George Whitefield College is running its annual ‘Summer School of Biblical Christianity’ from 23 Jan to 1 Feb 2008 at their campus in Muizenberg, Cape Town. They’re offering courses on Biblical Theology, Church Response to Contemporary Issues, New Testament Greek, Old Testament Hebrew, Advanced Exegesis and Post-Graduate Research. I’ll be attending the Post-Graduate Research course.
What was really interesting to me is that Mark Norman will be down from Pretoria to teach 6 sessions on understanding postmodernism entitled ‘iPod therefore I Am‘. Here’s his schedule:
Part 1: Understanding Postmodernism – The differences between ‘Premodern’, ‘Modern’ and ‘Postmodern’ societies.
Part 2: Postmodernism and the Problem of Truth – A Christian critique of postmodern views of knowledge and truth.
Part 3: Postmodernism, Terrorism and Fundamentalism – The new global war and what it means for the church.
Part 4: Postmodernism and African Thought – How post-colonial African thought relates to postmodernism and its relevance for the church.
Part 5: Postmodernism and the Use of Language – A study of postmodern approaches to language, with special relevance to Jacques Derrida.
Part 6: Postmodernism and the Stories We Live In – Are you living in the Christian story?
Mark’s talks will take place in the mornings of each day prior to the other Summer School classes.
For more information contact GWC (021) 788-1652
Or see the college website.
man that sounds like some quality sessions. any idea if they’ll be available for download afterwards?
Thanks for the info, Stephen. Do you anything more about the dates. I just called GWC and they said from Mon 28 to Fri 1 from 8:00 in the morning. They weren’t too sure how the 6 talks would fit into the 5 days though. If I find out more I’ll let you know.
Matt – I’ll find out and if they’re available I’ll point you to them – or even ask the college if I can host them on my podcast.
Susan – I’m not sure. I’ll no more when I go in to register on Tuesday next week.
HI Stephen, please could you organise to have these talks avaliable i’ll pay for them if need be…. thanks so much
It would be great if you can get a recording of Mark’s sessions – they look well thought-out and with special relevance to the South African situation. He presented them in Joburg last year at Rosebank Union over the course of 6 weeks – a friend of mine went and said his basic premise was “Modernism – good, postmodernism – evil.” I’d like to see if my friend’s opinion of Mark – that he is violently opposed to postmodernism – is correct.
I too would love to get a download of some of the Africa-specific sessions.
Picking up on what Roger Saner said, I would be deeply disappointed if Mark did indeed have a thumbs up for modernism and a hissy fit for post-modernism. Anyone who can’t see that modernism has its downsides and post-modernism has its upsides is fighting a (lost) partisan battle, not engaging with what’s really there.
DICK LUCAS, rector emeritus of St Helens Bishopsgate London, will be lecturing on “preaching Philippians” on Friday 22 February at George Whitefield College in Muizenberg from 09h45 tot 13h00. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience not to be missed.
I heard he was going to be in town – and I’m going to miss him! Oh well I’ll have to make do with listening to Piper, Driscoll, Mahaney and Chandler instead – bummer.
Reply to Roger Saner. I’m not sure how your friend came to the conclusion that Mark Norman’s basic premise was “modernism good, post-modernism evil”. Either Mark’s changed his views radically, or he didn’t communicate them well or your friend wasn’t listening. The lectures were excellent with appropriate, nuanced critique of both modernism and post-modernism. In fact, at one stage I thought to myself – this should put an end to the uninformed “postmodernism is from the devil” comments one often hears.
Dear Stephen:
I just found your site about Mark Norman’s topic “ipod therefore I am”. How may I obtain a copy of his presentations? Contact him? GWC? hard copy? download? cost-no problem.
Thank you in advance for replying and pointing me in the right direction.
Respectfully,
Richard
Dear All,
I recently wrote something which contained sections against Postmodernism and after reading it, Mark Norman intimated to me that I gave it a bum rap, due to my ignorance on the subject. He defended Derrida (under whom he apparently received tutelage) saying that Derrida did not abandon the concept of truth, which he took very seriously according to Norman. Norman also said that Derrida did not disparage religion, or the church. Yet we find In “The Gift of Death” (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1995 pp108 he says, among other things: “I call myself God.” He has also, in many of his writings said that there are no absolute, or abiding truths.
The spectre of Postmodernism is looming over and infiltrating even the evangelical wing of Christianity today and C.E.S.A. is not immune from its evil influence.
Norman also says that there are positive things that we may learn from the so-called emerging church, as well as a number of other unmentionables. I would love to see, or hear the transcripts of his talks, to see which Mark Norman turned up for the series of talks.
Johnno777
Hi Richard – I’m afraid you’ll have to contact GWC to see if they have the talks available.