postmodernism

context

• Emerged in mid-20^th century as a reaction to modernism (post-enlightenment) 

• Characterised by metanarratives (scepticism toward grand narratives), absolute truths and the idea of objective knowledge  

• Everything is a matter of perspective and no such thing of objective truth 

metanarratives

• Way of understanding the world 

• Large, overarching stories/ explanations that claim to offer a comprehensive account of history, knowledge or an aspect of human experience 

• e.g. marxism -> interpreting historical events in terms of clashing classes/ moving around of resources 

• The bible (genesis/ story of crucifixion) 

• History is a metanarrative 

• Attempts to give meaning to the world by tying together events, ideas, and belief into a unified and often linear framework 

• Rejected in postmodernism 

lack of absolute truth

• just diff (equally valid) ways of perceiving the data we see 

• Embraces relativism and goes as far as claiming that every aspect of reality and culture is a matter of perspective 

• Ambivalence principle!! 

• No ontological truth (objective/ immutable/ existing independently of us) 

• Truth is seen as a socially constructed and dependent on context, perspective and language rather than being universal or fixed 

westphal

Identifies that there are different moments in the history of thought inn relation to religion and show how this has shifted from critical analysis of the truth  of religious belief to preferring to provide alternative explanations of religious belief, mainly psychological or sociological 

post modern state

represented by a decline in the credibility of the ability of grand unified narratives like science to explain everything, including the meaning of life or provide us with guidance in ethics and politics.

We are now in a post-modern state – where there is no grand narrative unifying our society or culture. Everything – religion, culture, art, science – are all fragmented fragments and none manage to claim the status of a grand unifying narrative. Instead, these cultural entities sort of float around in vague form.