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Postmodernism 101: A First Course for the Curious Christian
Finally, here's a book about postmodernism that you don't need a philosophy degree to understand.
In "Postmodernism 101: A First Course for the Curious Christian," Heath White offers a brief and accessible introduction to the ideas of postmodernism and its relationship to Christianity. White paints the historical and philosophical background underlying postmodernism in understandable, but not oversimplified, language. He then describes what postmodernism means to our view of self, language, thought, the search for knowledge, and culture.
White invites Christians who otherwise might have avoided postmodern theorizing into this important dialogue with questions for further thought after each chapter and suggestions for future reading. This book is ideal for students as well as curious pastors and lay readers.
176 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 19, 2019
Book 193 of 2019. Postmodernism 101 is exactly what it says—a brief overview of postmodern philosophy and how it affects Christian doctrine.
My favorite thing about this book is that White keeps postmodernism in a constant dialogue with both modernism and premodernism, giving people an excellent chance to see where they are on the continuum. White is also affirming, reminding readers that postmodernism is an attitude change as much as anything else in philosophy and reminding Christians that, even though philosophy changes, the message of the gospel remains the same. It is a great respite from some of the more fearful and gloomy books on postmodernism that I have read.
For the armchair theologian: This is a great first book on postmodernism and you will come out of it understanding three basic stages in church history—premodern, modern and postmodern. It really gives you a great framework to hang ideas on and to evaluate these ideas and the theologians responsible for them. This one is highly recommended!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#theology #philosophy #postmodernism101 #books #bookstagram #bookreview #theunreadshelfproject2019
My favorite thing about this book is that White keeps postmodernism in a constant dialogue with both modernism and premodernism, giving people an excellent chance to see where they are on the continuum. White is also affirming, reminding readers that postmodernism is an attitude change as much as anything else in philosophy and reminding Christians that, even though philosophy changes, the message of the gospel remains the same. It is a great respite from some of the more fearful and gloomy books on postmodernism that I have read.
For the armchair theologian: This is a great first book on postmodernism and you will come out of it understanding three basic stages in church history—premodern, modern and postmodern. It really gives you a great framework to hang ideas on and to evaluate these ideas and the theologians responsible for them. This one is highly recommended!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#theology #philosophy #postmodernism101 #books #bookstagram #bookreview #theunreadshelfproject2019
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January 12, 2022This book provides a clear, respectful introduction to postmodernism--and more than an introduction; it goes quite deep. The book contrasts postmodernism with Christianity but most of the people I know who identify as Christian are postmodern in their thinking based on what I learned here. The book is short, inexpensive and almost certain to give you new insights no matter how much or little you already know about this topic.
December 25, 2019
In my ongoing effort to try to figure out why half the world has lost its collective mind, I read Postmodernism 101 by Heath White, and offer here a few thoughts about it.
Very readable, first of all, which is not so for many tomes purportedly about postmodernism. I attribute the usual lack of clarity to the subject matter, not the authors trying to make sense of it. White does well explaining the inexplicable; making logical what is illogical; bringing comprehension to the incomprehensible. He doesn't start with individual philosophers like Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault, as many authors on this subject do. Instead, he distills basic ideas of postmodernism in general. It's excellent as an introductory book. After this, reading specific postmodern philosophers will make much more sense.
You should also understand that he's targeting a Christian audience, hence his subtitle A First Course for the Curious Christian. I recommend the book more broadly, however. In fact I would say it's not so much directed to committed Christians, as to a culture with strong Christian antecedents. So in that sense, it's a perfectly good introduction for atheists, too. In my view many atheists are atheists because they're first postmoderns, but that doesn't mean they have a grasp of the basic principles they take for true without realizing it.
White starts out with an idea about the place of postmodernism in the history of ideas, but I have to say he doesn't stick with it. What I mean is that he starts out dividing history into pre-modern, modern, and postmodern, and does a convincing job of explaining why these fairly label major epochs in changing worldview. But then after the full introductory explanation of postmodernism as a worldview, he seems to hedge. "[P]ostmodernism itself may mutate. . . . [W]hat now look like minor traits of postmodernism may come to be major elements of it, and what now look like structural timbers of the postmodern worldview may evolve into optional accessories." Still, White would continue to assert that postmodernism irrevocably changes the way people think of the world. "It is not likely to be a flash in the pan, since it has emerged in response to the shortcomings of modernism."
I'll describe here some useful points to associate with the different worldviews, but I have to note that the making of these points comes about as a result of what White would call a modernist worldview. That is to say, a postmodernist would hesitate to try to make these kinds of sweeping generalizations; his very worldview would prevent it. So in a sense, this is a modernist translation of a postmodernist point of view, and I would say the same about White's book.
White associates the pre-modern worldview with the central idea of authority. The idea was that people looked to authoritative sources to form their beliefs on pretty much everything. It's not that people looked to authority to help them decide what to think. Instead they wished to conform their thinking to authority. That's the hold that authority had on their outlook on reality.
In the modern age, by contrast, reason was king. The modern age according to White would be from about 1600 forward, although any use of dates would be only very roughly suggestive, as White would acknowledge. He points to thinking shifts in the Renaissance and Enlightenment that are probably already familiar to you. He's not necessarily talking about the radical "Age of Reason" outlook of the French Revolution, but rather the broader shift over time from authority to man's own reason as the means of finding truth. White holds that this modern era continued until basically the turn of this (the 21st) century.
The postmodern age defaults not to authority nor reason, but to nothing. There is literally no thing which is the source of confidence and hope, for the postmodern. Authority has failed. Reason has failed. Neither can predict progress nor form a moral framework for culture. The overriding element of postmodernism, therefore, is skepticism. Postmodernists hold that power is the only real overriding element of culture. This would seem to point merely to rejection of any kind of touchstone like authority or reason, but in actuality (my view) it means the postmodernist implicitly invokes the power paradigm for himself, rather than external truth to which we are to navigate, as with the guides of authority and of reason.
This outlook is troubling for reasons postmodernists evidently don't yet see. I now speak for myself, not White. White's "optimistic" postmodern is a scary thing indeed. "A typical optimistic postmodern hopes to create enough universal agreement for people to get along through teaching people to care about one another." (White's emphasis). These postmodernists subscribe to constructivism, which says that basic questions cannot be resolved because truth is made, or "constructed," rather than discovered. This seems an accurate characterization of postmodernism, to me, and it scares me to death. The goal is set before us (caring about one another) and truth-seeking through authority or reason is rejected as the means to get there. What's left is the one thing postmoderns recognize as the arbiter of human relations: power. So postmoderns disregard truth in service to acquisition of power by constructing, rather than discovering, truth. This in service to their pre-conceived idea of what caring about one another ought to look like. This is self-evidently a roadmap to one and only one destination: totalitarian soul-erasing tyranny.
On the other hand, White describes the "pessimistic" postmodern viewpoint less ominously. Pessimistic postmoderns also reject authority and reason, but, thank God, reject also the optimistic postmodern "constructivist" project. The pessimistic version of postmodernism holds that the great questions of human life cannot be resolved at all. For them this may be merely resignation borne of lack of belief in anything. For the rest of us, however, it means hope that they won't end up tearing down everything worthwhile about human life. Pessimistic postmoderns, according to White, may even consider the unresolvability of the question how to live to guarantee freedom. Unresolved differences may "ensure that we will never have anything masquerading as the One True Culture. There will always be unsuppressed differences among people."
Let us pray that postmodernism tends more to the relatively benign pessimistic form. The "optimistic" and "progressive" form of postmodernism will make slaves of us all in the same way Marxism tries to do, but through a naked grab for power, without even Marxism's pretense of truthiness.
"Truth is power," say the postmoderns. Be wary.
Very readable, first of all, which is not so for many tomes purportedly about postmodernism. I attribute the usual lack of clarity to the subject matter, not the authors trying to make sense of it. White does well explaining the inexplicable; making logical what is illogical; bringing comprehension to the incomprehensible. He doesn't start with individual philosophers like Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault, as many authors on this subject do. Instead, he distills basic ideas of postmodernism in general. It's excellent as an introductory book. After this, reading specific postmodern philosophers will make much more sense.
You should also understand that he's targeting a Christian audience, hence his subtitle A First Course for the Curious Christian. I recommend the book more broadly, however. In fact I would say it's not so much directed to committed Christians, as to a culture with strong Christian antecedents. So in that sense, it's a perfectly good introduction for atheists, too. In my view many atheists are atheists because they're first postmoderns, but that doesn't mean they have a grasp of the basic principles they take for true without realizing it.
White starts out with an idea about the place of postmodernism in the history of ideas, but I have to say he doesn't stick with it. What I mean is that he starts out dividing history into pre-modern, modern, and postmodern, and does a convincing job of explaining why these fairly label major epochs in changing worldview. But then after the full introductory explanation of postmodernism as a worldview, he seems to hedge. "[P]ostmodernism itself may mutate. . . . [W]hat now look like minor traits of postmodernism may come to be major elements of it, and what now look like structural timbers of the postmodern worldview may evolve into optional accessories." Still, White would continue to assert that postmodernism irrevocably changes the way people think of the world. "It is not likely to be a flash in the pan, since it has emerged in response to the shortcomings of modernism."
I'll describe here some useful points to associate with the different worldviews, but I have to note that the making of these points comes about as a result of what White would call a modernist worldview. That is to say, a postmodernist would hesitate to try to make these kinds of sweeping generalizations; his very worldview would prevent it. So in a sense, this is a modernist translation of a postmodernist point of view, and I would say the same about White's book.
White associates the pre-modern worldview with the central idea of authority. The idea was that people looked to authoritative sources to form their beliefs on pretty much everything. It's not that people looked to authority to help them decide what to think. Instead they wished to conform their thinking to authority. That's the hold that authority had on their outlook on reality.
In the modern age, by contrast, reason was king. The modern age according to White would be from about 1600 forward, although any use of dates would be only very roughly suggestive, as White would acknowledge. He points to thinking shifts in the Renaissance and Enlightenment that are probably already familiar to you. He's not necessarily talking about the radical "Age of Reason" outlook of the French Revolution, but rather the broader shift over time from authority to man's own reason as the means of finding truth. White holds that this modern era continued until basically the turn of this (the 21st) century.
The postmodern age defaults not to authority nor reason, but to nothing. There is literally no thing which is the source of confidence and hope, for the postmodern. Authority has failed. Reason has failed. Neither can predict progress nor form a moral framework for culture. The overriding element of postmodernism, therefore, is skepticism. Postmodernists hold that power is the only real overriding element of culture. This would seem to point merely to rejection of any kind of touchstone like authority or reason, but in actuality (my view) it means the postmodernist implicitly invokes the power paradigm for himself, rather than external truth to which we are to navigate, as with the guides of authority and of reason.
This outlook is troubling for reasons postmodernists evidently don't yet see. I now speak for myself, not White. White's "optimistic" postmodern is a scary thing indeed. "A typical optimistic postmodern hopes to create enough universal agreement for people to get along through teaching people to care about one another." (White's emphasis). These postmodernists subscribe to constructivism, which says that basic questions cannot be resolved because truth is made, or "constructed," rather than discovered. This seems an accurate characterization of postmodernism, to me, and it scares me to death. The goal is set before us (caring about one another) and truth-seeking through authority or reason is rejected as the means to get there. What's left is the one thing postmoderns recognize as the arbiter of human relations: power. So postmoderns disregard truth in service to acquisition of power by constructing, rather than discovering, truth. This in service to their pre-conceived idea of what caring about one another ought to look like. This is self-evidently a roadmap to one and only one destination: totalitarian soul-erasing tyranny.
On the other hand, White describes the "pessimistic" postmodern viewpoint less ominously. Pessimistic postmoderns also reject authority and reason, but, thank God, reject also the optimistic postmodern "constructivist" project. The pessimistic version of postmodernism holds that the great questions of human life cannot be resolved at all. For them this may be merely resignation borne of lack of belief in anything. For the rest of us, however, it means hope that they won't end up tearing down everything worthwhile about human life. Pessimistic postmoderns, according to White, may even consider the unresolvability of the question how to live to guarantee freedom. Unresolved differences may "ensure that we will never have anything masquerading as the One True Culture. There will always be unsuppressed differences among people."
Let us pray that postmodernism tends more to the relatively benign pessimistic form. The "optimistic" and "progressive" form of postmodernism will make slaves of us all in the same way Marxism tries to do, but through a naked grab for power, without even Marxism's pretense of truthiness.
"Truth is power," say the postmoderns. Be wary.
April 28, 2016
This was a helpful introduction to postmodernism. Lucid and honest, this is one of the finest Christian introductions to the topic that I've come across.
June 14, 2018
Excellent , short guide to the world of postmodernism thought and practice as it relates to the modern and premodern philosophy. Clear explanations and examples in each chapter. And I can see patterns in my own thinking and beliefs as opposed to others who see the world with different views. I have often wondered how the different views of social history had become so skewed and I now have a better explanation of the why and what and how the different views have become so bitterly divisive among Christians. This book gives one pause to think of how one is influenced in many ways of daily thoughts and practices and ultimately champions the belief in God's Promises as our only hope in a hopeless world dictated by man's thoughts and practices of history.
March 22, 2025
I picked this up at the library and the library stickers blocked out the subtitle about the Curious Christian. I'm glad it did, because I probably wouldn't have picked up this book.
I appreciated how the author described the reactions between premodernism, modernism, and postmodernism. Placing it within this historical context really helped me understand the cultural shifts and motivations behind the postmodern project. The way power is related to various conceptual frameworks (the self, language, truth, etc.) was eye-opening.
I feel I've developed a pretty solid foundation to start reading the primary works in postmodernism, which I'm really excited for.
I appreciated how the author described the reactions between premodernism, modernism, and postmodernism. Placing it within this historical context really helped me understand the cultural shifts and motivations behind the postmodern project. The way power is related to various conceptual frameworks (the self, language, truth, etc.) was eye-opening.
I feel I've developed a pretty solid foundation to start reading the primary works in postmodernism, which I'm really excited for.
May 9, 2024
Post Modernism 101 provides a good base of understanding postmodernism and how it relates to pre-modernism, and modernism. It helps readers understand the framework - or filter - through which the world is seen and related to. This is essential to understanding the disconnect between people coming from differing interpretations of the world.
January 22, 2013
I'm now reading through Heath White's Postmodernism 101: A First Course for Curious Christians. Many books over the last decade put out in response to postmodernism, have, in my humble opinion, have been fairly reactionary. They usually have pointed all things perceived as wrong in the movement (if we call call postmodernism a movement), while acknowledging the "benefits" in an almost pat-on-the-head manner. in this work, White sets out to trace 7 themes in postmodern thought, while contrasting them with premodern and modern thought.
One of the benefits of White's book is his charitable explanation of views he doesn't hold. In laying out the postmodern position on a number of topics, White is careful to try to show his reader at least why people who hold these positions find them appealing. There is none of the flippant dismissals I've seen in other works.
Another helpful aspects of this book is it's language. As can be gathered by the title, Postmodernism 101 is an entry -level book, and probably the most helpful one on the market today for laying out, in fairly popular language, what postmodern theorists are saying. So, with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions, in the entire book you rarely read White say, "According to Derrida," or "According to Foucault, Lyotard, Rorty," etc. He'll just explain the themes that are most common amongst postmodern writers. This makes for clearer, and faster, reading.
I have about 2 chapters to go, and no major complaints. At one point, White seems to advocate an allegorical interpretation of some parts of Scriptural. I can understand how he may want to move away from so much of the literalism that pervades works like the Left Behind series. I would advocate a typological method to many of the parts White may apply allegory to, but that's another issue for another day.
If you're a Christian who's ever wondered what exactly is thing phenomenon that is called postmodernism, pick up Postmodernism 101.
(from:http://wp.me/p30a1-8D)
One of the benefits of White's book is his charitable explanation of views he doesn't hold. In laying out the postmodern position on a number of topics, White is careful to try to show his reader at least why people who hold these positions find them appealing. There is none of the flippant dismissals I've seen in other works.
Another helpful aspects of this book is it's language. As can be gathered by the title, Postmodernism 101 is an entry -level book, and probably the most helpful one on the market today for laying out, in fairly popular language, what postmodern theorists are saying. So, with maybe 1 or 2 exceptions, in the entire book you rarely read White say, "According to Derrida," or "According to Foucault, Lyotard, Rorty," etc. He'll just explain the themes that are most common amongst postmodern writers. This makes for clearer, and faster, reading.
I have about 2 chapters to go, and no major complaints. At one point, White seems to advocate an allegorical interpretation of some parts of Scriptural. I can understand how he may want to move away from so much of the literalism that pervades works like the Left Behind series. I would advocate a typological method to many of the parts White may apply allegory to, but that's another issue for another day.
If you're a Christian who's ever wondered what exactly is thing phenomenon that is called postmodernism, pick up Postmodernism 101.
(from:http://wp.me/p30a1-8D)
January 28, 2014
Concise, readable introduction to post-modernism. I think I finally have a handle on postmodernism now, after having tried to wade through some dense, academic and confusing material in various other places. He had chapters on each of several major themes of post-modernism, without weighing it down with a lot of references to various postmodern "philosophers" or texts. What was also impressive was that I am not a Christian, but I didn't find his treatment of the subject to be biased or his prescription for Christians to be overly theological, extreme, or objectionable. White did a good job of separating his summary descriptions of postmodernism from his recommendations of how Christians might respond, so it would be easy to just read the sections about postmodernism and skip the Christian's response (I was tempted to do so). He summarized postmodernism in fairly and what seemed to be "objectively," not letting his biases taint the description of what it is. If he hadn't, I would never have been able to finish the book. Even his responses as a Christian I found reasonable, temperate, and expressed in language that non-Christians or lay people could stand and understand.
November 8, 2012
Post-Modernism 101 is an basic intro to the worldview of post-modernism from a Christian perspective. Unlike a lot of pieces I've read on the subject, Professor White's approach is to look at post-modernism from a more philosophical perspective, presenting it as an outgrowth of modernism, which was itself an outgrowth of medieval pre-modernism. By comparing and contrasting the three worldviews, Professor White avoids the "us versus them" tone that seems so prevalent in other writings on the subject. After presenting the history of the three views, he walks us through their approaches to such basic concepts as truth, morality and the self. The result is that post-modernism is not portrayed as the proverbial "enemy at the gates", but the latest brand of philosophy that the Church must engage. Personally I found the book both surprising and encouraging--surprising because I often found myself disliking modernism's views more than the rest. It's definitely a book on want to put on my shelf for future reference.
March 9, 2015
Overview: just ok. I think this book does a good job helping Christians better understand on-the-street postmoderns. Overall, pretty weak as far as actually introducing you to the leaders falling under this multi-faceted term. Lyotard comes up once, Derrida is quoted once, and that was an exercise in showing that he can be infuriatingly opaque.
April 15, 2008
This is White’s first book. It is very 101, but that makes it a layman’s dream. I had White as a professor in college, he is very intelligent. This book is like cliff-notes from his true intellect. It will percolate more questions than answers for Christians.
February 9, 2014
White's very readable explanation of postmodernism compares and contrasts it with premodern thinking and modernism. He highlights how these views relate to Christianity and provides thought-provoking questions at the end of each chapter.
April 8, 2008
very succinct overview of postmodern thought. quite helpful for those who lack a basic understanding of this new and pervasive world view.
October 7, 2016
A good, very broad and very basic overview of the postmodern mindset--a great place to start.
March 28, 2017
Great
This book is simple yet informative for the Christian who is just beginning to learn about Postmodernism. I recommend it for all the newbies.
This book is simple yet informative for the Christian who is just beginning to learn about Postmodernism. I recommend it for all the newbies.
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