Academic Alert IVP Academic’S Book Bulletin for Professors | Volume 15, Number 2 | Spring 2006
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Academic Alert IVP Academic’s Book Bulletin for Professors | Volume 15, Number 2 | Spring 2006 Inside 4 New & Noteworthy 5 Introducing Veritas Forum Books 6 Understanding Cultural Dynamics Roland Chia provides Hope for the World and InterVarsity Press launches a new line of books in Three new books address local and global aspects of Timothy Laniak’s Shepherds After My Own partnership with The Veritas Forum. multiethnic and crosscultural issues. Heart explores the theme of the shepherd/pastor. Can Postmodernism Serve Faith? As How Postmodernism Serves (My) Faith was nearing publication, InterVarsity Press editor Gary Deddo took the opportunity to interview author and professor of English my relationship with Christ but also my understand- ing of postmodernism. This leads to the primary and film Crystal Downing about how this unique book came about and why she postmodern element in my style: the juxtaposition approached her subject in such a distinctive, engaging and, well, postmodern fashion. of the personal with the theoretical, the humorously whimsical with the seriously analytical. The great Deddo: Crystal, your book analyses of postmodernism have been published by Marxist critic of postmodernism, Fredric Jameson, How Postmodernism Serves (My) Christians. However, as far as I can tell, all of them called such juxtapositioning “pastiche.” Readers of Faith is just about to come out. have been written in the form of traditional modernist my book will definitely get a sense that my book is a That book has a little more scholarship. My book seems to be the first to employ pastiche of the light and the heavy, the silly and the autobiography in it than most a style more consonant with postmodernism itself. serious. But rather than being gratuitous, my funny books of its kind. Tell us a Because postmodernism addresses the “situatedness” and/or personal stories operate as illustrations or little about what motivated of a person, in contradistinction to the modernist parables for the more heavy theoretical content, you to write this book. privileging of an objective reason that can transcend making difficult ideas more accessible. That, at least, Downing: Many intelligent the positionality of the body, I discuss my own “situ- was my goal in writing the book. Crystal L. engagements with and/or atedness,” using stories from my life to reflect not only Deddo: We are coming to realize that postmodern- Downing continued on page 2 Separating Myth from Reality in the Life of John Wyclif With the forthcoming publication of John Wyclif: Myth & Reality by Gillian R. Evans, InterVarsity Press makes its initial academic foray into the genre of biography. This is makes for an unbeatable combination and hope that you’ll think so too! an area in which we hope to publish more, and we can’t imagine anyone better suited IVP Academic associate editor Joel Scandrett to help us get started than Gill Evans. recently had the opportunity to interview Professor Evans about her forthcoming book. Gill is Professor of Medieval intellectual history, including a number of intellectual Scandrett: Gill, perhaps you can begin by telling our Theology and Intellectual biographies of ancient and medieval authors such as readers what prompted you to write this particular History at the University of Augustine, Gregory the Great, Anselm and Bernard biography. What is it about John Wyclif that intrigues Cambridge and was British of Clairvaux. Her recent books include A Brief History you? Academy Research Reader in of Heresy (Blackwell), Fifty Key Medieval Thinkers Evans: I was asked by the U.K. publisher Lion to Theology from 1986 to 1988. (Routledge) and Faith in the Medieval World (Lion suggest a subject for a biography. They were keen to She is a prodigious scholar Hudson/InterVarsity Press). try to develop a new kind of book for their list that and has written extensively We’re delighted to have a scholar of Gill’s stat- would be a solid contribution to knowledge about in the areas of ecumenical ure writing our initial biographic volume on such a its subject but would also make sense to the general G. R. Evans theology, church history and pivotal historical figure as John Wyclif. We think this reader who might not have much specialist knowl- continued on page 3 Academic Alert Postmodernism, continued from page 1 ism is not easy to define. But perhaps you could erator. Such equalizing has both positive and conference this year, sponsored by an organization tell us what part of the story often gets left out as negative consequences. Unfortunately, many stu- that helped make literary postmodernism famous, we attempt to understand what’s going on in that dents, like culture at large, have assimilated what was called “God Is Undead”! Postmodernism realm of our Western intellectual culture. I call “the worst of postmodernism”: the commod- gives intelligent Christians an opportunity to Downing: Among all the brilliant Christian ification of identity. In other words, people define share their faith in the academy; my book, in fact, books on postmodernism, none has grappled themselves by the commodities they purchase. gives a dramatic example from my own life. with the arts (other than illustrative references Both the Internet and consumer goods reflect Deddo: Other than reading your book, of course, to film and TV). This is a bit ironic, since the an emphasis on surfaces that marks one form of what would you recommend to our readers for word postmodernism began in the art world! My postmodernism. seeing into and grasping the best of postmodern- Unfortunately, many students, like culture at large, have assimilated what I call “the worst of postmod- ernism”: the commodification of identity. In other words, people define themselves by the commodities they purchase. But students today also reflect the best ism? In particular what films or literature would of postmodernism: a willingness to be open to you put on the top of your list? Any works of art the perspectives of “the other.” What they often or exhibits? haven’t thought through, however, is how to Downing: For visual art, I would read A Broken vigorously stand for one’s own beliefs while still Beauty, edited by Theodore Prescott (Eerdmans, respecting “the other.” This is what my book 2005). It discusses how postmodernism has book, therefore, is the first Christian reflection addresses, showing how the most sophisticated returned art to an interest in the human body and (as far as I know) on how developments in the postmodern thinkers do not say “Everything the significance that has for Christians. For films, arts—especially painting, architecture and is relative,” or “Tolerance is the greatest good.” I suggest the following, along with the essays I literature—reflect and affect the fundamental Unfortunately, many assume that’s what post- have published (mostly for Books & Culture) that philosophical and theological questions that mark modernism says and, even worse, agree with it! explain how they illustrate postmodernism: the transition from modernism to postmodernism. Deddo: Crystal, as you look out, what do you War of the Worlds: “Rime of the Ancient Deddo: You’ve been teaching college students for think is at stake in the church’s getting a better Martian,” Books & Culture 11 (Sept./Oct. 2005): some years now and have been interacting with grip on postmodern thinking and sensibilities? 45. them about postmodern themes, especially in Is it a big deal? Some say that it’s mostly over. Is it? Chicken Run and X-Men: “Yolking with literature and film. Would you say that today’s Downing: Many people who say that philo- Postmodernism,” lead article for the Books & students really think as postmodernists do? Have sophic postmodernism is over never liked it in the Culture website (Oct. 2000 to Oct. 2001). you seen a certain shift over the years? first place. These people, usually committed to Any Given Sunday: “Playing the Postmodern Downing: Just as there are many different kinds Marxism or scientism, are especially disdainful Field,” Books & Culture 6 (May/June 2000): 9-10. of Christianity, there are many different kinds because postmodernism is now known as “the Waking Ned Devine: “Richard Rorty for the Silver of postmodernism. And some kinds have been religious turn” or “postsecularism.” As modern- Screen: Waking Ned Devine as Apologetic for assimilated by students more readily than others. ists they believe that humanity must progress Postmodernism,” Books & Culture 5 (Sept./Oct. Students can’t help reflecting postmodernism beyond the need for religion, and since postmod- 1999): 8-10. since, according to many theorists, the Internet ernism turns us back to religion they are horri- Crimes and Misdemeanors: “Woody Allen’s is its preeminent symbol: the ultimate equalizer, fied. Villanova University continues to sponsor Blindness and Insight: The Palimpsests of Crimes since anyone can publish his or her ideas and get conferences on postmodernism and religion, and Misdemeanors,” Religion and the Arts 1 (1997): read with no jury to assess their accuracy. And believing it to be alive and well. Its next confer- 73-92. much of postmodernism, especially in the arts, ence is “Religion and Postmodernism: Athens The Moderns: “Pos(t)ing Modernism: The was about breaking down the elitist and Jerusalem on the Polis” (Oct. 26-28, 2006). Postmodernism of The Moderns,” Pacific Coast distinction between High Culture and the The “religious turn” is precisely why Christians Philology 29 (Sept. 1994): 109-18. culture of the masses—a culture that High need to take postmodernism seriously: it has cre- Modernists regarded as similar to the culture ated an openness to religious vocabularies that growing on food left in the back of the refrig- has dramatically affected academia. One “secular” Spring 006 John Wyclif, continued from page 1 edge.