Christianity in a Postmodern World :: essays research papers

Christian Belief in a Postmodern realness The Full Wealth of ConvictionOthers have tried to do what Diogenes Allen, professor of Philosophy at Princeton Theological Seminary, does in his book but none with his breadth or effectiveness. That is, others have attempted to exploit for theisms benefit the expectant times now befalling the modern worlds emphasis on scientific ratiocination and plain rationality, which for quite a tour had placed Christianity (and religious teaching in general) on the intellectual and cultural defensive. Many of these earlier attempts do use of the Wittgensteinian concepts of "form of life" or "language support" to show that both science and religion depended on unproven assumptions and because rested equally on grounds without firm foundations. These kinds of attempts, however, could most always aim no higher than to make the world safe for fideism. And fideism is not to defend the religion. What makes Allens contribution speci al and important is his effort to examine in a philosophically rigorous way what we mean when we say Christianity is true. He quotes Colossians 22 at the start of his book, but I tool 315 is just as appropriate for what follows "Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to vizor for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence."Allen is very top whom he is writing for and what his intentions are "to give those who have no faith compelling rational grounds to become seekers and to those who have faith a greater degree of assurance and understanding than they can attain while constrained by the modern mentality." He divides his book into three parts. The starting time part begins with a mapping of our current intellectual terrain. In numerous ways, modernism committed the docetist heresy to human idea. It failed to see human thought as truly embodied and enculturated. Rather, human intellection consisted in pristine, pure r ationality undisturbed by culture, bias, or the vagaries of historical situation. Modernism cherished evidence and empirical confirmation and therefore strived to remain valueneutral to mirror a phenomenal world that was itself held value-neutral. The author challenges this way of human knowing and finds it stingy and incapable of meeting the deepest needs of being human. In so doing, he sheds light on the relation between science and religion. Much of this bodily is rather provocative intellectual history, including a particularly interesting synopsis of the Galileo affair and how it was used for polemical purposes by those hostile to theism.