Many problems have been caused by those whose worldviews have rigidly defined lines and sharp corners. All of us, but especially Christians, live, operate and think on a foundation that is shot through with bifurcations and false dilemmas: Tradition X is completely right and tradition Y is completely wrong. Political Party X is completely right and political party Y is completely wrong. Author X is to be accepted and author B is to be rejected. Such thinking is sustained primarily on the basis of straw-men and caricatures. This is sophomoric in nature, and leads not only to a stunted intellectual capacity, but a truncated, myopic understanding of revealed creation. One of the many casualties of this adolescent strain in Christian thought has been “postmodern” philosophy. Often it is dismissed on the basis of having no merit, being heretical or being incompatible with Christianity.
This course seeks to unearth the many benefits of postmodern philosophy for the Christian community. Rather than rejecting these ideas and thinkers, we will humbly ask, what we as Christians can learn about our own faith and understanding of the world from: Nietzsche, Marx, Derrida, Lyotard and Wittgenstein.