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Salomão entre os pós-modernos
As palavras de Salomão, numa célebre passagem de Eclesiastes, são em geral assim traduzidas: “Vaidade de vaidades, tudo é vaidade”. Mas em Salomão entre os pós-modernos, o autor Peter Leithart diz que essas palavras são melhor traduzidas como “vapor de vapores, tudo é vapor”, enfatizando a efemeridade da vida humana. Leithart usa esse tema, bem como todo o livro de Eclesiastes, para demonstrar como Salomão está impregnado de pós-modernismo.
Explorando os pontos fortes e os limites do pós-modernismo, o autor apresenta como a teoria reflete um importante tema bíblico: a fugacidade e instabilidade do mundo. Mas Leithart prossegue expondo que a fé bíblica nos leva para além do cinismo e desespero e nos remete à frequente convocação de Salomão para que “comamos, bebamos e nos regozijemos”.
Sendo um habilidoso teólogo e autor de várias obras amplamente publicadas, Leithart escreve para públicos que incluem tanto professores e estudantes de filosofia, de apologética, de estudos bíblicos e de teologia quanto leigos que buscam uma visão bíblica sobre o pós-modernismo. Aqueles familiarizados ou não com o pós-modernismo aprenderão muito a partir de sua franca abordagem exegética, que é única em meio a muitos livros sobre pós-modernismo disponíveis nestes dias.
Explorando os pontos fortes e os limites do pós-modernismo, o autor apresenta como a teoria reflete um importante tema bíblico: a fugacidade e instabilidade do mundo. Mas Leithart prossegue expondo que a fé bíblica nos leva para além do cinismo e desespero e nos remete à frequente convocação de Salomão para que “comamos, bebamos e nos regozijemos”.
Sendo um habilidoso teólogo e autor de várias obras amplamente publicadas, Leithart escreve para públicos que incluem tanto professores e estudantes de filosofia, de apologética, de estudos bíblicos e de teologia quanto leigos que buscam uma visão bíblica sobre o pós-modernismo. Aqueles familiarizados ou não com o pós-modernismo aprenderão muito a partir de sua franca abordagem exegética, que é única em meio a muitos livros sobre pós-modernismo disponíveis nestes dias.
180 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
26 people are currently reading
487 people want to read
About the author
Peter J. Leithart
130 books370 followersPeter Leithart received an A.B. in English and History from Hillsdale College in 1981, and a Master of Arts in Religion and a Master of Theology from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia in 1986 and 1987. In 1998 he received his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in England. He has served in two pastorates: He was pastor of Reformed Heritage Presbyterian Church (now Trinity Presbyterian Church), Birmingham, Alabama from 1989 to 1995, and was founding pastor of Trinity Reformed Church, Moscow, Idaho, and served on the pastoral staff at Trinity from 2003-2013. From 1998 to 2013 he taught theology and literature at New St. Andrews College, Moscow, Idaho, where he continues to teach as an adjunct Senior Fellow. He now serves as President of Trinity House in Alabama, where is also resident Church Teacher at the local CREC church. He and his wife, Noel, have ten children and five grandchildren.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
March 13, 2021
Bom livro para saber a história do Pós-Modernismo, suas raízes, e interpretação.
Confesso esperava um pouco mais das conexões entre Salomão e o Pós-Modernismo. Contudo, às que foram feitas são preciosas e chamam o leitor a continuar com o raciocínio.
Recomendo que após essas leitura façam também a do livro: “Isto É Filtro Solar: Eclesiastes E A Vida Debaixo Do Sol” de Emilio Garofalo Neto.
https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/65878600...
Confesso esperava um pouco mais das conexões entre Salomão e o Pós-Modernismo. Contudo, às que foram feitas são preciosas e chamam o leitor a continuar com o raciocínio.
Recomendo que após essas leitura façam também a do livro: “Isto É Filtro Solar: Eclesiastes E A Vida Debaixo Do Sol” de Emilio Garofalo Neto.
https://www.amazon.com.br/dp/65878600...
January 13, 2021
Lido mais uma vez. Mesma percepção: Simplesmente fantástico!
January 23, 2018
One of Leithart's greatest books. I feel like nearly all my studies at NSA really prepared me for this book; the way our presuppositions and angles continually affect us is important and part and parcel of our finitude. He applies Ecclesiastes to our modern/postmodern age and shows how recent intellectual thought can free us from the Modern, individualistic, cosmic quest to fit the wind into tightly packaged and organized boxes. A very encouraging book.
Surprisingly, I found it somewhat less dense than Babel and Beast, even though it remained remarkably short and covered a lot of ground.
Postscript: Just re-read as my last book in college. Reading it all at once is a roller coaster--where can this ride NOT lead! Again, it encapsulated everything from NSA:
* Lordship & Theology - The Gospel is not just a private, but a social hope.
* Rhetoric & Writing - The Response to the world should be hope and gratitude.
* Music & Biology - That which seemeth easy is harder than it looks.
* Latin & Greek & Hebrew - Language is messy.
* Classical History - History is an act of arbitrary arrangement.
* Faith and Reason - We cannot justify every belief all the way down.
* Traditio - Man's attempt to understand the universe (not to mention himself). They get points for class participation.
* Math - Man tries to get certainty. Memo: it didn't work.
* Thesis - Find your identity in another.
I know I am over-simplifying, but hey! we all do it! Unquestionably Leithart's best book. Ever.
Postscript:
It's kind of painful to look at yourself in the mirror some days of the week and to realize that a book you once loved and lauded to the skies is flawed. But it's no less painful than realizing your wrong or sinful. Although I strongly agree with a lot of Leithart's "data" (boundaries and categories and language are porrous) and I agree that the postmoderns were often right about those boundaries and so I would probably still enjoy reading this book, I think the older (Greek, yes, Greek) categories of natural law were basically right and that, once you define terms in a certain way, the world has a predictable nature which we can describe profitably and thus what is needed now is, by and large, a return to classical philosophy and theology.
Here's someone more intelligent than me explaining it:
https://bradlittlejohn.com/2016/08/10...
https://bradlittlejohn.com/2012/07/04...
Surprisingly, I found it somewhat less dense than Babel and Beast, even though it remained remarkably short and covered a lot of ground.
Postscript: Just re-read as my last book in college. Reading it all at once is a roller coaster--where can this ride NOT lead! Again, it encapsulated everything from NSA:
* Lordship & Theology - The Gospel is not just a private, but a social hope.
* Rhetoric & Writing - The Response to the world should be hope and gratitude.
* Music & Biology - That which seemeth easy is harder than it looks.
* Latin & Greek & Hebrew - Language is messy.
* Classical History - History is an act of arbitrary arrangement.
* Faith and Reason - We cannot justify every belief all the way down.
* Traditio - Man's attempt to understand the universe (not to mention himself). They get points for class participation.
* Math - Man tries to get certainty. Memo: it didn't work.
* Thesis - Find your identity in another.
I know I am over-simplifying, but hey! we all do it! Unquestionably Leithart's best book. Ever.
Postscript:
It's kind of painful to look at yourself in the mirror some days of the week and to realize that a book you once loved and lauded to the skies is flawed. But it's no less painful than realizing your wrong or sinful. Although I strongly agree with a lot of Leithart's "data" (boundaries and categories and language are porrous) and I agree that the postmoderns were often right about those boundaries and so I would probably still enjoy reading this book, I think the older (Greek, yes, Greek) categories of natural law were basically right and that, once you define terms in a certain way, the world has a predictable nature which we can describe profitably and thus what is needed now is, by and large, a return to classical philosophy and theology.
Here's someone more intelligent than me explaining it:
https://bradlittlejohn.com/2016/08/10...
https://bradlittlejohn.com/2012/07/04...
November 9, 2015
Modernism is the tower of Babel, postmodernism is the confusion of languages after Babel. Solomon is like postmodernists except for one major difference: the postmoderns conclude that no one can shepherd the wind while Solomon confesses that Someone DOES, and that Someone calls us to feast and enjoy life under His benevolent care.
June 6, 2016
Leithart's audience in this book is a group of people he labels APCs—Anti-Postmodern Christians. Many Christians make blanket statements about the perilous consequences of postmodernity without ever realizing they are embracing a worldview (modernity) that has just as many, if not more, negative consequences as postmodernity. In this book, Leithart shows how Christians should embrace certain aspects of postmodernity's "revenge" against modernity. Moreover he shows the shortcomings of postmodern theory and, as always, points to a vibrant faith in Christ as the only compass with which one can truly navigate this vaporous world.
If you have found yourself lambasting postmodernity, maybe you haven't quite understood it. Or, perhaps more likely, you haven't realized how much you've embraced the project of modernity.
All in all I think this is a wonderful book that offers some serious correction and insight into an area that many Christians need to be corrected and guided through. I highly recommend this book!
If you have found yourself lambasting postmodernity, maybe you haven't quite understood it. Or, perhaps more likely, you haven't realized how much you've embraced the project of modernity.
All in all I think this is a wonderful book that offers some serious correction and insight into an area that many Christians need to be corrected and guided through. I highly recommend this book!
October 22, 2018
As always, I don't rate Leithart's books based on how much I agree with him. I rate them based on how thought provoking they are. Leithart has a great writing voice, and even if I can't get behind his apparent nominalism, he has a lot of good stuff to say.
He gives postmodernism a good shake in this book, and even though I'm not well read enough to evaluate his accuracy on everything, I trust his scholarship and learned a lot. Having read "Delivered from the Elements" last year, I can see groundwork for that book here. In both cases I appreciate his information even if I disagree with his particular applications.
He gives postmodernism a good shake in this book, and even though I'm not well read enough to evaluate his accuracy on everything, I trust his scholarship and learned a lot. Having read "Delivered from the Elements" last year, I can see groundwork for that book here. In both cases I appreciate his information even if I disagree with his particular applications.
January 13, 2009
Quite solid.
February 2, 2017
Most of the time when I hear the words "Christian" and "Postmodern" in the same sentence, I expect either a). a wildly inaccurate revisionism that attempts to pin some absurd thesis to the Judeo-Christian tradition, such as "The Israelites never actually believed in God" or "St. Paul did not actually think Jesus was resurrected", or I hear b). scathing condemnations mainly coming from Evangelical Christians on how Postmodernism is an evil to be defeated. To be fair, I've been pretty harsh on Postmodernism in my own philosophical inquiries: the notion that there is no such thing as the permanent self, words mean nothing, everything is relative, and all knowledge is social construction tire me as a philosopher to no end. While for the most part Postmodernism has been rejected by the bulk of Anglo-American philosophers, it still holds a large amount of influence in humanities departments (in my American Lit course, the only philosophers my professor knew seemed to be Michel Foucault, Louis Althusser, and Roland Barthes, to her great discredit).
However, Leithart does not necessarily see Biblical and Postmodern perspectives as being on opposite ends of an easy spectrum. In fact, he sees much in the Postmoderns that are similar to the Biblical revelation. He uses the wonderful Book of Ecclesiastes to make comparisons (Solomon certainly says some very Postmodern things). Some of his points seemed mundane to me: such as pointing out how the Biblical revelation embraces the tentativeness of our knowledge similar to Postmodernism since it anticipates a judgment day in the future where total knowledge will be revealed, which I thought seemed a forced point.
On the other hand, Leithart makes a striking observation in noting that both Postmodernism and the Biblical view share a common skepticism for modernity. Just as Foucault rebelled against the Enlightenment project of improving society and the human being, so does the Biblical view. Both would rebel against utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham's idea of a prison in which all occupants are watched at all times in order to eventually mold them into effective pawns of the general happiness. Of course it goes without saying that they react in opposite ways, but the fact that they react does reveal a core and interesting similarity.
Modernity is defined often by its process of trying to compartmentalize all aspects of natural or human reality into distinct categories in order to control it. Politics is easier to control when you eliminate religious influence. Things were better looked at from an "Us vs. Them" perspective that allowed us to understand people and civilizations better. A mechanized Newtonian universe allows us to quantify nature and control it for human well-being better. We are on a big, long march to mastering the elements and solving the problems of the human condition.
Both Postmodernity and the Biblical view reject this. Both of them see the dehumanizing qualities of this project. The cleanliness and sterility of modernity take away from what Postmodernism sees as the more humane qualities of liquidity and inherent messiness that allows us to give up trying to master being human, recognize it's all kinda meaningless, tear down the social constructs, and see anew. The Biblical view on the other hand sees modernity much like the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11): a vain quest for what only the divine and His righteous way can offer. Modernity with its systematization, while beautiful in its fruits, has prevented us from truly wrestling with the great struggles of Being (my mind harkens to Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32) in the presence of the Divine.
Postmodernism then, for Leithart, has comprehended the problem with modernity. It sees that reality can't be completely compartmentalized and that modernity has been reductive. The question then remains whether Postmodernism will keep wandering through the fog or realize the truth that the fog can only be seen because there is a Sun to light it. I know which side I am on. For the time being though, it is good to have a Christian author who takes time to understand Postmodernism and to really take the best of what Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, and Barthes all have to offer.
A good book.
However, Leithart does not necessarily see Biblical and Postmodern perspectives as being on opposite ends of an easy spectrum. In fact, he sees much in the Postmoderns that are similar to the Biblical revelation. He uses the wonderful Book of Ecclesiastes to make comparisons (Solomon certainly says some very Postmodern things). Some of his points seemed mundane to me: such as pointing out how the Biblical revelation embraces the tentativeness of our knowledge similar to Postmodernism since it anticipates a judgment day in the future where total knowledge will be revealed, which I thought seemed a forced point.
On the other hand, Leithart makes a striking observation in noting that both Postmodernism and the Biblical view share a common skepticism for modernity. Just as Foucault rebelled against the Enlightenment project of improving society and the human being, so does the Biblical view. Both would rebel against utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham's idea of a prison in which all occupants are watched at all times in order to eventually mold them into effective pawns of the general happiness. Of course it goes without saying that they react in opposite ways, but the fact that they react does reveal a core and interesting similarity.
Modernity is defined often by its process of trying to compartmentalize all aspects of natural or human reality into distinct categories in order to control it. Politics is easier to control when you eliminate religious influence. Things were better looked at from an "Us vs. Them" perspective that allowed us to understand people and civilizations better. A mechanized Newtonian universe allows us to quantify nature and control it for human well-being better. We are on a big, long march to mastering the elements and solving the problems of the human condition.
Both Postmodernity and the Biblical view reject this. Both of them see the dehumanizing qualities of this project. The cleanliness and sterility of modernity take away from what Postmodernism sees as the more humane qualities of liquidity and inherent messiness that allows us to give up trying to master being human, recognize it's all kinda meaningless, tear down the social constructs, and see anew. The Biblical view on the other hand sees modernity much like the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11): a vain quest for what only the divine and His righteous way can offer. Modernity with its systematization, while beautiful in its fruits, has prevented us from truly wrestling with the great struggles of Being (my mind harkens to Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32) in the presence of the Divine.
Postmodernism then, for Leithart, has comprehended the problem with modernity. It sees that reality can't be completely compartmentalized and that modernity has been reductive. The question then remains whether Postmodernism will keep wandering through the fog or realize the truth that the fog can only be seen because there is a Sun to light it. I know which side I am on. For the time being though, it is good to have a Christian author who takes time to understand Postmodernism and to really take the best of what Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, and Barthes all have to offer.
A good book.
January 27, 2024
Leithart is great. This is a very fair, careful, and well-read summary of the modern and postmodern milieus in addition to a really helpful reading of Ecclesiastes. I tend to agree with most of the postmodern critiques but to disagree with most of their affirmations: Leithart seems to take that stance as well, yet he reads postmodernism charitably and demonstrates that it too is nothing new under the sun. There could have been much more to this little book, but there's nothing to complain about as it stands.
February 21, 2021
Takes a while to ſtart, wiþ a long & ſympaþetic expoſition of what is (& is not) poſtmoderniſm, & only comes to its own in ðe laſt few pages, when it fully brings Solomon’s wiſdom to bear witneß unto poſtmoderns; yet more ðan worþ its while.
On a ſecond readiŋ, for tranſlation, loſes a bit of it ſtrengþ due to me haviŋ already read Carſon’s duo ‘Chriſt & culture reviſited’ & ‘Ðe intolerance of tolerance’, which ſeriouſly deflate Poſtmoderniſm.
On a ſecond readiŋ, for tranſlation, loſes a bit of it ſtrengþ due to me haviŋ already read Carſon’s duo ‘Chriſt & culture reviſited’ & ‘Ðe intolerance of tolerance’, which ſeriouſly deflate Poſtmoderniſm.
June 14, 2021
A remarkable book! It was really easy to read, although, it had some complex themes that I didn't quite know about, so I had to do some side work to get the most of it. I'm sure that I will read this book again soon because it is amazing!
March 22, 2024
A book I wish I had read during graduate school and a book I wish I had written after graduate school. I do wonder if Dr. Leithart would modify any of his claims now nearly twenty years later when much of what he was observing in seed form has sprouted and borne fruit after its kind.
September 19, 2011
It has been difficult to find time to fit in such a dense book while reading for seminary, but it has been worth it!
I've often read on Leithart's blog things which struck me as particular pro-Postmodernism, but I always wrote that off as blind ignorance on my part. Hence, I was bowled over by the stance of this book: Peter is basically a Christian Postmodern!
My entire take on Modernism vs Postmodernism (vs. Premodernism/Van Tillianism) began with a D.A. Carson lecture series at E.T.S. in 2004. Those talks changed my life, but in them Carson does what Leithart accuses all Anti-Postmodern Christians (APC's) of doing: assuming that Postmoderns are attempting to build an epistemology. The APC's then go on to show that such epistemologies are defective and bankrupt: case close, Postmodernism is bad, we can all go home. Leithart will have none of it.
Peter argues that Postmodernism is a strand within Modernism, present from the beginning and containing benefits and pitfalls just like every other man-made worldview. The Modernists' great error is pride, assuming that human beings can know everything. Postmoderns are not their polar-opposites (assuming human being can't know anything). Instead, the missing, sanctifying piece is eschatology.
Primarily though quotes and better translations of Ecclesiastes than we normally read, Leithart shows that Solomon was primarily a Postmodern in his tearing down of human institutions and supposed ultimate knowledge. What separates him from Derrida is having an end to the story. If the meaning of any one thing can be changed by later things, then an open universe deprives all things of any final meaning. Peter says Derrida is right, except that there is an ending to the One Story.
If you can handle the heaviness, then this is a great book.
I've often read on Leithart's blog things which struck me as particular pro-Postmodernism, but I always wrote that off as blind ignorance on my part. Hence, I was bowled over by the stance of this book: Peter is basically a Christian Postmodern!
My entire take on Modernism vs Postmodernism (vs. Premodernism/Van Tillianism) began with a D.A. Carson lecture series at E.T.S. in 2004. Those talks changed my life, but in them Carson does what Leithart accuses all Anti-Postmodern Christians (APC's) of doing: assuming that Postmoderns are attempting to build an epistemology. The APC's then go on to show that such epistemologies are defective and bankrupt: case close, Postmodernism is bad, we can all go home. Leithart will have none of it.
Peter argues that Postmodernism is a strand within Modernism, present from the beginning and containing benefits and pitfalls just like every other man-made worldview. The Modernists' great error is pride, assuming that human beings can know everything. Postmoderns are not their polar-opposites (assuming human being can't know anything). Instead, the missing, sanctifying piece is eschatology.
Primarily though quotes and better translations of Ecclesiastes than we normally read, Leithart shows that Solomon was primarily a Postmodern in his tearing down of human institutions and supposed ultimate knowledge. What separates him from Derrida is having an end to the story. If the meaning of any one thing can be changed by later things, then an open universe deprives all things of any final meaning. Peter says Derrida is right, except that there is an ending to the One Story.
If you can handle the heaviness, then this is a great book.
April 20, 2008
Astonishing book--a critique of the modern and postmodern movements from a philosophical perspective. Erudite, sophisticated, witty and copious. Quotes from Marx in one sentence and Ecclesiastes in the next. Very good.
July 5, 2023
Many virtues overshadowed by a conclusion I am forced to take as a sentimental cop-out at best, and accidental support for abusive spiritual authorities at worst. Leithart's account of modernity and postmodernity is compelling, funny, poetic and rhetorically powerful, but he does not seem to be aware that he is taking up very new definitions of words like power, authority, politics and control and using them only within the parameters our age has set for him. I am not sure how much of a capitulation the book is to the teleology of modernity or postmodernity. I just know there exists a better and truer paradigm for a discussion involving the architectonic art, even today. I'd be willing to revisit the whole thing and happy to be gifted a better understanding of the work.
August 3, 2025
Postmodernism is based?
I came because it was assigned for class. I stayed because of the one Manu Ginóbili reference on page 140.
Som very interesting ideas and a nice nuancing of postmodernism. Went on for far too long and was, at times, quite repetitive. It only kind of had to do with Ecclesiastes, and some of the readings were off the mark in my opinion. I also think I just don’t have the right framework to think about a text that deals with such technical philosophy. I will probably reference some of the more interesting sections, but I also thought this one could have been significantly more concise and expressed the same idea in a clearer format.
I came because it was assigned for class. I stayed because of the one Manu Ginóbili reference on page 140.
Som very interesting ideas and a nice nuancing of postmodernism. Went on for far too long and was, at times, quite repetitive. It only kind of had to do with Ecclesiastes, and some of the readings were off the mark in my opinion. I also think I just don’t have the right framework to think about a text that deals with such technical philosophy. I will probably reference some of the more interesting sections, but I also thought this one could have been significantly more concise and expressed the same idea in a clearer format.
July 23, 2025
Good stuff.
Read
December 11, 2022“To say that all is vapor is to say that it’s hiding something, and Solomon is suggesting that the vapor of the world screens us from God himself, who for the time being, “under the sun,” modestly remains behind the veil of the vaporous world.”, p. 166
December 7, 2023
Very very very good. Read it.
September 11, 2023
Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Very helpful as I prepare to preach Ecclesiastes.
February 5, 2009
Once again Leithart delivers the goods. He is such a brilliant man and a scholar's scholar. In this book he does a wonderful job of navigating between the pitfalls most Christians fall into when it comes to "the postmodern." I've read quite a few books on this subject, but I've never read any from a Christian perspective that does such a great job of laying out the political influences postmodernity has had on the cultural landscape. The politics of postmodernity are often neglected or just plain kept out of the picture. But as Leithart shows in this book, political action and involvement is a sine qua non of the postmodern. Modernity tried to separate philosophy from politics, but the postmodern sees the essential unity between these.
Obviously, the best part of the book is how Leithart is able to bring this cultural mess we find ourselves in back to the Teacher of Teachers (the Quoleth of Ecclesiastes). The postmodern has a better grasp on the un-graspableness of life under the sun. But then he throws his hands up in despair and defiance against the Almighty who made it that way; rather than rejoice, eat, drink and be merry as Christians are commanded to do.
Highly recommended.
Obviously, the best part of the book is how Leithart is able to bring this cultural mess we find ourselves in back to the Teacher of Teachers (the Quoleth of Ecclesiastes). The postmodern has a better grasp on the un-graspableness of life under the sun. But then he throws his hands up in despair and defiance against the Almighty who made it that way; rather than rejoice, eat, drink and be merry as Christians are commanded to do.
Highly recommended.
August 12, 2009
This is a really good book, despite its (in my opinion) failures. Leithart is a great writer. I find myself laughing out loud at some of his observations about postmodernity. He has a keen eye. He has a winsome way of connecting social habits to a Shakespeare or Oscar Wilde quote.
Leithart is sympathetic to Postmodernism, in that postmodernism realizes the limitation of our observations, abilities, and knowledge. As Solomon put it - everything is vapor (very postmodern of him). Leithart's response to Postmodernism is eschatological rather than epistemological. Both sides (Solomon and postmodernism) agree that knowledge is "provisional", its just that Solomon saw an end, "specifically to the eschatological dimension of biblical faith" and directs our hope to God.
My problem with Leithart is that his eschatological response falls short without the foundation of an epistemological response of divine revelation to divine image bearers. Leithart ends up arguing for postmoderns to believe in the Triune God in a way that Plato argued for the ancient greeks to believe in the Forms. Leithart is to Derrida as Plato is to Heraclitus!
Leithart is sympathetic to Postmodernism, in that postmodernism realizes the limitation of our observations, abilities, and knowledge. As Solomon put it - everything is vapor (very postmodern of him). Leithart's response to Postmodernism is eschatological rather than epistemological. Both sides (Solomon and postmodernism) agree that knowledge is "provisional", its just that Solomon saw an end, "specifically to the eschatological dimension of biblical faith" and directs our hope to God.
My problem with Leithart is that his eschatological response falls short without the foundation of an epistemological response of divine revelation to divine image bearers. Leithart ends up arguing for postmoderns to believe in the Triune God in a way that Plato argued for the ancient greeks to believe in the Forms. Leithart is to Derrida as Plato is to Heraclitus!
December 14, 2013
Well, Peter Leithart has done it again. That is, he has written a book that was a delight to read and expanded my mind. Solomon Among the Postmoderns surprised by giving me a totally new perspective on its subject. Like most evangelicals, my view of postmodernism was shallow and one dimensional, essentially a synonym for ""relativism", and is a successor to modernism. Leithart instead explains that postmodernism is a reaction to modernism that has been around the whole time, as soon as people started seeing through modernisms grandiose promises. The fact that postmodernism wrestles with the same questions that Solomon did--the vaporousness of life--means that modernism hasn't created the vapor, only revealed it in a new or intensified way. And in the book's masterful conclusion, the lessons of Ecclesiastes are beautifully summarized in a way that resonates powerfully with me---there is nothing better than to eat, drink, and rejoice in the work God has given us to do. Where secular postmodernists despair of there being anything knowable in this world, the Christian can embrace worship and work, knowing that there is life on the other side of the vapor.
September 20, 2013
As others have pointed out, Leithart approaches a survey of postmodernism via eschatology rather than epistemology, which I never would have understood before reading the book. This doesn't take away from the value of this book for a Christian as Leithart points you forward to the Triune God of the Bible so that you see that Scriptural faith has already asked AND answered the questions of the hopeless postmodern (as well as rebuke the prideful and vain aspirations of the modern).
The book is absolutely invaluable if just for its explaining what modernism/modernity and postmodernism/postmodernity are. His chapter on knowledge, information, and Derrida is filed with wonderful quotes that set your mind on the Christ, the Word, in whom all things are being summed up, fulfilled, and completed!
A wonderful read!
The book is absolutely invaluable if just for its explaining what modernism/modernity and postmodernism/postmodernity are. His chapter on knowledge, information, and Derrida is filed with wonderful quotes that set your mind on the Christ, the Word, in whom all things are being summed up, fulfilled, and completed!
A wonderful read!
February 7, 2017
This book was a solid introduction to the framework of modernity and the lack thereof in postmodernity. It displays Solomon's awarness of the nihilistic reality we find ourselves in before Nietzsche was alive to warn us of it and his breaking ground in postmodern theory before it was a twinkle in Foucault's eye. Leithart also provides excellent insights as to how these notions have affected our political and cultural atmospheres today. Even in the face of seeming meaninglessness the author is able to instill in us the same hope that Solomon had for the future. A hope in something that is unequivocally solid and anything but vapor.
May 6, 2014
Solid. Leithart traces the history of modernism and postmodernism giving us the wisdom of Solomon to help us out of the sand trap. A great book to end Traditio with, giving us a review of what we studied, and offering us a way forwards. From a subjective standpoint, reading Against Christianity is like eating a Texas-size steak, but while brilliant, reading Solomon Among the Postmoderns is like eating a salad. It was a great salad, but I didn't feel full when I was done. Still, one I expect to reread at least once or twice.
October 3, 2024
"Postmodernity is Babel, the confusion of tongues that inevitably follows modernity's attempt to hold a universal tower to heaven."
Leithart is a fine summarizer, and I appreciated the clarity of his prose even as I wanted a bit more personality out of it. The distinctions he draws between modernity and postmodernity are insightful, but much of this felt rather familiar to me.
Leithart is a fine summarizer, and I appreciated the clarity of his prose even as I wanted a bit more personality out of it. The distinctions he draws between modernity and postmodernity are insightful, but much of this felt rather familiar to me.
January 16, 2026
Very good as ever
May 3, 2010
Read this at the end of freshman year and again at the end of senior year, and definitely got more out of it the second time. Lots of wit and insight in succinct, Leithartian style.
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