Throughout the past few months, it seems like discussions about post-modernism pop up everywhere I turn.
[I know…some of you think I just said a bad word. Just bear with me.]
Seasons of my life seem to be thematic. The problem is, sometimes it's easy to live in my mental reality, assuming that everyone else is at the same place as me.
I know it may be shocking for some, but this is not the case. Hence, this post.
The thing is, it's not just about post-modernism. But, that is the foundation of the whole emerging church discussion. Can I just clarify some things about post-modernism before anyone says anything? Thanks.
- Post-modernism is a paradigm. A paradigm is a model for thinking. It influences what kind of questions we ask.
- Our society is currently shifting from a modern paradigm to a post-modern paradigm. Some sectors are shifting faster than others.
- Our faith does not fit perfectly with any paradigm. To deny post-modern values, please realize that you are embracing modern values, which come with their own set of strengths & weaknesses.
- The style of church we were raised with is the product of this modern approach.
This is a pretty cool place in time to live. The middle ground gives us an opportunity to draw on the strengths of both paradigms. This type of shift doesn’t happen often. We’re talking thousands of years.
So, there’s a bit of historical perspective to give this discussion some context.
Earlier, I mentioned questions. Questions are extremely important. They determine the direction and shape our lives take. Essentially, the difference between these paradigms is that the modernist asks how questions while the post-modernist asks why questions.
Think about the difference these questions would have on the way we think about and approach God...
When we begin to move away from thinking how SHOULD this look we open up the whole world of how COULD this look?
All that to say, I’m interested to hear where you situate yourself in this discussion. Are we beginning to think this way?
posted by white girl at
2:55 PM
3 Comments:
Although feedback has been somewhat limited, it has been cool to even be able to ask, "what do we, as young adults--postmodernists, if you will--want Convergence to look like?" rather than asking, "what variation on the style of our parents'/grandparents' church will ours take?" And it's been even cooler to realize that, through the questioning, our generation has shown an increased desire, not to create a whole new style of church, but to go back to the New Testament style of church, which sometimes seems surprisingly novel considering how old it is.
Umm...I don't think I answered your question. Good play on words though?
By
Anonymous, at 3:16 PM
Yours, I mean, Jamie. (you know, the post re: modernism... post-moderism... posting... good one) I think it's time for a nap.
By
Anonymous, at 3:18 PM
this may clue people into the fact that i may be less intelligent than i would like people to believe, but i don't think i can properly answer this question until i understand what postmodernism really is as opposed to modernism. i think too often we hear a word or concept so often without knowing what it really means, and we never remedy this, and this, i would definately say, is one such word. one thing my psych training has taught me is to not form opinions on things i don't fully understand, so i'm going to make you dumb it down a bit.
that being said, i always have an opinion (really? shocker!) i do think that asking how is often more important than why, but both have their place. i also think that absolute truths are important, as God lays out a few for us, and if i'm correct, postmoderniam doesn't let us believe that absolute truth exists. i agree that there has to be a middle ground and i think that taking a bit from each side of the equation gives us the best of both. and though our society is going postmodern, we have always been asked to be "in" and not "of" the world, so why should that be any different now? stick with the Word, and stay true to the roots (like D was saying, going back to the early NT church is a solidly terrific idea).
i don't know if this makes sense because like i said, i don't know if i understand what we're talking about here. so that's all from me for the time being. you've inspired in me a search for truth in a changing world...
By
Anonymous, at 10:48 PM
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