After Modernity?: Secularity, Globalization, and the Re-enchantment of the World [Paperback]

James K. A. Smith (Author, Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2008

After Modernity? addresses a cluster of questions and issues found at the nexus of globalization and religion. This unique volume examine various religious--especially Christian--evaluations of and responses to globalization. In particular, the book considers the links among globalization, capitalism and secularization--and the ways in which 'religion' is (or can be) deployed to address a range of 'hot button' topics. With cross-disciplinary analyses, the collection argues consistently for the necessity of a 'post-secular' evaluation of globalization that unapologetically draws on the resources of Christian faith. The 'conservative radicalism' represented in these contributions will resonate with a broad audience of scholars and citizens who seek to put faith into action.

Editorial Reviews

Review

After Modernity? is interdisciplinary, but most books on globalization are not. This book is refreshingly different. Here philosophers, geographers, theologians, and economists bring their different types of expertise to bear on the phenomenon of globalization through a common Christian lens. Different approaches and sharp disagreements therefore take place against a background of common commitment. The result offers ways of thinking about the world that transcend secular/religious dichotomies. --William T. Cavanaugh, Associate Professor of Theology, University of St. Thomas

Luke Bretherton's analysis on the care of refugees... is compelling and powerful and makes this otherwise valuable book indispensable.... Essential. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers. --CHOICE

This book is engaging precisely because its contributors do not speak with one voice. Rather After Modernity? represents the broad spectrum of Christian thinking about economics and politics that is divided, sometimes deeply so, about how to imagine a post-secular world re-enchanted by religious commitments. Christians concerned about these matters can do no better to enter the existing debates than to begin here. --Amos Yong, Professor of Theology, Regent University School of Divinity

After Modernity? is interdisciplinary, but most books on globalization are not. This book is refreshingly different. Here philosophers, geographers, theologians, and economists bring their different types of expertise to bear on the phenomenon of globalization through a common Christian lens. Different approaches and sharp disagreements therefore take place against a background of common commitment. The result offers ways of thinking about the world that transcend secular/religious dichotomies. --William T. Cavanaugh, Associate Professor of Theology, University of St. Thomas

About the Author

James K. A. Smith (Ph.D. Villlanova University) is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Calvin College. The author and editor of more than five books, including, most recently, Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church (2006), and Jacques Derrida: Live Theory (2005).

Product Details

• Paperback: 330 pages
• Publisher: Baylor University Press (August 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1602580685
• ISBN-13: 978-1602580688
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,486,697 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James K.A. Smith teaches philosophy and theology at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI, having previously taught at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He has been a visiting professor at Fuller Seminary, Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando and Regent College in Vancouver, BC. Originally trained in philosophical theology and contemporary French philosophy, Smith's work is focused on cultural criticism informed by the Christian theological tradition. His more popular writing has also appeared in magazines such as the Christian Century, Christianity Today, First Things, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, and others.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Some essays were perfect, others were..., January 19, 2009

By 

Baroque Norseman (Louisiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: After Modernity?: Secularity, Globalization, and the Re-enchantment of the World (Paperback)

A group of authors, most of whom are either neo-Calvinist or Radical Orthodoxy, probe the connections between globalization, capitalism, secularism, and the rise and fall of religion in the midst of it. While the authors were in no way agreed, and many of the essays were actually rebuttals to the others, most defined secularism as a distinctly modern, Enlightenment confidence in which religious discourse would wane as reason triumphed (7). Globalization is similarly defined as a mode of life that grew out of the mechanisations of modernity.

OVERVIEW OF THE KEY ESSAYS
The best parts of the book were the beginning and end. John Milbank urged a return to a neo-Medieval communitarianism. He defined "rule" as "providing good order," to give something--which is to share and empower the "other" into the act of ruling (29). Milbank builds off Wyclif: the owning or property is for the induction of others into the shared rule of society (33). However, Milbank is not arguing for democracy or democratic republicanism. (If you want to know the difference, leave a comment and it can be discussed).

The worst essay in the book was Michael Horton's. To be fair to Horton, it was well-argued. Horton actually argues (as he has for most of this decade) for the primacy of secularism. Horton is straining at gnats in trying to deal with Milbank's analysis. But to be fair to Horton--let him have his secularism. The theology of the Church Universal has long passed him by on this one.

The end of the book, which argued for the re-enchantment of the world, was superb. The authors urge a return to liturgy and the church calendar, noting that liturgical acts are formative on the Christian life. The last essay of the book is a call for a qualified Agrarianism. He is not advocating "going Amish," but simply pointing out the advantages of living close to the land.

Criticisms:
The book is not perfect. I found the section on globalization particularly weak. While I have my criticisms of capitalism, I found their take on it to be naive and a straw man. Not even the most greedy capitalist is arguing that we should keep the poor poor. And even though most greedy capitalists are greedy, they know that simply throwing money at poor people does not solve poverty--it often makes it worse. (Incidentally, though the essayists do not consider this, the last essay on agrarianism can solve much of the poverty in America).

Secondly, I think John Milbank is the only one to understand that if one argues for socialism without divorcing it from the "State," then one gets the exact same corporational elitism that one originally opposed (only the government officials are the "haves;" the "have nots" remain the same). Milbank rightly understood that a medieval socialism in which sharing and ruling connect all members of society can prevent both the atomization of society in capitalism, and the statism that state socialism brings. Medievalism, though Milbank doesn't quite spell it out, provides a check on state power while introducing "inter-connectedness" to society.

Final Thoughts:
Milbank's essay, like any Milbank essay, is worth the price of the book several times over. And the last part of the book was superb. However, Graham Ward's critique of democracy, while fundamentally sound, deliberately avoided answering any of the major questions, which was annoying. Ward's chapter illustrates why Radical Orthodoxy will never amount to anything. The Radical Orthodox offer, as usual, devastating critiques of Lockeanism and democracy, revealing the horrors of both, but stops short of urging the only real alternative to oligarchy: sacerdotal monarchy. They can't offer this because they are still fundamentally committed to Left-wing ideology. Until they realize that an anarcho-agrarian monarchism is the only alternative to democracy, they might as well be dilettante theologians.