I've been doing a little studying/thinking on the Emergent movement lately (and really Postmodernism in general). Check out this helpful quote from Christian philosopher William Lane Craig:
"To assert that ‘the truth is that there is no truth’ is both self-refuting and arbitrary. For if this statement is true, it is not true, since there is no truth. So-called deconstructionism thus cannot be halted from deconstructing itself. Moreover, there is also no reason for adopting the postmodern perspective rather than, say, the outlooks of Western capitalism, male chauvinism, white racism, and so forth, since post-modernism has no more truth to it then these perspectives. Caught in this self-defeating trap, some postmodernists have been forced to the same recourse as Buddhist mystics: denying that postmodernism is really a view or position at all. But then, once again, why do they continue to write books and talk about it. They are obviously making some claims—and if not, then they literally have nothing to say and no objection to [the rational] employment of the classical canons of logic."
4 comments:
Shanz,
Welcome back from sabbatical. I hope the funds you were granted were spent well on hard, late-night, family-neglecting research.
What books did you read? And what are you trying to understand about it?
...Go on...
Plev
Well, our adult Sunday school class is going through Mark Dever's The Gospel and Personal Evangelism and I taught on chapter 4 "How should we evangelize?" That got me more interested than usual in studying the culture and how we can reach it with the gospel. I've been reading a lot of articles (mainly from Tim Keller) and just trying to work through the whole thing. Other than that I'm reading Why We're Not Emergent and I'm really likin' it. I also read Mohler's book, but it wasn't really what I was looking for Postmodern-wise. I plan on reading next Carson's Christ and Culture Revisited and finishing Kenneth Samples' A World of Difference. I'll plan on giving an overall summary when I'm finished. Any thoughts or direction? peace.
Shanz,
Cool. Why We're Not Emergent is a good read. It was pretty helpful. Did you see my post on it on the Booked Blog?
That's cool that you are teaching at your church. Keller is helpful. Sojourn is pretty much sold on him too. He's a pretty smart dude. I read the intro to his Reason For God (and plan to read the rest) and read an article by him in Carson's Worship By the Book. It was good. He has a way to make you think and certainly challenges the status quo -- but he does so intelligently and, not arrogantly.
Yeah, put a summary on your blog when it's all said and done.
Peace mayne,
P
wedding pics are up
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