Truth considered and applied
Subtitle: examining postmodernism, history, and Christian faith
By: Stewart E. Kelly
Publisher: B & H Academic
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Nashville, Tenn
Language: eng
Number of pages: 376
ISBN-13: 9780805449587
Subjects: History; Philosophy; Postmodernism; Truth; Philosophical theology; History and criticism; Christianity
Description: For beginning philosophy and theology students as well as ministers and educated lay people alike, Truth considered and applied examines the leading theories of truth in relation to postmodernism, history, and Christian faith. Author Stewart E. Kelly defends thoughtful Christianity in the face of postmodernist challenges that would label such religious faith as merely a version of truth among many in a pluralistic world. Likewise in looking at Christianity as a historical faith, Kelly supports the need for Christians to develop a method of interpretation that does justice to the biblical texts and our informed understanding of the past in general; because if a genuine past cannot be recovered in some meaningful sense, the claims of Jesus being incarnate and risen from the dead are seriously jeopardized. Many today believe that the quest for truth is the establishment of power, that objectivity is merely an Enlightenment myth, that all reality is discursively constructed, and that the notion of genuine knowledge should be left to a bygone era. In this perceptive and provocative book, Stewart E. Kelly  challenges these postmodern positions. While avoiding a sledgehammer apologetic, he persuasively contends for a modest objectivity, a view of truth that transcends construction and culture.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 327-359) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: Introduction. Concerning point of view ; Pilate and the question of truth; title: pt. 1. Friend or foe? : the challenge of postmodernism. A. Modernism. Descartes and the premodern; title: Critique of modernism; title: B. Postmodernism. Eight preliminary considerations; title: Characteristics of postmodernism; title: pt. 2. Truth and history. The rise of history in the U.S. : 1880-1910; title: The new history and intimations of relativism : 1910-1945; title: Things go swimmingly : consensus in the post war years, 1945-1965; title: Things go bump in the night : the turbulent sixties; title: The rise of postmodern historiography and historical epistemology; title: White's assault on the default position; title: Novick and doubts about objectivity; title: White, metahistory, and prefiguration; title: Novick and doubts about objectivity; title: Jenkins and the ideological assault on objectivity; title: Making the case for a modest historical realism; title: Defending the default position : a modest proposal; title: The Holocaust considered : historical reality, narratival construction, or pure invention?; title: pt. 3. Truth considered. Does truth matter?; title: Common sense and the default position; title: The coherence theory of truth; title: Pragmatism and truth; title: Deflationary theories of truth; title: Horwich's minimalist theory; title: The disquotational theory of truth; title: The correspondence theory of truth; title: Conclusion.