331 POSTMODERNISM DEUS AND THE ABSCONDITUS directly of God, especially of the divine name YHWH, it eerily anticipates our postmodern era 43. III. Postmodernism and the Silence of God Postmodernism frustratingly resists clear definition 44. Defini- tions are problematic because postmodernism accepts no definite terms, absolute truths, or boundaries. Generally, postmodernism re- fers to a style of thought suspicious of any attempt through ratio- nalist means to account for objectivity or truth. While not rejecting entirely the notion of metanarratives, it rejects specific meta- narratives, replacing them with others such as narratives of rejection or disempowerment 45. Reality and even persons are considered “ diverse, dispersed, indeterminate, and ungrounded”. Its approach to thought and life is “playful, eclectic, pluralistic, and subversive of traditional boundaries” 46. Postmodernism, then, may be taken as re- ferring to this broad mindset, while postmodernity refers instead to the present historical era in which this style of thinking seems philo- sophically and culturally to prevail. Postmodernism is also indeterminate, diverse, and ungrounded with respect to notions of deity, and it is in this sense it parallels the mood in Lamentations. God (or gods), representing the central character(s) in a metanarrative, is held in suspicion. Although he wrote before postmodernity, Tillich describes the human dilemma vis-à-vis the divine in very postmodernistic terms, as “one of not having, not seeing, not knowing, and not grasping” the divine. God is not found within a doctrine, an institution, or even within the The Targum to Lamentations illustrates this point. Instead of a direct 43 mention of God in Lam 3,57, the Targum has the Angel of God draw near, and God’s Word rmym speak, “You said by your Memra, ‘Do not fear’”. Cf. E. LEVINE, The Aramaic Version of Lamentations (New York 1976) 157. P. ROSENAU, Post-Modernism and the Social Sciences (Princeton, 44 NJ 1992) 17, complains “the term postmodern is employed so broadly that it seems to apply to everything and nothing all at once”. L. BOEVE, Interrupting Tradition. An Essay on Christian Faith in a 45 Postmodern Context (Louvain Theological and Pastoral Monographs; Leuven 2002) 67. R. & R. K. SOULEN, Handbook of Biblical Criticism (Louisville, 46 KY 32001) 140.