality is understood as attempting to pin down reason to the limited canons of empiricism, positivism, or some equally narrow form of thinking and knowing. Modernity is equated with a reductive attempt to reduce truth to methodology, particularly those methods and canons associated with scientific inquiry, leading inexorably to the detriment of philosophical wonder, to the rise of rationalism, and to the equation of thinking with mere techné. Post-modernity's contemporary ascent, then, is fueled by its opposition to modernity's simplistic trust in scientism, its devaluation of the truth mediated by the arts and by tradition, and its marginalization of religion under the banner of the Enlightenment claim that science has unmasked faith as little more than superstitious mythology. Postmodernity argues, in fact, that modern forms of rationality are now in deep retreat. The rationalization thesis itself, that God would eventually disappear in the face of continuing education, has been entirely discredited. And...

Imaging Religious Identity: Intertextual Play among Postmodern Christian Bloggers

In the fledgling but rapidly growing academic discipline of religion, media and culture, much attention has been paid to the use of new media to create and develop individual religious identities, build connections and foster group identities. Yet to date most research has focussed on exchanges of literal text between users, and little has considered the importance of visual text (either still images or videos) in the communication of meaning in online environments. In this presentation, I would like to introduce the image as an object of research in the construction of religious identity in online interaction. The presentation will explore the blogs of 35 Australians who are conversant with a religious movement known as “the emerging church”, a global collection of ideas and conversations residing mainly in traditional Protestant churches that seeks new expressions of faithful living in postmodern urban culture, and challenges the consumerism of contemporary evangelicalism seen in “the megachurch”. By the use of captioned images, video capture (including links to YouTube) and web page design, I will show how bloggers endeavour to present themselves as being “on the margins” of conventional Christian life and practice, and employ intertextual play to challenge modern binary oppositions of orthodoxy/heresy, art/dirt, fun/work, and constructions of gender and ethnicity.

The Emerging Church and Global Civil Society: Postmodern Christianity as a Source for Global Values

The subject of this essay is the relationship of religion, as a source of values, to the construction of a more robust global values discourse. A specific focus is how religion, specifically Christianity, is influenced by postmodernism to better inform normative thinking on global civil society (GCS). To this end, I argue that religion's role in the global values discourse is enhanced by a dynamic process of adaptation and transformation as part of the larger process of globalization.1 Significantly, religion is not simply back as the “re-enchantment” and “de-secularization” literature contends but also manifesting in fundamentally new and potentially productive ways. To unpack what one dimension of this process looks like and its implications, I analyze the texts of the emerging church conversation.2 I argue that the emerging church's appropriation of postmodernism—evinced in its theology and practice—offers insight into why religion is changing and how this transformation is positioned to affect the values discourse at the heart of GCS. In sum, its affect centers on both de-linking Christianity from the nation-state as a repository of values and suggesting an anti-foundational approach to ethics—ethics without absolutes—that contributes more substantively to the possibility of GCS.

Christian philosophy in John Deely's Four ages of understanding

The Four ages contains a brief explicit discussion of the issue of Christian philosophy, referencing the Middle Ages and the 1930s French debates about Christian philosophy. Closer attention to the debates reveals a plurality of positions rather than unanimous agreement on Christian philosophy, indicating that the quite complex issues were not resolved. In this review article, I contest Deely's interpretation of Maritian's position, provide an exegesis of Maritain's position, argue that Deely's explicit position is identifiable as very close to Neo-Scholastic opponents of Christian philosophy during the debates, and briefly discuss Gilson's and Blondel's criticisms of such positions articulated during the 1930s debates. I also indicate that despite his opposition to Christian philosophy, Deely shares several key insights with its proponents, and I end by suggesting but not developing a few ways Deely's semiotic approach could bear additional fruit for postmodern Christian philosophy's ongoing projects of self-understanding.

PROCLAIMING AND PERFORMING THE GOSPEL: LANGUAGE, TRUTH AND ACTION IN POSTMODERN CHRISTIAN FAITH

PROCLAIMING AND PERFORMING THE GOSPEL: LANGUAGE, TRUTH AND ACTION IN POSTMODERN CHRISTIAN FAITH

The Nine O'clock Service: Mixing Club Culture And Postmodern Christianity

This article investigates the interaction between popular culture and religion. It describes how club (or rave) culture presents itself as oppositional to mainstream culture and how it integrates elements of religion and spirituality. Addressing the adoption of club cultural elements within the Christian church, it then explores in detail the work of the Nine O'Clock Service (NOS), an Episcopal church in Sheffield, UK. It describes NOS events (with particular attention to the use of multimedia arts) and discusses the development and growth of the alternative worship movement. It demonstrates how NOS adopted an actively postmodern agenda and pioneered the appropriation of culturally relevant music and arts from popular culture, commenting on the challenges this presents to the Christian church.