Customer Reviews

A Primer to Postmodernism

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This was an excellent study in the philosophical foundations of the actual movement of postmodernity, contrasted with the pop images of that movement which don't represent the shift in the history of human thought.

Grenz cleverly takes us into the movement (c. 1) by contrasting images of the old Star Trek, in which Mr. Spock represented the peak of intelligence, pure logic. He is presented as an image of modernity. In the newer Star Trek(s), there is ethnic diversity, a diversity of skills and stories, and a new emphasis on emotion. This is a taste of postmodernity.

Chapter 2 gives an account of the rise of postmodernity into the public eye and the U.S. culture, but this largely reflects the art and architecture of the post-1960's cultural revolution. The real foundations of postmodernity consist of a more sophisticated critique of earlier philosophy. Chapter 3 gives a more detailed look at a shifting worldview or vantage point, away from the monolithic empiricist view of the Enlightenment. As Descartes split the subjective self from the objective world, Bacon's creation of empirical method to bridge the two, and Newton's mechanistic description of an ordered universe created the pursuit of a universal worldview, the God's eye perspective. Modernity sought that one perspective and believed that humanity could attain an objective, rational grasp on it. Unfortunately, reasonable people in power seem to find ways to rationalize their use of it. This cast doubt on reason and objectivity themselves. This culminated (c. 4) in the Kantian analysis of reason. Reason creates categories through which the world is filtered. It is thus limited by its filter (leaving room for the noumenous or the metaphysical), but it is still rational and objective.

Chapters 5 and 6 are worth their weight in gold. This is a beginner's survey of the philosophical influences leading up to the present day. Without summarizing them all here, it suffices to say that Nietzsche announced the conclusion of modernity (both descriptively and prophetically). Godamer attempted a last grab at modernity by positing "a fusion of horizons" (Robert Nozik has more recently called it "invariances"). Schleiermacher and Wittgenstien turned modern philosophy from strict epistemology to linguistics, grounding meaning (if it can be had) in shared vocabulary. Foucault then accused language itself of bearing Nietzche's will-to-power, particularly language concerning sexuality; Derrida deconstructed the correspondence theory of knowledge and suggested that meaning coheres only within the context of a given vocabulary; Rorty affirms a coherence theory as well, denying there is a fundamental essence in anything.

Grenz fails to make note of the consequent shift of philosophy towards cognitive science after the perceived failure of epistemology. The contemporaries: Searle, Putman, and Nozik, are now operating under an assumed pragmatic realism and talking about whether or not computers can create minds.

I like that Grenz leaves us with very little prescriptions in the end. He closes on a fairly mild assertion that we need neither fully reject or embrace postmodernity, but we have to deal with it. Excellent book.

This is one of the most accessible books on postmodernism (PM) available. While other authors become almost unintelligible when discussing PM, this fellow remains clear and fairly concise. For those that are new to the concepts of PM or are especially interested the philosophies and philosophers of modernism and PM, this is an excellent book. The early chapters lay down the groundwork for some well-considered conclusions towards the middle and end of the book.

The features of the book that I thought could have been better were the rather slow build-up of the story, and lack of connections to PM art, film and architecture. Nevertheless, a great book on a tricky subject.

Stanley Grenz's A primer on Postmodernism provides an overview of the socio-cultural phenomenon known as postmodernism. Although as a professor of theology and ethics Grenz has a particular interest in the religious implications of the postmodern movement, his work is an excellent well-rounded introduction to this important cultural and intellectual movement

As with other broad terms, the expression "postmodernism" is somewhat ill-defined and can be variously interpreted. Postmodernism, as the term implies, is fundamentally a move, or an attempt to move, beyond the views of modernism. The roots of what we refer to as modernism can be traced to the European Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Enlightenment is often viewed as a turning point in Western civilization where revelation was supplanted by reason as the means to knowledge and truth. The pre-modern approach to knowledge is represented by the sentiment that belief is required for understanding. Modernism's focus on verifiable truth transposes this argument and makes belief contingent upon understanding. Modernism holds several key assumptions. It postulates that epistemological and ethical truths exist, and that these truths are available to man. Postmodernism has challenged this modern faith in reason and raised questions about man's ability to understand the universe.

Grenz provides an excellent and succinct overview of modernism and postmodernism that, in my opinion, is useful to both new and advanced students of this subject. I found his discussion of the scientific and philosophical roots of postmodernism particularly clear and insightful.

A primer on Postmodernism is the best book I have read in this area. I highly recommend it to readers interested in this topic

This is the most lucid and complete introductory discussion of postmodernism that I have read. His discussion is helpful and accesable. He deals with individual thinkers and cultural trends enough to be complete but not enough to overwhelm someone getting started on the 20th century. He has an excellant grasp of the scollarly and cultural aspects of the trends corperately referred to as postmodernism.
There was some nearly verbatum repetition which could have been avoided. However, on the whole this was one of the most enjoyable and helpful books I have read in some time...the first A+ I've given this year.

Dr. Grenz always seems to write in an enjoyable, clear fashion. He has done this again in "A Primer On Postmodernism". This book discusses the worldview that our society is has left (modernism) and then relates this to our present worldview (post-modernism). Dr. Grenz helps the reader to see how Christian thought can not only survey within this post-modern world, but actually thrive. By beinging to understand what post-modernism is we can relate the truth of the gospel to it, we merely need to consider what parts of the gospel best relate to post-modern thought and then points our good news out to the post-modern world. Dr. Grenz helps to make this possible but explaining why we should not fear post-modern thought and displaying how we can use it in benefical manners.

In the book's preface, Grenz wrote that his goal was "to provide a foundational understanding of the postmodern ethos, especially its intellectual orientation." He accomplished that goal. But in the last chapter entitled The Gospel and the Postmodern Context he said, "Our task as Christ's disciples is to embody and articulate the never-changing good news of available salvation in a manner that the emerging generation can understand." (174.) To the extent Grenz attempted this task, his effort was less than successful.

Grenz tries to maintain a modernist structure for Christianity while giving it a postmodern façade; and the thing does not hold together well. To begin with, he identifies Christians as "heirs of the Enlightenment." (172.) Since Grenz sees the quest to jettison the Enlightenment project of modernity as "foundational to postmodernism" (162), its odd that he has Christians inherit what the postmoderns want to throw away. While one man's garbage can be another man's gold, its still garbage to the first guy.

Why Grenz embraces modernist principles in the first place is perplexing since he demonstrates that the Enlightenment was no friend to biblical Christianity in general and the Reformation in particular. He writes that the Enlightenment "permanently and radically disrupted the theological worldview created in the Middle Ages and honed by the Reformation" and "produced nothing more than modern skeptical rationalism." (61, 73.) Nevertheless, armed with Enlightenment principles, Grenz runs headlong at postmodernism. With "right thinking" and "correct beliefs" in one hand, and "Metanarrative" in the other, Grenz tries to deliver the old one-two punch to postmodernism. He writes that the Christian heirs of the Enlightenment "can affirm that right thinking is an important goal in the process of sanctification, for we are convinced that right beliefs and correct doctrines are vital to Christian living." (172.) And if that doesn't finish them off, this surely will: "There is a single metanarrative encompassing all peoples and all times"; Christians "claim to know what that grand narrative is" and it is "the truth of and for all humankind." (164-165.)

Having thus pummeled postmodernism, Grenz is ready to make concessions and find common ground. He writes, "We must affirm with postmodern thinkers that knowledge - including knowledge of God - is not merely objective, not simply discovered by the neutral knowing self." (168.) But what postmodern thinker affirms that knowledge of God is possible, and then also affirms that such knowledge is objective (though not "merely" objective)? Grenz's attempted synthesis of modern and postmodern Christianity is not likely to find many takers among the emerging generation.

Grenz erred by looking for a Christian heritage in the Enlightenment and accepting modernism's dismissive view of the Reformation and biblical Christianity. Reformers and pre-modernist Christians possessed and passed on the real treasure of Christianity: the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6.) In other words, they knew Jesus Christ and they knew him other than by hearsay. That is a message that people of any and all generations can hear and receive.

A Primer on Postmodernism is a helpful introduction to postmo culture and some of its leading thinkers (Rorty, Derrida and Foucault). In addition, Grenz traces the development of the seeds of postmodernism from the Renaissance to its full modern flower. The author - writing for a Christian audience - neither embraces postmodernism wholesale nor shys away from incorporating any of its helpful insights into a Christian paradigm. Grenz writes so that the Christian can more thoughtfully and intelligently engage postmoderns. Worth reading.

Grenz does a great job at providing a background leading up to and a readable exposition of current postmodern thought. His book is written in such a way that those with little to no previous background knowledge of philosophy won't be lost. However, for those that do remember something from philosophy class, Grenz spends perhaps too much time tracing the precursors to postmodernism.

Postmodernism in itself probably takes up about half of the book. The rest is devoted to providing historical background information and setting the postmodern stage.

Grenz's treatment of postmodernism is highly fair, unbiased, and insightful. He is willing to allow postmodernism to help Christians get past some of the hindrances we face when we rely completely on modern theological techniques, but he isn't afraid to reject tenants of postmodernism that are antithetical to Christian orthodoxy.

I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 because I felt like it was mildly repetitive at times and said the same thing over and over in places. It's almost as if it was written in a way that you could read independent chapters out of order and it would still make sense. If that's the kind of book you are looking for, then it's worth 5 stars!

This book is a must-read for Christians wanting a fair treatment of Postmodernism. It should be required reading for anyone ministering on university campuses or in large metropolitan areas that are directly influenced by postmodernism.

This is the best overview I have seen, summarizing a good variety of strands of thought that comprise postmodernism, including elements from both philosophy and science. The author presents these from a moderate evangelical Christian perspective, and puts postmodern thought in dialogue with Christian theology. The authors' conclusions may not coincide with your own, and there are other theological solutions (mine would tend more toward process and feminist theologies), but his critical method is worthy of study in any case. I highly recommend this book and plan to assign it in relevant seminary courses.

This book is a very strong introduction to the cultural shift of postmodernism. Grenz does a thorough job of giving an overview of the major post-Enlightenment trends in philosophy and epistemology. While some terms will be cumbersome to readers new to the subject (deconstructionalism, subject-object dualism, logocentrism, etc.), Grenz keeps things fairly palatable for a wide audience. One very strong aspect of the book is that it shows that postmodernism is NOT to be feared or lamented by Christians. While it certainly provides new challenges, Grenz does a remarkable job showing how the gospel can and should be contextualized to intersect the postmodern ethos. Highly recommended for those curious to do some philosophical digging.