©2005, Crossway Books, 206 pages in paperback.

Our culture is often described as postmodern. There have been many books written regarding how the Christian is to answer the postmodernist. Some of these books encourage Christians to embrace the prevailing cultural thinking in order to effectively engage the postmodernist.

The author has written a well-reasoned, well-written book that shows the error of such thinking. The opening chapter provides a historical overview of the philosophical path that led to current cultural thinking. He begins with Plato and Aristotle and briefly traces man’s thinking regarding reason and reality in the Enlightenment thought of Hobbes and later Hume, Kant, Russell, and Heidegger. The ultimate conclusion in this line of thinking is that man cannot know reality. One cannot know the meaning of words outside of one’s own community. Thus language does not help us to know reality, instead it is a barrier to knowledge.

After setting the foundation the author examines the writings of Christian postmodernists such as Stanley Grenz, John Franke, and Brian McLaren. These men who have been labeled as Christian postmodernists do not believe that Christians can actually know reality. We can only understand the reality of the local Christian community and the language of fellow Christians. The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to this understanding. The work of the Spirit allows Christians to be bound together. It is futile to witness to the lost. Our language is a barrier. There is no knowable objective truth to which we can point others. Evangelism results as we live out Christianity.  Those involved are desirous of drawing others into the Christian community. Therein, they can gain an understanding of the faith as they see it authentically lived out.  According to postmodern thinking we each have our own story. The Christian story can only be understood as we live among others who are living out that story.

In the remaining chapters, Smith examines the goals of the emerging church and the postmodern presence in college classrooms – on secular and Christian campuses.  He rightly points out that many Christian students are not prepared to face postmodernism or to give credible answers to it. This fact makes his final chapters important reading.

In these chapters he provides an insightful critique of the writings of Christian postmodernists. He is committed to reality as God created it and to the objective truth of scripture. He makes many excellent points.  He argues that language cannot be the great barrier between communities that postmodernists teach that it is. If it were such a barrier, postmodernists could not write books explaining their positions to those outside their community; those outside the community would be unable to understand the books.

His critique is balanced and respectful. He admits that a number of evangelical Christians have erred evangelistically and have promoted legalism. These errors need to be addressed by the application of scripture not by rejecting the organized church of today. Smith reminds readers that many evangelical churches are far different from those described by postmodern writers.

This book is written with clarity. Although it deals with philosophy it does so in a manner that readers without a philosophy background can understand.  Christians of any age who are interested in postmodernism will find this a useful book.

Review ©2007 Byron Snapp, Hampton, Virginia