Following is a comment I posted on a thread at The Ooze concerning whether “postmodern Christian” is an oxymoron:
It seems to me that people on either side of this question usually are talking past each other because of different definitions of “postmodern.” Most conservative Christians who take the “no postmodern Christianity” line define “postmodern” as meaning a rejection of the concept of objective Truth coupled with a rejection of the concept of objective authority. With that understanding, they are correct. If you reject any notion of Truth existing outside your own perceptions, and you reject any notion of authority existing outside that which you create for yourself through your own perceptions, then you cannot say “Jesus is Lord.” If we glean nothing else from the Christian story as expressed in scripture, it must at least be that “Jesus is Lord” in a real way that doesn’t depend on whether I perceive or believe him to be Lord.
I gather that most in the emerging conversation wouldn’t accept that limited a definition of “postmodern.” It seems to me that in “A New Kind of Christian,” for example, McLaren uses “postmodern” to mean mostly a set of cultural attitudes — a skepticism towards sweeping “Truth” and “Authority” claims rooted in a strong sense of the limitations of human perception. With this definition, clearly one can be a “postmodern Christian.” Indeed, one could argue that “postmodern Christianity” in this sense is not something radically new, but rather represents an outgrowth of trends from the Protestant Reformation, Romanticism, German Higher Criticism, the Great Awakenings, and Evangelical reactions to Fundamentalism.
I suppose there are also many shades of meaning to “postmodern” between these two poles. In part because of this definitional confusion, I think I’m starting to lean toward the term “postcolonial” that some have started using. For me at least, much of the struggle is to examine the cultural assumptions that pervade my faith as an American Evangelical, without taking the extreme view that “faith” is nothing more than “culture.”
3 replies on “"Postmodern" or "Postcolonial"”
David,
I agree with you that the term post-evangelical is not really all that helpful, yet I’m weary of post-colonial as an appelation because in professional circles this is equated with a certain fashionable American self-loathing (like Susan Serandon and her crowd).
I too have problems identifying myself as evangelical or postevangelical, yet maybe there’s some other way to sum up my ecclesial beliefs.
I highly reccomend the book Christianity in Africa by Kwame Bediako, he lays out some of the history of missions in Africa, and then goes about constructing a post-colonial theology that works within the African worldview. I have a friend (who also goes to Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, MN) who said that he felt like he became a Christian for the first time when he read it.
David,
I would like your understanding of Paul’s words, We now see through a glass darkly…
How can I explain man’s dark vision to a group a Sunday School students?
Why did you choose this text for your webpage?
Have you seen the Bergman film with the same title? If so can you relate the film to Paul’s text?
Thanks,
si8935828@aol.com
Iglehart, thanks for the comment. I havn’t seen the Bergman film, but thanks for mentioning it, I’ll have to check it out. I suppose I chose the text because it suggests to me the search for Truth, the transcendence of God, and the limitations of our human condition. For me, it’s refreshing to know that scripture acknowledges the boundaries of human knowledge, but at the same time offers hope for fuller understanding when God’s Kingdom comes in its fullness.
As for teaching this passage to kids, one illustration of it that I like is C.S. Lewis’ description of heaven in one of the Narnia books, “The Last Battle.” Aslan leads his followers into heaven with a cry of “higher up and farther in.” As they proceed, everything becomes somehow fresher, more clear, more “real.” For me, this is a beautiful picture of how our lives now compare to what they one day will be. Now it is “through a glass darkly”; then it will be bright, fresh and clear.