Postmodernism
Is Pomo an answer to Mo for Christians?

Modernism (Mo) contributed greatly to the problem of cross-cultural ministry. The idea that all persons throughout the world must be converted to a purely rational Christianity is more that problematic. That type of theory ignores the various environments, cultures and circumstances where the Gospel must be proclaimed to fulfill the Great Commission. It sounds a lot like Hegel with his universal religion of reason with no room for particulars. In everywhere but the west, the hearer must think like a westerner before he can hear the Gospel.

Jesus said He was “the way, the Truth and the life.”[Jn 14:6] Christianity has rightly emphasized the issue of Truth. But, Truth is more than a set of correct propositions. Truth is personal, embodied in Jesus Christ, the God-Man. Truth for the Christian must go beyond mere reason. It is a concept based on the promises of a God Who can be relied upon and trusted, a righteous God Who will keep the covenant He has made with His people. Truth is transformational to the believer because believing in the Truth is to be possessed by the Truth. Truth is indeed a proposition but it is also an agent of change in the life of the Christian. It is more than Mo would have it.

Today, we are told by the intelligentsia, that the culture is Post-Modern (Pomo). It seems ironic that a movement that rejected the past is now past. Os Guisness in his book Fit Bodies, Fat Minds, relates this definition of Pomo:

“There is not truth; only truths. There is no grand reason; only reasons. There is no privileged civilization (or culture, belief, norm and style); only a multiplicity or cultures, beliefs, norms and styles. There is no universal justice; only interests and the competition of interest groups. There is no grand narrative of human progress only countless stories of where people and their cultures are now. There is no simple reality or any grand objectivity or universal, detached knowledge, only a ceaseless representation of everything in terms of everything else.”
It is heard in the phrase “everything is relative” [relativism] or “there are many ways to God”[pluralism].

Pomo is fundamentally opposed to Mo and its idea of understanding and mastering the world through reason. Truth and reason are useless in a chaotic world. However, Pomo may best be thought of as the step-child of Mo and not a new species. Listen to what J. Bottum says in First Things [February 1994]:

“…post-modernity is still in the line of modernity, as rebellion against rebellion is still rebellion, as an attack on the constraints of grammar must still be written in grammatical sentences, as a skeptical argument against the structures of rationality must still be put rationally.”

To argue meaninglessness must still be put meaningfully if it is to have meaning to you and me.

Pomo may only be the logical extension of Mo that has failed to understand and control the world through reason. Charles Jencks in What is Postmodernism?, says Pomo is “both the continuation of Modernism and its transcendence.”

A.J. Conyers calls Pomo “perfectly loyal to the project of modernity while posing as its critic” and claims that Pomo luminaries such as Derrida and Foucault do not believe Pomo is a critique of Mo but
“…an attempt to save the sinking ship of modernity by throwing overboard some of the most inessential features while preserving its essence.”

It is far from clear that Pomo is an answer to the problems Mo created for the propagation of the Gospel. Is there an answer or Christian belief and evangelism in the cultural confusion of the 21st century? Have a blessed Decoration or Memorial Day [what it is called is age dependant] remembering those who have gone before us and next week we will post on how to respond to Mo and Pomo as Christians living in the 21st century. In the mean time let me know how you do so?