CAN WE SPEAK OF A POSTMODERN CHRISTIANITY?

Abstract

Christianity is grounded in absolute truth-claims, whereas Postmodernism1 upholds a strong sense of relativity of truth. This poses a problem whether we can speak of a postmodern sense of Christianity. The issue is related with more queries such as, while Christian theology harps on monotheism, the belief that there is only one God who as the ground of all existence is rejected by postmodern thinking, be it theological or philosophical or socio-cultural. Hence, does it mean that postmodernism be viewed as the most recent brand of atheism as part of the extension of the modernist secularism and humanism. Since, after the medieval period, there seems to be a philosophical passivity on the part of the Christian theologians/ philosophers, except certain moralist claims, does it mean that Christianity is vulnerable to postmodernism? Broadly speaking, the issue is, Can a Christian be a postmodernist without losing his/her being Christian, and a Postmodernist being in some sense a Christian? How should Christian thinkers respond to postmodernism: as a threat or as a challenge or as new outlook by which the Christian has to re-look at his theological/ philosophical grounds? Of course, this would call for a critical dialogue and a deeper analysis between these two positions, the Christian and the Postmodern.