The Postmodern World Comes to the Church

2007-06-07

Can it be that postmodern thought is entering into our churches? It is apparent that it is, as it has come up in conversations recently.

Can the Faith be conducive to postmodern influence? I do not believe so. Do we need to be aware that this philosophy is an issue with today’s generation? Absolutely, and we need to learn how to deal with its effects in the world today.

Postmodern thought includes many things that are foreign to the western culture of times past. It is a backlash of the certainty of knowledge and logic; it is the disillusionment with the Enlightenment and the modern world. For the church, postmodernism is a response to cold orthodoxy that has compartmentalized God and has left the heart out of the Faith. This has happened in times past; the Essenes withdrew from the community of Israel, Montanism and various monastic movements in history have been reactions to church institutions, as well as the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation as reactions to each other. Liberalism in the nineteenth century also caused a lot of damage when the church opened its doors to higher criticism of the Bible, and many in the church felt that religion should change to meet the means of humankind. Things get out of hand, and in many such movements the Lord gets left out one way or another.

Is the postmodern movement in the church the same thing? Postmodernism holds to the principle that objective truth cannot be known with certainty. It is impossible to have an objective viewpoint in which to know things as they really are. People are confined to the boundaries of language (which include all kinds of communication and behavior) and the community in which they live. When looking to the Bible, there is no way that the original intent of the authors can be known, being separated by time and space, but people can learn what it means to them. History and morality can also not be objectively known. If God cannot be known objectively, or that Jesus is the only way to know the living God and be saved, then the postmodern follower of the Faith has departed from what we have known the Faith to be. If the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are only convenient stories that are mere elements of our community’s story and not objective historical events, then they do not have the power the Bible says they have to save us from the coming wrath of God.

I cannot help to notice that there is a striking resemblance between postmodernism and created reality in animistic cultures. Animistic cultures often hold to what is called created reality, meaning they have created a religious system they must follow in order to manipulate the spirit world, and they begin to believe it as truth. Humankind seems to have similar traits regardless of what time in which people live or in what part of the world they dwell. Religion is constructed by humankind to meet their own needs, and they are not dependent on a God that exists apart from their created reality. They do not, by corollary, rest in a God who has the ability to act apart from our imagination.

The paradox of postmodernism is that though those who adhere to such philosophical tenets deny their ability to know objective reality, they make all-encompassing statements that correspond to all communities at all times. Such a person may believe that they are trapped within their own boundaries of language, but state that their truth is the one that encompasses all languages and communities. For example, when one says that they cannot know objective truth, they are making a statement that reflects an objective truth. This is a self-defeating statement. When we see an object, our senses, perception, and thoughts correspond with the object that we perceive in reality, but these thoughts do not modify or constitute the object.

This only scratches the surface on the discussion that could ensue over postmodernism. The idea that one can deny the knowledge of reality and enforce this view as an absolute is very absurd, but it is apparent that people are deceived by this worldview. It is very important to see that whether or not we recognize God as existing apart from our little world, He is there, and His Son really did die and rise from the dead. We may struggle with this, and that is okay to be honest about our struggles. But it is important that we understand that postmodernism brings new questions with which we need to be prepared to answer. Pray for the Lord to do a great work to open eyes and ears, as well as hearts and minds, so that people can know the Lord Jesus Christ and His salvation. Otherwise, we will be looking at a very different world twenty years from now.