Friday, October 12, 2007
Book Blogging: Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? - Chapter 3
From Chapter 3 of Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church by Jamie Smith: (previous posts)
Key Statements By The Author In This Chapter
”Narrative knowledge is grounded in the custom of a culture, and, as such, does not require legitimation.” (p.66)
“What Lyotard famously describes as metanarratives [are] appeals to criteria of legitimation that are understood as standing outside any particular language game and thus guarantee universal truth. ... As Lyotard puts it, scientific knowledge, which considered itself to be a triumph over narrative knowledge, covertly grounds itself in a narrative (i.e., an originary myth). In particular, Lyotard analyzes two modern narratives of legitimation: first, the humanistic metanarrative of emancipation (as found in Kant and Marx), and second, the metanarrative concerning the life of the Spirit in German Idealism.” (p. 67)
“The postmodern critique of described by Lyotard as incredulity toward metanarratives represents a displacement of the notion of autonomous reason as itself a myth. And that is a project with which Christians ought to ally themselves, particularly once we have clarified that such an alliance does not require jettisoning the biblical narrative.” (p. 72)
“At root, what is at stake in postmodernism is the relationship between faith and reason. [Postmodernism] represents the retrieval of a fundamentally Augustinian epistemology that is attentive to the structural necessity of faith preceding reason, believing in order to understand--trusting in order to interpret.” (p. 72)
“For the postmodernist, every scientist is a believer. ... Postmodernism refused to believe the Enlightenment is without a creed.” (p. 68,72)
“To the extent that the postmodern critique [of modernism] is effective, the modern notions of a neutral public space and secular sphere must be abandoned. The exclusion of faith from the public square is a modern agenda; postmodernity signals new openings and opportunities for Christian witness in the broad marketplace of ideas. We must be careful, however, not to continue to propagate that witness in modernist ways: by attempting our own rationalist demonstrations of the truth of Christian faith and then imposing such on a pluralist culture (what is often described as a Constantinian agenda).” (p. 73)
“The new apologetic of postmodernity will echo the patient presuppositionalist apologetic of Schaeffer--getting everyone’s presuppositions on the table and then narrating the story of Christian faith, allowing others to see the way in which it makes sense of our experience and our world. While the new apologetics will be an unapologetics, it will at the same time be characterized by faithful storytelling, not demonstration. It must be kerygmatic and charismatic: proclaiming the story of the gospel in the power of the Spirit.” (p. 74)
“The narrative character of our faith should affect not only our proclamation and witness but also our worship and formation. ... Crucial for our discipleship and formation is being able to write ourselves into the story of God’s redeeming action in the world--being able to find our role in the play, our character in the story. To do that, we need to know the story, and that story should be communicated when we gather as the people of God, that is, in worship.” (p. 75)
“Worship, then, needs to be characterized by hospitality; it needs to be inviting. But at the same time, it should be inviting seekers into the church and its unique story and language. Worship should be an occasion of cross-cultural hospitality.” (p. 78)
Key Questions I Have After Reading This Chapter
- How is scientific epistemology more narrative than method? Or are its presuppositions the narrative--the supposed liberation from tribal superstition? Is the narrative primarily historical (people liberated into modernism over time) or conceptual (the conflict between tribal tendencies and autonomous ones)?
- How can churches hold onto their vocabulary and culture (page 78) while avoiding the common pitfalls of being insular, exclusive, and inhospitable?
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