Postmodernism and Christianity: A Brief Look
Jacob Stump,
who was a frequent commenter here at one time, suggested I look at Ross Rohde's
overview of postmodernism and Christianity. It's quite good, overall.
The article includes one of the better
introductions to postmodernism I've seen, borrowed from Dr.
Mary Klages. It's characteristic of postmodernism to resist
classification and labeling, but this seems not a bad representation in spite of
that.
Rohde's tack toward postmodernism is missiological. Missiology is the study of how to demonstrate and communicate a timeless, unchanging reality effectively in widely varying contexts of language and culture. He does not endorse all that he describes about postmodernism, but he rightly reminds us we need to be aware of it and take it into account as we try to show Christ to postmodern people.
This is admittedly a challenge for me. I grew up at the end of the modern age, and my blog is more in tune with a modernist mindset than postmodernism. But it's always a matter of communicating effectively with the audience you have; and blogs being what they are, I would guess that the audience here has self-selected to be comfortable with this approach. I hope so, at least.
What are some of the differences between modernity and postmodernism that Rohde would have us take into account? He draws this list primarily from Klages:
Tendencies of Postmodernity
Taken from the Klages article:
Rohde's tack toward postmodernism is missiological. Missiology is the study of how to demonstrate and communicate a timeless, unchanging reality effectively in widely varying contexts of language and culture. He does not endorse all that he describes about postmodernism, but he rightly reminds us we need to be aware of it and take it into account as we try to show Christ to postmodern people.
This is admittedly a challenge for me. I grew up at the end of the modern age, and my blog is more in tune with a modernist mindset than postmodernism. But it's always a matter of communicating effectively with the audience you have; and blogs being what they are, I would guess that the audience here has self-selected to be comfortable with this approach. I hope so, at least.
What are some of the differences between modernity and postmodernism that Rohde would have us take into account? He draws this list primarily from Klages:
Tendencies of Postmodernity
Taken from the Klages article:
•
Subjectivity
• Rejection of
rigid distinctions
• Local, personal
and specific truth
• Rejection of
absolute truths
• Rejection of
"grand narratives" which explain reality, such as capitalism or communism.
These grand narratives are seen as old and simplistic and don't adequately
explain the world's complexity.
•
Practicality
• lnclusiveness or
tolerance
• Diversity of
morals and lifestyle
• Tendency to
perceive information that does not fit their worldview as
"noise".
• Tendency to see
conservative religion or politics as the enemy.
• Language is fluid
and subjective (the hearer brings as much to the conversation as the
listener).
•
Other tendencies not specifically mentioned by Klages:
Other tendencies not specifically mentioned by Klages:
• Desire for
spirituality
• Desire for
community
• Rejection of
negativity
Tendencies of Modernity
Tendencies of Modernity
•
Rationality
•
Autonomy
•
Objectivity
• Science as the
objective arbiter of truth
• Knowledge
produced by science is "truth" and is eternal
• Value of progress
and perfection
•
Order
• Language is
rational and transparent (it means exactly what it says)
• Rejection of that
which does not represent order
• Rejection of that
which is considered "other" i.e. lack of
tolerance
The core passage for understanding Rohde's missiological approach is:
"As an Evangelical I believe in both objective and exclusive truth. I believe the Bible is God's revelation to mankind; it is true and furthermore Jesus is the ultimate expression of truth. He said 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.' I believe this truth to be exclusive, because as Jesus said, 'no one comes to the Father but by Me.' Since no one comes to the Father but by Jesus I believe we have exclusive answers to ultimate questions. If this is true, then other religions are by logical deduction not true. Like most Evangelicals I have concerns about some of the Catholic Church's doctrines that are part of Paco's [a postmodernist friend] cultural and religious self-definition. To look for the light within sounds very much like New Age thought which I find dangerous and uncomfortable.
"What this tells me is that given Paco's worldview, if I were to preach to him that my Bible, my faith and my understandings were true and even more, exclusively true, I would lose my hearing with him. He would probably not 'hear' the core of my message because my exclusivity and rejection of others would render me as an unfit messenger of light."
Note the interplay between Rohde's and Paco's beliefs, and the tension it produces. Missionaries face this all the time. Whenever someone goes to a new culture to tell the story of Jesus Christ, they encounter customs, beliefs, practices, and language barriers that they are responsible to overcome. The actual message is the same through the ages and around the world, but what works to communicate it in one time and place will fail in another.
Rohde holds to objective, unchanging truth; Paco rejects the possibility. Rohde holds to a "grand narrative" (as postmodernists typically call it) of God's creating the world, mankind being originally good but falling, our need for a redeemer, Christ coming for that purpose, and a future state in which Christ reigns over all. This kind of grand narrative is rejected by people like Paco, not in the sense that it is wrong, but in the sense that no grand narrative is trusted as such. Rohde believes, quite exclusivistically, that Jesus Christ is the only way to come to God and to real life. Paco sees exclusivism as intolerant and wrong on the face of it.
Come to think of it, these kinds of issues are not so foreign to this blog after all.
Rohde does not recommend changing our message or compromising on its truth. I don't think--at least I hope not--Rohde meant he would never preach the exclusiveness of Christian truth, but that it would confuse Paco if he started there.
Rohde says we should take note of the significant points of connection between postmodern ways of thinking and Christianity, for there remain many, and start there instead:
"Many of Paco's affirmations have positive strategic implication for the preaching of the gospel.
The core passage for understanding Rohde's missiological approach is:
"As an Evangelical I believe in both objective and exclusive truth. I believe the Bible is God's revelation to mankind; it is true and furthermore Jesus is the ultimate expression of truth. He said 'I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.' I believe this truth to be exclusive, because as Jesus said, 'no one comes to the Father but by Me.' Since no one comes to the Father but by Jesus I believe we have exclusive answers to ultimate questions. If this is true, then other religions are by logical deduction not true. Like most Evangelicals I have concerns about some of the Catholic Church's doctrines that are part of Paco's [a postmodernist friend] cultural and religious self-definition. To look for the light within sounds very much like New Age thought which I find dangerous and uncomfortable.
"What this tells me is that given Paco's worldview, if I were to preach to him that my Bible, my faith and my understandings were true and even more, exclusively true, I would lose my hearing with him. He would probably not 'hear' the core of my message because my exclusivity and rejection of others would render me as an unfit messenger of light."
Note the interplay between Rohde's and Paco's beliefs, and the tension it produces. Missionaries face this all the time. Whenever someone goes to a new culture to tell the story of Jesus Christ, they encounter customs, beliefs, practices, and language barriers that they are responsible to overcome. The actual message is the same through the ages and around the world, but what works to communicate it in one time and place will fail in another.
Rohde holds to objective, unchanging truth; Paco rejects the possibility. Rohde holds to a "grand narrative" (as postmodernists typically call it) of God's creating the world, mankind being originally good but falling, our need for a redeemer, Christ coming for that purpose, and a future state in which Christ reigns over all. This kind of grand narrative is rejected by people like Paco, not in the sense that it is wrong, but in the sense that no grand narrative is trusted as such. Rohde believes, quite exclusivistically, that Jesus Christ is the only way to come to God and to real life. Paco sees exclusivism as intolerant and wrong on the face of it.
Come to think of it, these kinds of issues are not so foreign to this blog after all.
Rohde does not recommend changing our message or compromising on its truth. I don't think--at least I hope not--Rohde meant he would never preach the exclusiveness of Christian truth, but that it would confuse Paco if he started there.
Rohde says we should take note of the significant points of connection between postmodern ways of thinking and Christianity, for there remain many, and start there instead:
"Many of Paco's affirmations have positive strategic implication for the preaching of the gospel.
• He believes that
there is something beyond what we normally experience.
• He believes this
'something more' is spiritual.
• Spirituality must
have practical application in life.
• He would be open
to someone being his spiritual guide.
• One gains the
right to be his spiritual guide by invitation.
• One also gains
this right to be his spiritual guide by demonstrating an undefined spirituality
in their life."
With these as points of contact, we can introduce a postmodernist to Jesus the person, and the practical, spiritual path Jesus can lead him or her on. It was never necessary for a new believer to know, understand, and embrace every aspect of New Testament truth to start on a path of discipleship. Jesus met people where they were, and took them from there. We don't hide Jesus' exclusive status as Savior, but we don't lead with denunciations of other religions' false claims. We recognize, though, that the postmodernist will not hear it the way we think we're speaking it. We think we're saying something very positive: "Jesus' glory is eternal, from God and as God himself; he is the great and unique sacrificial gift from God for our salvation; he is the one to whom all our worship is due." But the postmodernist is likely hearing, "Boy, you sure have a low opinion of Buddha, Confucius, and Muhammad, don't you? What's wrong with them; and what's wrong with you, the way you're putting them down?!" So we have to find ways to communicate so the message doesn't get derailed by a genuine language/culture barrier.
Most of Rohde's suggestions seem wise and excellent to me. He is right to caution Christians against tying ourselves to modernism. I have just a few points of caution. I don't agree with all he says about evangelicalism being an expression of modernism. It was 2000 years ago that Jesus claimed to be the one and only Savior. Emphases on doctrine--and correction of error--began with New Testament writers Paul, John, Peter, and Jude, and continued through the Church Fathers. Origen's (A.D. 185-ca. 254) Contra Celsum was eight volumes of doctrinal correction. As John Piper pointed out, Truth is central to New Testament thinking. These things are clearly rooted in the pre-modern era--and are therefore timeless.
I'm asking myself today how well I connect with postmodernists and their thinking. I had little success with Jacob; it was frustrating to me how, over and over again, he would divert the discussion from the content of what was being said, to what he called a language power play (disagreement became "delegitimizing") in the fact that anybody would say it.* The non-theist frequent commenters on this blog more frequently display a mix of modernism--a strong reliance on science as the road to truth--and a postmodern kind of relativism. (Their modernism will probably cause them to wonder why I would think it positive that evangelicalism has pre-modern roots.)
In spite of a few disagreements, I find Rohde's analysis of Barriers and Bridges to be very insightful. I could stand to learn a lot more. Every church leader needs to be aware of these kinds of things. We fool ourselves if we think our mission in the West is not cross-cultural.
*Because of this continual difficulty with staying on topic, I finally--after many weeks of urging him to engage with the actual content of discussion--felt it was necessary to ban Jacob from commenting. He continues graciously to stay in touch via email.
Cross-posted at Strategic Christian
With these as points of contact, we can introduce a postmodernist to Jesus the person, and the practical, spiritual path Jesus can lead him or her on. It was never necessary for a new believer to know, understand, and embrace every aspect of New Testament truth to start on a path of discipleship. Jesus met people where they were, and took them from there. We don't hide Jesus' exclusive status as Savior, but we don't lead with denunciations of other religions' false claims. We recognize, though, that the postmodernist will not hear it the way we think we're speaking it. We think we're saying something very positive: "Jesus' glory is eternal, from God and as God himself; he is the great and unique sacrificial gift from God for our salvation; he is the one to whom all our worship is due." But the postmodernist is likely hearing, "Boy, you sure have a low opinion of Buddha, Confucius, and Muhammad, don't you? What's wrong with them; and what's wrong with you, the way you're putting them down?!" So we have to find ways to communicate so the message doesn't get derailed by a genuine language/culture barrier.
Most of Rohde's suggestions seem wise and excellent to me. He is right to caution Christians against tying ourselves to modernism. I have just a few points of caution. I don't agree with all he says about evangelicalism being an expression of modernism. It was 2000 years ago that Jesus claimed to be the one and only Savior. Emphases on doctrine--and correction of error--began with New Testament writers Paul, John, Peter, and Jude, and continued through the Church Fathers. Origen's (A.D. 185-ca. 254) Contra Celsum was eight volumes of doctrinal correction. As John Piper pointed out, Truth is central to New Testament thinking. These things are clearly rooted in the pre-modern era--and are therefore timeless.
I'm asking myself today how well I connect with postmodernists and their thinking. I had little success with Jacob; it was frustrating to me how, over and over again, he would divert the discussion from the content of what was being said, to what he called a language power play (disagreement became "delegitimizing") in the fact that anybody would say it.* The non-theist frequent commenters on this blog more frequently display a mix of modernism--a strong reliance on science as the road to truth--and a postmodern kind of relativism. (Their modernism will probably cause them to wonder why I would think it positive that evangelicalism has pre-modern roots.)
In spite of a few disagreements, I find Rohde's analysis of Barriers and Bridges to be very insightful. I could stand to learn a lot more. Every church leader needs to be aware of these kinds of things. We fool ourselves if we think our mission in the West is not cross-cultural.
*Because of this continual difficulty with staying on topic, I finally--after many weeks of urging him to engage with the actual content of discussion--felt it was necessary to ban Jacob from commenting. He continues graciously to stay in touch via email.
Cross-posted at Strategic Christian
Posted: Tue - April 24, 2007 at 10:00 AM |
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Published On: Dec 06, 2007 01:04 PM
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