In my first pass on James K.A. Smith’s Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism?, I recognized that he did not want to give way to the full-throttled relativism of postmodernism. He said some promising things early in the book, but, as I mentioned, by the end it was clear that his approach was not going to cut …
Catching a Blunder
My thanks to Prosthesis, who caught a significant blunder in my review of Smith’s book on postmodernism below. I quoted Smith summarizing Foucault, and then interacted with that as though it were Smith himself. Mea maxima blunda, and I have corrected the problem. My apologies to all my readers, and particular apologies to Smith for …
Pretending To Leave Modernity Behind
Just finished Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? by James K.A. Smith. In some ways this was a very helpful book, but at the center, the place where the door moves on the hinge, this door squeaks in as annoying and exasperating a way as all the others. The tone is set in the introduction to the …
The Surrender is Settled
In the previous post, I was (what is it we do these days? I forget) interfacing with James Smith’s book Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? This book is part of a series by Baker Academic, a series called “The Church and Postmodern Culture.” In the series preface, this is what we read: “How should concrete, in-the-pew …
What We Need Around These Parts Is A Good Dose of Van Til
I recently spent a goodish bit of time being exasperated by Richard Rorty, who doesn’t believe that we should view nature in the mirror of some glassy essence in our brains, which is fine with me, but he then spends many, many pages holding up his mirror for us to see philosophy in. But if …
Some Arguments Against Evolution
“It [evolution] gives us almost everything the imagination craves – irony, heroism, vastness, unity in multiplicity, and a tragic close. It appeals to every part of me except my reason.” C.S. Lewis Arguments against the theory of evolution can be classified into four broad categories. We may call them particular evidences concerning questions of fact …
Incarnational Is As Incarnational Does
The ability to abstract things is the academicians’ disease. It is also a great gift of God, and like money, power, and sex, it needs to be watched closely. Part of the reason it must be watched closely is because it almost never is watched closely. There are many fine servants who make tyrannical masters, …
Intelligent Design and Stealth Creationism
Last Friday, a friend named Scott Minnich addressed the weekly disputatio at New St. Andrews. Dr. Minnich is a professor in microbiology at the University of Idaho, and he testified in the recent trial in Dover, PA as an expert witness on behalf of Intelligent Design. His talk was fascinating — with regard to the …
Keeping the Cash Register
Just a short post to tie up my thoughts on the last chapter of Stanley Grenz’s book on postmodernism. The book was informative (for the most part) and with a few exceptions a good review of the characters and players in all this. But coming to the last chapter, I have to confess that my …
The Power of the Cultural Vacuum
“What is now in place is not exactly an alternative system of belief. What is in place is no system of belief at all. It is more like a vacuum into the quiet emptiness of which the self is reaching for meaning – and finding only itself. But this is to put the matter more …