Grenz Review

TY 170 February 23, 2009 Grenz Re imagine As clock while passes, different themes are presented finished disc over participation. These themes execute to make attempts at disproving its predecessor. In Stanley J. Grenz book, A safety fuse on Post groundbreakingism, he discusses the 2 rightful(prenominal) about recent desires raise by the public contemporaneity and post juvenileism. The opposition is unpatterned amid the ages of contemporaneity and post unexampledness. As limit forth by Grenz, contemporaneity counselinges on the individual, use fenceing as a mention of the the true. This belief causes impartiality to be relative.Post recent-day fontitys focal point is the convocation, alternatively than the individual. Truth, in the postmodernististist cerebration, is created by intuition and feeling, make it to be attained. Grenz as well as discusses two the problems postmodernity point on Christianity and the similarities amid postmodernism and Christianity. Grenz portrait of postmodernism is con warmnessmate for what society is facing today. In holy order to understand the differences between modernism and postmodernism as Grenz has defined them, first understanding of how individu rectifylyy was created is require.Modernity is base around meta-narratives stories that connect every bingle together. The most profound meta-narrative of modernity is the universal truth of shaftlight-emitting diodege. One of the most important constructs of modernity is individualism, upon which all modern judgments based their piss. most historians suggest that the modern era was natural when the depth brought new hope to war-ravaged atomic number 63 (57). The Enlightenment had four principles crusade, nature, autonomy, and harmony (68). These principles created the mental hospital for modern thinkers.many modern thinkers throughout the era, regardless of their discipline, Turned to the reasoning subject quite than divine revelation as the get-go point for roll in the hayledge and reflection (65). done these derrieres set for modernity, the modern philosophers saturnine to science in carry for their hypotheses. Thinkers such(prenominal) as Descartes, northward, and Kant provided the intellectual foundation for the modern era (80). Rene Descartes was one of the first modern thinkers of his time, very much adult male referred to as the father of modern philosophy (63). When Descartes irst set out on his journey for k todayledge, he set out with doubt, in search of absolute truth that doubt could non deny (64). resembling many separate thinkers of that period, he act to introduce the rigor of mathematical monstrance into all fields of cognition, because he gestated that the truths of math were more(prenominal) cover than spangledge based on observation (64). Descartes eventually fixed the terminal of his searching the one thing that could non be doubted was ones protest existence. His new elbow room of sentiment led to a different outlook of the homo psyche.His score defined The gay being as persuasion substance and the human person as an autonomous sharp subject (64). This new definition back up Augustines philosophy Cogito ergo sum I think, therefore I am, (64). Although Descartes range did not discover subjectivity, the chief wideness of his contri providedion lies in his emphasis on personal experience and personal familiarity, on knowledge arising from the individuals odd point of view (64). His role in the Enlightenment paved the path for his modern-thinking successors.Following Descartes work, normality began making his hold imprint on the beingness, emphasizing the importance of science. His work cerebrate on trying to explain the plant of his universe that he saw as a Grand, orderly machine, (67). northwards liking of the humankind as a machine provided the framework for modernity. Newton retrieved that by viewing the field as a machine, he would be able to know its extendments because it would follow a set of straightforward laws (67). His design led modern thinkers to beat a mechanistic understanding of the populace, as opposed to a natural view (50).Although Newton looked at the scientific explanations of the man, his feeling was to explain the existence of God. alike(p) to Descartes, Newton used the power of reason to produce the meaning of theology. The modern world turned out to be Newtons mechanistic universe populated by Descartes autonomous, sane substance (67). through and through Newtons work, other philosophers had the foundation call for to make their induce impressions on the world of modernity. Eventually, philosophers began teasing the Enlightenment and modernity as a whole.Through Immanuel Kants work, he modify the ties between society and modernity, which associated him ego with the beginning of the Enlightenment. Kants most important contri simplyion to modernity was his publication of Critique of Pure Reason (57). His critique strengthened the concentrate of modernity and terminated all questioning of it. Kant look to create a more concrete platform for metaphysics through his writing (76). He hypothesized that the mind is systematical in organizing sensations from the external world. check to Kant, the human person is not all a creature capable of wiz experience bus also a moral being (77).Kant intendd that by financial support morally, one lives the way he wishes all nation would live. He argued that the moral purview of human existence is essentially sagacious (78). This view of existence created the farming of matter-of-fact reason, which encouraged other modern philosophers to stomach on the individual self. This attentiveness came from Kant introducing the thought that the self is not just the focus of philosophical attention but the entire subject matter of philosophy (79). Through this notion, Kant directed his attention to t he individual subjectlistic naive realism.Kants work provided future philosophers with the concepts needed to understand and eventually deconstruct modernity. Johann Gottlieb Fichte operated make of Kants discoveries. He accepted Kants work but also Was enabled to offset it from the inside (87). Fichte did not want to pop off Kants subjects, but instead cute To expose the Kantian fiction of an documentary world existing in its own right beyond the self, (87). Through his work, Kant forceful the idea that the self creates and determines the objects that constitute its own external world (87). Hence, the realm that Kant claims to know through pure reason, Fichte claims to produce through the exercise of practical reason (87). His work has created a freedom that is important because it holds the likely of liberating us from a single way of understanding the world, (88). Fichte managed to dissolve Kants idea of an absolute reality through eliminating the noumenal realm (88). Although he worked a slide byst Kant in many ways, Fichte managed to go along Kants concept of the absolute self (87).Fichte, along with other thinkers, beliefs led to what is now considered to be the postmodernism era by questioning the context of modernity and its constructors. Postmodernism is the mere rejection of the ideas that modernism and the Enlightenment support. The principal(prenominal) theory that postmodernism rejects is the construct of individualism. In its denunciation of modernism, it also rejects the modern theme of meta-narratives, except for its own. The postmodern world does not believe that all knowledge is unspoilt, nor that knowledge is objective. They view life on earth as fragile and believe that the continued existence of humankind is subject on a new view of cooperation rather than conquest (7). Postmodern beliefs hand a more pessimistic view on the world, as opposed to the modern idea. Postmoderns believe that the world is historical, relational, and personal (7). The main postmodern view is that everything is different from everything (7). Many voices see joined the postmodern chorus. except of these, three loom as both central and paradigmatic Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Richard Rorty.They constitute a trio of postmodern prophets (123). Michel Foucault was persistent in the rejection of the modern worldview. He argued that reason and rational discourse are problematic.. , because they require that we contort the variety of reality into the artificial homogeneousness that accommodates our concepts (127). His intentions were not to present the ideas of a get out society, but to understand order. This new society that Foucault presented was called heterotopia, as opposed to the modern view of utopia (20).Foucault focused on the connection between knowledge and power in regards to favorable systems, stating that every interpretation of reality is an affirmation of power (6). Foucault believed that this power was the power of violence (59). He used genealogy to gain a better understanding of how we arrived to the beliefs supported by society (135). According to Foucault, the go for of genealogy informs us that history is not controlled by destiny or whatever regulative mechanism but is the produce of haphazard conflicts (136).He reveals himself to be the model postmodern by making the assertion that no natural order lies rotter what we counterbalance through our use of language (137). Foucault provided a new outlet for the newly form notion to be interpreted by future philosophers. Subsequent to Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida reinterpreted some ideas of postmodernism. contrary Foucault, Derrida had different views on what was in correct about modernism. He focused on defying logocentrism The philosophical method that looks to the word as the carrier of meaning (141).He began, in a sense, where Kant left of by questioning what foundation can we offer for our use of reason (140) . Derrida was critical of Western philosophers in verbalize that they view writing as a demonstration of speech. He spent his life story of work trying to deconstruct the idea that written language represents reality. Unlike Foucault, Derrida did not try to create new ideas for postmodernism on the basis of old ideas he rather deconstructed or disproved the foundations of modernism. Derrida cherished to demolish the modern construct that views philosophy as pure, noble inquiry (148).Along with that, he also wanted to renounce the popular idea that there is a clear link between language and the external world, (148). Derridas autochthonic goal is to divest us of logocentrism by showing the impossibility of drawing a clear line between reality and our linguistic representations (148). all overall, Derridas target for deconstructionism was Western philosophy as a whole. The ideas delineated by the philosophy were viewed as hopeless by Derrida. The notions that Derrida brought to the table allowed thinkers to move past the modern ways and seek refuge in postmodernism.After Derrida, came a philosopher with a new way of thinking, Richard Rorty. Unlike his predecessors, Rorty express his belief in a clear style. Rorty is considered to be the central figure behind the renewed interest in the American pragmatist tradition (151). His pragmatist outlook abandoned an Enlightenment idea The mind is the mirror of nature (151). In pragmatism, the view of truth is that it is a result of human convention, thus it is constructed. Similar to Derrida, Rorty believes that language does not arrive the readiness to represent the world accurately.He views language as a device used to run across ones wants and needs. Working against modernism, he also states that we give up the idea that the goal of science is to produce models that mark perfectly with reality (154). Rorty believes that science is just one way to view the world, but there are many other ways to perceive it . Through the work of Foucault, Derrida, and Rorty, a new way of thinking was born which opened the world up for questioning. Postmodernism and Christianity have a working relationship. That is, Christians support and also disagree with some postmodern concepts.When postmodernism was first presented as an idea, Christians did not know how to approach it. A concern that Christians have with the postmodern view is the rejection of meta-narratives. The concept of stories matrimony a congregation as one is the foundation for Christianity. As Grenz states, We simply do not share the despair over the loss of universality that leads to the radical question of the emerging era (165). In sum total to the rejection of meta-narratives, postmodernism focuses on the in cogency to discover an encompassing truth. Here lies the major dilemma Christianity has with postmodernity.Christians believe that God includes the truth about everything, but postmodern thinkers do not believe that an all-en compassing truth is possible to r separately (163). The postmodern rejection of individualism worries Christians because they must(prenominal) forever keep in view the scriptural themes of Gods concern for from individually one person, the responsibility of every human beforehand God, and the individual orientation that lies within the redemption message (168). On the other hand, Christians support the rejection of the Enlightenment idea that the rational, scientific method is the sole measure of truth (166).Also, the postmodern denial that all knowledge is good and objective strengthens the ties between Christianity and postmodernism (168). Christians also support the postmodern finding that no person can be separate from creation. As years pass, Christians are more judge of postmodern concepts and are more rejecting of the modern ideas they once supported. Grenz view of the postmodern world is acceptable for what society faces today. The postmodern views have been mirrored throughout the public. Even in school, teachers focus more on group projects and group activities rather than the individuals.Children judge each other on the amount of time they spend with others, as opposed to the ability to spend time totally. Now, it is a must for children to always be with their friends. It is also represented in the working world. Bosses would prefer group presentations rather than individual. Most hatful do not like to be alone or even to be singled-out. Also, as the economy is closer to being in a recession, the postmodern idea that the world is not getting better every day is strengthened. People no long-range believe that humanity will be able to solve the worlds greatest roblems or even that their frugal situation will surpass that of their parents, (7). both day it seems as though the world is not capable to overcome what it has started, such as wars. It seems as though the world is no longer a clever place at most times. The postmodern pessimistic view is presented daily. It is awkward for others when people are optimistic about their life. Overall, people seem accepting to the postmodern views. Over the years, the world has seen different phases sweep through, and each one is eventually accepted. The most underway themes are modernity and postmodernity.The modern views were set forth by Rene Descartes, Isaac Newton, and Immanuel Kant. Modernism is the idea of focusing on the individual in means of scientific explanations. Also, modern thinkers believe that all knowledge is inherently good. Johann Gottlieb Fichte is partly responsible for the beginning of questioning modernity. in one case Fichte opened the doors, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Richard Rorty put an end to the modern way of thinking. What their idea created was postmodernity. The postmodern thinker steps away from the individual, focusing more on group relations.Also, postmodernism denies that all knowledge is essentially good. This new way of thinki ng has made Christians question how to respond. Christians agree, but also disagree with some of the postmodern views. As a whole, the world has come to basis with postmodernism by accepting it. What is going to surpass when philosophers begin to question postmodernity? How will the world be viewed once people detail accepting postmodernism? Works Cited Grenz, Stanley J. A Primer on Postmodernism. Grand Rapids William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996.