Christianity and Culture in the Crossfire

This collection of essays, delivered originally in April 1995 at Calvin College in Michigan by 11 scholars in theology, philosophy, history and science, explores today's ""culture wars,"" especially those fought inside academe. On one side are feminists, multiculturalists and postmodernists who argue that knowledge is always rooted in a person, time or community and who distrust religious belief. On the other side are traditionalists who defend God and the ideal of objective knowledge and impersonal rationality. Each side, Hoekema writes, ""has misunderstood and misconstrued the other.... [P]ossibilities for negotiation and mutually beneficial settlement have repeatedly been spurned."" Many of the essays, including those by church historian Martin Marty, Croatian theologian Miroslav Volf, Judaic scholar Jacob Neusner, African American theologian Peter Paris and the late feminist philosopher Jean Hampton, are useful guides to the cultural battle zone. But much of the writing is opaque and soporific, and a heavier editorial hand would have made the collection more accessible. In addition, too many of the essays stray from the theme, forcing readers to hack through a thicket of polemics to reach what is indeed an important destination: a better understanding of the relationship of Christianity and culture. (Apr.)