What Does Postmodern Mean?
Words like “postmodern” and “postmodernity” have been a standard part of our intellectual vocabulary for several decades. Given this history it’s remarkable how unclear we are about what exactly we’re talking about when we use these words.
It is not unusual to encounter Christians who will vehemently denounce “postmodernism without knowing whether it’s a man or a horse. Perhaps this should not be surprising given the rejection of “essentialistic” and “referential semantics that characterizes postmodern thinkers.
But we still can’t communicate with each other when we use these words if we have no expectations of how people will understand them when we put them to work.
I think that we can introduce some clarity into the usefulness of these words (and the limits to their usefulness by looking into the social, political, and economic context in which they emerged. The changes that that characterized those times now confront us with the necessity to rethink or approaches to many things that we’ve taken for granted in Christian circles.
We need to know what we’re dealing with now. I’m going to try to make a contribution to that process in a series of posts. You’re welcome to come along for the ride. Your comments are welcome.
I am really looking forward to what you write.
I’m interested in postmodernism and its effects on society today in a broad spectrum of fields. My particular background with postmodernism is in architecture, which is a little different than its application in literature and other genres due to the physical and even more functional nature of the medium.
I have a few posts on this topic here: http://lifeandbuilding.com/tag/postmodernism/