The Postmodern God: A Theological Reader

Blackwell Readings in Modern Theology

by Graham Ward (Editor)

The Postmodern God introduces students and researchers to contemporary thought and how it could affect tomorrows theology.

Genres: Theology, Philosophy, Religion, Christianity, Cultural

419 pages, Paperback

First published January 13, 1997

About the author

Graham Ward is an English theologian and Anglican priest who has been Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Oxford since 2012. He is a priest of the Church of England and was formerly the Samuel Ferguson Professor of Philosophical Theology and Ethics and the Head of the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures at the University of Manchester. Previous to that he was the Professor of Contextual Theology and Ethics and Senior Fellow in Religion and Gender at the university.

Reviews

[Steven H]

AN EXCELLENT SELECTION OF TEXTS, AND ESSAYS BY POSTMODERN THEOLOGIANS

Editor Graham Ward states in his very helpful Introduction to this 1997 collection, “The thesis proposed here, on the basis of an analysis of cyberspace as a cultural metaphor for postmodernism, is that modernism is linked to specific conceptions of time, space, and substance, and that postmodernism explodes the myths and ideologies constructing these conceptions… If we wish to apprehend the postmodern God, we have… to investigate the project of modernity with reference to the shapes it gave to time, space, and bodies. For these shapes portrayed the face of modernity’s god---the god whom Nietzsche… pronounced dead.” (Pg. xvii)

He continues, “I wish to argue that with postmodernism God emerges from the white-out nihilism of modern atheism and from behind the patriarchal masks imposed by modernity’s secular theology. The emergence of the postmodern has fostered post-secular thinking---thinking about other, alternative worlds. In the postmodern cultural climate, the theological voice can once more be heard. It has been noted that ‘something vital has happened to our experience of space and time since the 1970s so as to provoke the turn to postmodernism.’ I have described the nature of that experience in terms of the development of cyberspace---a spatiality which is only virtually real and within which time and materiality (as conceived by the project of modernity) disappear. In such a reorganization of space, time, and bodies, theology can engage with postmodern debates.” (Pg. xxi-xxii)

He goes on, “It is time now to introduce and develop what is understood by the two nouns ‘postmodernism’ and ‘postmodernity.’ I take the first to denote a critical stance to modernism, though not necessarily an iconoclastic stance… I take the second to name a description of certain cultural conditions pertaining to developed countries in the 1970s and 1980s. The first, then, names a philosophical position, the second a period concept… I emphasize this because I understand postmodernism as always with us, whereas there are indications which suggest that ‘postmodernity’ as a particular cultural emphasis is over.” (Pg. xxiv-xxv)

He summarizes, “Postmodernism is, then, a movement at the end of such grounding, following the fall of the legislators. This returns us to our inability to ground, our inability to determine origins. Postmodernism reminds us we are already too determined ourselves; we can never exhaustively account for the conditions which make the world, time, knowledge, the human animal, language, possible. At the origin we find that we have always already begun, we already inhabit a difference… Postmodernism, as a philosophical concept, has concerned itself with … the forgetting of difference.” (Pg. xxvi)

He concludes his Introduction, “The thorny way is the practice of faith… I have mainly focused attention throughout this volume on Christian theology… But there are other faiths… The relationship between those faiths… make the practice of faith for this and future generations complex and problematic. We proceed by grace. We cannot take command here… We have to be held in love, waiting patiently, watching constantly, tracing endlessly the invisible as the visible… the coming to fulfillment of the eternal Word. The task of understanding those relationships is also part of postmodernism’s theological project. There is so much more… yet to be built and yet to be explores.” (Pg. xliii)

The book then includes texts (with commentary by various scholars) from Georges Bataille; Jacques Lacan; Emmanuel Levinas; Roland Barthes; René Girard; Michel Foucault; Michel de Certeau; Jacques Derrida; Luce Irigary; and Julia Kristeva.

In his essay, John Milbank notes, “Whatever its response may be to nihilism, postmodern theology can only proceed by explicating Christian practice. The Christian God can no longer be thought of as a God first seen, but rather as a God first prayed to, first imagined, first inspiring certain actions, first put into words, and always already thought about, objectified, even if this objectification is recognized as inevitably inadequate. This practice which includes images of, talk about, addresses to, actions toward ‘God,’ can in no way be justified, nor shown to be more rational, nor yet, outside its own discourse, as more desirable, then nihilism.” (Pg. 267)

Catherine Pickstock observes, “Once we are dead, the nightmare of death can no longer assail us. The unspoken objective of modernity is to relinquish death by means of death, which is to say, to abolish time. The infinite accumulation of simulacra is the stockpiling of dead value, the neutralization of life, and where there is no life, there death can have no dominion. Ever since the Baroque anxiety of mutability, modern existence has sought to mobilize every resource in the hypertrophy of ‘eros’ and the attenuation of ‘thanatos,’ and the purpose of my essay is to delineate one important example of the way in which language has been pressed into the service of this secular cause, this process of spatialization which has occurred on every level of modern Western culture.” (Pg. 297)

Edith Wyschogrod states, “The discourse of postmodernity is a language of desire, its economy a libidinal economy, its ethic often bound up with a conatus toward sanctification. In considering postmodern ‘metaphysics,’ differential forces, quanta of power or desire, are stipulated but there is considerable variation in the way these forces have been interpreted by postmodern thinkers. Desire may be described in terms of difference and yet may function as a hypostatic plane of libidinal satisfaction, not seamless yet without alterity.” (Pg. 348-349)

This is an excellent volume that will be of great interest to those interested in Postmodernism, or contemporary forms of theology.

[Ryan]

I have never been a fan of readers, and I am not certain why that is. I feel as though, in reference to the reader, there is an inherent discontinuity within the text (fitting for this review in particular). In reference to the original texts that make up the selections in readers, I feel that it is dangerous to cut up a work and call it enough. This/these text(s) however are indispensable for anyone interested in the Continental approach to faith. Split into two sections, the text offers philosophical foundations for postmodernity and religion in the first part, and theological appropriation/critique in the second. Were I to grade each section individually, I would rate it **/**** The first half is good, but in my opinion somewhat unnecessary. It is important to get into primary sources. But for the lay person not well familiarized with these thinkers, these texts will prove fairly difficult. (Plus, as I said above, full texts are important). For the scholar, they should really be delving into the texts themselves rather than excerpts. The second part, however, was more accessible (for the layperson) and original (for the scholar)

[Andrew]

Not entirely impressed with this book. The introduction to various post-modern and post-modern-ish philosophers is brief and barely a window into their theological insights. The last section of the book, original essays, only scrapes at a few of the pomo-ers talked about before. More postmodern than God.

[Darryl]

So far, so good. Essays from the usual modern - postmodern suspects that take on the art of religion.