Postmodemism's censure of metanarratives expresses a moral claim and moral concern about those who have spawned injustice in the name of Truth. Ironically, while this censure is an indictment against the historic failures of the Christian church, it is also a corroboration of Christian theology. On postmodernism, a moral claim must be understood either instrumentally (emotivism or prescriptivism) or ideally (subjectivism or intersubjectivism), and neither is adequate. Rather, the moral claim requires moral realism. Moral realism, however, is best explained by theism. While sharing many of postmodemism's moral concerns, theism—especially Christian theism—can best enable and satisfy these concerns, whereas postmodernism can only frustrate them. Thus, theism uniquely enables moral accountability, communication, and tolerance. Moreover, Christian theism, in virtue of the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus, uniquely redeems moral concerns from futility and offers hope to those concerned for justice.

John Paul II's encyclical, Fides et Ratio, describes a profound and causal connection between the teaching of modem Western philosophy and contemporary spiritual dilemmas. The Pope argues persuasively that modem philosophy has led modern man to a loss of faith in the nobility of human reason and the possible existence of meaningful human truths. Modem political philosophers wanted to bring the divine law of revealed Scripture into service of modem philosophic principles of the autonomy of human reason and freedom. John Locke sought to reorganize family life in accordance with such modem principles. Locke clearly modified Biblical teaching to allow for more liberty for the autonomous individual in his imagined liberal democratic society of the future. John Paul II is among those who urge Christians in the West to examine our present social disintegration in light of the foundational ideas that have formed modem liberal societies. We must understand how these ideas have contributed to our present social problems, and determine how to chart the best course for liberal democracy in the new Millennium.

Drawing on C. S. Peirce's notion of an "unlimited community of investigators," Jürgen Habermas seeks to construct binding moral norms apart from independently existing moral absolutes. But Habermas fatally compromises the usefulness of an unlimited community for his project. Where Peirce relied on the notion of a uniform "outward clash" with external reality or "secondness" to lead all members of his unlimited community of investigators to a "predestinate" point of convergence, Habermas lacks any notion of an independent moral reality to bring about this convergence throughout his unlimited community of constructors. Apart from devising a substitute secondness to replace the clash with external moral reality, Habermas' unlimited community will spin apart into countless divergent moral constructs, Habermas' attempts to devise a substitute secondness fouruier on a lifeworld dilemma he never resolves, Habermas' difficulties are instructive, suggesting a possible way forward.

Martin Heidegger, an influential twentieth-century philosopher, attempted to transcend previous metaphysical understandings. Rejecting his Catholic heritage, his ontology sought to free itself from any objective ethical standard Nonetheless, he was unable to reject ethical matters entirely. Before Hitler's rise to power, Heidegger championed authenticity as a quasi-ethical concept. Later, he condemned technology as the source of human suffering. Neither led him to condemn the Holocaust explicitly. Such a condemnation was warranted in light of Heidegger's enthusiastic early support of National Socialism and his silence at its collapse. Ultimately, Heidegger's silence reflected the unacceptably high price of amoral thought intent upon celebrating only itself Heidegger's conception of the human being in a world where transcendental standards do not exist reveals the spirit of postmodern man, rooted in nothing larger than himself.

This essay explores an interdisciplinary framework for the comparative study of genocide. It traces the Other Holocaust of communist genocide in the twentieth century, with an estimated 100 million victims. Both the Nazi Holocaust and communist genocide raise major ethical dilemmas concerning individual and collective responsibility. The central underlying dynamic common to the Nazi Holocaust, communist and other genocides is the radical discounting of human life and dignity, and denial of the intrinstic worth of each individual human being. Hence the moral equivalency of evil Mass crimes against humanity run counter to the ethical precepts of all major religions, in particular the Judaeo-Christian tradition which considers man inviolable, created in the image of God Those who would honor and remember the victims of past genocides, whether Christians or Jews, believers or nonbelievers, need to rededicate their efforts to prevent such atrocities in the future by defending human rights and the persecuted in the present.

C. S. Lewis acknowledged Rudolf Otto's influence in his use of the term numinous to describe the uniqueness of religious experience, the experience of awe and with it the reality of absolutes, in contrast to prevailing naturalistic, materialistic, and subjectivist interpretations of morality and religion. Otto hints at and Lewis develops in more detail the idea of the numinous in human relationships. In Lewis' personal life, he does this in his relationship to his wife, Joy Davidman Lewis, In his writings, he does this in Till We Have Faces and other works. In each case, Lewis provides apt illustrations of how the numinous is at the heart of what by almost any staruiards are meaningful and satisfying relationships. Intense personal relationships become ideal environments for the experience of the numinous, even in situations of tragedy and loss. This is a message that a postmodern, secularized world needs to hear.