Are postmodern philosophy and Christian thought so diametrically opposed that "never the twain shall meet"? Or are various postmodern philosophies, in spite of their secular provenance, open to religious appropriation? These thirteen lively, original essays awaken secular postmodernisms and various modes of Christian thinking from their ideological complacency. An open space for passionate dialogue emerges from conversations that powerfully engage both intellectual and religious points of view.
The contributors to Postmodernism and Christian Philosophy bring a wealth of philosophical insights and methodological approaches to bear on a common concern, namely, the possibility and extent of a fruitful dialogue between Christian philosophy and postmodern thought. They tackle the timely question of how realism ought to respond to the threat to what Gilson called "the Western Creed" posed by modernity's heir apparent. Enriched and invigorated by the insights of St. Thomas, Jacques Maritain, Yves R. Simon, and others, the articles assembled in this volume offer a provocative vision of the way in which a world bearing the imprint of modernity can nevertheless avoid succumbing to the false alternative proposed by postmodernism. Contributors include: Benedict M. Ashley, O.P., Don T. Asselin, Michael Baur, David B. Burrell, C.S.C., John Deely, Curtis L. Hancock, Thomas S. Hibbs, Gregory J. Kerr, John F.X. Knasas, Joseph W. Koterski, S.J., James L. Marsh, Matthew S. Pugh, Gregory M. Reichberg, Robert Royal, James V. Schall, S.J., Rosalind Smith Edman, Brendan Sweetman, Joseph M. de Torre, Merold Westphal, and Robert E. Wood. ABOUT THE EDITOR: Roman T. Ciapalo is associate professor of philosophy at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa.
Postmodern Apologetics provides an introduction to contemporary French thinkers who argue for the coherence and viability of Christian faith and religious experience with phenomenological and hermeneutical tools. It treats both French philosophers and appropriations of their thought in the North American context.
Are postmodern philosophy and Christian theology compatible? A surprising number of Christian philosophers and theologians think so. However, these same thinkers argue that postmodern insights entail the rejection of natural theology, the ability to discover knowledge about the existence and nature of God in the natural world. Postmodernism, they claim, shows that appealing to nature to demonstrate or infer the existence of God is foolish because these appeals rely on modernity’s outmoded grounds for knowledge. Moreover, natural theology and apologetics are often hindrances to authentic Christian faith. Notions like objectivity and rationality are forms of idolatry from which Christians should repent. This book carefully examines the nature of truth, rationality, general revelation, and evangelism to show that the postmodern objections fail and that Christians ought to lovingly and faithfully use natural theology and apologetics to defend and commend the Christian faith to a world in need of the knowledge of God.
The cultural landscape is now made up of diverse "communities"--feminists, gays, neo-conservatists, African-Americans, pro-lifers--who seem to have no common frame of reference by which to communicate with each other. Veith offers Christians instructions as to how they can respond to these varied groups.
William Desmond's original and creative work in metaphysics is attracting more and more attention from philosophers of religion. Putting Desmond in conversation with John D. Caputo, an important philosopher of religion from the Continental tradition, Christopher Ben Simpson casts new light on Desmond's complex, multifaceted, and nuanced thought. The comparative approach allows Simpson to get at the core of recent debates in the philosophy of religion. He develops a rich understanding of how ethics and religion are informed by metaphysics, and contrasts this approach to the decidedly anti-metaphysical stance in Continental philosophy. Religion, Metaphysics, and the Postmodern presents a systematic analysis of Desmond's thought as it advances work on Caputo's thinking and on the philosophy of religion.
This book sorts out the confusion created by the use of the term postmodern in relation to widely divergent theological positions. Four different types of postmodern theology are distinguished in the preface: constructive, deconstructive, liberationist, and conservative. Two forms of each type are discussed in the book. Writing from a constructive, postmodern perspective, the authors enter into dialogue with the deconstructive postmodernism of Mark C. Taylor and Jean-François Lyotard, with the liberationist postmodernism of Harvey Cox and Cornel West, and with the conservative postmodernism of George William Rutler and John Paul II.
