Book Review: Postmodern Christianity

I just finished reading "Postmodern Christianity" by John W. Riggs. It was a very concise overview of postmodernism and how Christianity relates to it. He argues that Christianity has always used concepts borrowed from the philosophical discussions of the time. So for example most of the traditional views of God are based on Greek philosophies. Postmodernist philosophy teaches that ultimate claims about reality do not make sense. Dr. Riggs points out that if this is the case then theology and ethics no longer make sense. He then uses the work of Hartshorne and Ogden to base his view on how Christianity should respond to postmodernism and then uses these concepts to illustrate how we should respond to several issues like gender relations and abortion.

I found the book to be a fairly easy read. Chapter four is the highlight of the book with the previous chapters leading up to it. One thing I did not realize is that the views of the religious conservatives that "Life begins at conception" is very recent. For most of Christianity's existence the church has been against abortion, but not because abortion was homicide. In thier view abortion was a form of birth control and sex without the purpose of procreation was bad.

Overall the book was good, but I am sure there are better works that talk about Christianity in a postmodern world.