James K A Smith, Postmodernism and Radical Orthodoxy

A October 24 2007 post of the the Church and Postmodern Culture blog featured an entry by James K A Smith, entitled Postmodern Liturgy? A Conversation About Christian Worship and Postmodernism. Smith is among the Evangelical members of the Radical Orthodoxy movement, and his Introduction to Radical Orthodoxy and Speech and Theology come highly recommended, especially for those those interested in postmodern theology and the philosophy of language in relation to the transcendent.

The post featured a brief reflection of his discussions at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship about his latest contribution Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Derrida, Lyotard and Foucault to Church. In that post you would also find an short but nonetheless interesting audio segment of the conversation, concerning his engagement with postmodernism and Christian theology, which results in his affirming some quintessential Catholic treasures, in particular tradition, aesthetics and liturgy. Indeed, it is interesting that Smith calls for evangelicals to be more “catholic” in the audio segment. It is not quite the affirmation of Catholicism, but it does get pretty close.

The author has had trouble transferring the link and thus recommends clicking on the link to the blog, and then clicking on the link marked “mp3 file” in the post. It is well worth the effort.