c&p issue 1.1

I am very excited to role out the very first issue of

The Church and Postmodern Culture: Conversation,
otherwise known as c&p issue 1.1.

This retrospective gathering of all the essential posts from August-December covers our Introductions, the Engagments with Who's Afraid of Postmodernism? and How (Not) to Speak of God, various Essays and reports on Events.  If you have just recently found us, then look through the issue and find out what you've missed.

Just click on the logo to download c&p issue 1.1.

(And let's give a little extra love to Eric Lee for pulling it together)

Also, I would like to take this opportunity to solicit some feedback.  What have we been doing well?  What would make the content at C&P better?  And most importantly, are their voices that you would like to have here that we have overlooked?

Comments

[adrian]

Dear Geoff,

A belated happy new year!

Thanks for putting this magazine together as well as for the good and generous work you've been doing on and with this site. Congratulations.

I'd like to take up your invitation to propose a topic for discussion here. It's one that's been touched on indirectly in various threads, but I think it would be good to deal with it thematically.

J. Smith's post on Derrida above prompted me to ask myself whether or not people will still be reading Derrida as a philosophical resource in 100 years.

Which then led me to ask myself about Derrida and co.'s usefulness as a theological resource is essential or accidental. Do Derrida and co. set the horizon in which Christianity has to be understood? Or does Christianity set the horizon in which Derrida and co. are to be understood---which does not rule out the possibility that they helpfully remind us of forgotten dimensions of authentic Christianity.

It seems to me that this question is about the difference between a post-modern version of liberal Protestantism, on the one hand, and a non-fundamentalist, but credal Christianity (that can learn from, but does not capitulate to, Derrida, etc.), on the other.

I know I am repeating things I have written here before, but I repeat them b/c I think a thematic discussion along the lines of "Do We Need the Post-Moderns?" with perhaps a series of posts from different perspectives on that question would be interesting and helpful.

Cordially,
Adrian

[RODNEY NEILL]

Hello Geoff,

Again many thanks for the website and magasine! I would like to echo Adrians points above.
It seems to me that the 'religion without religion' approach inspired by Derrida and interpreted by Caputo(which is a radical reinterpretation of Christianity) is having a greater and more persuasive influence in EC/Emergent circles.It would be great to have a forum to discuss Caputos recent work and could be linked into Adrians ideas

Rodney

[Geoff Holsclaw]

hey guys,
about the deconstructive postmodernists...I recently finished caputo's "theology and philosophy" and I have someone lined up to post on it in a couple of weeks.  So hopefully we can begin the conversation there. 

Rodney, I agree that the "religion w/o religion" perspective is fairly large in emerging circles (evidenced by Caputo being the center of the Emergent Theological Conversation as well as the generally applaud of Pete Rollin's How (not) to Speak of God).  Whether this perspective resonates with a theraputic/cathartic need to purge themselves from fundamentalism, and/or deep-seated philosophical convictions is still a matter I believe the conversation is working out. 

So perhaps we can be one of those places to work this out.  Maybe I can talk Bruce Bensen and Carl Raschke into posted on this topic. 

[rodney neill]

Hello Geoff,

I attended an event called Soliton in Belfast recently which included many of the key names in the EC in the UK - whether the fascination with religion without religion approach evident there is carthartic/a new direction for the EC is a crucial question !!

Rodney

[Geoff Holsclaw]

rodney,

well this is certainly a two-way street. so what do you think might be after 'religion w/o religion'?

or all of you out there, what directions are helpful for the E(merging) C(hurch).

[rodney neill]

hello Geoff,

This is only my opinion which could well be up the left. I think part of the EC movement is drifting towards classic Christian liberalism which has been around for the last few centuries!

Rodney