At least since the 1990s, some theologians and development practitioners have been calling for greater attention to be paid to issues of structural injustice in respect of the global poor. With an increasing number of voices critiquing current models of aid and development, the imperative to pay greater attention to such advocacy or justice based initiatives is even more relevant. In this article, I explore why evangelicals in particular have been reticent about such moves from ‘charity to justice’ and I (...) make a series of biblical, theological and sociological arguments as to why we should do so. (shrink)

Recently, James Smith and Merold Westphal have sought to reconcile Christianity with Lyotard’s definition of the postmodern – “incredulitytowards metanarratives” – by claiming that Christianity is not a metanarrative in Lyotard’s sense. This paper argues that their understanding of theLyotardian metanarrative is too restrictive, and that the term specifically includes Christianity within its scope. Despite this, though, there is a meansby which Christianity and Lyotard can be brought closer together. That method is to understand Lyotard’s refusal of metanarratives as being (...) tosome extent provisional. Combining this idea with Lyotard’s notion of the differend allows Christianity and Lyotardian postmodernism to be found, ifnot in agreement, at least to coexist. (shrink)