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By Tim Vasby-Burny
What is Postmodernism? What are the main
challenges it raises for Christian mission today? How might Christians
reach postmodern people today?
Postmodernism is a hollow
and deceptive philosophy for it is built on human thought and the
elemental spirits of the world rather than on Christ. It presents no challenge to Christian
mission for Jesus Christ has destroyed human wisdom and triumphed over
all spiritual powers and authorities through his death on a cross.
Postmodernism does,
however, raise large challenges for the way Christians conduct
mission. All too often Christians
have (often unconsciously) relied on worldly wisdom. For the Western Church this has especially
meant ideas and principles derived more from Modernism than the
gospel. As Modernism collapses
under the assault many of our familiar tools of mission no longer seem to
work. Mike Riddell therefore
summarises the main challenge of Postmodernism: ‘The one massive gap in
the church’s expertise is how to do mission in the post-Christian West.’
Before attempting to
describe Postmodernism a Christian methodology must be given. A church that is weak and unsure of
how to reach postmodern people is potentially in its strongest position
if, in its despair, it turns back to the LORD its teacher and
example. The Bible is still able
to equip the church ‘for every good work’ (2 Timothy 3:17). The initial response of Christians
must not be an attempt to understand Postmodernism better; rather we must
seek to understand the gospel more deeply. Only then, through the light of Christ focussed in the lens
of Scripture, will we be able to understand and expose the idolatry that
permeates Postmodernism. We will
also be looking in the right place – or rather at the right person – for
all the answers we might need.
Not that there is no
value in a study of Postmodernism. Far from it, for the Christian can
never claim to know Christ fully and there will therefore be many areas
in which the church is not being shaped by the gospel. It is in these areas that
Postmodernism will present a challenge.
A look at Postmodernism is helpful when, and only when, it exposes
where we are being less than evangelical and therefore drives us back to
Christ in the Scriptures to find all we need for authentic and successful
Christian mission. This method
has the added advantage that we don’t need to worry about the difference
between Postmodernism and Postmodernity because the Biblical gospel is
everything we need for any person of any ‘ism’ or none.
What is Postmodernism?
A definition of
Postmodernism cannot be given.
This is not the confession of an ill-prepared student but is
rather, as will be seen, an appreciation of what Postmodernism is. As the name suggests Postmodernism is
a reaction against Modernism, the system of thought that developed out of
the Enlightenment. Following
Grenz we may say that central to Modernism was the assumption that
knowledge is certain, objective and good. Moreover that knowledge is, in principle, accessible to the
human mind.
Knowledge is certain
because it truthfully describes reality.
Knowledge is objective and does not depend on the opinion of the
observer. Instead, the modern man used his reason to be an ‘unconditioned
observer’. The exercise of reason
was science, which alone could provide knowledge; all else was opinion or
faith, which had no real value. The discovery of knowledge through
science was necessarily good and able to free us from vulnerability to
nature as well as social bondage.
A good example of the Modern man was Francis Bacon with his vision
of ‘humans exercising power over nature by means of the discovery of
nature’s secrets’.
However, during the
twentieth century a profound disillusionment with Modernism was
felt. Far from driving the
progress of society, science had given humans the capacity to kill one
another in an unprecedented scale.
Modernism was destroying the environment and putting life itself
at risk. Knowledge therefore
cannot be called ‘good’; if anything the claim to knowledge is a claim of
power over those without knowledge and therefore the legitimating of
coercion and violence towards the uneducated.
Truth is no longer
objective. Instead of there being a universal reality which was true
whether or not a person believed it, truth is now seen to be a product of
those beliefs. Moreover, the truth according to a person or society is
necessarily shaped by their perspective itself shaped by environment, genetics,
prior experience etc. Given that
no two people can share exactly the same perspective, true communication
is impossible. Meaning cannot be
transferred (for example, by reading text to discover the meaning of the
original author) but only created as the interpreter encounters the
interpreted.
Third, truth is no
longer certain. There is no
reason why reason should be the means of discovering/creating meaning;
such a view is only the product of a particular (Western) culture. Emotions, intuition and experiences
are equally valid.
Thus it can be seen
that to define Postmodernism is impossible. What Postmodernism means to two different people, or even
to the same person at two different occasions, will differ. However, there is some consensus on
broadly descriptive features.
Again following Grenz we can say that Postmodernism is the end of
a single, universal worldview.
Instead, Postmodernism celebrates the local, the particular and
the different, and therein lies the greatest challenge to Christian
mission.
Authentic Christianity
is a single, universal worldview.
Postmodernism has rejected this. The heart of this worldview is
the lordship of Jesus of Nazareth. Postmodernism is suspicious of
authority. The lordship of Jesus calls for surrender and change.
Postmodernism rejoices in self-choice. Christian mission with Christ as
Lord involves telling others about the only Saviour. For Postmodernism, proclaiming the
absolute uniqueness of the Christian faith is absolutely wrong, for there
are no absolutes.
When Christianity and
Postmodern thought meet there is inevitable hostility; the god of this
age is confronting the Ageless One and there can be no toleration. Thus Christian mission will inevitably
be challenged.
Yet Postmodernism is
simply another ‘ism’ that has already been defeated. In Christ are hidden all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge; there is no wisdom and knowledge outside of him.
Therefore it is with humble confidence that Christians must turn to the
word of Christ so that we can then turn to the world of Christ in
mission.
Christian Mission in a Postmodern World
Christian mission is
the task of the church; therefore the task of mission first involves
preparing and equipping the saints for mission. For Christians who are in any way still conformed to the
pattern of this world (that is, every Christian) the transformation will
occur by the renewing of the mind (Romans 12:2). Truth will lead to
godliness (Titus 1:1) and godliness is the church’s primary witness to
our God (Deuteronomy 4:6). Finally as we engage with the world Christian
mission must involve speaking and teaching Christ (2 Corinthians
4:5). At each stage Postmodernism
will present a challenge but already we are allowing Christian mission to
dictate the agenda.
A. A. Renewing the
Christian Mind
There can be no doubt
that there is a crisis in the church concerning teaching. Postmodernism presents at least three
great challenges concerning truth:
(i) There
is no absolute truth
(ii) Meaning
is created not given – the Bible has no inherent meaning
(iii) Word
and teaching is outdated
In response to this and
all challenges the danger faced by Christians is either surrendering to
the spirit of the age or opposing challenges from the wrong position, for
example by opposing Postmodernism with Modernist thought. A Christian response will include the
following:
(i) Christ
is the revelation of truth
Postmodern thought
developed as it was realised that reason could not provide access to truth,
and with this the Christian is in full agreement. The Modernism optimism about reason
was fundamentally flawed because it had no concept of sin. By nature all humans are enemies of
God in our minds because of our sinful behaviour. How can our minds understand reality
when we have rejected the one – Christ – who defines reality?
Christians should not
try to present any abstract theory of absolute truth as if it is
something we have discovered; such an attempt will confirm to the
Postmodern world its view that Christianity is an attempt to gain power.
Instead, reality has been revealed to us in a person, Jesus Christ. ‘As Christians who have heard the Word
of God we are not arrogantly claiming any special achievement - rather we
are bowled over by the sheer generosity of God.’
The renewing of the
Christian mind for the sake of Christian mission means that all our
thinking must be Christocentric.
As Christians are taught, and taught to think, they must be taught
to take every thought captive to Christ.
Care must be taken not to build on any other foundation than Jesus
because Postmodernism will inevitably shake that foundation. For example, in many Christian circles
the doctrine of God is the result of Greek philosophy (identified by its
attempt to define God by attributes) rather than the revelation of the
Son of the Father. But when doctrine is Christ-centred lives will be
changed.
(ii) The
Bible interpreted by the Bible in the power of the Spirit
Postmodernism has seen
a collapse of confidence in Bible interpretation. Either the meaning of the Bible is
locked into the original time and culture when it was first written, or
our personal context that we bring to the Bible leaves us with our own
opinions.
Our response must be
the Reformation cry of Sola Scriptura. Instead of facing difficulty as we attempt to interpret the
Bible, we must observe how the Bible interprets itself.
It is true that the
Bible was written in a particular culture; in fact, the Christian faith
is based not on timeless truths but on the historical truths of
Jesus. Further, ‘in the wonderful
wisdom of the Spirit, He caused all the Scriptures to be written within
the life and history of the nation of Israel.’ Within the Bible events, characters and themes are
explained; thus for example references to the Exodus, King David or
redemption can all be explained by Scripture. Even in the New Testament, the life of Christ and the
teaching of the apostles find their meaning from the Older
Testament. If there are
historical details that we need to know, the Spirit has graciously given
them. The idea that archaeology,
science, the humanities etc. can give a more truthful account of reality
than the Bible is a product of Modernism and the Enlightenment but as
Modernism is swept away the church can rejoice that the idol of science
and reason is also being toppled.
The other claim of
Postmodernism, that our personal context determines the meaning we find,
can also be answered. It is true
that our thoughts and experiences shape how we see the world; the Bible
would totally agree. However, the Bible is the living Word of God totally
unlike any other literature. It
specifically calls for certain responses that, by the Spirit, are
perspicuous (e.g. faith in Christ). God promises that as we respond that
same Spirit will reveal more truth to us (Psalm 119:100). ‘When we first read the Bible we may
learn only the big and obvious lessons, but as we go on being developed
and liberated by the Word of God, so we find ourselves understanding more
and more of what we read.’
(iii) Teaching
the Word is to hear God speak today
Jesus is the Word of
God. The Spirit has given us a revelation of Jesus in words. These great facts mean we must not
loose confidence in the need to teach the Bible with words so that the
Christian mind is renewed.
However, we must learn to recognise that particular styles of
teaching may be Modern rather than Biblical. The fact that the Bible was given in predominantly
illiterate times needs to inspire us.
Postmodernism is more
comfortable with image than words, probably because images more easily
allow for multiple meanings. The
Christian church must not respond by exalting image over word – faith
comes by hearing, not seeing – but we probably need to recognise that the
language of the Bible is very visual.
Christians need to be more Biblical not less and make use of the
divinely given illustrations. For example, Psalm 1 could be taught during
a walk along a tree-lined river.
A model tabernacle could be built by the youth group and the
theological significance of the various parts explained. Stories should be told as stories and
not always be turned into three prepositional points. Space and time
should be given to meditate on the Word rather than finishing the sermon
and rushing onto another song. We
must trust the Spirit and allow the Bible to show us not simply what to
say, but how.
The first stage of
Christian mission is the renewing of the Christian mind by the sword of
the Spirit. This is not an end in
itself but will create a community of holiness.
B. B. The Witness of the
Church’s Life
In the story of the
Exodus Israel are redeemed to be a nation of priests and it is primarily
through the corporate life of the Church that God chooses to witness to
himself. Again, Postmodernism has
presented the church with challenges.
(i) A suspicion of authoritarian /
hierarchical / exclusive structures
(ii) A
constantly created and deconstructed self-image
Again, the response of the
Church is to learn again Christ’s vision for his bride.
(i) Servant leadership in a flexible, inclusive church
Postmodernism sees the
Church as, if not responsible for, then at least a colluder with the
problem of Modernism.
Christianity is seen as Western, powerful, rich, middle-class,
male, white and consequently totally irrelevant. It is simple to see that if this is
true – and so often it is – it is because the Church has failed to live a
life worthy of her calling.
There may be issues of
structure than need to change for the sake of Mission and we can be
thankful that the Bible prescribes very little in terms of structure,
style of meetings, time and location and so on. A willingness to change these will be needed so as to be
more inclusive.
Christianity cannot
dispose of leaders for they are a gift of God to his people. But true leadership that is governed
by the relevant Bible passages (such as those in the Pastoral letters)
will be servant leadership.
Leadership shaped by Modernism may be authoritarian and interested
only in the communication of prepositional truth but authentic leaders
will share not only the gospel but their lives as well.
More importantly, a
church that is growing in truth and godliness will be one where the grace
and forgiveness of the gospel is known within a community of love. As Postmodernism leads to a
fragmentation of society a church where love is known and experienced
will be very attractive.
(ii) Identity
as a gift of God in Christ
If truth is relative
and real communication is impossible then questions of identity become
very pressing. Without an
absolute reality identity becomes flexible and a matter of one’s
choosing. One advertising agency
has said that ‘Choice has become increasingly important … and consumption
is one route towards establishing identity and individuality.’
This is a challenge for
Christian mission mainly because it is so common in believers. Modernist
evangelical Christianity has a tendency to be satisfied with the communication
of knowledge as if understanding of systematic theology is the heart of
godliness. Issues of identity can
be glossed over. In
Postmodernism, on the other hand, the self is created and deconstructed
very frequently resulting in fragmented and fragile people.
In the Scriptures
becoming a Christian involves a change of identity in which the new self
is wholly determined by Christ.
This new identity is the basis for a new way of living and
relating to others (e.g. Colossians 3:1-14). Postmodernism, disillusioned with the emphasis on
rationality, is looking for a holistic way of life and real openness, but
this it cannot provide. A
Christianity that shows stability and integration, together with a healthy
response to failure with forgiveness, will become an increasingly
attractive alternative to an increasingly disillusioned society.
C. C. The Priority in
Christian Mission to Speak the Gospel
A church that is fed by
the Word of God and displaying the love and transforming power of Christ
will be extremely attractive – it will be light in a dark world. But in order to be doing Christian
mission it must be involved in the proclamation of the gospel; without
the spoken evangel there is no evangelism.
At this point the
challenge of Postmodernism will be very similar to the challenges noted
above against using the Bible to renew the Christian mind. In particular, there can be very
little confidence that it is worthwhile speaking the gospel to an image
based culture. As above, while
Christians may need to repent of sub-Biblical forms, there must be no
detraction from the necessity and power of the spoken gospel; in other
words, we must trust the Spirit.
Faith is a gift of God that comes through hearing so Christians
need to be speaking. And as we speak
we must remember the lesson from Ezekiel 37: no pre-evangelism of any
kind is necessary for the Word and Spirit to being dead postmodern people
to life.
But what shall be the
content of our speech? Paul
Weston notes that the majority of evangelistic methodologies ‘have taken
the view that the best way to communicate the gospel is to synthesize or
systematize the gospel message into a number of ‘elements’, ‘principles’
or ‘propositions’. Despite their
great success there are questions about their contemporary use. First, they often presuppose some
grasp of Christian vocabulary, a supposition that cannot be made today.
Second, this method may not actually reflect biblical patterns of
evangelism. Third, evangelism
that uses these methods often becomes a process of working towards such
presentations. A modernist may
try to prove the ‘reasonableness’ of the belief system. A postmodernist may try to
authenticate the message with a testimony of how it has changed
them. While the latter approach
has more to commend itself, the problem with both is that such approaches
to evangelism ‘implicitly function on the basis that there exists some
sort of ‘common ground’ between Christian and non-Christian upon which a
defence and affirmation of Christianity can initially be constructed.’
Weston suggests that we
learn again from Jesus how to do evangelism. Details can be seen in his paper but essentially we ‘take
the gospel narratives as our material starting point and seek to find the
dynamic equivalents between the issues that Jesus addressed in his day
and those that our contemporary hearers face in our own time.’ When an unbeliever (postmodern or
otherwise) raises an issue our aim is to use the narrative to allow Jesus
to draw attention to himself in his own words.
It seems like this
method answers three challenges of Postmodernism. First, we are likely to bypass the
common accusation that Christians are arrogant by showing from Jesus’ own
words his exclusive claims about himself. Second, we will be presenting people not with an abstract
(albeit true) body of doctrine but with a real person. Third, Christian communication takes a
narrative form more likely to be accepted by a postmodern hearer. Christians will still be speaking the
Christian gospel, which means mission will be taking place, but in a way
true to the Bible and culturally relevant to our audience.
Modernism believed in
the rational intelligibility of the universe but left no room for
religion. Postmodernism now
accepts any belief, rational or otherwise, so long as that belief makes
no universal truth claim. Both
Modernism and Postmodernism present challenges for Christian mission but
these are as nothing to God the Almighty Word. Christians confident in the Holy Spirit will seek to have their
minds renewed by the living word of God, resulting in a church witnessing
to Christ by life and speech. In
this way our strength will come from Christ and him alone.
Bibliography
· Blackham,
P.R., ‘Evangelicals and the Bible’, in I. Taylor (ed) Not Evangelical
Enough (Paternoster, 2003)
· Blackham, P.R., ‘Where
the Battle is Today’ (unpublished)
· Blackham, P.R.,
‘Authority and Interpretation’ (unpublished)
· Carson, D.A., Gagging
of God (IVP, 1996)
· Cray, G., The
Gospel and Tomorrow’s Culture (CPAS, 1994)
· Drane, J., Cultural
Change and Biblical Faith (Paternoster, 2000)
· Grenz, S.J., A
Primer on Postmodernism (Eerdmans, 1996)
· Honeysett, M.,
‘Postmodernism and the Uniqueness of Christ’,
http://www.mhoneysett.freeserve.co.uk/HTML/Culture/Postmodernism%20and%20the%20uniqueness%20of%20Christ.htm,
(accessed 3/11/04)
· Weston, P.,
‘Evangelicals and Evangelism’, in I. Taylor (ed) Not Evangelical
Enough (Paternoster, 2003)
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