Pentecostalism, Postmodernism, and Reformed Epistemology: James K. A. Smith and the Contours of a Postmodern Christian Epistemology

About the Book

In Pentecostalism, Postmodernism, and Reformed Epistemology, Yoon Shin critically builds on James K. A. Smith’s postmodern Pentecostal epistemology with the aid of Reformed epistemology. It takes the reader through an interdisciplinary journey that exposits and illumines the relationship among Pentecostal spirituality, continental and analytic philosophy, postliberalism, moral psychology, and philosophy of emotion. This work clarifies misunderstandings of Smith, in Smith, and between continental and analytic epistemology, constructively and coherently synthesizing the sources through interdisciplinary analysis and thereby demonstrating the value of mashup philosophy. The resulting epistemology strengthens the mostly descriptive epistemology of Smith with the warrant criteria of Alvin Plantinga.

Table of Contents:

Foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part 1: Smith’s Pentecostal Epistemology
Chapter 1: Pentecostal Spirituality and Postmodernism
Chapter 2: Pentecostal Epistemology
Chapter 3: Pretheory, Theory, and Their Integrated Relationship
Part 2: Smith’s Postmodern Epistemology
Chapter 4: Postmodern Hermeneutic Epistemology
Chapter 5: Smith the Relativist?
Chapter 6: Against Narrative, Affective Knowledge
Part 3: Reformed and Postmodern Epistemology
Chapter 7: Plantinga’s Reformed Epistemology
Chapter 8: Warranted Christian Belief
Chapter 9: Reformed Epistemology, Postmodernism, and a Way Forward
Conclusion: Contours of a Postmodern Christian Epistemology
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

About the Author :
Yoon Shin is associate professor of philosophical theology at Southeastern University.

Review :
For the initiated, this should be a good read. Its strengths lie in its success in systematizing a “mashup philosophy” and the care that it took for Shin to present the materials with a high level of accuracy. “Yoon Shin’s engaging study stages a constructive conversation few may have thought possible—namely, that among Reformed epistemology, postmodern philosophy, and Pentecostal theology. The result is a substantive and creative proposal—a ‘mashup epistemology,’ as Shin styles it—that greatly enriches our thinking about religious knowledge and the possibilities available for Christian reflection upon the quality of our knowledge.” Combining the most stimulating debates of the last decade, Yoon Shin courageously ventures into the seemingly contradictory interests of Pentecostal, Evangelical, Reformed, and postmodern epistemologies through the lens of one of their chief interlocutors, James K.A. Smith. Critical and constructive, combining philosophy, theology, hermeneutics, and cultural studies, this conversation advocates for a postmodern Christian epistemology grounded in the concrete embodiment of the human situation. In this significant work, Yoon Shin brings James K.A. Smith’s postmodern epistemology into a much-needed conversation with Reformed epistemology. The result is a magnificently lucid and engaging product that will mark a watershed moment in Pentecostalist scholarship. Pentecostalism, Postmodernism, and Reformed Epistemology: James K. A. Smith and the Contours of a Postmodern Christian Epistemology will be treasured by scholars for its rigorous argumentation, clarity, and depth of insight. A real tour de force! In conversation with the work of James K. A. Smith, Shin seeks to make good on showing how postmodern philosophy and Reformed epistemology can inform one another and contribute to the task of developing a postmodern Christian epistemology. This book is refreshingly astute in its discussion of the relevant issues, its interdisciplinary and comparative analysis, and its constructive proposal. Shin deserves our gratitude for paving the way toward a richer understanding of such a possibility! Reading Yoon Shin’s book Pentecostalism, Postmodernism and Reformed Epistemology served as inspiration for the role of Pentecostalism within a postmodern world. The exponential growth of Global Pentecostalism hastens the need for articulating the epistemological scaffolding of Pentecostal Spirituality. Shin provides a coherent and consistent logic for the reciprocal relationship between theoretical and pretheoretical knowledge. Despite the tendency towards technical language, Pentecostalism, Postmodernism and Reformed Epistemology provides a necessary reminder that the methods utilized to construct knowledge are directly tied to the theological structure composed for theologizing, and thus should be considered a valuable resource for faith leaders.