While growing churches dot our urban centers and country landscapes, church-goers and students today are actually less likely to maintain a Christian worldview than in the past. In fact, the majority of society does not even believe in objective truth. A minister out of touch with this culture is like an uninformed missionary trying to teach in a foreign country. To communicate God's Word effectively in the twenty-first century, teachers need to know how to connect with and confront an audience of postmodern listeners. In Preaching to a Postmodern World, Johnston shows pastors, seminary students, professors, lay teachers, and church leaders can reach the present age without selling out to it. The book discusses how to: • distinguish between modernism and postmodernism • understand postmodern worldviews • change the style of preaching without compromising the substance • take advantage of new opportunities provided by the cultural shift • show an inattentive society the relevance of God's truth The author's keen insights into contemporary pop and media culture also help equip speakers to address today's listeners with clarity and relevance.

This introductory guide surveys the work of a range of influential contemporary social theorists including Lacan, Baudrillard, Foucault, Said, Harvey and Haug and explains their analyses of current topics such as consumer identity and commodity aesthetics; post-colonial criticism; identity andnarrative; and the general condition of postmodernity.

In this prophetic call to the evangelical church, Wells stresses that Christians need to confess Christ as the center in a society lacking a center, as the sovereign in a world seemingly ruled by chance, and as the one who can give meaning in a nihilistic culture.

Is postmodernism harmful, beneficial--or even indifferent to Christianity or society? Before we can determine this, we must know what postmodernism is and how it is influencing everything about our lives. Using current events and everyday illustrations, the "dean of evangelicalism" offers a lively discussion on postmodernism's characteristics and its effect on popular culture, education, entertainment and Christianity. In this way, Erickson helps readers better understand and interact with the world around them and gives people the tools to respond more wisely, believe more certainly and discern more soundly.

This book provides a philosophical argument for the reasonableness of Christian faith in today's world. Diogenes Allen shows how Christian belief is now being supported by scientific and philosophical principles--perhaps for the first time in 300 years.

Evangelicals are beginning to provide analyses of our postmodern society, but little has been done to suggest an effective apologetic strategy for reaching a culture that is pluralistic, consumer-oriented, and infatuated with managerial and therapeutic approaches to life. This, then, is the first book to address that vital task. In these pages some of evangelicalism's most stimulating thinkers consider three possible apologetic responses to postmodernity. William Lane Craig argues that traditional evidentialist apologetics remains viable and preferable. Roger Lundin, Nicola Creegan and James Sire find the postmodern critique of Christianity and Western culture more challenging, but reject central features of it. Philip Kenneson, Brian Walsh and J. Richard Middleton, on the other hand, argue that key aspects of postmodernity can be appropriated to defend orthodox Christianity. An essential feature are trenchent chapters by Ronald Clifton Potter, Dennis Hollinger and Douglas Webster considering issues facing the local church in light of postmodernity. The volumes editors and John Stackhouse also add important introductory essays that orient the reader to postmodernity and various apologetic strategies. All this makes for a book indispensable for theologians, a wide range of students and reflective pastors.

A professor of religion asserts that the difficulties faced in communicating the gospel are as much an opportunity as they are a challenge. This book analyzes contemporary trends in American cultural life related to what those who don't attend church know about Christianity and how they think about questions of ultimate meaning.

This volume presents a series of papers concerned with the interrelations between the postmodern and the present state of art and design education. Spanning a range of thematic concerns, the book reflects upon existing practice and articulates revolutionary prospects potentially viable through a shift in educative thinking. Many of the essays pinpoint the stagnancy of teaching methods today and discuss the reductive parameters enforced by the current curriculum. The radical tone that echoes through the entire series of papers is unmistakable. Throughout the book, postmodern theory informs the polemical debate concerning new directions in educative practice. Contributors shed new light on a postmodern view of art in education with emphasis upon difference, plurality and independence of mind. Ultimately, the paper provides a detailed insight into the various concepts that shape and drive the contemporary art world and expands the debate regarding the impression of postmodern thinking in art education.

Bridging sociology and cultural studies, this collection of essays examines today's youth, their music and cultural identities.