POSTMODERN THOUGHT AND RELIGION: OPEN-TRADITIONALISM AND RADICAL ORTHODOXY ON RELIGIOUS BELIEF AND EXPERIENCE

This paper considers some of the ways in which 'postmodernism' is construed, before turning to several important representative examples of religious postmodern thought. It highlights some common features possessed by prominent examples of religious postmodern thought within Judaism and Christianity. Much postmodern religious thought is characterised by the separation of religious belief from religious experience, and is marked by the tendency to emphasise the latter at the expense of the former. This paper argues that, despite this tendency, the work of certain key postmodern religious thinkersparticularly those associated with open-traditionalism and radical orthodoxy-does not conform to this characterisation and needs to be understood in a broader cultural and theological context.