This is just a short entry, but an important one. If you are in church circles I would bet my tax return that you have heard the term ‘post-modern’ tossed around by now. But do we really understand it?
If you do not have a full grasp on the concept and its effect on the church and our culture you will quickly find yourself lost in the insanity of our times. Post-modernism is not just a trend, an artistic movement or a subject for philosophy students. It is a very real change in our society’s metaphysical viewpoint. It has changed the way our society, in its hive-mind-like consensus, views reality. The best description of this concept I have seen comes from a site for poets:
For Postmodernists the world exists only through our understanding of it, and the prime medium of that understanding is everyday language. There is no further or ultimate reality that words point to, and we deceive ourselves by seeking deep spiritual meanings in art.
Obviously this explanation is geared to the arts, but the principal holds true for the whole school of thought. A post-modern view of art ascribes no deeper meaning to an artists work, only what you may see in it. A post-modern novel may have an unreliable narrator so the reader is not able to trust the story as told. A post-modern view of language posits that words only have the meaning that the speaker and the hearer gives them, and they do not have to even agree. A post-modern theology is one where there is no absolute truth, and the only truth we can uncover is what we find ourselves.
As you can see this viewpoint stands directly in opposition to orthodoxy of any kind. Must we ignore post-modern artists, writers, and other culture makers? I would say no. As a technique in the hands of an artist it can be entirely benign, or even beneficial to Christians. Should we entertain the teachings of post-modern philosophers, thinkers, ethicists and theologians? If you are an orthodox, confessional Christian I would daresay you know that answer already.
Tags: post-modernism
