Postmodern theology

Short description: Theological movement

Not to be confused with Positive deconstruction or faith deconstruction.

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Postmodernism

Preceded by Modernism
Postmodernity

* Hypermodernity
* Metamodernism
* Posthumanism
* Postmaterialism
* Post-postmodernism
* Post-structuralism

Fields

* anthropology
* archaeology
* architecture
* art
* criminology
* dance
* feminism
* film
* literature (picture books)
* music
* philosophy
* anarchism
* Marxism
* positivism
* social construction of nature
* social construction of gender
* psychology
* political science
* theatre
* theology and religion

Related

* linguistic theory
* linguistic determinism
* semantics (semiotics)
* media studies
* film theory
* The medium is the message

Criticism of postmodernism

* v
* t
* e

Postmodern theology, also known as the continental philosophy of religion, is a philosophical and theological movement that interprets Christian theology in light of postmodernism and various forms of post-Heideggerian thought, including post-structuralism, phenomenology, and deconstruction.[1]

## Contents

* 1 History
* 1.1 Radical orthodoxy
* 1.2 Weak theology
* 2 Disputes
* 3 Leading thinkers
* 4 See also
* 5 Notes
* 6 Further reading

## History

Postmodern theology emerged in the 1980s and 1990s when a handful of philosophers who took philosopher Martin Heidegger as a common point of departure began publishing influential books engaging with Christian[2] theology.[3] Some works of the era include Jean-Luc Marion's 1982 book God Without Being, Mark C. Taylor's 1984 book Erring, Charles Winquist's 1994 book Desiring Theology, John D. Caputo's 1997 book The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida, and Carl Raschke's 2000 book The End of Theology.

### Radical orthodoxy

Main article: Philosophy:Radical orthodoxy

Radical orthodoxy is a branch of postmodern theology that has been influenced by the phenomenology of Jean-Luc Marion, Paul Ricœur, and Michel Henry, among others.[4]

Although radical orthodoxy is informally organized, its proponents often agree on a handful of propositions. First, there is no sharp distinction between reason on the one hand and faith or revelation on the other. In addition, the world is best understood through interactions with God, even though a full understanding of God is never possible. Those interactions include culture, language, history, technology, and theology. Further, God directs people toward truth, which is never fully available to them. In fact, a full appreciation of the physical world is only possible through a belief in transcendence. Finally, salvation is found through interactions with God and others.[5]

Prominent advocates of radical orthodoxy include John Milbank, Catherine Pickstock, and Graham Ward.

### Weak theology

Weak theology is a branch of postmodern theology that has been influenced by the deconstructive thought of Jacques Derrida,[6] including Derrida's description of a moral experience he calls "the weak force."[7][8] Weak theology rejects the idea that God is an overwhelming physical or metaphysical force. Instead, God is an unconditional claim without any force whatsoever. As a claim without force, the God of weak theology does not intervene in nature. As a result, weak theology emphasizes the responsibility of humans to act in this world here and now.[9] John D. Caputo is a prominent advocate of the movement.

## Disputes

In "Pilgrim's Digress: Christian Thinking on and about the Post/Modern Way", theologian Kevin J. Vanhoozer articulates the risk of correlating theology with postmodernism (or any other philosophy or discipline) as undermining the challenging doctrines of the Bible, in effect "exchanging the scandal of the cross for the pottage of intellectual respectability."[10] In this vein, theologian Douglas Groothuis argues that for Christian theology to resist postmodernism, it must adhere to Scripture as propositional truth. In contrast to postmodernism's skepticism towards meta-narratives and its relativistic approach to truth, Scripture should be viewed as objective, universal, and factually accurate.[11] Theologian Chul Min Jun suggests that modernism's conformist tendencies and postmodernism's pluralist inclinations are both rooted in a departure from the Trinity. Using pluralism to overcome conformism and vice versa cannot be transcended by theorizing. Rather than relying solely on language and definitions or on abandoning foundational truths altogether, it is necessary to directly follow the principles of the Triune God.[12]

## Leading thinkers

* John D. Caputo
* Richard Kearney
* Mario Kopić
* Jean-Luc Marion
* Françoise Meltzer
* John Milbank
* James Olthuis
* Catherine Pickstock
* Carl Raschke
* Peter Rollins
* Mary-Jane Rubenstein
* James K.A. Smith
* Mark C. Taylor
* Gabriel Vahanian
* Gianni Vattimo
* Charles Winquist
* Catherine Keller
* Mikhail Epstein

## See also

* Neo-orthodoxy
* Peter L. Berger
* John Deely, Catholic philosopher and semiotician
* Queer theology
* Religious pluralism

## Notes

1. ↑ Raschke, Carl (2017). Postmodern Theology: A Biopic.
2. ↑ Vanhoozer, Kevin J. (2003). "Theology and the Condition of Postmodernity: A Report on Knowledge (of God)". in Vanhoozer, Kevin J.. The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology. Cambridge University Press. pp. 22–25.
3. ↑ Crockett, Clayton (2011). Radical Political Theology. pp. 163. https://archive.org/details/radicalpolitical00croc.
4. ↑ Hankey, Wayne (2017). Deconstructing Radical Orthodoxy. Routledge.
5. ↑ "Archived copy". http://www.unifr.ch/theo/assets/files/SA2015/Theses_EN.pdf.
6. ↑ Caputo, John D. (2006). The Weakness of God. Indiana University Press.
7. ↑ Caputo, John D. (2006). The Weakness of God. Indiana University Press. 7.
8. ↑ Derrida, Jacques (2005). Rogues. Stanford University Press.
9. ↑ Caputo, John D.; Vattimo, Gianni (2007). After the Death of God. Columbia University Press. pp. 64-65.
10. ↑ Vanhoozer, Kevin J. (2005). "Pilgrim's Digress: Christian Thinking on and about the Post/Modern Way". in Penner, Myron B.. Christianity and the Postmodern Turn: Six Views. Myron B. Penner. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press. ISBN 978-1-58743-108-1.
11. ↑ Groothuis, Douglas (Nov 1999). "The Postmodernist Challenge to Theology". Themelios 25 (1): 4–22. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/the-postmodernist-challenge-to-theology/.
12. ↑ Jun, Chul Min (June 2014). "The paradigm shift of practical theology and theological practice to overcome modernism and postmodernism". Pacific Science Review 16 (2): 156–166. doi:10.1016/j.pscr.2014.08.028. Bibcode: 2014PSRv...16..156J.

## Further reading

* Caputo, John D. (2004). "Jacques Derrida (1930–2004)", Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory, Vol. 6, No. 1, December 2004.
* Caputo, John D. The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-253-34704-1
* Caputo, John D. What Would Jesus Deconstruct?: The Good News of Postmodernity for the Church. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007.
* Engel, Ulrich (December 2001). "Religion and Violence: Plea for a 'weak' theology in tempore belli". New Blackfriars 82 (970): 558–560. doi:10.1111/j.1741-2005.2001.tb01785.x.
* Foster, Stephen (2019) "Theology as Repetition: John Macquarrie in Conversation" (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2019)
* Heltzel, Peter G. (2006). "The Weakness of God: A Review of John D. Caputo's The Weakness of God: A Theology of the Event", Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory, Vol. 7, No. 2, Spring/Summer 2006.
* Marion, Jean-Luc. God Without Being. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
* Raschke, Carl (2000). The End of Theology. Denver, CO: The Davies Group, 2000. Originally published as The Alchemy of the Word: Language and the End of Theology, Missoula, MT: Scholars Press, 1979).
* Raschke, Carl (2006). "The Weakness of God... and of Theological Thought for that Matter", Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, Vol. 8, No. 1, Winter 2006.
* Rubenstein, Mary-Jane (2009). Strange Wonder: The Closure of Metaphysics and the Opening of Awe (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009 [cloth], 2011 [paper]).
* Rubenstein, Mary-Jane (2018). Pantheologies: Gods, Worlds, Monsters (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018 [cloth], 2021 [paper]).
* Smith, James K.A. Who's Afraid of Postmodernism?: Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006.
* Swain, Lincoln. The Why People: Faith, False Prophets and End Times Detroit: Atomic Quill Press, 2011.
* Taylor, Mark C. Erring: A Postmodern A/Theology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
* Taylor, Victor. "From Alchemy to Revolution: A Conversation with Carl A. Raschke", Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, Vol 12, No. 3, Spring 2014, 149-60.
* Winquist, Charles. Desiring Theology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.

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