- POSTMODERN
poʊs(t)'mɑd.ərn adjective. Coming later than modern. - 2. A 20th century concept and style in arts and criticism, representing a departure from modernism, typified by a general distrust of grand theories and ideologies.
- 3. Anti-modern.
- [Pomo
'poʊ.moʊ abbreviation, postmodernismpoʊs(t)'mɑd.ərn.iz.əm noun, postmodernistpoʊs(t)'mɑd.ərn.ist adjective, postmodernitypoʊs(t).moʊd'ər.nə.di noun.]
Seems I grew up postmodern. I just didn’t know it had a name. I also didn’t realize, at the time, how badly it scared the heebie-jeebies out of many a
The label’s not new. It first cropped up in the 1950s. Artists and architects started using it to describe the hip, exciting things they were doing. The current scene was “modern,” so they claimed they were beyond modern, post modern; whatever modern was, they weren’t.
Gradually people began to claim postmodernism is more than just their artistic style; it’s their
But
If you’ve not heard this definition before, I don’t blame you. When I first heard the term “postmodernism” in seminary, Christian apologists were describing it as “rejecting reality, in favor of one’s own invented reality.” Which is hardly a new philosophy; everybody does that. Little kids do it: “No! I don’t believe you! It’s not true!” [covers ears with hands] “La la la I can’t hear you.” And no doubt you’ve noticed
But believing in your own fictions instead of the real world, isn’t postmodernism. You want a proper definition of postmodernism, you gotta set aside your own knee-jerk prejudices and ask a postmodern. Or read some of their books. I was trained in journalism long before I was trained in theology, so I tracked down and read a bunch of original sources… and realized that’s me. That’s totally me. I’m postmodern. Surprise!
Postmodernism is in many ways a backlash to the philosophy of
Whereas we postmoderns are entirely sure that’s all a pipe dream.
There’s a lot of doubt in it. Understandably.
No, I don’t say “that’s all a pipe dream” out of
That’s the one thing which defines postmodernism best: Postmoderns doubt.
We doubt humanity has defined “greatness” correctly, and is pursuing the right thing. We doubt we can master our environment; we doubt whether it’s even wisdom to conquer it. We doubt humanity’s reason and logic (certainly your reason and logic) are sound and unbiased. We doubt math and science will always be used towards good ends. We doubt whether the things humanity calls “universal truths” are all that universal, all that true, or that we can even deduce universal truth. We certainly doubt humanity can solve every problem, or that there’s a “best way” for everyone.
And yeah, though utopian science fiction is certainly fun and entertaining, we have serious doubts we’ll ever create those optimistic futures in the real world. ’Cause our technology may greatly improve (and is in fact improving faster than Star Trek’s writers anticipated)… but apart from the Holy Spirit, human nature never improves. We’re just as self-centered as ever.
How come all the doubt? Well, face it: Do we have any reason to not doubt? Everybody who’s ever tried to sell us on utopia, has what has always turned out to be a self-serving agenda. Many require us to sacrifice, while the person with the pipe dream doesn’t plan to sacrifice much at all. Many require us to look the other way while great evils befall other people. Like when the American pioneers were out “taming the west,” they weren’t just cultivating soil and culling wild animals so their herds could graze and trains could travel uninterrupted. They were also murdering a lot of people who got in their way, and exploiting and defrauding the rest.
If you like to imagine one of your ancestors as one of those noble pioneers who, it turns out, weren’t actually noble at all… well, a lot of them prefer to ignore the evils of real history, and pretend it’s not real. Or wasn’t all that bad. Even make atrocious excuses for those evils our forebears committed: The Indians weren’t worthy of their land; the Asians had to learn to “blend in”; the Africans learned a trade; women back then didn’t know any better; why shouldn’t vagrant children be once again committed to workhouses?
Or, more commonly, those folks never learn any history at all. Moderns might like to believe they, too, question and challenge everything. They really don’t. Moderns take a lot of ideas for granted. Lots of clichés in our culture go unquestioned, unanalyzed, and are swallowed when they ought not be. They unthinkingly believe in
In general, moderns accept a lot of popular myths, which have no real evidence behind ’em. They’re myths we tell ourselves to make us think we’re right
We postmoderns grew up hearing these myths too. The difference is we accept the fact they’re myths. Some are oversimplifications. Some are guesses. Some are lies, like
Whence comes the false definition?
So why was I taught in seminary that postmodernism means “rejecting reality, in favor of one’s own invented reality”? Because moderns believe their worldview is reality. So when we reject modernism, we’re supposedly rejecting reality. When we say, “That’s not so; this is,” they insist the reality we’ve discovered is not reality; it’s our invention.
Conservative
And same as other moderns, they take a lot of ideas for granted, and never ask questions when they ought. Never ask, “Is that really so?” because they’ve been taught only Satan dares ask such questions—and certainly not for noble reasons.
Genesis 3.1 NIV - Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the L
ORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Out of fear they’ll offend God (but more often the fear they’ll outrage fellow Christians), they never engage with him.
I grew up in such churches. If you ever got into a debate, people felt all they had to do to end the argument, was state, “But the bible says…” and present
And for decades, these same Christians have challenged our wider culture in the very same way. Point out how secular folks misbehave, drop “But the bible says…” and show how they’re wrong, then step back and watch the people, their eyes newly open, as they drop to their knees in sorrow
Nope. Never has. Same as always, people respond, “Meh.” Because pagans don’t believe the bible’s much more than an ancient book of middle eastern myths. How’s it relevant in this day and age? How’s it any kind of authority to them?
And that’s not just a modern view. Ancients responded that way. Medievals responded that way. It’s not a recent phenomenon! It’s just in previous centuries, one wasn’t permitted freedom of thought.
But “Why should I care what the bible says?” is a valid question. One we should honestly try to answer… instead of treating “The bible says” as a shortcut which shuts people up.
Modernist Christians grew way too comfortable with this shortcut. Way too comfortable with being able to take their worldview for granted. Now they actually gotta defend it… and they really don’t know how. Or they defend it with ridiculous jingoistic “evidence” which no knowledgeable postmodern can accept. Like a partisan pundit who keeps quoting his own talking points, because he thinks convincing himself means he’s winning.
Much easier to defend nothing, and simply attack anyone who dares ask questions in the first place. Much easier to claim postmodernism believes in nothing, and is evil, and any Christian who claims to be postmodern has been deceived by Satan, the first pomo.
Postmodern Christianity.
More and more Christians who grew up after the 1970s, actually have a postmodern mindset themselves. They won’t always call themselves postmodern; many grew up in churches where “postmodern” is bad, so they won’t use that word. But their behavior indicates they’re total pomos. They distrust grand theories and ideologies. They ask questions, and question everything.
Because they share this worldview with their contemporaries, they generally know how to share Jesus with ’em. When a person responds, “I don’t know why I should care what the bible says”—because they have serious doubts about the fruitless Christians whose typical fallback position is, “The bible says it, I believe it, that settles it”—postmodern Christians know how to answer that… because we likewise have serious doubts about the fruitless Christians who do this sort of thing.
Pomos have questions, and Christianity has answers, y’know. Answers your average postmodern would find entirely valid and helpful. But in order to present these answers, we need to
- Know the answer in the first place.
- Have the patience to explain it, and patiently accept followup questions about it.
- Not assume the very act of asking a question, is in itself a rejection of everything good and truthful in the universe, and is in fact some devilish erosion of morality.
You can bet your bippy
Back in 2016, Baptist pastor Andy Stanley wrote about how he changed his outreach methods so he avoids the whole issue of “the bible says so” to begin with. He believes
The approach most of us inherited doesn’t work anymore. Actually, it’s never worked all that well. In a culture that had high regard for the Bible, the traditional approach held its own. Those days are over. They’ve been over for a long time.
Stanley’s getting serious blowback from fellow Christians who act as if he quit believing the bible. But he never stopped. He simply ditched an old-timey outreach method which doesn’t work on postmoderns.
To listen to some of those old-timey evangelists, the problem is postmodernism in the first place. The problem is this evil, evil spirit of the world, and we need to pray against it and fight it and try to change it through politics or something. In so doing, they’re pretty much demonizing the people they’re meant to share the gospel with. How’re you gonna share Jesus with them when you think you gotta fight to the death against them?
So we have to adapt. We have to become all things to all people so we might save some.
Well, unless you’re already postmodern. Then you don’t have to adapt. You’re already preaching to your own people.
Postmodern Christians for a postmodern world.
Like I said, I first learned of postmodernism in seminary. One of my profs assigned us a book,
And like I said, that’s not what postmodernism is. We postmoderns do believe in absolute truths, same as everyone. We just don’t agree that modern beliefs are absolute truths. We have criticisms. We have questions we want answered. If you’re not gonna address these problems—worse, if you come across as unbelievable, ill-informed, arrogant, impatient, unkind—a pomo’s gonna trust you less and less, and doubt you all the more.
If you aspire to be an evangelist and teacher, believing a postmodern is never gonna believe you, is what’s gonna render your job impossible.
My prof assigned my class the book because he wanted us to know the sort of people we’d be ministering to soon enough. He wanted us to know we were in for a challenge. I told him (as any good postmodern would) I doubted the book’s premise in the first place.
I have yet to meet a person who has no absolutes. Even “There are no absolutes” is an absolute statement. Everybody picks a fixed point to stand upon. René Descartes picked Je pense, donc je suis/“I think, so I am (I exist).” Me, I go with “I am wrong and Jesus is right.” Lots of Christians pick the bible. But everybody has a standard. Even postmoderns. So when you want to share Jesus with a pomo, find out where their fixed points are. Ask the Holy Spirit to point you to them. Begin there.
The supernatural, I told my professor, kinda solves our quandary. Pomos want evidence that God’s real, alive, and acts in the present day? Fine. We’ll show Him to you.
Apologists worry about postmodernism because they never properly learned how to address people who come back at them with so many questions. They fear their arguments will be unraveled. (And y’know, maybe they should.) But as I keep telling apologists, ’tain’t so. Postmoderns definitely believe in facts. But first you’ve gotta prove these are facts in the first place. You’ve gotta answer postmodern doubts. We’re gonna make you work for it!
For some of them, they find this outrageous. “I shouldn’t have to do that!” Just like Americans who don’t feel they shouldn’t have to know Spanish to get by in the Spanish-speaking parts of our country: They feel there shouldn’t be any Spanish-speaking parts of the country, and everybody should be required to speak English. They want their worldview to remain the standard. For their convenience.
Me, I find it difficult to evangelize out of selfishness. And stupid to demand pagans first adopt a modernist outlook of the world before they can become Christian. We may as well require circumcision.
