Who's Afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church - James K. A. Smith
The French postmodernists are not saying what we think they are. Our bumper-sticker summaries of their philosophies misrepresents them. Smith seeks to correct this by revealing what they are really saying and then showing that "all these claims have a deep affinity with central Christian claims" (22). First, conflating truth with objectivity (modernism) is misleading. Everything is indeed interpreted through a story. The world must be interpreted or it possesses no meaning. Second, postmodernity's rejection of metanarratives is actually a rejection of modernity's narratives - namely, its an illusion that science can be done apart from "a story." In other words, science, which is so critical of the "fables" of narrative is itself grounded in a narrative. Science cannot legitimize itself through reason. The Christian metanarrative (and other religions as well) is not rejected because it lays its cards on the table for all to see. It admits that its narrative is not informed merely by the scientific method or universal, autonomous reason, but by an appeal to faith. Finally, power can be abused, but when it is directed to the best end - in the case of Christianity, to be renewed in the image of Christ - then it is power properly exercised. Along the way, Smith demonstrates that those who see postmodernism as "the boogeyman for the Christian church" do so because they "have become so thoroughly modern" (23). In contrast to "the anti-institutional mentality of post-modern 'spirituality'" he argues for "a robust, vibrant, liturgical church" as the best means to speak "meaning in and to a postmodern world" (11).