NON-LINEAR POSTMODERN RAMBLINGS

I am no expert on postmodernism, although my adult children have been trying to get me up-to-speed for several years. I have read a smattering of Jacque Derrida and Michel Foucault and a lot of commentary about them. Lately, I have been buying books faster than I can put them on the shelves, let along read them, in my efforts to keep up with what is being written about postmodernism and the emerging church movement.

My young friend Patrick Currie wrote some excellent thoughts about postmodernism on his blog recently, LINK: Learning: a Modern Post, so I combed through my posts in some on-line discussions and pasted together the following non-linear thoughts on the subject. I promise I will come back to this with greater insight in the months and years to come. We have time. It is not going away.

Modernity is basically co-existent with the Protestant Reformation. Most of what we have inherited from the Reformation can also be viewed as part of modernity. The emphasis on the book, reading, individual interpretation, rationality and pulpit preaching are all "modern" and at the same time "Protestant." Professionalization of organizational structures is also both modern and Protestant (although the clergy as a religious profession apart from the people of God goes back at least to Constantine).

Alan Hirsch points out in his excellent book, The Forgotten Ways, that in the process of modernity, the over-arching religious worldview known as Christendom, gave way in the public sphere to primarily three institutions as the final arbiters of truth: the secular state, science and the financial markets (Hirsch:60-61). The church has been forced to retreat into the private sphere, although it did not go willingly or quietly. Postmodernism is critical of modernism (validly, in my view) but is not yet "for" anything. Another way of saying "postmodern" is to say "not modern any more". The church fought modernism, but finally gave in and began to adapt to modernism, especially among Protestants. Modernism began around the fourteen hundreds, and the Protestant fundamentalists were still fighting it in 1920. The Catholic Church did not make peace with modernism up until 1962 (Vatican II). Now many ‘modern’ Christian leaders are calling for a holy war on postmodernism. We don't have to do the same thing with postmodernity. We are neither pre-modern (Christendom), modern or postmodern, we are Jesus-followers, seeking the kingdom--a city not made with hands, swimming in the currents of modernity and postmodernity. If we ‘react’ to postmodernity, we will form a ‘negative focus’ and reproduce what we focus on, as the fundamentalists and Catholics did. Postmodernity can help us with our old enemy modernity but will not become our friend either. It is simply a cultural sea that we must learn to swim in (or sail if you have a boat). Learn the currents and the wind patterns, don’t fight them!

In response to a question Brian asked me about postmodernity and authority, I don't think postmodernism has anything to say about any kind of authority...at least nothing positive to say.

Postmodernism, as I understand it, it not FOR anything... it is against a quasi-religious faith in rationalism. It debunks the grand story of continuous human progress towards higher civilization through education and rationality. Post-modernism does not attempt to offer any solutions—only critiques. Postmodernism does a good job of pointing out hypocrisy, agendas, human pride and lust for power in modernism…but it does not offer any alternatives.

Postmodernism does a good job of delivering the ‘bad news’ and makes no pretense of offering any good news. That’s why it’s called POSTmodernism rather than PRO or PRE-something else. We don’t know what comes after modernism…(pre-Agape-kingdom maybe?) although we, as followers of Jesus, can be sure that God is guiding the world towards his loving rule and drawing it to himself. Postmodernism is just the disenchantment with what is… not the preview of what will be. That’s why I don’t think postmodernism is capable of saying anything positive to us about proper biblical or spiritual authority, although it has a lot to say to us negatively. However, make no mistake, postmodernism will let us know in a hurry if we try to work an agenda, build a tower, make a name for ourselves, pull a fast one, or impose our own authority for the wrong motivation. Postmodernism has a great B.S. meter. The only source of any true authority is Jesus. The only way to have authority is to submit fully to him. The more we submit our egos to Jesus and serve, the more authority will oscillate from him through us to others.

I want to throw out one more thought. I have not made up my mind entirely about postmodernism yet (heck, I don’t even understand it yet!), but one aspect of it that I can willingly endorse, is the desconstruction to expose the wrong use of coercive power and domination. Deconstruction can almost be viewed as a ‘prophetic’ function “There is an appointed time for everything …A time to tear down, a time to build up” (ECC 3:1-3). It seems to me that a constant lurking thread throughout church history, since Simon Magus, has been the issue of coercive power and political domination, the very opposite of the Spirit of Christ.

Despite the wonderful example of many dedicated servant leaders throughout the history of the church, there have been as many or more that have used church offices for positions of power, or even wealth. So…in our modern age, (or postmodern), if men are motivated by ambition for power and the desire for personal gain, why shouldn’t the women want to get a slice of the action? Why would a woman want that kind of authority over men? Easy… for the same reasons that most of men want authority or position….power, ambition, pride, money. If we are going to ask our sisters, wives and female friends to humble themselves, submit and serve, why shouldn’t we men lead the way by our own example?

Personally, I think the most important verse in chapter 5 of the letter to the Ephsians is verse 21: “…and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”