In Overcoming Onto-Theology, Merold Westphal begins by urging a hermeneutic of suspicion. To which I cheerfully reply, “Okay! When can we start?” In this book he is addressing his postmodern friends who don’t share his faith, and his Christian friends who “are allergic or even a bit apoplectic when it comes to postmodern philosophy” (p. …
Outside My Heart?
Peter Leithart meant to be provocative in his Against Christianity, but the provocation is the “make you think” kind, and not the bomb-throwing kind. But when you tease out the ramifications of what he is saying, what you have on paper sure looks like it ought to be the bomb-throwing kind, but it still isn’t. …
The Great Migraine of Modernity
Andrew Sandlin has prematurely welcomed me to the ranks of the Christian postmodernists. I am afraid he took my deal-busting adjective “theonomic” as something that would actually be welcomed in the ranks of those who are currently calling themselves Christian postmodernists, including one of the gentleman he cites. Of course it would never be accepted …
Living in Story
One more comment on modernity’s whipping boy, Constantine. One of the central problems with many pomos is that they write turgid philosophy in praise of narrative, but they don’t understand story, and the same goes for their frothy popularizers. As a result, they are the ideal audience for hair-raising melodramatic cliff-hangers. Constantine is converted and …
Police Forces of Modernity
One more comment on Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? The problem with “robust and confessional dogmatism” in a postmodern world is this. There are only a limited number of options here, and all of them but one are variations of what Leithart identifies as “Christianity.” As he uses the word in his book Against Christianity, Christianity …
In Praise of Leithart
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 …
Guy Waters
Well, the time has finally come. I have received my copy of Guy Waters’ new book, entitled The Federal Vision and Covenant Theology: A Comparative Analysis. It is my intent to blog my way through this book, offering my thoughts on this general subject for the edification of a bemused Christendom, and to do so …
Last Night’s Discussion
Last night I had a discussion on the radio with a fellow Christian and Christ Church critic, Keely Emerine-Mix. This was my opening statement, more or less, but, because I ran out of time, I did not get all the way through it. For those who want to check it out, the entire discussion can …