Truth Decay: Defending Christianity Against the Challenges of Postmodernism

by Douglas R. Groothuis

Book Overview

A 2001 Christianity Today Award of Merit winner

The concept of truth as absolute, objective and universal has undergone serious deterioration in recent years. No longer is it a goal for all to pursue. Rather postmodernism sees truth as inseparable from culture, psychology, race and gender. Ultimately, truth is what we make it to be.

What factors have accelarated this decay of truth? Why are people willing to embrace such a devalued...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0830822283
• ISBN13: 9780830822287
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: IVP
• Length: 303 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Deep Intellectual Logical

This book was a game changer for me. It surfaces what is hidden under almost every issue in society. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the importance of objectivity and how to convey it to the world around you.

Truth Exists.

You want Truth? Not sure there is such a thing? Are you willing to engage all your reasoning faculties and use the simplicity of Logic? Then this book is for you, and all who wonder where and what Truth might be. Truth clearly exists and is neither subjective nor fictitious. You have only to follow Groothuis's detailed explanation to see the light (and the light of Christ will outshine all other).

Stupendous book

Dr. Groothuis, though perhaps somewhat unknown to many presently, certainly will be remembered as one of the 21st centuries best apologists. His insights into the non-christian philosophies and worldviews are incomparable and extremely helpful. His warnings against the effects of television are convicting and true. All in all, a great book.

Truth Termite Exterminator

Postmodernism is like termites, many times eating away the precious structure without much knowledge of the decay taking place. Such is the case outlined by Christian apologist Groothuis in this book. Modernism has been replaced by postmodernism and the author shows the logical inconsistency of this worldview and truly the untenable position of living its logic out to conclusion. For some readers who already like this reviewer have now read more works on postmodernism sections of the book on this will only be rehash, but well done it must be said. What was of great value was Groothuis then reacting to this with what apologetic Christians need to take to help stop these truth termites. He has many good things to consider here, e.g. "presenting the Christian vision as the most cogent explanation for a whole range of facts in accordance with the essential tenets of logic and critieria for evidence that are required for all critical thinking." He concludes with two excellent chapters, one of "True Beauty" in the arts being redeemed and stripped of its postmoderism, and TV being a significant postmodern termite. To be read and pondered. Check out also J.W. Montgomery's phenominal work: "Tractatus Logico-Theologicus" Os Guiness's "Time for Truth" Nancy Pearcey's "Total Truth" and Gene Veith's "Postmodern Times."

For the Most Part, Excellent

Groothuis has done a good job in this book of profiling postmodernism and discrediting it in light of its devastating theories on truth and living. In the process, he does a good job of affirming the reality of universal truth and showing how Christianity's worldview best honors absolute truth in comparison to other worldviews, most notably postmodernism.This book is an attempt to touch on various aspects of the postmodernist issue. Groothuis spends a good deal of time deconstructing the postmodernist objection to universal truth and its embrace of 'cultural truths', along with the worldview's inability to provide any basis for the many presuppositions it makes. He also analyzes the massive internal inconsistencies prevalent throughout postmodern thought and eloquently demonstrates that many adherents to postmodernism tend to be first in line to fail the litmus tests of their own worldview. He also analyzes the issue of whether language can express truths beyond itself, which is a common assertion among prominent postmodernists. Groothuis also spends a chapter looking at the dangerous apologetics that some prominent Christians have developed which resemble postmodernist thinking. In many of these areas, Groothuis's analysis is thorough and excellent, with an emphasis on heavy quotation from those he is critiquing.Although somewhat minor, I must also say that I thought the cover of the paperback was outstanding. The cover depicts a barren landscape, almost a wasteland. This illustration is very applicable to the postmodern worldview. After reading this book, I think quite a few readers will rightly conclude that postmodernism is an extremely depressing and hopeless way of thinking about the world and its inhabitants. In many ways, the impression I got from Groothuis's book is that postmodernism is really on a quest to devalue almost everything under the guise that we don't really know anything. Groothuis's quote from Dorothy Sayers about halfway through the book is one of the best quotes I've ever heard about the futility of the postmodernist outlook on life and truth. Utterly devastating.I debated whether to give the book 4 or 5 stars. I opted for 5, but I will note a couple of regrets I have about the book that do not diminish the overall rating but are regrets nonetheless. First, Groothuis's analysis of postmodernism appears pretty confined to the atheistic/agnostic wing of postmodernism. And while I certainly appreciated his appraisal in this area, I think Groothuis would have really hit a homerun if he had also taken some time to analyze the spiritual postmodernism that is rampant as well. In many ways, the spirituality aspect of postmodernism is more important than the non-spiritual aspect. New Age spirituality draws heavily from postmodernism and this phenomenon is more prevalent than atheistic postmodernism, at least in America. But this is an area that Groothuis does not explore. Lastly, Groothuis's defense of egalitari

Best discussion of evangelical uses of postmodernism

Everyone who is interested in a Christian approach to postmodernism with applications for theology must read this book. Groothuis is the first author to provide a useful overview of postmodernism from a Christian perspective while at the same time dealing substantively with theological issues. What we have here is a nuanced evangelicalism that sees evangelical theology's recognition of the objective and propositional nature of revelatory truth in scripture, not as a sad side effect of an Enlightenment Modernist ethos, but as a traditional, indeed pre-modern viewpoint that has viability in the contemporary context. While Groothuis is not naive about the way much evangelical evidentialism has relied too heavily on Modernist categories, he manages to avoid the broad strokes painted by authors like Grenz and McGrath, who at times seem to think that the very concept of scriptural infallibility itself is an Enlightenment construct, rather than the premodern notion that it is.This book is the first to reply to Stanley Grenz and Alister McGrath in a way that does not fall prey to naive ultra-foundationalism (rather to more of a "modest foundationalism" like that of Alvin Plantinga) but at the same time does not run tail-tucked from pomo fads that evangelical theologians seem to be more scared of than anyone else (as Alan Jacobs rightly noted in his recent article in Atlantic Monthly). Unlike Grenz and McGrath (and their popular counterpart Chuck Smith, Jr.), Groothuis achieves a balance: he recognizes the importance of understanding the postmodern condition and even learning from it, without selling out to it.One only hopes that Groothuis's next project will be his own book along the lines of Grenz's Renewing the Center, in which Groothuis will offer a more extensive version of the chapter that deals with the approaches of Grenz, McGrath, et al., and show that there is a credible way to be an evangelical in the postmodern era without scrapping the last 250 years of evangelical theological wisdom.