A rough guide to postmodernism

Over the period of one generation our society has changed dramatically. At the root of much of the change has been the rise of the postmodern worldview. We need to understand something of this if we are to live and speak for Christ effectively.

Postmodernism is also creeping into many areas of the church and subtly undermining the gospel. So to defend the truth we need to be aware of what we are up against.

What is postmodernism?

The ‘post’ in postmodernism (PM) indicates that we are living in times which are somehow ‘after’ the modern era. It sounds like linguistic nonsense; whatever is current is by definition modern. But the word ‘modern’ is being used in a different sense here.

Modern refers to ‘modernism’ which is the label sometimes given to the ideas of the philosophical Enlightenment which took off in the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe. Enlightenment thinking proclaimed that man had ‘come of age’, and no longer required belief in God. It was secular and materialistic. Human reason and science could establish truth and would produce a good and just society in which people would be free and fulfilled.

But this optimistic vision of modernism is now seen as a failure and being rejected by our society.

* First, PM rejects absolute truth in favour of thorough-going relativism (Judges 21.25). Reason alone cannot establish truth. (Reason is a process which will lead in different directions depending on one’s assumptions.)

* Second, with this in mind, PM sees reality as incoherent and fragmented. It rejects the idea of any overarching explanation of our world (meta-narrative).

* Third, it sees all truth claims as simply power-plays on the part of various groups or individuals designed to manipulate other people (Michel Foucault, 1926-84).
(The failure of modernism should not surprise us as Christians. We know that Christ alone is the source of truth and life, John 14.6; Romans 1.21,22; 1 Corinthians 1.20.)

Why the change to PM?

Postmodernism is an unworkable lie. Nevertheless it has taken hold.

At the theoretical level, the postmodern outlook has been facilitated by the undermining of language through deconstructionism. Influential thinkers like Jacques Derrida (1930-) say that human language does not refer to an objective world ‘out there’, but is a self-referential system of signs which is basically meaningless. As Bible-believing Christians we would need to disagree with this view. God himself, not man, is the first one to speak in Scripture. Language is not a purely human construct (cf. Genesis 1.5,8, etc.; 2.19,20,23).

Here is an example of deconstruction showing the idea that a statement can be shown to mean quite the opposite of what it appears to say — and hence is meaningless. The American Declaration of Independence states: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’. This can be deconstructed, they would say, along the following lines:

* Although the text speaks of equality, its language excludes women (‘all men ... equal’).
* Although it speaks of liberty, its author, Thomas Jefferson, owned slaves.
* So the surface meaning of equality and liberty is contradicted by the subtext.
* It enshrines the rights of wealthy white males who signed it, grounding their privilege in God.
* The Declaration of Independence is thus deconstructed into just another power play, implying the opposite of its surface meaning.
At the popular level this shift to post-modernism is probably too complex to analyse easily. But let me suggest a few reasons.
* The Enlightenment was wedded to the ‘meta-narrative’ given by science. But lately many people have come to the conclusion that science has created as many problems as it has solved.
* Ideologies, purporting to be ‘the truth’, have produced much harm in the world as their followers have tried to impose ‘the truth’ on other people (e.g., Communism, the Church, Capitalism).
* Individuals find that there is a spiritual vacuum in them which no amount of science or materialism can satisfy (Ecclesiastes 3.11; Mark 8.36). Many Westerners are depressed people.
* Presented with so many choices, life has become so complex for many people that they have given up on their reasoning powers and prefer to live by their feelings. They choose what feels good.
* TV, which is overwhelmingly dominant in our media, now presents no commonly agreed view of life, but rather a welter of entertaining images which lack moral or intellectual cohesion.

As Christians, however, we have to see that behind all this is another factor. The human heart is sinful, corrupt and self-centred. An incoherent world is inevitably a world without moral values, and this leaves the individual free to choose for himself/herself how to live (Ephesians 4.18,19). Although no one can actually live daily life without believing in some kind of objective truth and reliable communication, PM turns us in upon ourselves. The only ‘truth’ that has any validity, is ‘what is true for you.’

How is PM affecting us?

Many of the trends which we see developing in the contemporary Western world originate in the postmodern outlook. Here are some:

* The death of thought. This follows from there being no truth: ‘The fact is that debate and rational argument no longer have a central place in the world of the young, and not only because the sound-bite culture has pushed them aside. Children are taught from an early age not to judge between opinions — to be ‘sensitive’ towards other cultures and ways of thinking. If all options are equally valid, then none of them really matters — such is the inevitable conclusion of the multicultural and inclusive curriculum’ (Prof. Roger Scruton, 1999).
* Demise of church and community. If there is no truth, and words mean nothing, then there is nothing on which to base community and the traditional institutions which have served the community. Why go to church if your opinion is just as valid as that of the Bible?
* Political correctness. If there is no truth, then all outlooks, religious, political, ethical, are equally valid. It is simply out of place, for example, to criticise any one else’s religion. That might be hurtful. The arch-heresy is to argue that your outlook is right for all.
* Suspicion of all authority. If there is no truth which is true for all, then all government, even that which purports to be democratic and for our ‘good’ is invalid. Why should the majority decide what is ‘good’ for me? Teachers and parents are challenged as to whether they have the right to correct children. Rejection of morality, law and order follow.
* Victim culture. With no truth by which to arbitrate, postmodernism fosters the view that the powerful are always in the wrong. So many factions in society now make headway by seeking to prove that ‘I am more victimised than thou’.
* Therapy culture. Beginning in the 1980s, the idea of caring for others has plugged into the idea of boosting a person’s self-esteem or self-worth, with little or no reference to what is right or wrong. This fits entirely with the PM outlook. Some would say that this therapy (making people feel good) priority is even undermining the validity of our school examination system. ‘All must have prizes.’
* Consumer culture. The heart of consumerism is personal choice and individual self-expression. The NHS, Government, and more, seek to give choice. But this leads to a lack of ‘joined up thinking’ in our society, as different people’s choices may require contradictory measures.
* Love of conspiracy theories. The idea that all claims to truth are power plays means that every claim to truth is a conspiracy. With this mindset, TV programmes like X-files (government conspiracy) and novels like The Da Vinci Code (church conspiracy) commend themselves to PM people. They give the message: ‘You are right to suspect everything!’
* The virtue of disbelief. According to PM, any truth claim is not only not true, it is actually a power play. So all truth claims must be debunked. This will insulate you from falling into the clutches of ‘their’ power play. Disbelief is therefore, the only safe choice. This is very different from the Enlightenment, rationalistic virtue of ‘keeping an open mind’.

Many of these items conspire together to make Christian evangelism particularly difficult today. Taken to its logical conclusion it is not too far-fetched to say that PM actually threatens the very survival of Western civilisation.

Responding to PM?

First of all, don’t be discouraged. God is still sovereign, and the fact that, in PM, human philosophy has said ‘goodbye’ to rationality, only proves its emptiness (Romans 1.21,22). It is the fear of the LORD which is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1.7).

Second, we are to see that only Christianity provides a meta-narrative which makes sense of the world and is liveable. Truth is guaranteed by God. The Scriptures are God’s Word, thoroughly reliable and ground us in absolute truth (Luke 21.33). We are to unashamedly live and preach the Bible story and its truth.

Third, the truth of Christ must be shared with practical Christian love to this very lost and increasingly hardened generation. People will not be convinced by a theoretical argument, but by changed lives, truth lived, enjoyed and applied (Matthew 5.16).

Our culture may have changed, but, hallelujah, our God has not. ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever’ (Hebrews 13.8).

Recommended books

Generation X, Douglas Coupland; Time for Truth, Os Guinness (IVP); Post-modernism, Erroll Hulse (Chapel Library); Gagging of God, Don Carson (IVP); Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church, Don Carson (Zondervan).

A rough guide to postmodernism

What is postmodernism?

Why the change to PM?

How is PM affecting us?

Responding to PM?

Recommended books

John Benton

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