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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, But..., October 7, 2005
This review is from: Next Reformation, The: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity (Paperback)
I too, like many other reviewers, am an avid reader of postmodern literature. I was looking forward to this book finally being the academic work to convince Evangelicals to Embrace Postmodernism, as subtitle says. Furthermore I was fascinating to see how this member of the academy would substantiate some of the claims and practices of the Emerging Church movement.
Raschke's explanation of the philosophical foundations of western thought and therefore Evangelicalism was insightful. His references to some key philosophers in Europe and America and the relation of their thought to eachother was superb. However, in the end of the day, His argument did not convince that Evangelicals should embrace postmodernism for two primary reasons. First, His reductionsitic outlook of Evangelical Christianity in western culture is an inaccurate portrait of the Evangelical Church. He tends to lump all evenagelicals in the same right wing, condemning, propositional focussd camp. But this is not the case in reality. Second, his attempt to use Luther and the other major Reformers of the Prostestant Reformation does not do justice to the context those reformers were in. As one who has studied Luther extensively, I simply do not see all his points about the Refomers view of Scripture and therefore the conclusions he draws seem to be a stretch. He fails to use the reformers to substantiate his case.
This book is interesting but I encourage you to read it critically, just as Raschke has read modern culture and Evangelicalism.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Raschke's Case for a New Reformation, February 26, 2009
This review is from: Next Reformation, The: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity (Paperback)
Carl Raschke's book attempts to accomplish three main purposes. First, he seeks to set the record straight for evangelicals by offering an accurate portrayal of postmodern thinking and countering the misrepresentations of postmodernism he finds in the writings of those critical of the new philosophy.
Raschke argues that postmodernism does not necessarily entail a denial of absolute and objective truth. Rather, postmodern philosophers merely question human ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood.
What postmodernism denies is the correspondence theory of truth - a view that perceives truth as something "out there." Instead, postmodern thinkers call attention to the "finite boundaries of human knowledge and meaning," a move which sets God free to communicate truth to us in his own way.
At its very core, postmodernism is a theology of language. God's word to us is not logical or propositional. It is vocative. It is the language of relationship. "We are not reading a thing, but a Person."
In focusing upon the revelation of God to human beings in finite language, postmodernism endeavors to "go beyond the identification of God with Being; it has positioned itself to transcend the metaphysical, or rationalist conception of God."
Turning the Tables
Raschke's second purpose in writing The Next Reformation is to turn the tables on the critics who believe postmodern theology is misguided. He seeks to accomplish this task by exposing an "unholy alliance" between evangelical Christianity and Enlightenment thinking that has existed since the seventeenth century.
According to Raschke, evangelicals mistakenly embraced Cartesian rationalism and moved away from the insights of the Reformers, especially sola fide and sola scriptura, and therefore went back toward the kind of rationalism that the Reformers had rightly sought to expunge from Catholic doctrine just one hundred years earlier.
Raschke believes that today's evangelicalism is steeped in modernism, an idolatrous system of thought that puts a premium on the ability of the individual to use reason to discover truth. Therefore, fundamentalism and liberalism wind up being two sides of the same coin. Both movements seek to ground faith in reason, a disastrous idea that "empties faith of its content" and transforms it into moral imperatives and propositions.
Raschke believes the mystery of God cannot be explained in propositional argument and empirical confirmation. "Language from the Creator's vantage point is not propositional at all. It is intersubjective. It is relational!"
Arguing for a personal God, Raschke challenges the "unholy alliance" made with Enlightenment philosophy. "The God of the philosophers is logical. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is relational."
One may ask how evangelicalism has been so successful if it has been improperly aligned with modernism. Raschke argues that conservative Christianity has succeeded in America because of its emphasis on preaching and conversion, not on its reasoning from absolute, biblical principles.
Returning to the spirit of the Reformation will lead to an embrace of postmodernism. A new reformation will bring about radical humility in our thought, not just in our lives, which means that metaphysical disputation must give way to the cross, gospel, and grace.
Postmodernism as Opportunity
Raschke's third purpose is to call evangelicals to see the postmodern turn in Western thought as an opportunity for true Christianity to flourish once again.
Embracing postmodernism means we must reject the correspondence theory of truth because "it cannot under any circumstances count on the temporal exactitude of correspondence between an assertion and its verification."
Our attempts to find a firm foundation other than faith are futile. "Theology ends where faith begins." Only faith is prior to presuppositions. To look for ultimate security in anything other than our faith in the Lord (including ontological or scientific foundations) is to pursue an idol.
Raschke calls evangelicals to abandon the idea of Christianity as a philosophy and to embrace its identity as a "relationship" - one that connects us to the everlasting God whose limitlessness exposes more and more our own limitations.
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15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Postmodernism Defended, April 21, 2006
This review is from: Next Reformation, The: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity (Paperback)
If you are a Christian interested in philosophy (as this reviewer is), and if you have become convinced (as this reviewer has) that 21st century evangelical Christianity is thoroughly Hellenized, then you should find this book interesting.
This is a mostly "academic" work (i.e., it is not "light" reading), but even if you have not read much philosophy you can wade through it if you keep a philosophical dictionary close by.
Strengths:
(1) Raschke has a Ph.D. from Harvard University, and his analysis of the history of Western Philosophy (and its impact upon Christian thought) is very well-argued. This reviewer has been disillusioned with many recent Christian writers who seek to criticize "Postmodernism" without really understanding it (i.e., they have read none of the primary texts - and react with a fundamentalist zeal - full of fire, but without knowledge). This is easily understandable - since reading Jacques Derrida is almost as relaxing as a root canal. But the "Christian bookstore" definition that "postmodernism = relativism," is simply un-scholarly. Raschke has read Derrida, Foucault, Levinas, et. al. (where was Lyotard?), and does not fall into to the "simplification" error of many recent popular Christian writers.
(2) Raschke recognizes that the modernistic quest for "certainty," is a Western idea with philosophical roots in the foundationalist thought of Descarte. For an easier to read analysis of this issue read Lesslie Newbigin's, Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship, (this is a great little book, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802808565/sr=1-1/qid=1145588003/ref=sr_1_1/002-4823991-7848833?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=books). Raschke pummels this idea relentlessly using Derrida as the hammer (and Derrida is a great hammer!). Christianity is not about "certainty," (the perpetual quest of Western Philosophy), it is much more existential - it's about faith.
Weaknesses:
(1) Raschke disparages "propositional truth." He analyses and quotes the theologian Cornelius Van Til extensively, while neglecting the greater 20th century Philosopher Gordon H. Clark. Raschke scathingly critiques Francis Schaeffer, while embracing the irrationalism of Kierkegaard (Kierkegaard is an interesting writer, but he wasn't a Philosopher - and he never claimed to be - he repeatedly said "I'm a writer"). In this reviewer's opinion, to criticize "propositional truth," is to beat one's head against a stone wall (i.e., it is an unrewarding and painful activity which makes the "criticizer" look foolish). Contrary to some recent hyperbole, propositional truth is not at risk at all - and "propositional truth" is not "hard to understand." Propositional truth will be standing long after its critics have returned to dust and ashes. Not only are propositions NOT hard to understand, the Holy Bible (the Word of God) is written in propositions; predications. When Raschke embraces irrationalism, he slips, he slides - he looses ground (grounding, credibility). Raschke is a very intelligent man, so the reader must understand that this is not accidental - his sustained attack on foundationalism (and his method of attack) traps him in irrationalism.
(2) Raschke embraces Charismatic foolishness. This is the hardest to swallow. In the next to last chapter of the book, this Harvard Ph.D. documents how (emotionally weakened by a failed marriage) he experienced some charismatic phenomena in a Dallas, Texas meeting, and is forevermore changed into what Brian Maclaren calls "a new kind of Christian." For the orthodox thinking Christian who has experienced Christ as the "wisdom of God" - this leap into irrationality/foolishness is astounding. Wake up man - you are better than this!
Conclusion:
This is a very interesting book. It is generally well written, and if I could delete about 20 pages (out of 215) I would give it 5 stars. As it is, I will give it only 3. I can only recommend it for thinking Christians who are attracted to Postmodernism (as this reviwer is). It is educational and well written, and may serve as a warning of the foolishness that can follow when one embraces irrationalism and calls it "Christian."
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