Following on the heels of yesterday’s post, I couldn’t help but think about cultural changes. I was thinking about the warnings I hear time and again about postmodernism. To hear many talk, to have a postmodern outlook on the world is to deny the faith. Some despair of being able to reach out to postmodernists.
My question is: was modernism all that friendly to the church? I’m no expert on these terms, but from what I know, modernism changed the way we look at the Bible, not to mention the way that we look at the world. My hunch is that a modernist outlook and a postmodernist outlook each impact our views to a similar degree, just in dissimilar ways.
It gets back to one of my favorite sayings: “The fish doesn’t know that he’s wet.” When you grow up in a modernist environment, being taught to think and reason in modernist terms, it seems like the “natural” way to do things. More specifically, if you’ve always read the Bible from that point of view, other ways of looking at the Bible seem heretical. Like always, our way is the right way; anything new and different is wrong.
Postmodernism offers unique challenges to the church. But we first need to deal with the challenges of modernism, dig past its effects, before we can objectively evaluate the effects of postmodernism.
Those are my thoughts. I’d like to hear from someone who has a better handle on the meaning and implications of each of these viewpoints.
Good thoughts, Tim. I was only introduced to the term “Postmodern” a couple of years ago in my D.Min. studies. In my readings (both pro and con) I have come to see Postmodernism as both a great opportunity and a great danger to the church – in other words, exactly what every other culture has provided the church. The church will be forced to re-think (and perhaps improve upon) some of her language, but the upside is that more people are going to be willing to listen to our story if we present it as being relevant. Postmodernism is what it is, but God will raise up voices to lead the church in healthy directions. I for one am excited. Obstacles are only impossibilities for those who have little minds. I say, “Let’s go!”
I too believe postmodernism presents both a great opportunity and a great danger to the Church carrying out God’s mission, just as much as modernism offered both great opportunity and great danger as it emerged out of pre-enlightment. The more know about both modernism and postmodernism, the more I realize that those who spout off in diatribes about postmodernism are completely oblivious to how thoroughly immeshed in modernism they are and how equally dangerous modernism can be (and has been) to the Gospel.
Grace and Peace,
Rex
There is a certain risk with postmodernism…just as there is also risk in living by faith. I believe that the postmodern world view encourages living by faith more so than the “modern” world view. I believe that we have every opportunity to approach people today with “a clean religious slate” and this also provides some advantage…despite the fact that we face heightened skepticism. People are interested in hearing a good story…hearing our story, in my experience…especially if we make it relevant to them. At least people are more likely going to think for themselves (even if it is less than friendly toward Christianity, at times) rather than simply relate what they have been taught by some church or some individual. So, to answer your question — no, I do not think that “modernism” was “more friendly,” but, was “less friendly,” because it molded and shaped people to a system and did not allow as much opportunity for freedom to think or freedom to express…in short, it stifled “living by faith.”. I believe postmodernism, despite its disadvantages, does have some significant advantages in ecouraging “faithfulness to a Person” rather than “faithfulness to a principle”… Blessings, Don
The real fear I have is the fact that Christianity, will be viewed as passe. Something to be considered a relic. Some view this as cumbersome, a nuisance that keeps us compliant in a world full of rules and laws to circumvent pure free will. Don’t church organizations do just that. Keep us compliant in a world of order. All things neat and tidy. It’s not that way in Egypt right now.
The one thing the Church doesn’t want to accept is change. Especially in ultra conservative churches where tradition is aligned against anything that might be construed as different, a thought, an idea, that maybe the way we have always done it is good enough anymore. As the bible puts it being stiff necked and stubborn doesn’t afford very much flexibility in an ever changing world…