A New Kind of Conversation: Blogging Toward a Postmodern Faith

Edited by Myron Bradley Penner and Hunter Barnes. Contributors include Brian McLaren, Mabiala Kenzo (Ambrose Univ.), Bruce Ellis Benson (Wheaton) and Ellen Haroutunian.

An introductory blurb by Bill Reichert is posted  at Provocative Church:

“Take a large portion of theology, with a dose of conversation and a pinch of blogging and you would have the recipe for the book entitled, “A New Kind of Conversation.” This book is an experimental book that enters into a conversation about Post-Modernism with five evangelical leaders and academics acting as the primary bloggers (authors) …”

Ben Witherington on “The Architecture of the Post-modern Mind” (update)

Read part one:

“What … is post-modernity? Post-modernity, sometimes called After-Modernity neither involves a flight from reason back into faith, nor a rejection of reason in favor of faith, but rather an attempt to get beyond the impasse.”

Part two:

“The setting in which the teacher in the 21rst century finds herself or himself is one in which increasingly the audience is composed of persons primarily geared to and triggered by visual stimuli. …”

Part three. (update 10/31)

“Post-modern spirituality is many things (indeed it can be called a many splintered thing) including the following at various times and to various degrees: …”

Talking to postmoderns

C. Michael Patton shares a strategy for engaging with someone of a postmodern mindset, using an illustration taken from Millard Erickson’s Postmodernizing the Faith:

“Horse=postmodern
Water=the Gospel
Rope=method of delivery

Question: How do we lead a postmodern horse to water?”

McCain and Obama: Different worldviews?

Collin Hansen alleges that McCain is (more) a modernist, Obama a postmodern, at Out of Ur:

The first debate between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama provided no such memorable moments. But it did highlight important distinctions between the Republican and Democratic candidates. Namely, McCain and Obama represent key differences between modern and postmodern cultures. Analyzing their debate through this lens reveals similarities to the church’s own debates about how to respond to shifting cultures. . . . Not everything in the debate can be framed as the difference between a modern and postmodern worldview. But like our church debates, a little awareness about perspective goes a long way toward understanding.

Read the whole thing.