Pomo and the Evangelicals

[Jim Farmelant <farmelantj@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The October issue of The Atlantic Monthly has  feature article by BC
professor
Alan Wolfe, "The Opening of the Evangelical Mind" which purports to find
among evangelical Protestants the beginnings a new intellectual
awakening.
Wolfe finds this to be of most significance since of America's religious
traditions,
evangelicalism has been the least intellectual.
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/10/wolfe.htm

One of the more interesting portions of the article is Wolfe's finding
that
many evangelical scholars have taken an interest in postmodern thought
including especially the writings of Foucault and Derrida.  What these
scholars have found attractive in postmodernism is its critique of the
Enlightenment.  The only thing surprising about this development
in my view is that it has apparently took such a long time for the
evangelicals to discover pomo.  Although pomo's suspicion
of meta-narratives might seem to be inconsistent with a belief
in biblical literalism, apparently at least some evangelicals
are willing to pay that price in return for pomo's deflation of
the epistemic claims made on behalf of science, Marxism
and other rival meta-narratives to Christianity.  In this respect
postmodernism is apparently playing the same sort of role
that skepticism has traditionally played for religious apologists
for whom the deflation of claims made in behalf of reason was
seen as boosting the claims of faith.

I say that I am a bit surprised that American evangelicals have
taken so long to discover pomo since fundamentalists in other
religions have already discovered its utility.  The Indian-born
science writer Meera Nanda over three years ago in articles
published in DIssent and in Monthly Review noted the appeal
that pomo has had for right-wing Hindu nationalists in India.
Although, pomo was originally introduced into India by leftists,
right-wing Hindu fundamentalists quickly began to avail themselves
of postmodernism's critique of the Enlightenment and began
using it as a club to bash the left with.

See the sidebar interview with evangelical English lit scholar
Alan Jacobs:

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/10/wolfe-jacobs.htm


Jim Farmelant

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