Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Are We Really Post-Modern?

In the most recent Christianity Today (July 2008), there is an article by William Lane Craig on the state of Christianity vs. the New Atheism. The article is more or less a rehashing of Christian philosophical proofs of the existence of God, but in truncated form. It is a good summary of the proofs, but nothing new is really stated or asserted. However, Craig does make one claim that I thought was interesting, and had never really considered until now.

His claim is that America, and the Western world in general, is more "post-Christian" than "post-Modern." He asserts that our culture is more ingrained in modernism than we care to think. He asserts that we are post-moderns in the sense of morals and ethics, but everything else is deeply modern, since we still require verification of any truth claim made. We are however, living in a post-Christian era as our culture becomes more and more secularized.

This seems to make sense. It just seems odd since there is a lot of literature out there that talks about the state of our post-Modern culture, and just assumes or takes for granted this notion of living in a post-Modern world.

I am still thinking this one through, but I was curious as to what you all thought about this? Are we only post-Modern in our morals and ethics? Or does post-Modernity stretch beyond that realm?

1 comment:

Brian said...

Yeah, I also heard him talk about it in his most recent Reasonable Faith podcast. In there he elaborates on it as well.

I have also been hearing it from other sources besides Craig, mostly on the apologetic front. In light of their being a swath of popular Christian books proclaiming we're post-modern, it does go against the grain.

I have been thinking about it for a little while and agree with what he is saying. People just can't live practically like they are post-modern. But they can talk like it when it comes to their personal ethics, etc.

I will be interested in hearing the response from the 'blogosphere' when the WL Craig article starts making the rounds. I am glad he got some good exposure too.