St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology (Aug 2022)
Postmodern Philosophy and Theology
Abstract
This article offers an overview of some of the key themes and motifs in postmodern philosophy which have influenced contemporary Christian theology as well as a survey of some of the theological responses to these philosophical ideas and methods. The first section of the article examines the meaning of ‘postmodern’ both as a label which designates a body of thought as well as a critical attitude which calls into question the definition and assumptions of the ‘modern’. In addition to a very brief discussion of how the ‘postmodern’ relates to the other ‘post-isms’ (e.g. poststructural, postcolonial, posthuman), this section lays out two paradigms of theological responses to postmodern philosophy, which broadly follows and parallels the sensibilities of ‘Radical Orthodoxy’ and ‘Radical Theology’. This is followed by three sections which each examine one particular method or motif of postmodern philosophy with reference to three of the most influential postmodern philosophers: namely, Michel Foucault’s use of genealogy (section 2), Jacques Derrida’s works on deconstruction (section 3), and Gilles Deleuze’s ontology of difference (section 4). These sections highlight how contemporary theologians have engaged critically with these methods and motifs from the sensibilities of ‘Radical Orthodoxy’ and ‘Radical Theology’ respectively. This includes the use of genealogy to identify or diagnose secular assumptions (section 2, in response to Foucault); the consideration of the possibility of gift-giving (section 3, in response to Derrida); and the interest in the ontology of difference (section 4, in response to Deleuze). While postmodern theory is sometimes associated with a scepticism towards, or even rejection of, the notion of ‘truth’ (see section 2), the fifth and final section of this article offers a discussion of the role and significance of ‘truth’ as conceived and utilised in different theological responses to postmodern philosophy. In addition to considering how such conceptions of ‘truth’ correspond to different understandings of the task of theology, this section also highlights how these conceptions further relate to different construals of the relationship between philosophy and theology as well as different ways of envisioning how believers and their communities ought to engage with secular society – or indeed find ‘truth’ – in the contemporary world.
