cultural phenomena, for Schaeffer, are symptoms of philosophical shifts, not vice versa.

Each tour of a postmodern church will give a concrete picture of what Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault might mean for how we worship.

The problem is that all these questions are rooted in a misunderstanding of the claims being made. In other words, these slogans (which were never intended as slogans by their authors) are treated like bumper stickers: claims made without a context. Once we appreciate the context of these claims, however, we see two things: First, they mean

We will see that much that goes under the banner of postmodern philosophy has one eye on ancient and medieval sources and constitutes a significant recovery of premodern ways of knowing, being, and doing.

This doesn’t mean that a particular ecclesial body is the dispenser of grace or the arbiter of salvation; rather, there simply is no Christianity apart from the body of Christ, which is the church. The body is the New Testament’s organic model of community that counters the modernist emphasis on the individual.

By a Schaefferian strategy,

“The first and chief defense of the gospel, the first ‘letter of commendation’ not only for Paul but for Jesus, is not an argument but the life of the church conformed to Christ by the Spirit in service and

The church does not exist for me; my salvation is not primarily a matter of intellectual mastery or emotional satisfaction.

as the practices of the church include the traditional sacramental