What does postmodernism have to offer the church?
What postmodernism offers the church is the lack of epistemic certainty. They doubt that we can know things for sure. Derrida deconstructs language to show that language is ultimately a very murky form of communication. Lyotard distrusts metanarratives that proclaim an ultimate truth for all generations and all peoples. Postmoderns are basically saying that you can’t be sure something is absolutely true.
The influence of modernism on the church has been it’s elevation of human reasoning in interpreting the bible. Truth to moderns is “that which corresponds to reality.” Truth is right or wrong. Truth is correct or incorrect. Truth is, true or false.
Yet is that what the bible teaches? Does the bible talk about truth in a factual sense? The bible says, “then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” It does not say, “then you will know the facts, and the facts will set you free.”
Truth is not the same as a fact. That is the big lesson of postmodernism. This is what postmodernism teaches the church. Being truthful is not the same as being factual. Facts will never set anyone free, but truths will. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life…” Jesus was not proclaiming that he was a fact. Truth is best embodied in a living and breathing Christ and not some statements of facts.
What this means is that truth lies beyond just words. If I told you,”Jesus loves you.” That would be factually true, but it takes a long time of living and walking with Jesus to really realize the depth of that truth. That statement as you live life will become truer and truer to you as you experience his love. That’s what truth is.
That’s why when postmoderns say that we can never really know the truth, they are right. When are you ever going to fully understand God’s love for you… maybe in heaven?
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7 Comments, Comment or Ping
alex
Daniel, you have a great mind. I have high hopes for you.
Jun 28th, 2008
kingdomsheepdog
I would number this as the first and foremost substantial contribution of postmodernism to the Christian church.
Please note that Derrida or Lyotard didn’t intend to do a favor to Christianity. Their contention was with the modernistic reliance on the scientific method as a way to know all truths. (You can help me verify their original intention.) But we certainly can benefit from their insight in this. We can kidnap their thoughts as our allies, because the Bible certainly espouses an epistemology bigger and richer than mere reason or a scientific method. However, it is so unfortunate that some segment of the Christian church view this negatively.
Regardless, I am hopeful that the church will take advantage of this and leave behind the undesirable part of modernity.
Jun 29th, 2008
Lydia
I think there’s a chinese quote about “if you know the truth, then it is not the truth”…but i could just remember things incorrectly.
and did you just edit your entry?
maybe i’m being random. haha
Jul 1st, 2008
David Park
Great post. Indeed postmodernism has a lot to offer the church, particularly the simplistic, propositional notions of Christendom. Love your blog as a whole…great aesthetics and even better content. Hope to run into you someday and meet you in person. Peace…
Jul 1st, 2008
Nick Hsieh
I’m not sure I agree with your conclusions, but several of your observations are quite insightful. I have to agree with Alex.
While postmodernism helps us appreciate that truth is more than facts, it cannot then be concluded that truth does not consist of facts. The moderns are correct in so far as they assert that truth corresponds to reality. What postmodernity should help us to see is that truth is more than correspondence to reality; not a negation of correspondence. That is, after all, seemingly what the Bible teaches: a propositional assertion that is meant to be experienced in reality. Orthodoxy as well as orthopraxy.
That a particular truth is best know through experience does not generalize to the idea that we cannot “really know” the truth. One can really know that Christ loves him without necessarily asserting that his knowledge is infinite, just as one can truthfully say that one knows and experiences the truth of electricity without being electrocuted by all the electricity that the power plant has to generate. It is possible to say that truth is knowable without asserting that one must be able to know all truth to its absolute end.
I find it interesting to note that much prior to the Modern Era, Christianity has been a religion of both right doctrine and right practice. It seems our problems have always been due to a neglect of one or the other. I am obliged, then, to agree with KINGDOMSHEEPDOG.
Good post.
Jul 7th, 2008
kingdomsheepdog
Daniel, come read my notes on postmodernity’s contributions to Christianity in my Facebook, and see what you think.
Jul 16th, 2008
randplaty
Nick, that’s exactly what I think the distinction is. Modern Christianity seems to assert that it knows truth “to its absolute end.”
Why? Listen to MacArthur’s attacks on Emergent pastors. It’s one thing to say that emergent pastors are wrong. Its another thing to say they aren’t pastors and they aren’t Christians.
There are many other examples of this.
Jul 16th, 2008
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