That’s why so many people today are interested in primal cultures and world views that promote the unity of humanity with nature, rather than humankind standing over nature. Postmodernists offer some good critiques of humanism, progress, and autonomous reason.
By struggling with these internal contradictions in an accepting atmosphere, postmodern-influenced people realize they are willing to judge, but their own unspoken rules governing judgment perplex them. Modernists — those who are agnostic or atheistic and who trust rationality — have problems here as well.
The Bible’s emphasis on historical revelation (1 Cor. 15:13-15), doctrinal propositions (Rom. 10:9), and natural revelation (1:18-20) presume that objective truth exists. This places Christians in direct opposition to postmodern thinking.
When talking to members of postmodern culture, we find that few fully comprehend the bases for their views. Therefore, we aim to help them understand their own views, along with some of the problems inherent in those views.
Martyn Lloyd Jones remarks in his book The Sermon on the Mount that if Christians would simply recover Jesus’ path of holiness laid out in those words, the church would set the world ablaze with the love of God.
In a society that doesn’t think about how to think, Christians have a distinct advantage: We believe in the inherent logic of the universe of a reasonable God, and so have impetus to understand and use the laws of logic for ourselves. 2. The rhetoric of story.
Postmoderns are most interested in the here and now. They want “what works for me”. By concentrating first on the benefits of Christianity to your practical life, you can use this to capture their interest, before speaking of eternal things.
And choice extends to value systems, beliefs, and lifestyle choices. All are seen as equally valid. The postmodernists’ choice of religious belief is by mix and match – whatever you feel comfortable with.
9 Aspects to consider when sharing the gospel in a postmodern culture. 1. Postmodernists do not like to be told what to think or believe. To them, personal discovery is more important. So the process of opening up to the gospel may seem to take longer than we imagined.
Decades ago people wanted a clear rational presentation of the truth. They needed to know that this was the universal truth that governed the universe. They often received this truth in the context of a church service.
Take a genuine interest in their lives. Listen, even if their ideas make no sense to you. Early conversations are not the time to correct their misunderstandings. Take time to really understand their views and circumstances.
To the postmodernist there is no objective absolute truth. “Truth” is what you believe it to be. Something can be “true for you, but not true for me”. “Choice” is a big virtue in our consumer society. And choice extends to value systems, beliefs, and lifestyle choices. All are seen as equally valid.
Unfortunately, the allusiveness of the movement in Christian circles compounds the problem. When dealing with the issues one has to distinguish between what we might call “hard postmodernism” and “soft postmodernism.” Hard postmodernism might be defined as those who have had a philosophical shift with regards to the nature of truth.
But how many in the “emerging church” claim to adhere to a philosophy of hard postmodernism? Not many, if any at all. Then are they postmodern in the proper since? This is a difficult question and the answer is “yes and no” (there I go again evidencing the conflicting influence of the postmodern mind!).
Having said this, let me give the positives and negatives that I see with the soft postmodernism of the emerging Church.
In sum, hard postmodernism should be seen as a threat. It is not possible to be a hard postmodernist and be a Christian. Soft postmodernism on the other hand presents the church with many lost virtues of grace and irenics (theology done peaceably). For this we can be thankful.
Postmodernists deny this shared reality. Instead, they claim that different cultural groups live in different realities. To them, a people’s reality is their perception or interpretation of the external world, and is not the world itself. Postmodernists claim we are really creating truth as we interpret.
Instead of one truth, we have many truths. Openness without the restraint of reason along with tolerance without moral appraisal are the new postmodern mandates.
Postmodernism is more than a movement among intellectuals. It deeply affects the broader culture. 2 In fact, academic postmodernism has galvanized the latent relativism growing in American culture since the 60s, while giving it a respectability it never had before. The new postmodern outlook is now everybody’s business.
Postmodern anthropology is based on the idea that humans are “social constructs” or socially determined beings. Our outlooks and perceptions are all the result of our enculturation.
Modernists assumed the mind is a “ mirror of nature,” meaning that our perceptions of reality actually correspond to the way the world is. From this presumption, modernists pursued their vision of progress, exalting technological achievement and mastery over nature.
In postmodern culture, it’s impossible to separate what people believe from who they are, because the act of believing something makes it true (for those who believe). Therefore, rejecting the content of faith means rejecting the person who constructed that truth.
The myth of “modern progress” ends up in a nightmare of violence, both for the people it marginalizes and for the earth itself. That’s why so many people today are interested in primal cultures and world views that promote the unity of humanity with nature, rather than humankind standing over nature.