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What happens if God dies?

Posted Thursday, April 05, 2007 by Charlie Trimm

I've been reading a rather thick but good book recently, entitled Is there a  meaning in this Text? by Kevin Vanhoozer. I am only a 1/4 of the way through it (It's 500 pages and dense reading) but he presents some fascinating points. One of his claims (at least, I think he makes the claim and is not just quoting another idea) is that once God is taken out of the picture (as in secularism), then it is only a matter of time before the author gets removed as well (as in postmodernism). In postmodernism, the author no longer determines the meaning of the text, but texts are essentially removed from the author. Vanhoozer notes that when life is separated from God, then the logical conclusion is that there is no center of existence in the big picture. And if there is no big center, then why should each text also be restricted to one meaning? I just thought it interesting.

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