How Postmodernism Serves (My) Faith: Questioning Truth in Language, Philosophy and Art
Downing, a professor of English at Messiah College, explains what postmodernism is and why Christians shouldn't fear it; indeed, postmodernism can help Christians articulate, experience and embrace faith. For example, postmodern challenges to foundationalism can help Christians move beyond an Enlightenment-based focus on the reasonableness of Christianity and toward a trust of the Incarnate God. Postmodernism also offers Christians new tools for discussing the age-old problem of scriptural inconsistency. Downing, however, is not an uncritical apologist for postmodernism. In a concluding chapter, she raises some concerns: postmodernism has "failed to conceptualize a transcendent Other," and that Other—God—is central to Christianity. The chapter on the arts is sure to distinguish Downing's account from pomo Christian books more narrowly focused on philosophy and theology. Downing deserves kudos for writing about abstruse topics in lucid and clear prose; no one will breeze through this book, but Downing has done everything possible to open up academic concepts to thoughtful readers. Well-placed autobiographical vignettes help illustrate technical arguments from literary theory. While the cutesy postmodern parentheticals—as in the titular "(My)," or in "Opening a (La)can of Worms"—are a bit much, on the whole, this is a winsome introduction to postmodernism.(June)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.