Author: Erickson, Millard
Genre: Theology - Postmodern
Tags: Modernism / Postmodernism
Series:
Rick Shrader‘s Review:
The subtitle is: the promise & perils of postmodernism. I have enjoyed and learned from Erickson’s writings on postmodernism. This is probably his most detailed and philosophical work on the subject. It is not a place to begin working on the subject of postmodernism but it certainly is profitable reading for those who have already had an introduction to the subject. Most of the book contains Erickson’s critiques of four prominent postmodern writers: Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty and Stanley Fish. He shows the progression in thinking among the four and how they contribute differently to the current subject. The second half of the book is Erickson’s evaluation and approach to ministry. He writes, “The approach I am advocating in this work seeks to adapt to a given context by expressing itself in such a way as to be understandable by those in that situation. It will not, however, try to make itself acceptable, at least not without a radical change on the part of unbelievers. This is because there seem to be two possible types of scandal or hindrance to people believing the gospel and becoming followers of Jesus Christ. One is the offense of the messenger, which may come from failure to communicate as well as one might . . . There is, however, a legitimate and ineradicable element of offense in the gospel, a dimension of it that will always be offensive to the non-Christian, and to remove this is to cause Christianity to cease to be Christianity.” (p. 308)