Understanding Postmodernism - by Stewart E Kelly (Paperback)

About the Book

With wisdom and care, Stewart Kelly and James Dew compare fundamental postmodern principles with the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Christian faith, neither rejecting every postmodernist concern nor embracing every affirmation wholesale.

Book Synopsis

In order for Christians to make wise decisions, we first need to understand our postmodern context. With wisdom and care, Stewart Kelly and James Dew compare fundamental postmodern principles with the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Christian faith, neither rejecting every postmodernist concern nor embracing every affirmation wholesale. Instead, we are encouraged to understand the postmodern world as we seek to mature spiritually in Christ.

Review Quotes

"Understanding Postmodernism is the best one-stop introduction to postmodernism from a conservative evangelical perspective. It describes and evaluates postmodernism from historical, theological, and philosophical perspectives and does so in a lucid and accessible manner."

"Postmodernism is no longer a youthful upstart but has now reached middle age. If we take 1968 as its date of birth, the revolution is now fifty years old, which explains the philosophical paunch and aching cultural joints. Understanding Postmodernism, similarly, is a mature evangelical response, more interested in showing charity and asking what we can learn from the postmodern protest to modernity than in knee-jerk reactions. The authors stay calm and carry on reasoning. In particular, they examine ten major themes, including language, rationality, and truth (they're analytic thinkers, after all), bringing both clarity and charity to bear on a movement that has affected the academy, society, and church like no other in recent memory."

"Why is the Western world involved in such a monumental collision of ideas today? What about the claims disputed hotly but seriously every day on news broadcasts, heard from college students and even professors alike, assuming, questioning, or denying the presence of any knowable truth in the world? Like the old saying states, 'ideas have consequences.' In this volume, philosophers Stewart Kelly and James Dew explain where this trend came from-why and when it emerged-as well as providing a detailed response to these ideas. Painstakingly documented and carefully reasoned, this volume provides the critique that this generation sorely needs. Highly recommended."

About the Author

Stewart E. Kelly (PhD, Notre Dame) is professor of philosophy at Minot State University. He is the author of Truth Considered and Applied and Thinking Well: An Introduction to Critical Thinking.

James K. Dew Jr. (PhD, Southeastern Baptist) is associate professor of the history of ideas and philosophy and dean of the College at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the coauthor (with Mark W. Foreman) of How Do We Know? An Introduction to Epistemology and coeditor (with Chad Meister) of God and Evil: The Case for God in a World Filled with Pain and God and the Problem of Evil: Five Views.