Postmodernism, Literature, and the Future of Theology

Postmodernism, Literature, and the Future of Theology PDF

Author: David Jasper

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2009-06-16

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1606088297

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These essays set out to consider the possible future of theology in the light of the so-called postmodern condition. They are necessarily deeply interdisciplinary, since it is a characteristic of post-Enlightenment thought to disintegrate the lines of definition which separate areas of reflection in the human sciences. Theology, we believe, must be exposed to the consequences of what has happened in literature and critical theory if it is to have any future outside the protected and isolated environment of ecclesia and the communities of the faithful. The authors represent a great diversity of opinion and discipline. Not all of us would agree with one another, and certainly there is no agreement as to what constitutes postmodernity. Yet this very diversity forms the strength and importance of the book, for there are no simple answers or straightforward definitions. Theology must recognize the pluralism within which it now must carry out its task and which alone defines its future. The keynote of the discussion is the tragic. Tragedy takes us back to the Greeks, and to Nietzsche. Both feature centrally in this presentation. It also suggests a future, a return, perhaps, through literature to theology, and not merely an end of the story as it has been traditionally sold.

Religion After Postmodernism

Religion After Postmodernism PDF

Author: Victor E. Taylor

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13:

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In this critical examination of the role of the imagination in the modern and postmodern periods, Victor E. Taylor looks at the 'fable' as a narrative form that addresses the ultimate questions of how to live and why. He assesses various literary theories and styles in the wake of postmodernism to reveal the ways in which fable-style narrative can be a meaningful genre for addressing traditional and post-traditional religious, ethical, and epistemological concerns. In the process, Taylor draws on key figures across the humanities--from Mircea Eliade and Claude Levi-Strauss, Paul Ricoeur and Slavoj Zizek, to Leo Tolstoy and Franz Kafka. Placing an emphasis on rethinking the importance of critical theory in religious studies, the author argues that a new, more demanding formulation of the concept of possibility allows for a realignment of the philosophical, mythological, and literary imaginations. By returning to the history of philosophy, myth studies, and modern literature, Taylor makes a renewed case for the significance of a distinctive formulation of religious theory as a desire for thinking. Religion after Postmodernism calls for a reconsideration of "theory as thinking" for the future of philosophy, religious studies, and literature.

Postmodern Belief

Postmodern Belief PDF

Author: Amy Hungerford

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2010-07-01

Total Pages: 219

ISBN-13: 1400834910

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How can intense religious beliefs coexist with pluralism in America today? Examining the role of the religious imagination in contemporary religious practice and in some of the best-known works of American literature from the past fifty years, Postmodern Belief shows how belief for its own sake--a belief absent of doctrine--has become an answer to pluralism in a secular age. Amy Hungerford reveals how imaginative literature and religious practices together allow novelists, poets, and critics to express the formal elements of language in transcendent terms, conferring upon words a religious value independent of meaning. Hungerford explores the work of major American writers, including Allen Ginsberg, Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison, and Marilynne Robinson, and links their unique visions to the religious worlds they touch. She illustrates how Ginsberg's chant-infused 1960s poetry echoes the tongue-speaking of Charismatic Christians, how DeLillo reimagines the novel and the Latin Mass, why McCarthy's prose imitates the Bible, and why Morrison's fiction needs the supernatural. Uncovering how literature and religion conceive of a world where religious belief can escape confrontations with other worldviews, Hungerford corrects recent efforts to discard the importance of belief in understanding religious life, and argues that belief in belief itself can transform secular reading and writing into a religious act. Honoring the ways in which people talk about and practice religion, Postmodern Belief highlights the claims of the religious imagination in twentieth-century American culture.

Postmodernism and the Revolution in Religious Theory

Postmodernism and the Revolution in Religious Theory PDF

Author: Carl A. Raschke

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 0813933064

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While the academic study of religion has increased almost exponentially in the past fifty years, general theories of religion have been in significant decline. In his new book, Carl Raschke offers the first systematic exploration of how the postmodern philosophical theories of Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze, Alain Badiou, and Slavoj Zizek have contributed significantly to the development of a theory of religion as a whole. The bold paradigm he uses to articulate the framework for a revolution in religious theory comes from semiotics--namely, the problem of the sign and the "singularity" or "event horizon" from which a sign is generated.

After the Future

After the Future PDF

Author: Mikhail Epstein

Publisher:

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 428

ISBN-13:

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Written from a non-Western point of view, this work offers a fresh perspective on the postcommunist literary scene. The four sections of the book - literature, ideology, culture and methodology - reflect the range of postmodernism in contemporary Russia.

Varieties of Postmodern Theology

Varieties of Postmodern Theology PDF

Author: David Ray Griffin

Publisher: SUNY Press

Published: 1989-07-01

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 9780791400517

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This book sorts out the confusion created by the use of the term “postmodern” in relation to widely divergent theological positions. Four different types of postmodern theology are distinguished in the preface: constructive, deconstructive, liberationist, and conservative. Two forms of each type are discussed in the book. Writing from a constructive, postmodern perspective, the authors enter into dialogue with the deconstructive postmodernism of Mark C. Taylor and Jean-François Lyotard, with the liberationist postmodernism of Harvey Cox and Cornel West, and with the conservative postmodernism of George William Rutler and John Paul II.

The Future of Hope

The Future of Hope PDF

Author: Miroslav Volf

Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 9780802827524

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Over the last three decades a major cultural shift has taken place in the attitudes of Western societies toward the future. Modernitybs eclipse by postmodernity is characterized in large part by the loss of hope for a future substantially better than the present. Old optimism about human progress has given way to uncertainty and fear. In this book scholars from various disciplines -- theology, the social sciences, and the humanities -- explore the move from a bculture of optimismb to a bculture of ambiguity, b and they seek to infuse todaybs jaded language of hope with a new vitality. "The Future of Hope" offers a powerful critique of todaybs stifling cultural climate and shows why the vision of hope central to Christian faith must be a basic component of any flourishing society. The first section of the book sets the context with telling cultural criticism of modernity. The second section focuses on affinities between premodern Christian visions of hope and twentieth-century thought. The final section of the book examines the relationship between postmodern thought, Christian tradition, and biblical hope, addressing how Christians in a postmodern world can best articulate their faith. Written by truly profound thinkers, these chapters are diverse in their content, methodologies, and temperament, yet they are united by a deep engagement with both the Christian tradition and the larger cultural and intellectual climate in which we live and work. "The Future of Hope" can thus be read not just as an attempt at retrieval of hope for today but as itself one small act of hope in an age when people too seldom take time to think critically and hopefully. Contributors: DavidBillings Robert Paul Doede Kevin L. Hughes Paul Edward Hughes Daniel Johnson William Katerberg John Milbank Jurgen Moltmann James K. A. Smith Miroslav Volf Nicholas Wolterstorff

Karl Barth

Karl Barth PDF

Author: Christiaan Mostert

Publisher: ATF Press

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 9780958639910

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Karl Barth: A Future for Postmodern Theology'' What doe the colon and the question mark in the title signfy' Does the collection colon denote relatedness or separation' What is the effect of the question mark' Does the interrogative question the future of Karl Barth's approach to theology, make a clain for Barth as a postmodern theologian, or ...

Metamodernism

Metamodernism PDF

Author: Jason Ananda Josephson Storm

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2021-07-20

Total Pages: 375

ISBN-13: 022678665X

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Opening -- Part I. Metarealism. How the real world became a fable, or, The realities of social construction -- Part II. Process social ontology. Concepts in disintegration & strategies for demolition ; Process social ontology ; Social kinds -- Part III. Hylosemiotics. Hylosemiotics : the discourse of things -- Part IV. Knowledge and value. Zetetic knowledge ; The revaluation of values -- Conclusion : becoming metamodern.