Truth Decay: Defending Christianity Against the Challenges of Postmodernism (Paperback)

~ Douglas R. Groothuis (Author) "A venerable old Russian proverb claims that "one word of truth outweighs the world..." (more)
Key Phrases: truth decay, correspondence view, postmodernist themes, New York, Grand Rapids, Downers Grove (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Groothuis offers a fascinating and intellectually rigorous work on truth and its implications in postmodern society and personal life. -- CBA Marketplace, June 2000

Product Description

The concept of truth as absolute, objective and universal has undergone serious deterioration in recent years. No longer is it a goal for all to pursue. Rather postmodernism sees truth as inseparable from culture, psychology, race and gender. Ultimately, truth is what we make it to be.

What factors have accelerated this decay of truth? Why are people willing to embrace such a devalued concept? How does this new view compare and contrast with a Christian understanding?

While postmodernism contains some truthful insights (despite its attempt to dethrone truth), Douglas Groothuis sees its basic tenets as intellectually flawed and hostile to Christian views. In this spirited presentation of a solid, biblical and logical perspective, the author unveils how truth has come under attack and how it can be defended in the vital areas of theology, apologetics, ethics and the arts.

"Truth Decay is an impressive defense and reminder of some things evangelicals have always known but which have been recently questioned. . . . Even at those points where I disagree with Groothuis, I share his underlying concerns and convictions." C. Stephen Evans, Professor of Philosophy, Calvin College

"Written with brilliance and clarity that is highly unusual among both defenders and critics of postmodernism." James W. Sire, author of The Universe Next Door

"Groothuis makes a solid, illuminating contribution to the ongoing debate among Christians about how to defend the gospel in a culture where the concept of objective truth is under siege." Philip Johnson, author of The Wedge of Truth

"Powerful, thorough and timely, Truth Decay stands squarely in the face of the Gadarene rush to the postmodern abyss. Groothuis deserves careful reading and repays it amply." Os Guinness, author of Time for Truth

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Product Details

• Paperback: 303 pages
• Publisher: InterVarsity Press (April 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830822283
• ISBN-13: 978-0830822287
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #408,269 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Fairly Good Work Among Many Out There On This Topic, July 30, 2000

By	T. B. Vick "Learn 2 Discern" (The Lone Star State) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This work was good but not quite as good as I was expecting having read some of Groothuis's other works. There is so much out there by the evangelical community regarding Postmodernism. Therefore, it is difficult to add any new insight into what has already been stated. However, Groothuis did add some new insight that has not been considered in quite the detail which he gave. For instance, Christian apologetics, and how the postmodern mindset effects the apologetic endeavor was covered in chapters 6 and 7 (albeit there is a fairly popular book that is devoted to this endeavor titled "Christian Apologetics in the Postmodern World" by Phillips & Okholm). Another strong point of "Truth Decay" was Groothuis's account of how postmodernism effects ethical reality. Moreover, Groothuis took a strong stand on the correspondence view of truth which I believe is unavoidable and also necessary for the overall debate of the issue of truth. "Truth Decay" is a distinctly evangelical work, which I appreciated and heartily agree. However, I could see the influences of C. F. H. Henry and Francis Schaffer coming through in much of what Groothuis purported in the area of apologetics; a method (the presuppositional) that I do not necessarily agree with in many respects. The contents of the book include an overview of modernism and the rise of postmodernism (ch. 2). Here Groothuis brings to light some information about postmodernism and clears up some confusion about "what" is labeled postmodernism when it actually is not postmodernism. This was interesting, since much of what I had read prior to this work about postmodernism did not mention these things. Chapter 4 is titled "The Truth About Truth." In this section, Groothuis discussed several views of truth, he defends the correspondence view (thank you Dr. Groothuis! ), and then he delineates the "language" of truth to which the postmodern mindset holds. Also, Groothuis discusses logic and its consistency and how this corresponds to truth (the inseparable nature of the two). One of the stronger chapters was 5. In this chapter, Groothuis discusses how postmodernism effects Christian theology. Of course, this chapter discusses language and its interpretation/propositions and the objective/subjective nature of such things. Overall, the book was well written, very informative, and I would recommend it for those who are interested in assessing postmodernism from an evangelical point of view. I wish I could have given another half a star.

23 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the Most Part, Excellent, December 21, 2001

By	J. F Foster - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Groothuis has done a good job in this book of profiling postmodernism and discrediting it in light of its devastating theories on truth and living. In the process, he does a good job of affirming the reality of universal truth and showing how Christianity's worldview best honors absolute truth in comparison to other worldviews, most notably postmodernism.

This book is an attempt to touch on various aspects of the postmodernist issue. Groothuis spends a good deal of time deconstructing the postmodernist objection to universal truth and its embrace of 'cultural truths', along with the worldview's inability to provide any basis for the many presuppositions it makes. He also analyzes the massive internal inconsistencies prevalent throughout postmodern thought and eloquently demonstrates that many adherents to postmodernism tend to be first in line to fail the litmus tests of their own worldview. He also analyzes the issue of whether language can express truths beyond itself, which is a common assertion among prominent postmodernists. Groothuis also spends a chapter looking at the dangerous apologetics that some prominent Christians have developed which resemble postmodernist thinking. In many of these areas, Groothuis's analysis is thorough and excellent, with an emphasis on heavy quotation from those he is critiquing.

Although somewhat minor, I must also say that I thought the cover of the paperback was outstanding. The cover depicts a barren landscape, almost a wasteland. This illustration is very applicable to the postmodern worldview. After reading this book, I think quite a few readers will rightly conclude that postmodernism is an extremely depressing and hopeless way of thinking about the world and its inhabitants. In many ways, the impression I got from Groothuis's book is that postmodernism is really on a quest to devalue almost everything under the guise that we don't really know anything. Groothuis's quote from Dorothy Sayers about halfway through the book is one of the best quotes I've ever heard about the futility of the postmodernist outlook on life and truth. Utterly devastating.

I debated whether to give the book 4 or 5 stars. I opted for 5, but I will note a couple of regrets I have about the book that do not diminish the overall rating but are regrets nonetheless. First, Groothuis's analysis of postmodernism appears pretty confined to the atheistic/agnostic wing of postmodernism. And while I certainly appreciated his appraisal in this area, I think Groothuis would have really hit a homerun if he had also taken some time to analyze the spiritual postmodernism that is rampant as well. In many ways, the spirituality aspect of postmodernism is more important than the non-spiritual aspect. New Age spirituality draws heavily from postmodernism and this phenomenon is more prevalent than atheistic postmodernism, at least in America. But this is an area that Groothuis does not explore. Lastly, Groothuis's defense of egalitarianism against the charge of postmodernism is highly subjective in a way that the rest of the book is not. Groothuis and his wife are well known advocates of egalitarianism, and this advocacy is clearly prominent in this section. This would have been okay had Groothuis's analysis of this issue been as honest as the rest of the book. But whereas Groothuis quotes extensively from postmodernists throughout the rest of the book, he does not quote at all from the traditionalist school within Christianity while trying to advance the school of egalitarianism. Ultimately, Groothuis does not present a fair depiction of the traditionalist school of thought (he goes so far as to summarize that traditionalism, in his opinion, is based on prejudices that are outdated, which is ad hominem and inaccurate), and this is regretable since such an approach tends to resemble postmodernism in its superficiality.

But given that these two points are minor enough that the book still stands on its own as a solid critique of postmodernism, I give the book 5 stars and recommend it to anyone who is struggling with the meaning of truth, whether truth can be authoritative and universal, and what this means to daily living.

30 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Sad..., March 16, 2006

By	Denise J. Mcpherson (Binghamton, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Even if one is sympathetic to Groothuis's broad concern, one can't help but be disappointed with this text. This book is a bad regurgitation of other bad and reductive non-readings of `pomo'. Groothuis depends way too highly on secondary (and sometimes tertiary) sources. It escapes me how a former reviewer could call this work `scholarly.' I suppose if one considers Logic 101 tinged with the usual fundamentalist `defender of the Faith' rhetoric and aura (which hovers over every page), then this could be called `scholarly.'

The big problem I found is that even when Groothuis offers defensible criticisms, his alternatives end up being just as problematic as the positions he criticizes. For all his advocacy for a correspondence theory of truth, his tone betrays a penchant for certainty and formal coherence. He falls into the problem of the relation between thought and `reality,' representation to presentation, the role of language, and so forth. No doubt God comes to save the day with all these problems, yet on the very justificatory terms Groothuis advocates for, God escapes the measure of correspondence and becomes its condition of possibility. In other words, God becomes a structural metaphysical function which `saves' Groothuis's truth from the skeptic. The problem, however, is that Groothuis wants truth to be absolute, universal, and accessible to all, yet he is dependent on a moment (i.e. faith) which, by definition, retains a trace of contingency or `objective' undecidability.

Groothuis's more ethical concerns are where I am more sympathetic, but again, here his polemics and non-reading of the people he criticizes drowned out whatever constructive points he offers. Groothuis practices the same type of irresponsible reflection that some of the `pomo' Evangelical's do: uncriticality. Here, philosophy and reflection - whether Modern or postmodern - becomes a means to simply confirm and justify a complacent status quo, rather than challenging and transforming the status quo. The challenge presented in this book is for a nostalgic return to the good old days of Christendom.

Jesus did not come to `save' our metaphysical systems, but to redeem us and this world. That redemption is not contingent upon accurate representations as Groothuis seems to think. It is madness to the Greek (i.e. the logician) and a stumbling block to the Legalist (i.e. moralistic hypocrites). The task is not to make the faith less crazy or more socially repressive. As James tells us, the measure of `true' faith - and here I will grant a type of reference - is that we `attend to the widow and orphan.' Kerygma without service is dead, a worse lie than any humanism. Perhaps if we began `proving' our faith, that is, manifesting its truth in radical service and justice - we could actually demonstrate the truth to which we testify. I guess it is much easier to `defend the faith' with bad arguments which only convince the already convinced, than to `live the faith': serve the people no one gives a hoot about. After all, in the latter case one cannot fancy oneself a hero in quite the same way.