Heath White

Post-Modernism 101 is an basic intro to the worldview of post-modernism from a Christian perspective. Unlike a lot of pieces I've read on the subject, Professor White's approach is to look at post-modernism from a more philosophical perspective, presenting it as an outgrowth of modernism, which was itself an outgrowth of medieval pre-modernism. By comparing and contrasting the three worldviews, Professor White avoids the "us versus them" tone that seems so prevalent in other writings on the subject. After presenting the history of the three views, he walks us through their approaches to such basic concepts as truth, morality and the self. The result is that post-modernism is not portrayed as the proverbial "enemy at the gates", but the latest brand of philosophy that the Church must engage. Personally I found the book both surprising and encouraging--surprising because I often found myself disliking modernism's views more than the rest. It's definitely a book on want to put on my shelf for future reference.
--J.… (mer)

This is an awesome book. It doesn't try to do to much, but it packs a lot into its few pages. It is the best summary of postmodern concepts that I have come across so far. Moreover, Heath's attempts to begin Christian interaction with postmodernisim are often quite helpful. In this regard, one of the books strengths how it demonstrate that Christianity is not fundamentally alligned with modernisim, postmodernisim, or even pre-modernisim.

Through the book a major theme recurs - the rejection of authority. In many ways postmodernisim continues the modernist project of skeptisisim about any authority. Thus postmodernisim is susspicious of reason, recieved texts, metanarrative, and even language.… (mer)