Once in while we hear someone mention or talk about words like modernism or postmodernism and have no idea what they’re talking about.
We may believe that these words are only used by academically minded people and that these ideas or words can’t hurt us.
If it can’t be understood without a dictionary it’s probably just some flashy term to make some folks feel dumb, right?
I thought that about three years ago until some professors and mentors started introducing me to the wonderful world of philosophy.
Dr. John Caputo is professor of philosophy at Villanova University and his expertise is in postmodernism.
He has taught at Villanova since 1968 and is the past president of the American Catholic Philosophy Association.
One of his primary studies is in biblical hermeneutics and its relationship involving deconstruction.
What is postmodernism and does it affect us today?
Caputo explained postmodernism as, “pluralism, multiplicity of culture, an anything goes relationship.”
“Postmodernism in its origins started out as an architectural term with its geometric size and gothic architecture,” he said.
Basically postmodernism is the belief not in one idea, but many ideas and definitely no absolutism.
Caputo pointed to technology as an engine for postmodernism.
“There are no dictators enforcing religion and ideas, now most everyone has access to technology such as the internet.”
Technology, as Caputo put it, gets people “instantly informed.”
A person has a multiplicity of ideas at his or her fingertips; they branch from the extremely radical to the mainstream sort of everyday thought.
He pointed to the Amish children of the new technological-driven society as starting to dip into some of this postmodern soup.
“Pre-modernism looked at the natural world and viewed it as revealing God’s plan,” said Caputo, pointing out the different trend that modernism was going to establish.
Modernist’s Marx and Nietzsche alienated that outlook by inferring that the world was unreal. At this time all could be explained by science and natural law.
“Postmodern means post secular. Religion is hyper-real in postmodernism. It’s the return of religion among intellectuals,” said Caputo, speaking on what postmodern means.
While I was living in Washington, D.C., in the late ’90s it was chic to be spiritual. Many articles appeared on the rise of this new spirituality made up of smaller groups of spirituality.
Professor Caputo referred to the 35 million copies of the Left Behind series sold as his example of the religious wave in postmodernism.
Caputo asked the question, “Is the return of religion going to be violent?”
“Postmodernism scares many because of the rise of fundamentalism,” Caputo said.
“Religious people are helping people in lower-income neighborhoods and doing good but much blood is also being spilled in the name of God,” he said.
Caputo said all of this in a very objective manner not pointing to any certain religion but all religions guilty of fundamentalism.
“Some of the most impossible people are fundamentalist and literalists who confuse God’s word with their own, it’s a form of idolatry,” said Caputo.
Some of Professor Caputo’s books are available here at ETSU.
I also found Stanley Grenz’s Primer on Postmodernism as a helpful tool along with many of Francis Schaeffer’s books on explaining philosophy in general.

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