Christian Metaphysics – Part 4: Postmodernism

This summary on Christian metaphysics and Postmodernism is from the Introduction to Four Views on Christian Metaphysics.

Postmodernism is a more recent approach to metaphysics than either the dualistic realism of Platonism and Aristotelianism or the monism of idealism. Postmodernism can be broadly characterized as a marked shift in how metaphysics was understood up through “modernity.” It generally rejects metaphysics as an “analysis” of “reality” but rather sees the project of metaphysics as a broadly hermeneutical or interpretive task that rejects grand-scale systems. For example, it often rejects the realism of both Platonism and Aristotelianism in favor of a nominalist view of universals. Universals are simply names we agree upon in our use of language. Christian post-modernism may approach metaphysics as a personal, spiritual, phenomenological task that incorporates the contingent aspects of lived reality as seen through the interpretive lenses of contingent creatures, but while connecting lived experience to the God of the Bible.

I recommend obtaining a copy of the book and reading Chapter 4. The outline for the chapter is as follows:

4.1 Postmodernism – Sam Welbaum

4.2 Platonism Response – Paul M. Gould

4.3 Aristotelianism Response – Timothy L. Jacobs

4.4 Idealism Response – James S. Spiegel

4.5 Postmodernism Reply – Same Welbaum

~ Boethius ~