Van Til Tool

Using the Van Til Perspective as the tool to discover what life means and how it ought to be lived.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

BEST BOOKS ATTACKING MODERNISM -- OLD, NEW, AND POST-

BEST BOOKS ATTACKING MODERNISM -- OLD, NEW, AND POST-


One of the best books showing the incompatibility of real christianity with the old liberalism was J. Gresham Machen's very fine work Christianity and Liberalism.

One of the best books showing the incompatibility of christianity with what used to be called the new liberalism, i.e. existentialism, was Cornelius Van Til's brilliant work Christianity and Barthianism.

One of the best showing the incompatibility of christianity with the latest liberalism (today) is Gene Edward Veith, Jr.'s Postmodern Times.


Another way of naming the three phases is old modernism, new modernism, and postmodernism.

Machen and Van Til were conservative Presbyterians. Veith is a conservative Lutheran.

Machen was the founder of Westminster Seminary and Van Til was one of the profs there. Veith in 2006 became the Academic Dean (or Provost) at Patrick Henry College.

John Frame noted that the "and" in the title of Machen's and Van Til's books is the disjunctive "and", i.e. it is meant to show contrast. In other words they are saying that liberalism is NOT christianity, so that the choice (in late 19th -early 20th century) is between christianity and liberalism; then in mid twentieth century America the choice was between christianity and barthianism (the new liberalism). Now, today the choice is between christianity and postmodernism.

Sincerely,

Forrest

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