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William Lane Craig, in his reply to one of the other contributors in the book, Five Views on Apologetics, claims that postmodernism is a movement which receives far more credit than it deserves. Craig is not the only scholar I’ve heard which has made similar observations. Contrary to the belief of some, we do not live in postmodern times, asserts Craig.

Rather we live in post-Christian times, and what has replaced Christianity is not postmodernism but rather what has been aptly called “the new absolutism.” Today the absolute values of openness and tolerance are cherished and even demanded. Nor do most people, including academics, think that there is no objective truth. No one uses a postmodernist hermeneutic when reading the label of a medicine bodel. Theologians tend to think that postmodern pluralism and relativism are all the rage, when in fact such thinking is largely confined to the literature, social sciences, and religious departments at universities.

Feinberg, the cumulative case apologist, observed that postmodernism fails primarily due to the fact that it is unlivable. Despite denying a number of commonsense notions, they live, speak, and act in line with those notions. Craig takes this a step further. Not only is postmodernism unlivable, but it is self-referentially incoherent.

That is to say, if it is true, then it is false. Thus, one need not say a word or raise an objection to refute it; it is quite literally self-refuting…If postmodernist claims are objectively true, then those claims are themselves the mere products of social forces and so are not objectively true. Of course, if postmodernsit claims are not objectively true, then they are jsut the arbitrary opinions of certain people that we are free to ignore. Postmodernism is thus an attempt to cut the feet from under one’s opponents without having to engage one’s opponents’ arguments, a strategy that is ultimately self-refuting.