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Who's Afraid of Relativism?: Community, Contingency, and Creaturehood (The Church and Postmodern Culture) Paperback

4.3 out of 5 stars 11 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback
  • Publisher: Baker Pub Group
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0801039738
  • ISBN-13: 978-0801039737
  • Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 10.9 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #560,495 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsWe are dependent, finite, and connected.
By Matt Harris on May 8, 2014
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
The big ideas presented, our dependency as creatures, our deep need for community (even the fact that there is no existing outside of community), and our understanding of language are brilliant. This book, paired with Who's Afraid of Postmodernism (which I preferred, but that's probably because the issues it deals with are more relevant to me, which then just proves the treatise of this book), shows powerfully how much evangelical and Christian thought has been impacted (and not for the better) by modernist thought and the Enlightenment.
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4.0 out of 5 starsEasy Introduction to a Christian Epistemology
By Book Reader on July 2, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
Note: I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley.

In this work, Smith sets out to apply the epistemological insights of Wittgenstein, Rorty, and Brandom to the the church's struggle with understanding the nature of truth. His root conviction, that humans are contingent beings, ultimately and practically dependent on God and on the communities of discourse they inhabit, is the main driver of his argument. In other words, the book does not begin with an assumption that a certain philosophical position is correct, and that the church, therefore, ought to adopt it. Instead, given the Christian claim about human finitude, an account of knowledge like that found in these philosophers is more in line with the Christian faith than the more common contention for "absolute" truth.

Smith's book is an easy read (given the subject matter). After an introductory chapter, the following chapters each pick a philosophical discussion partner. The essentials of each scholar's position are developed, a film that illustrates the claims is described, and then the material is applied to the church. A final chapter (not counting the summative Epilogue) brings in the postliberalism of George Lindbeck, whose "cultural linguistic" model of religion is lifted up as an example of having learned the epistemological lessons Smith wishes to convey.

With his embrace of "relativism," some will fear that Smith has jumped from the evangelical (even the Christian) ship. This work is nothing of the sort. In each chapter he is careful to distinguish the relativism he defends, the reality that all human discourse is relative to a particular community and tied to particular situations, from mere arbitrariness - what many assume relativism is.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsA Rortyan Path to Renewal
By Johnny Walker on July 1, 2014
Format: Paperback
James K. A. Smith continues his sympathetic engagement with postmodern thought in Who's Afraid of Relativism? Community, Contingency, and Creaturehood. As the latest contribution to The Church and Postmodern Culture series, Smith's book is a marked instance of scholarly outreach, distilling high level philosophical discourse into a form that is digestible for non-specialists. A fine embodiment of "philosophy in service of the church".

Understood as a sequel to his well received volume, Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?, Smith's latest book shifts attention from the Continent to American soil, taking up the controversial school of thought known as pragmatism. For it is in pragmatism that we find the possibility of a robust and sophisticated relativism. A relativism that goes beyond its parodied, more sophomoric forms (e.g. "That may be true for you, but for me...").

Pervading Smith's account is the contention that “pragmatism [provides] a robust philosophy of contingency that is wholly compatible with the Christian doctrine of creation” (29). Moreover, pragmatism is better able to affirm our contingent, socially-dependent state as creatures than the more dominant and conventional accounts of human knowing (epistemology) that are often embraced by evangelicals.

To set out his case for a "Christian pragmatism/relativism", Smith turns our attention to three of pragmatism's leading proponents: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Richard Rorty, and Robert Brandom. Each of whom receive a chapter elucidating their thought. Whether one subscribes to Smith's final proposal or rejects it, this volume undoubtedly serves as a user-friendly introduction to three key philosophers "whose works are notoriously difficult and slippery.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsAmalgamating Theory and Practice in a Postliberal Era
By Dr Conrade Yap TOP 1000 REVIEWER on July 22, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
A lot of authors and defenders of the faith have taken up the mantle of maintaining the absolute truth of the gospel and the Word of God. One common argument is that if everything is relative, then everything becomes more and more meaningless without reference to something absolute. For example, if the concept of relativity itself is relative, one asks "relative to what?" If the "what" itself is also relative, then what is it then relative to, and the questioning becomes an endless trip down rabbit's hole. This approach is more combative and may even be perceived as forceful and aggressive. Is this the only way? According to author and Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Calvin College, relativism is nothing to be afraid of. It can even become a tool that helps "loot the Egyptians." or to use the argument for relativism in an positive way. Based on his background and expertise in French philosophical thought, Smith's thesis is based on the work of three prominent persons with regards to culture and thought surrounding relativity. In a counter-intuitive manner, he argues that Christians ought to be "relativists" in the first place, but with a disclaimer. It ought to be read with the three works:

Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations
Richard Rorty’s Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature
Robert Brandom’s Articulating Reasons

It is easy to be caught up in the philosophy, concepts, and definitions of terms that we can be lost in the maze of arguments. The language can get rather technical and if readers are unfamiliar with philosophy, this book can be rather dense and requires time and energy to comprehend. The best way to read this book is in conjunction with the mentioned works of Wittgenstein, Rorty, and Brandom.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsChallenging

Very Insightful, and certainly worth the time!
Must read for contemporary evangelicalism. Challenged me; however the paradigm shift is welcomed!

Published 13 months ago by Kyle Jackson
3.0 out of 5 stars'Jamie' Smith is often wonderfully sharp.

Who's afraid of Relativism? I am - and I'm not convinced that I have to be a reactionary baffoon or hermeneutic primitive to be so. Read more

Published 18 months ago by K. Scot Sparks
5.0 out of 5 starsIt is reassuring to read a basically scriptural book which ...

It is reassuring to read a basically scriptural book which deals with reality in the 21st century. So many Evangelical treatises are fight the battles of the early 20th century.

Published 22 months ago by VMDoland
3.0 out of 5 starsThe Unbearable Lightness of Being meets The Ontological Weight of the...

"It's not like my mother is a maniac or a raving thing. She just goes a little mad sometimes. We all go a little mad sometimes. Haven't you? Read more

Published on August 15, 2014 by Dan Lawler
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat insights

Smith is a unique voice within the Christian community. Everything he writes is full of surprises and enlightening on the most current trends in philosophy and how we see the... Read more

Published on June 21, 2014 by Jeremy Paul Smith
4.0 out of 5 starsGood

Smith does a very good job here, as he did with postmodernism, of showing us the possibility we have "heard" or "read" things whether regarding relativism or the... Read more

Published on June 9, 2014 by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsWhat can I say...

What Can I say... this is a book by James K. A. Smith. Thus I wanted to give it 5 stars for that fact alone... but after reading it... I would give it 6 stars if I could. Read more

Published on April 21, 2014 by Joshua Drake

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