What was/is "Modernism?"

I have been working on a book review of Stephen Toulmin's COSMOPOLIS, and it's been hard to quantify exactly what I think or feel about what I've read.

The subtitle of Stephen Toulmin’s book is “The Hidden Agenda of Modernity.” The essence of what Toulmin argues is that Modernity rests upon three pillars, “certainty, systematicity, and the clean slate” (179). Modernism was a reaction to the Catholic-Protestant 30 Years' War in the early 17th Century, and resulted in the build-up of the nation-state as the ideal. This led to all sorts of abuses, argues Toulmin. Apparently, in order to be "certain" you have to be oppressive. So, post-Modernism is a welcomed change for Toulmin. What does this have to do with Christianity or the church? Well...

When Modernism started to crumble and the humanism of the Renaissance reappeared in the post-Modern era, Toulmin says it was a necessary corrective to the misuse of Jesus’ words and teachings. He writes, “Throughout the 1970s, all the inequalities built into the modern society came under attack in turn: women, the elderly, the handicapped, lesbians and gays, all spoke up one group after another. Those who never questioned the rights and wrongs of modern nationhood found it a terrible shock. Jesus said, ‘The poor ye have always with you’—i.e., deserving objects of charity are always near at hand. Now, many believers in ‘traditional values’ understood Him to mean, rather, that it is the business of the poor to stay poor, of blacks to stay deferent, of women to stay home, of the handicapped to stay in the back room, and of the homosexuals to stay in the closet” (166). Ouch. Really?!?

For a post-Modern viewpoint that is supposed to shy away from certainty, Toulmin appears as though he is pretty sure that traditional values are rubbish.

I am a strong believer in learning from those from whom you don't agree with at first blush, I think there is something to this critique of Modernism. However, it will take some work to "get outside myself" and my presuppositions enough to explore what truth may be here.