Since Federico de Onis’s use of the term ‘postmodernismo’ to describe the Spanish and Latin-American poetry of 1905-1914 which had reacted against the ‘excess’ of modernism in 1934, (Rose 1991: 171) “Postmodernism” became very popular. It has been used in the fields of art (Christo-Bakargiev 1987), architecture (Pevsner 1967), liturature (Hassan 1971), video, economics, films (James 1991), ideology (Larrain 1994: 90-118), theology (Tilley at al 1995), and philosophy (Griffin et al 1993).

In trying to understand ‘postmodern’, we have to understand ‘modern’ first. According to Rose (1991: 1), there are many related yet different meanings associated with the term ‘modern’. First of all, Arnold J. Toynbee understands modern as referring to the historical phenomenon of

The most significant of the conclusions that suggest themselves is that the word ‘modern’ in the term ‘Modern

Western Civilization’, can, without inaccuracy, be given a more precise and concrete connotation by being translated ‘middle class’. Western communities became ‘modern’ in the accepted Modern Western meaning of the word, just as soon as t

Stout refutes the notion of radical incommensurability by referring to the famous argument of Donald Davidson (1984) that any disagreement presupposes a more fundamental common understanding. The very recognition of disagreement entails a deeper level of agreement by virtue of which the disagreement is identified. Recognizing the contingency of our moral judgement does not entail the denial of moral truth. Moral truth is those platitudinous scientific, social, and cultural affirmations we never think to make explicit. Stout draws a distinction between moral justification that is relative and moral truth which is taken to be not relative. This assertion

Admitting that our justification structures are relative to historical and cultural factors does not issue in cultural determinism which free us from moral responsibility. We are still responsible to judge what in our moral tradition is worth preserving, what requires modification, and what should be left behind. Utilizing all the available resources from our tradition, history, anthropology, sociology, and creativity we must develop a coherent moral language adequate to deal with the moral needs of the moment. This effort is called “Moral Bricolage” which is like a motley, a coat made of many pieces of clothes of different colors stitched together and which needs frequent mending and patching. (Figure 2) Creativity and critical distance is attained by immanent ethical criticism through stereoscopic social criticism that brings social practices, institutions, internal and external goods of all parties involved into focus in the same time. This effort of moral bricolage can help us reach moral consensus.

William Greenway (1994a) suggests a synthesis of Jeffrey Stout’s “Modest Pragmatism Model” and Stanley Hauerwas’ “Community Narrative Model”. He proposes a “Christian Bricolage Model”. First of all he assures us that Cartesian anxiety can be neutralized. Without an appeal to universal rational principles will not automatically push us sliding helplessly down the slippery slop of nihilistic relativism into the darkness of chaos. Stout carves out a public realm of conversations to reach platitudinous consensus as provisional telos with his modest pregmatism. He also differentiates between the particular truth justification and the consensual platitudinous truth to guard against the terror of extreme pragmatism. On the other hand Hauerwas focuses on the particular narrative of Christianity without recognizing the need to develop a paradigm for public conversations. A paradigm for public conversations among various narratives will necessarily entail a further overarching meta-narrative, which is unacceptable in a postmodern world. Hauerwas’s emphasis on historical narrative, character, tradition, and community provide a more powerful vocabulary for a richer and deeper understanding of moral commitment.

A

Some topics in this essay:
Bricolage Model”, Tom Kitwood, Donald Davidson, Jacques Derrida, Autrui Autre, Stanley Hauerwas, Edith Wyschogrod, Conclusion Descartes, Nazareth” Hauerwas, Richard Bernstein, christian ethics, postmodern world, moral space, moral truth, modern postmodern, premodern modern, premodern modern postmodern, “the other”, christian ethics postmodern, moral justification, consensus consensus, modest pragmatism, universal rational principles, ethics postmodern world, griffin et al,