The Fatal Embrace? A Critical Reflection on Carl Raschke’s Proposal, Why Conservative Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity?

Hadje Sadje

doi:10.57106/scientia.v7i2.97

Authors

Hadje Sadje

https://doi.org/10.57106/scientia.v7i2.97

Keywords:

Appropriation, Evangelical Christian, Postmodernity, Postmodern Thinking, Reformation

Abstract

At the turn of the millennium, recent debates within evangelical Christian circles on ‘appropriating’ postmodern thinking into evangelical Christian theology raised a number of issues on whether postmodern thinking can provide a suitable standpoint that offers a philosophical critique on modern dualistic thinking, for some, that is imbedded in modern evangelical Christian theology. Carl Raschke, an evangelical scholar, critically contends that evangelical Christian scholars must embrace postmodernity (postmodernism) as a new form of Reformation. At first glance, Raschke ask whether evangelical Christians have such reason to embrace postmodern thinking, eventually, he critically presented why evangelical Christians do have good a reason for ‘appropriating’ postmodern thinking. In this paper, firstly, I will introduce Carl Raschke as a Christian Evangelical postmodern thinker. Secondly, I will provide an exposition of Raschke’s main argument and criticism on evangelical Christian theology from his popular book, The Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity (2004). Lastly, I will provide concluding comments.

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