Modernism was partly a reaction to premodernism’s lack of evidential integrity. Premodernism was a blind faith that would not be bothered by the facts. Modernism swung the pendulum in the extreme opposite way, making reason and science the arbiters of what one should believe. With Postmodernism comes the tendency to overcorrect the abuses of modernism but in so doing the very idea of ultimate truth is lost (Truth with a capital “T,” if you please). Anyone can and should believe anything they choose, even if their ideas are contradictory to those of others, no one is wrong because no one can be sure they are absolutely right.
Postmodernism and premodernism are similar in that they embrace personal experience as a valid way of “knowing,” although they both may define “knowing” in a different way; “knowing what and with what amount of certainty” is the question that may remain.
In reaching the postmodern world new methods must be employed, but people will not accept us and our message only if we show them love, because postmodernism has redefined the word “love.” To a postmodern person love is shown in never judging anyone else’s actions and above all by never telling them they are wrong and that you are right regarding anything, specially religion. It can be misleading to expect that if you show people love they will automatically associate that with your Christianity. “Love” is the battle cry of the postmodern and is misused to provide acceptance of those that are different than us, including gays, lesbians, and transsexuals. Although we should love all sinners, that should not be construed as an acceptance of their sinful lifestyle. In today’s society the only wrong is thinking you are right. Unless you accept everyone around you as they are, without trying to change their moral (or immoral) convictions, you are not “loving,” but rather a “hate-monger.”
We need apologetics(1) in order to overcome the insidious philosophy of relativism in the postmodern world. This is not only necessary to reach the postmodern world outside the church, but also the postmoderns that have been born into the church. Our children go to postmodern schools, are trained by postmodern teachers, many of them grow up watching T.V. programs with a postmodern, relativistic bend (I know what most of our churches say about television, I also know that realistically speaking the recommendation of not owning a television has been highly disregarded). Statistics show that up to 80% of Christian youth abandon the church when they reach college age. Could it be that we have failed to provide them with sound reasons for faith? How many youth do you personally know that have no biblical clue as to why they dress the way they dress? To them it is just the way they were brought up, or their parents insist they do so. What usually happens to their dress codes when they leave the home to go away to college?
A young person that attends secular college is not only bombarded with a sensual environment, but also with an academic world that thinks the Bible is a bunch of tales and that evolution has done away with the need for a God. They have no answers to their nagging questions. Could they have been wrong? There is a divorce of the mind and the heart, which is unscriptural. The mind and heart should be united in their worship of the one true God (Mark 12:28-30).
We must not forget that when it comes to biblical faith it is never an either/or situation, but rather a both/and reality when it comes to knowing, believing in and experiencing the God of Pentecost.
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Note.
1. Apologetics is defined as a "rational defense of the Christian faith."
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