sign in sign up
<<
Home , Transmodernism

A Requiem for — Whither Now? James Parker, III

James Parker, III has been Profes- The Certain Doom of “neoconservatives” (see further below). sor and Associate Dean of Worldview Postmodernism Second, the simple reason why and Culture at The Southern Baptist Postmodernism is highly overrated.1 postmodernism’s days are numbered is Theological Seminary since 1999. He While one theologian after another is that it commits epistemological suicide. has been on the faculty of several insti- rushing to turn out books and articles Postmodernism holds to the premise that tutions including Criswell College, Dal- about some aspect or implication about truth is a “social construct” and “truth” is las Baptist University, Eastern Baptist “the end of ” and “the impli- whatever your colleagues let you get by Theological Seminary, and Southeast- cations of postmodernism,” I assert that with.4 If that is the case, then postmodern ern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is postmodernism is overrated and predict thought is also just another social con- the Director of The Institute, a that it will come to a certain and perhaps struct and has neither universal nor nor- Christian study center and think tank soon demise, or at least will be relegated mative force. Therefore there is no reason that specializes in reaching those in the to the realm of “curious but passé.” that I or anyone else should be compelled academic world, and he also serves as First of all, modernism (which holds to let it be a normative criterion to shape the editor of FOUNDATIONS, a journal that reason is autonomous and that sci- and determine my beliefs. And if one takes for theological students. entific truth is normative and universal, their idea of “the of suspi- and which propounds amelioristic opti- cion” seriously, then there is every reason mism and proud confidence in technologi- to believe that their whole academic cal fixes), while not the only worldview, exercise is simply a thinly veiled disguise is still alive and well at the educational to get political power over anyone who and cultural shaping institutions of west- holds a view different than their own.5 ern Europe and North America. In speak- Particularly since they have shown their ing recently with graduate students at two hand, I will not be taken in by their major Ivy League research universities in verbal con game. Most simply stated, North America, the Ph.D. students said postmodernism is guilty of being self- that while one did certainly find post- referentially absurd. When one has given modern thought on the campuses up the idea of normative, universal and (particularly in English and related absolute truth, there is no reason whatso- departments), the intellectual culture of ever to take what they say as true (par- the university was still predominantly ticularly since they have conceded up modern.2 They frankly said that they front that “truth” does not even exist). basically ignored postmodernism.3 One There have been several excellent only has to skim the university press critiques of postmodern thought from an catalogues to find out that modernism is evangelical Christian and solid philo- alive and well. Ironically Foucault, sophical perspective.6 This paper will Derrida, and other French postmodernist not add to those critiques. It commends thinkers have been passé in France for a those who have resisted reshaping theol- good while, substituted by a generation ogy to conform to yet another outside of younger scholars one can only call philosophical influence. The study of his- 50 torical theology is often a study of how postmodernism (including some evan- theology has been shaped and conformed gelicals), one would get the impression (if to alien ideologies and that one did not know better) that reason, have had the effect of neutering the basic along with its attendant inferences of the content of historic orthodox Christian the- of objective truth and the legiti- ology. Sometimes Christian thought needs macy of a rational defense of the faith, is to challenge and contest , not the illegitimate child of the Enlighten- conform to its demands. ment. Several have indeed suggested the is a perfect example of a philosophy to abandonment of apologetics and the natu- which theology has been conformed. ral theology project. While most evan- Let’s take process theology as an gelicals enamoured with postmodernism example. Here is a philosophy that rarely say that they do not want to give up the lives in philosophy departments, except “metanarrative” truth claims of the Chris- as a relic in the history of philosophy tian faith, they do think that a rational division, since its credibility as a philo- defense of the faith is not a legitimate area sophical system has been fundamentally to which Christians should give attention. rejected. Yet it lives on as a parasite in the- What the church needs, it is said, is not ology departments. The same may well apologetics or the rational defense of the be the destiny for “postmodern thought.” faith,9 but a loving and caring Christian Solid work has demonstrated the defi- community (for that is a postmodern ciency of the thought of those evangelicals priority). No doubt it is of the highest all too ready to reshape doctrine and their priority for the church to be a caring and agenda to conform to some of the major loving body (this is not just postmodern; tenets of postmodernism. The common this is simply biblical). One cannot avoid fundamental error of such scholars is in the following embarrassing question, making the false assumption that the however: How do we adjudicate between evangelical scholarly approaches they conflicting truth claims (religious or oth- criticize have “sold out” to modernism.7 erwise)? Moonies or Mormons may well The great irony is that Carl F. H. Henry is have equally caring communities with often singled out as the most egregious Christians. Then what? Like it or not, if example of an evangelical whose system one is going to make a truth claim for the is determined (or undermined?) by mod- Christian faith, reason and the testing of ernism. Henry, in his great six volume truth claims will play a significant role in work God, Revelation and Authority, has the process. been one of the severest critics of the Enlightenment’s view of the sufficiency of The Coming Transmodern Period? autonomous human reason unaided by Since both moderism and postmod- revelation, has fundamentally decried the ernism have been dealt with substantively naïveté of secular ’s ameli- and, in this writer’s opinion, adequately, oristic and would categorically the question we shall examine is not from deny that science is savior.8 He also knows whence the culture has come or where it that human reason and the laws of is (premodern, modern, postmodern), but were not an invention of the Enlighten- whither shall it go. Paul Vitz has sug- ment. When one reads certain writers on gested that it is time for conferences on 51 “The Death of Postmod-ernism.” He sees virtually every major orchestra in the indicators of a new transition in culture USA),13 are minimalists with an Eastern on the horizon that he calls the coming spiritual bent, there is a virtual wave of transmodern period. By transmodern, he non-pop musicians who are influenced by means “something that transforms mod- explicit classical Trinitarian Theism. This ernism, something that transcends it and is a sign of a change in the wind. moves beyond it. In doing this, it certainly When a classical album rises to Num- does not reject all things modern, and thus ber 6 on the British charts right behind it is far from a reactionary vision of Paul McCartney (Gramophone’s “Best-sell- the future.”10 Trans-modernism would ing CD in 1993”), prompts a review by indeed constitute a rejection of both the Rolling Stone magazine, and is introduced overreaching claims of modernism and into mainstream retailers like Sound the nihilistic absurdity of postmodernism, Warehouse so that the CD is found on the while benefiting from positive contribu- checkout counter in Muleshoe, Texas, tions of both. Is there evidence for “the even the most casual cultural observer birth of this new ideal of hope, of wisdom, begins to notice that there’s a disturbance of virtue and the good, of beauty and har- in the cultural force. Such was the case at mony, … the resurrection of classicism and the 1992 release of Catholic and Polish other pre-modern concepts in the differ- composer Henryk Gorecki’s Third Sym- ent arts and the intellectual life itself”?11 phony. Gorecki has been associated with Indicators of the quiet dawning of this the avant-garde wing of contemporary new vision are discernable from several classical music. The Third Symphony was segments of our culture, including music, composed in 1976 and the title is “Sym- architecture, the visual arts, poetry, litera- phony of Sorrowful Songs.” ture, and the core of intellectual tradition, He grew up in the Polish town of including philosophy and moral theory. Katowice, an unknown town except for While it is too soon to identify a move- its neighbor—Oswiecim, called Auschwitz ment (even as it is difficult to identify a in German. The texts of the three move- postmodern “movement”), there are com- ments that drive the symphony are (1) a mon characteristics and a shared vision lamentation of 15th century monks; (2) a that appears to be emerging at varied, prayer by a teenager imprisoned by the unexpected, and non-coordinated places. Gestapo written on a wall where she tries to find the good out of her dire circum- Transmodernism in Music? stances; and (3) the demanding question In music, an alternative to ’s of a mother who asks, “Why did you kill music of irrationality and chance is my son?” While the work is appropriately appearing: a music that is informed from titled sorrowful, it nevertheless clings to beyond modernistic or postmodern natu- vestiges of hope in the face of despair. ralism. While American composer Terry Gorecki saw his art as a form of prayer Riley (who was called the greatest pianist and he has continued to produce signifi- since Prokofieff in his reviews at the Sergei cant works “carrying forth the musical, Kuryokin Festival in St. Petersburg)12 and emotional and spiritual concerns with John Adams (whose works have been per- which he has been preoccupied from the formed by major European orchestras and beginning.”14 52 Many people all over the world were discipline, whether science or music. But introduced to the works of John Tavener pop musical prognosticators have said when his composition was featured at the that there is a new rock group on the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales. horizon that will redefine rock music in Tavener joined the Russian Orthodox much the same way that the Beatles did. communion in 1977, and his spiritual con- Simon Raymonde was so impressed with cerns have been prominent in his numer- the Denton, Texas group “Lift to Experi- ous works since then. The desire that ence” that he exclaimed that they repre- shapes his work is to “create an icon in sented “the future of music” (presumably sound.”15 His Fall and Resurrection, which rock music).19 After hearing the group premiered in January 2000 in London at perform at the famed South by Southwest St. Paul’s was wildly popular. In the same musical showcase in Austin, Texas, year he was knighted for his “Services to Raymonde and his “Cocteau Twins” Music.” musical partner Robin Guthrie signed the Arvo Part is an Estonian who has unknown group to the Bella Union label incorporated Russian Orthodox spiritual- of London that very night. (If you have ity into his minimalist compositions.16 It never heard of these names, it would be has been said, “by means of almost purely like saying you had never heard of Mozart tonal structure, frequently broken triads in the classical world!). One critic said, and scales, Part creates an inner balance “they use dynamics and instrumentation of form and harmony, which can be to surround you and draw you into the understood in terms of his deep religious mood they create. One of the ways that faith and inclination to mysticism.”17 mood is created is through emotion-filled Acclaimed as “the foremost composer lyrics that are full of gospel and cultural of the Nineties,” Scottish composer James references.”20 The band learned church MacMillan’s “music is notable for its hymns and gospel songs from the cradle extraordinary directness, energy and emo- in central Texas, and those roots are evi- tional power. Strongly-held religious dent in their music and ethos. In May and (which in his own words he calls a “spiri- June of 2000 the band took Europe by tual anchor”) and political beliefs coupled storm with the release of their new CD The with community concerns inform both the Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads. spirit and subject matter of his music.”18 Contemporary rock bands rarely are MacMillan’s setting of the Magnificat has fundamentally influenced and shaped by been performed at Wells Cathedral (and a Trinitarian theistic belief system and a BBC’s Radio Three Evensong) and he col- naturalistic postmodern ethos frequently laborated on Parthenogenesis (the Virgin finds a comfortable home there. Occasion- Birth), “an extended song-cycle with the- ally a Christian pop singer will “cross atrical potential … featured in the first over” into the secular market—but that BBC Philharmonic’s mini-series, MacMil- only means that they are better than the lan in Manchester.” The story of the Vir- average pale imitation of the secular cul- gin Birth as a theatrical production in the ture that Contemporary Christian Music West End of London would send a sig- is. As one prolific Christian songwriter nificant cultural signal. admitted, “for the most part (contempo- Paradigm shifts come rarely in any rary Christian music) is a homogenized 53 knock-off of pop music.” While contem- taboo subject: what it means to be a spiri- porary Christian music has no doubt tual being in the modern world.”22 One served the Christian subculture, it has artist featured, for example, is Mary always lacked a distinct identity as a mu- McCleary, whose work represents a “full- sical discipline and has failed to affect the ness of vision…. It is a particular and musical culture at large—CCM is almost peculiar kind of fullness, one that is always an imitation (often of inferior qual- engorged with the fecundity of earth and ity) of secular music. the senses, and yet simultaneously inhab- A paradigm shift happens only with ited by a silent and spiritual presence extreme infrequency. But it seems that hovering—both immanent and transcen- “Lift to Experience” may indicate athat a dent—amidst all that is sensuous and of paradigm shift is underway. Another critic the earth.”23 has written, “Transmodern art” is not breaking onto the scene without controversy. An many of the vocal parts had a lone- intense debate went on at the Norwegian some 21st century cowboy sound to them that exists somewhere between Academy of the Arts and in the news- Pedro the Lion and U2’s “MLK.” papers of Norway in the mid 1990s over There is so much invention and the issue of whether the Academy should originality in this group; they take the whole wall-of-noise-with- offer classes in traditional figurative paint- romantic-melodies shoe gazer ing—seen by many as reverting to a reac- st sound into the 21 century and make tionary classical education and a rejection every shoe gazer band before them sound anachronistic. The lyrics are of modernistic experimentation—and some of the few in popular music whether Odd Nerdrum, one of Norway’s that have a mature understanding of best known artists, should teach these Christianity and a genuine, heartfelt sense of worship and longing for the classes. In the end, he withdrew his can- Creator, quoting scriptural concepts didacy but classical figurative painting and phrases while leaving out the Christianese cliches. All this in pio- was restored to the curriculum at the neering, cutting-edge music for a Academy.24 change! This is what music is sup- Ian Hamilton Finlay, known as “Scot- posed to do—touch the heart in the deepest, softest place and enrich the land’s leading concrete poet,” draws on life of the listener.21 classical traditions while presenting his poetry almost entirely through visual Transmodernism in the Arts? art—“an art which led naturally to the In the world of the arts, publications arrangement of words on stone, wood, like Image and the American Arts Quarterly and other materials … (which) led natu- have provided a forum for this new wave. rally to the art of incorporating concrete Image in particular intentionally explores poetry with garden design.”25 In English- the relationship between the Judeo-Chris- man Roger Wagner’s art, one finds sev- tian faith and the various arts. In nomi- eral strands of artistic tradition merging: nating Image for its twelfth annual biblical themes and the pastoral English Alternative Press Awards, the Utne Reader landscape, as well as the . said, “taking to task the representation of Wagner’s work is fundamentally rooted and religion in the arts, this in the belief that God’s love brings hope quarterly journal digs into the depths of a in the face of evil and despair. Through 54 his landscapes and still life paintings, ages of art in the past.”31 A circle of artists American David Ligare affirms that and other people of letters (self-named “painting is not only about what is, but “Centerists”) have gathered around Hart what must be done … about goodness and to perpetuate this vision with meetings morality … and a renewed sense of and continued discussions. humanist values and social responsibil- ity.”26 Art historian Charles Jencks says, Transmodernism in Architecture Ligare “adopts unadulterated traditional and Poetry? conventions, but puts them to non-ideo- Notice should also be made in the field logical use.”27 of architecture. Leon Krier is probably Bruno Civitico, an Italian contempo- most popularly known as the planner of rary classical painter who now resides in Poundbury, a planned British town in Charleston, S.C., has specialized in the Dorset (created under the sponsorship of idealized female form. While he is not the Prince of Wales). Similar New Urban- seen as a reactionary “resistant anti-mod- ism ideas lie behind such communities as ernist,” “classicism in the hands of Seaside in Florida (the setting for The Civitico is a traditional linguistic structure Truman Show). Krier’s goal is for archi- that is used to suggest a very contempo- tecture to help us understand our place rary story.”28 Sculptor Frederick Hart, in history and the world. This “humane who has been called America’s greatest classicism,” or “ of traditional living representational artist, has chal- architecture,” has been opposed by lenged the accepted “wisdom” in the others in the discipline and he has been contemporary art world. Against the cur- predictably called “reactionary.” In Archi- rent he affirms that the chief criteria of his tecture: Choice or Fate he argues that those artwork is beauty and substance. “My architects are responsible for producing work,” he says. “isn’t art for art’s sake, it’s their own obsolescence: “As long as art- about life. I have no patience with obscure ists arbitrarily assume the right to decide or unintelligible art—I want to be under- what is or is not art it is logical that the stood.”29 The Chairman Emeritus of the public will just as arbitrarily feel that they National Art Gallery, Washington, D.C. have the right to reject it.”32 was quoted in the New York Times as say- As Dean of the School of Architecture ing, “in the contemporary spectrum Hart at Notre Dame, Thomas Gordon Smith represents one end of it in comparison to leads a revival of classicism—but with tra- contemporary sculptors who are working dition continued in innovative and cre- in total abstraction or dissolving the ative ways.33 On January 11, 1997 Belgian medium into mutations. In his chosen end architect Maurice Culot issued his “First of it, he was as good as they get, a superb Architectural Manifesto of the Operetta craftsman, a deeply spiritual person who Style.”34 Among the affirmations of the was concerned with spiritual values.”30 manifesto are: be “receptive to all periods His distinct contribution is summarized in history”; “a building is successful when as follows: “In a century marked by nihil- it conveys the impression that it has ism, abstraction, and , Hart always existed”; “claim cross-cultural exemplifies a returning tide to aesthetic interest in seeking inspiration in a wide and moral agendas embodied in the great range of revival styles”; and one is not to 55 simply reproduce those styles without structive worldview,’” leading to a vision thought but rather, “fearlessly commit … of cooperation between science and art.39 to promoting local colour and ambi- Frederick Turner argues that ance.”35 These architects are not just reac- recent research in many fields tionary but affirm that the past must be including comparative anthropol- consulted for models of form and beauty. ogy, performance theory, human Poet Dick Allen says, “we’ve gone on evolution, neuroscience, oral litera- ture, time studies, cosmological too long about how poetry should ‘show, physics, ethology and chaos theory rather than tell,’ when actually many— suggest a reconsideration of the perhaps even most of our finest poems whole topic of , and prom- ises to reground the humanities in a tell, make a judgment, are even didac- radical way. The sense of beauty, it tic.”36 Allen believes that poetry should is proposed, is not just an individual preference based on psychobio- play a role in changing people’s lives, and graphical contingencies or political hence it has a teaching role. Poets, in other power relations or arbitrary cultural words, can assist people in changing their fashions, but possesses, like lan- guage, a deep common structure. lives. The recovery of narrative and for- The genres of aesthetic experience malism is seen in Allen as well as poets seem to correspond to and describe like Jack Butler, Lewis Steele, Paul Lake, real features of the objective uni- verse—and may even compel us to and Fred Feirstein, while the modern and question the easy poststructuralist postmodern dominated university has dismissal of such concepts as “the been passed by. In reviewing Feirstein’s objective universe.” A natural clas- sicism may be possible, that would Ending the Twentieth Century, Arthur offer a new theoretical grounding for Mortensen says that we are reminded the next cultural era: the one that will succeed modernism, and its 40 of what we nearly lost in the long postscript, postmodernism. academic obsession with confes- sional poetry. We nearly lost what If the gurus of postmodernism such as we find in Feirstein’s narratives: character; coherent story; historical Foucault and Derrida are passé in their context; location; and all those de- own homeland, what thinkers are begin- tails of life external to the author’s ning to shape philosophical thought in private thoughts that make poetry worth reading, nearly sacrificed on France today? One would find students the alters of Modernism and post- reading such radical statements as the Modernism, whose high priests pre- following from Philipps Beneton: sumed the telling of stories outside one’s self to be not possible.37 Tolerance is an ambiguous word greatly valued by the zeitgeist. Who Transmodernism in Philosophy? dares declare himself against toler- In the more strictly philosophical tra- ance? There would be nothing left to say, however, if the contemporary dition, Alexander Argyros in A Blessed idea of tolerance was not fundamen- Rage for Order: Deconstruction, Evolution, tally distorted. Properly understood, and Chaos levels a substantive critique of tolerance implies respect for people but not agreement with their error Derrida.38 Argyros “presents a complex or fault. Thus ideas do not have to argument which attempts to align chaos be ‘tolerant’—it is enough if they are correct. Real tolerance, in other theory to a cultural paradigm that posits words, is not incompatible with an active role to the ‘natural world,’ thus either firm convictions or the desire offering ‘an alternative to the decon- to persuade others. Tolerance sim- 56 ply rejects force and intimidation Robert George of Princeton University, toward those who think differently. But today tolerance generally signi- also a leading authority on , fies something else—initially it tends defends objective truth, traditional mar- to be equated with and riage, and the sanctity of human life.45 In then it is identified with new norms of human life and thought. Put dif- a public debate, George won an amazing ferently, tolerance now speaks a concession from a leading postmodernist, double language: The Reduction of Stanley Fish, when Fish, who denies the Truth to Opinion.41 existence of universal truths, admitted Beneton challenges this reduction. that important moral issues can be French political Pierre debated even when people proceed from Manent argues that contemporary west- very different starting points.46 ern liberal democracies find themselves in Western tradition from Aristotle to a situation where political life does not Aquinas has affirmed that moral law was serve any higher purposes. He traces this innate. While has (1) idea back to Machiavelli, who desired to fundamentally refuted that notion since separate politics from any idea of a cos- man is reduced to mere “ideological mological moral order. Manent says the reflexes” (), or (2) affirmed a West has found itself in a situation where distinction between “fact” and “value” it has rejected the laws of God and of (), or (3) posited nature in its quest for autonomy. The moral statements as a social construct/ acquisition of this autonomy has come at fiction (postmodernism à la Richard a great loss: the meaning of humanity. Rorty or Michael Foucault),47 other think- Since everyone is autonomous and there ers are now pointing forward by looking are no objective common virtues, a com- backwards. mon moral language of discourse has Alasdair MacIntyre leads the renewal evaporated. The solution to this dilemma of interest in the concept of virtue.48 The is to address the root causes by drawing language of moral discourse has been upon the resources of both the classical ripped from its historical context. So while and Christian tradition.42 we have words like “good” and “moral,” Lastly we turn to North American phi- true moral reasoning has been under- losophy. Recent decades have shown a mined. Leaving Marxism behind, he massive resurgence in the traditional draws upon the resources of both theol- philosophical disciplines from Christian ogy and the Aristotelian tradition. Martha theists. In recent years, books and articles Nussbaum, Bernard Williams, and Iris written for the philosophical community Murdoch (both in her technical philoso- from a Christian theistic perspective have phy as well as literary output) have led flooded the press. The journal Faith and the attack against such contemporary cul- Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Chris- tural assumptions as Kant’s identification tian has provided institutional of morality with duty and Hume’s erro- support for influencing the discipline stra- neous “Is/Ought” distinction.49 In this tegically.43 Noticeable is its influence and same tradition Philippa Foot argues that direction in moral and political philoso- virtue is necessary for happiness. As a phy. Natural law theory has its ablest theologian Stanley Hauerwas seeks to defender in John Finnis of Notre Dame.44 build up moral discourse within the 57 Christian community and wants to see hope based on the very nature of things. I virtue as a fundamental component of the do not deem to predict the future of this Christian life.50 movement—if indeed it can be called a James Q. Wilson argues in The Moral movement. But there does seem to be Sense against Thomas Hobbes (as well as movement on the horizon that might well the majority of contemporary philosophi- indicate that a cultural paradigm shift is cal theories of human behavior) that in the offing. Time will tell. However, people have an innate moral sense, rooted as Christians, we already have a hope in our biological make-up, while simulta- fundamentally grounded in One who neously being influenced by the environ- guarantees our future, regardless of con- ment and the socialization process. He temporary cultural movements. argues that the cultural relativists focus too much on difference and not on cross- ENDNOTES cultural similarities like fairness, self-con- 1Many challenge the legitimacy of the trol, and duty.51 term “postmodern” and assert that in It should also be noted that in the cul- reality it should be called “ultra-mod- ture at large over one million copies of one ern” since postmodernism is in many Spanish Benedictine album have been ways the logical extension of modern- sold, over two million hardcover copies ism, or as Anthony Gideens calls it, the of William Bennett’s The Book of Virtues as “radicalizing of modernity” (The Conse- well as several million copies of John Paul quences of Modernity [Stanford, CA: II’s Threshold of Hope (1994), where he Stanford University Press, 1990] 52). Paul articulates a transmodern vision. Vitz calls it “morbid” modernism because “postmodernism … is the dis- Conclusion solving of modern certainties using A new transmodern vision seems to be modern logic itself” (Paul Vitz, “The emerging from diverse disciplines. This Future of the University: From Post- vision is neither uniform nor monolithic. modern to Transmodern,” in David Lyle Nor is it necessarily theistic. But what it Jeffrey and Dominic Manganiello, eds., has in common is the rejection of the Rethinking the Future of the University absolute claims of modernism (autono- [Ottawa, Canada: University of Ottawa mous reason, amelioristic optimism) and Press, 1998] 106). the rejection of the fundamental premises 2The politicization of the university with of postmodernism (truth is a community homosexual, feminist, and politically fiction, morals are social constructs, and correct agendas has undermined the tradition and classical influence are unde- scholarly credibility of many academic sirable and illegitimate). Transmodernists disciplines. See Dinesh D’Souza’s Illib- assert objective and normative truth with- eral Education: The Politics of Race and Sex out capitulating to a naturalistic on Campus (New York: Free Press, 1991). and affirm true moral values and virtues. 3One was a major at They hold out beauty, harmony, and wis- Princeton University and the other in the dom as real possible entities. humanities at Yale—one can find few if based on modernistic or any postmodernists in the science de- postmodern “fictions” is substituted for partments—at least when they are ap- 58 plying the precepts to their own aca- Rethinking Evangelicalism for a VEPM/gorecki/gortitle.html. demic discipline. Postmodern World (Grand Rapids: 15http://www.schirmer.com/com- 4Richard Rorty, Contingency, Irony and Baker, 1999); and the essays in posers/tavener/bio.html. Solidarity (Cambridge: Cambridge Chapters 7 and 8 in Timothy R. 16Paul Hillier, Arvo Part: Oxford Stud- University Press, 1989) 6-7. Phillips and Dennis L. Okholm, ies of Composers (Oxford: Oxford 5M. Foucault, “Nietzsche, Genealogy, Christian Apologetics in the Post- University Press, 1997). and History,” in Language, Counter- modern World (Downers Grove, IL: 17http://members.dencity.com/ Memory, and Practice: Selected Essays InterVarsity Press: 1995). Ironically metestudio/mete_arvo_ and Interviews, trans. Donald F. the publishers are probably produc- period.htm. Bouchard and Sherry Simon (Ithaca, ing more works on apologetics than 18http://www.peercom.com/ NY: Cornell University Press, 1977) ever before, and evangelical schools partick2000/pages/conmusic.html. 162. are teaching more apologetics than 19http://fakejazz.com/reviews/ 6For a sampling, see the following: before. Also, churches specializing lift.shtml. Millard J. Erickson, Postmodernizing in reaching “postmoderns” often 20Ibid. the Faith: Evangelical Responses to the make great use of apologetics. Two 21http://dallasmusic.com/101600/ Challenge of Postmodernism (Grand examples of popular apologetics lift101600.html. Rapids: Baker, 1998); Roger Lundin, picked up by Harper Collins Pub- 22http://www.imagejournal.org. The Culture of Interpretation: The lishers are Lee’s Strobel’s The Case 23Wayle L. Roose, “A Fullness of Vi- Christian Faith and the Postmodern for Christ (Zondervan/Harper sion: Mary McCleary’s Collages,” World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, Collins, 1998) and Jeffrey L. Sheler’s Image 23 (Summer 1999) 32. 1993); Douglas Groothuis, Defending Is The Bible True? How Modern 24For a sample of his works see: http:/ Christianity Against the Challenges of Debates and Discoveries Affirm the /www.nerdrum.com. See the dis- Postmodernism (Downers Grove, IL: Essence of the Scriptures (Zondervan/ cussion of the issue from the Acad- InterVarsity Press, 2000); D. A. Harper Collins, 1999). Strobel was emy director’s perspective (where Carson, The Gagging of God: Chris- formerly a teaching pastor at Wil- he conceded that such classical tianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand low Creek Community Church training was making a comeback in Rapids: Zondervan, 1996); Peter (Chicago), known for reaching the Europe) see http://www.norway. Hicks, Evangelicals and Truth: A Cre- secular culture. He is now on staff origo.no/culture/embla/art/ ative Proposal for a Postmodern Age at Saddleback Valley Community pettersson.html. For a very interest- (Leicester, England: InterVarsity Church in Southern California, ing and intriguing discussion of Press, 1998); Dennis McCallum, ed., holding a similar position that he attempts to “change the guard” of The Death of Truth (Minneapolis: had at Willow Creek. the New York art establishment Bethany, 1996); and D. A. Carson, 10Vitz, 13. (complete with protests) see “Adieu ed., Telling the Truth: Evangelizing 11Ibid., 116. to the Avant-Garde: As the Artistic Postmoderns (Grand Rapids: Zon- 12http://www.terryriley.com/ Regime Shifts, Realism, Rhyme, and dervan, 2000). biography.htm. Representation Make a Comeback” 7For critiques of these evangelicals, 13http://www.schirmer.com/com- by Kanchan Limaye in Reason Online see esp. Erickson’s and Groothius’s posers/adams_bio.html. at http://www.reason.com/9707/ works cited above. 14http://www.usc.edu/dept/ fe.limaye.html. 8Carl F. H. Henry, God, Revelation and polish%5Fmusic/composer/ 25For a discussion of the history and Authority, 6 vols. (Waco, Texas: gorecki.html. For an extensive list of development of concrete poetry see: Word, 1976-83). works, discography and bibliogra- http://www.greenfairy.com/ 9For example see the following: Rob- phy, see the following: http:// dissertation.intro.html. ert Webber, Ancient-Future Faith: www.usc.edu/dept/polish_music/ 26See http://www.hackettfreedman 59 gallery.com/hfg/html/contemp- Anciens%20abonn%C3%A9s/ demonstrated on behalf of different html/ligare_html/ligare_main. cesar. directions he felt were right, but html for some of his paintings. 35Ibid. his most significant action was to 27Charles Jencks, Post-Modernism: The 36http://www.csf.edu/countermea- be one of the founders of the New Classicism in Art and Architec- sures/colloquium7-4.html. Expansive poetry movement, which ture (New York: Rizzoli Interna- 37http://home.earthlink.net/ for the last 20 years has been the tional Publications, 1987) 37. ~arthur505/rev996.html. He contin- most exciting source of poetry in 28http://www.free-times.com/ ues: “Jump outside of poetry for a America. For, in joining that cause, reviews/art_reviews/civitico.html. moment and imagine Paths of Glory, Feirstein bucked theory and went to Other artists to be considered in this Stanley Kubrick’s picture of the First work as a poet. The results, both wave would be James Aponon- World war. Take away the portraits here, and in his other books, are vich’s landscapes and still lifes and of corrupt general officers, of the strong stories, vivid characters, and the works of John Stuart Ingle, four young men condemned to die, unforgettable locations, all con- Martha Mayer Erlebacher, and of the colonel caught in the middle veyed with a poetic art as good as Audrey Flack. As evidence of a of a conspiracy. Take away the pre- anyone in his generation.” growing interest in this traditional cisely observed life and death of 38See Alexander J. Argyros, A Blessed approach to art pedagogy, the New trench warfare. Take away the Rage for Order: Deconstruction, Evo- York Academy of Art: Graduate enlisted men’s club where Dietrich lution and Chaos (Ann Arbor: Uni- School of Figurative Art in New sang. Take away the refined insula- versity of Michigan Press, 1991) 2. York City attracts people from tion of the officers’ club. What’s left? 39Barbara Riebling, “Remodelling around the world to come and Of course nothing is left. Yet for a Truth, Power, and Society: Implica- study traditional approaches to long time after the Second World tions of Chaos Theory, Nonequi- painting, figure drawing, anatomy War, particularly since the late librium Dynamics, and Systems and art history and sculpture. Ironi- 1960’s, critics and poets alike in Science for the Study of Politics and cally one of the founders of the America have debunked what is Literature” in Nancy Easterlin and institution in 1982 was Andy interesting in narratives, rationaliz- Barbara Riebling, eds., After Post- Warhol because he felt that his ar- ing that by saying that the story- : Interdisciplinarity and tistic preparation was lacking be- teller’s choices are only personal or Literary Theory (Evanston: North- cause of the absence of this kind of political preferences, thus giving the western U.P., 1993) 177-202. For an curriculum. lie to the narrator’s claim to be able introduction to chaos theory see 29http://www.frederickhart.com/ to tell a story outside of his or her James Gleick, Chaos: Making A New hexton.html. own prejudices. What bunk! Of Science (London: Cardinal, 1988). 30http://www.frederickhart.com. course authors pick according to 40http://www.utdallas.edu/dept/ See this site for a fair sampling of their preferences; so do all human ah/cd/spring97/huas8390001. his works and bibliography. beings. Where there is a conjunction html. 31Ibid. of an author’s preferences with 41http://www.catholic.net/RCC/ 32http://www.salon.com/books/ those of other people, an author gets Periodicals/Crisis/Apr96/ sneaks/1998/10/29sneaks.html. an audience, and, if that conjunction beneton.html. See how this plays 33Thomas Gordon Smith, Classical lasts or reoccurs later on, the author out in the human rights in Philipps Architecture: Rule and Invention will come back into fashion. So Beneton, “The Languages of the (Layton, UT: G. M. Smith, Inc., 1988) what? This is news? Frederick Rights of Man,” First Things 37 presents the case for the revival of Feirstein has wondered about that (November 1993) 9-12. Classical forms and precepts. kind of intellectual sleight-of-hand 42Pierre Manent, An Intellectual His- 34http://homepages.starnet.fr/ for decades, written essays about it, tory of Liberalism (Princeton: 60 Princeton University Press, 1996) cault make all kinds of moral judg- in his works Sources of the Self: The and also The City of Man (Princeton: ments but since the basis for those Making of Modern Identity (Cam- Princeton University Press, 1998). judgments has evaporated, the bridge: Harvard University Press, 43In the USA names such as Alvin result is incoherence. 1989) and The of Authenticity Plantinga, George Mavrodes, 48See especially Alasdair MacIntyre, (Cambridge: Harvard University Nicholas Wolterstorff, William P. AfterVirtue: A Study in Moral Theory Press, 1992). He deals foundation- Alston, Robert Adams, Robert Audi, (Notre Dame: University of Notre ally with the formation of human Eleonore Stump, Peter van Inwagen Dame Press, 1984) and Whose Jus- identity. He affirms the inherent and many others too numerous to tice? Which Rationality? (Notre cultural worth in “The Politics of name have made historic theism a Dame: University of Notre Dame Recognition,” in Multiculturalism, force to be reckoned with in the Press, 1989). For a helpful overview, ed. Amy Gutmann (Princeton: philosophical world. see Edward T. Oakes, “The Achieve- Princeton University Press, 1994). 44John Finnis, Aquinas: Moral, Politi- ment of Alasdair MacIntyre,” First cal and Legal Theory (Oxford: Oxford Things 65 (August/September 1996) University Press, 1998) and Moral 22-26. Absolutes: Tradition, Revision and 49For a summary of Murdoch’s Truth (Washington, D.C.: Catholic thought, life and complete bibliog- University of America Press, 1991). raphy see the following: http:// 45Robert George, Making Men Moral: kirjasto.sci.fi/imurdoch.htm and Civil Liberties and Public Morality http://murdoch.shape9.nl. On the (Oxford: Oxford University Press, theological importance of Mur- 1995) deals with public policy while doch’s writings see, Alan Jacobs, his authority on natural law was “Go(o)d in Iris Murdoch,” First established with In Defense of Natu- Things 50 (February 1995) 32-36. For ral Law (Oxford: Oxford University a bibliography of Nussbaum’s Press, 1999). works see: http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/ 46Robert George had critiqued Fish’s indiv/scctr/philosophy/ liberal views on abortion and par- nussbaum.html. ticularly the issue whether the right 50Stanley Hauerwas, Christians to life of a fetus was a purely “reli- Among the Virtues (Notre Dame: gious” issue. Fish held that it was, University of Notre Dame Press, until he was convinced by George’s 1997), Wilderness Wanderings: Prob- arguments and proceeded to pub- ing Twentieth Century Theology and licly repudiate his former pro-choice Philosophy (New York: Westview, views at the American Political Sci- 1997), and Sanctifying Them for the ence Association. See story at: http:/ Truth: Holiness Exemplified (Nash- /www.boundless.org/1999/ ville: Abingdon, 1998) are three of departments/isms/90000029.html. his recent works that build his vir- 47In Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity, tue-based Christian ethic. Rorty says that there is no norma- 51James Q. Wilson, The Moral Sense tive and universal answer to the (New York: Free Press, 1995). A question, “why not be cruel.” Of writer having a significant influence course, if morality is a fiction, then in the area of modern identity-for- he is right. Ironically Rorty and Fou- mation is Canadian Charles Taylor 61