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MISSIONS IN THE
POSTMODERN WORLD
by Massimo Lorenzini
Listen to an audio presentation with Real One Player here.
THE RISE AND
INFLUENCE OF POSTMODERNISM
“Wither is God,” he [the madman] cried. “I shall tell you. We have killed him--you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how have we done this? How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon?...Are we not straying through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breathe of an empty space? ...Do we not smell anything yet of God’s decomposition? Gods too decompose. God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, the murderers of all murderers, comfort ourselves? ...I come too early,” he said then; “my time has not come yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering--it has not yet reached the ears of man.”[1] The strangely prophetic words of Friedrich Nietzsche,
written over a hundred years ago, have now reached the “ears of man.” In the
words of James Sire, “The acknowledgment of the death of God is the beginning
of postmodern wisdom.”[2]
But the beginning of postmodern wisdom is the end of wisdom. Defining
postmodernism is difficult; to do so will require some background. Five major philosophical ontologies or worldviews
exist. Ontology answers the question, What is reality? Before the modern era
the three major ontologies were idealism, naturalism, and realism. Proponents
of these three ontologies believe that there is an essential reality. That is,
reality can be defined as to its essence and thus objective truth exists.
Idealists such as Plato, Augustine, Descartes, Kant, Hegel, and Brightman
believed that the essence of reality is immaterial ideas, forms, essences, that
transcend the material world which is but a copy or a transient shadow of the
really real. Naturalists such as Thales, Hobbes, Newton, Marx, and Sagan
believed reality is defined by the natural, sensible world. Realists such as
Aristotle and Aquinas believed reality is both material (physical) and
immaterial (spiritual). The modern era witnessed the development of the next
two ontologies, pragmatism and existentialism, which believe that no essential
reality exists (more specifically that ontology is unnecessary and misguided,
respectively) and thus no objective truth. Pragmatists such as James and Dewey
believed that reality is what works in empirical (physical) experience.
Existentialists such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Sartre believed that
reality is chosen by the individual. That means, basically, that reality is
whatever the individual wants it to be. Individuals must create their own
meaning because life does not come with any meaning in itself. Premodern thought, governed largely by theism (the
worldview centered on God as defining reality), addressed what is there
(ontology). Modern thought, governed by Enlightenment naturalism, addressed how
to know what is there (epistemology). Postmodern thought, governed by
pragmatism and existentialism, addresses how language functions to construct
meaning itself. In other words, a shift
has taken place in “first things” from being to knowing to constructing
meaning.[3] James Sire shed additional light on the shift from
premodern to modern to postmodern thinking: Two major shifts in perspective have occurred over the past centuries: one is the move from the “premodern” (characteristic of the Western world prior to the seventeenth century) to the “modern” (beginning with Descartes [1596-1650]); the second is the move from the “modern” to the “postmodern” (whose first major exponent was Friedrich Nietzsche in the last quarter of the nineteenth century). Take the following as an example of these shifts. . . . There has been a movement from (1) a “premodern” concern for a just society based on revelation from a just God to (2) a “modern” attempt to use universal reason as the guide to justice to (3) a “postmodern” despair of any universal standard for justice. Society then moves from medieval hierarchy to Enlightenment democracy to postmodern anarchy.[4] Postmodernism has its roots in modernism which began
in the 1700s with the Enlightenment. Rene Descartes is seen as the first modern
philosopher. Gene Edward Veith observed, In the 1700s the progress of science accelerated so rapidly that it seemed as if science could explain everything. . . . This age of reason, scientific discovery, and human autonomy is termed the Enlightenment. Its thinkers embraced classicism with its order and rationality (although their version of classicism neglected the supernaturalism of Plato and Aristotle). However, they lumped Christianity together with paganism as outdated superstitions. Reason alone, so they thought, may now replace the reliance on the supernatural born out of the ignorance of ‘unenlightened’ times.[5] So with
the Enlightenment man became the center of the universe rather than God. The
modern era left little or no meaning in life. In order to overcome this Soren
Kierkegaard (1813-1855) developed his philosophy of existentialism. He called
for living by faith, not reason. David Breese summarized, “He [Kierkegaard] had
the problem of involvement in dead religion. He went to the Danish Church in
Denmark, a cold brownstone place, but he wasn’t satisfied. So he began to think -- ‘Reality is not something outside
ourselves. Truth is not something objective. Reality is within ourselves.
Reality is an encounter, reality is involvement, reality, is what happens to you, and if it doesn’t happen to you,
forget it. It’s not true.’ He is what we call a subjectivist, actually a
super-subjectivist.”[6] On the heels of Kierkegaard came Friedrich Nietzsche
(1844-1900), the philosopher whose words began this chapter. Nietzsche realized
that the people of Europe lived as though God were dead, so he made atheism the
cornerstone of his existential philosophy. The news that “God is dead” has now
reached the “ears of man.” James Sire characterized postmodernism as follows: (1) There has been a shift in “first things” from being to knowing to constructing meaning . . . . (2)
The truth about the reality is forever hidden from us. All we can do is tell
stories [narratives] . . . . Postmodern thought has greatly influenced contemporary
culture. The hallmark of postmodern thought is the death of truth. Don Matzat
noted, “The only absolute truth that exists in the postmodern mentality is that
there is no such thing as absolute truth, and as far as the postmodern scholar
is concerned, that is absolutely true.”[8]
The self-contradiction is obvious but the postmodernist is not concerned with
logic or truth. Everyone has his or her own “truth” and the height of arrogance
is to say that one’s “truth” is actually the truth. Nothing frightens
the postmodernists more than a “fundamentalist” claim to absolute truth which
they view as nothing more than an attempt to oppress those who disagree. So
with the rise of postmodernism came ideas such as political correctness,
tolerance, moral relativism, multiculturalism, new age spirituality, religious
syncretism, empowerment of minorities, denigration of white European males, and
homosexual rights. Every area of society has been touched by postmodernism.
Health care, literature, education, history, psychotherapy, law, science, and
religion are all mutating under the influence of postmodernism.[9] Because of their claim to an exclusive metanarrative
(worldview), conservative, Bible- believing Christians are alone in being
exempt from society’s tolerance. Christians are not only ignored by the popular
culture, they are increasingly singled out for ridicule and outright bashing by
the kinder, gentler postmodernists. The postmodernist’s “tolerance” masks the
reality of an underhanded power play. However, the Christian church has not
escaped the influence of postmodernism. POSTMODERN INFLUENCES UPON CHRISTIANITY or, the isms, schisms, and spasms in the postmodern
church
POST-POSTMODERNISM?
Is postmodernism over–already? No, not quite. A
conference on “After Postmodernism was recently held at the University of
Chicago where 93 people, mostly philosophers with some anthropologists,
sociologists, and others, gathered to discuss “how to move beyond the poor
alternatives seemingly posed by postmodernism: either some system of stated
truth, or no kind of truth at all” (www.focusing.org/conferencereport.html).
The motto of After Postmodernism is, “We keep the critique of modernity, but we
move beyond the mere arbitrariness that postmodernism proclaims. We question
all stated foundations, but this doesn’t mean ‘just anything goes’.” One of the
new ideas of After Postmodernism is a new kind of truth and objectivity.
“Instead of mere pluralism we can create ‘complexes of multiple truths’
involving a demanding and sophisticated steering of scientific research with
multiple applications and resonance to local contexts.” In other words,
different truths, with different applications to different local contexts– as
long as you have the stamp of scientific research. Perhaps this is better than
postmodernism, but still far from reality.
SOME GENERAL MISSIONS FACTS
THE GOOD NEWS
THE BAD NEWS
Many sources are reporting the trend of declining
interest in missions among North American evangelical Christians. Ironically,
this trend appears at the same time that we have the greatest opportunity and
finances for missions. There are many reasons. Two of them are related to
postmodernism influencing the church: (1) The triumph of a self-centered lifestyle. (2) Uncertainty and irrelevance of biblical doctrine. One reason for this is consumerism. Christians have
allowed postmodern thought to influence them. Absolute truth no longer exists.
There is no absolute authority. People no longer believe in something because
it’s true but because they like it. Self is now the center of consciousness.
People now make choices based on what brings the most personal satisfaction. They
want to know what’s in it for them. They pick a church that has what they want,
not the one that is necessarily biblical. One observer noted, “By concentrating day and night on
your feelings, potentials, needs, wants, and desires and by learning to assert
them more freely, you do not become a freer, more spontaneous, more creative
self: you become a narrower, more self-centered, more isolated one. You do not
grow, you shrink.” CONSUMERISM In an article which appeared in Christianity Today
in November 1992, Charles Colson cataloged some of the attitudes that are
prevailing in the postmodern church.[10]
In the article, titled “Welcome to McChurch,” Colson noted the shift among
church goers from seeking God to seeking self. Colson wrote, Even secular observers have noted how this demand for “feel better” religion is affecting church life and practice. A 1990 Newsweek cover story heralded the dramatic religious resurgence among the nation’s baby boomers. But “unlike earlier religious revivals,” the study noted, “the aim this time (apart from born-again traditionalists of all faiths) is support, not salvation, help rather than holiness, a circle of spiritual equals rather than an authoritative church or guide. A group affirmation of self is at the top of the agenda, which is why some of the least demanding churches are now in the greatest demand.”[11] People now approach the church as consumers, just like
everything else in life. Consumerism is one of the results of pragmatism which,
along with existentialism, is the philosophy driving postmodern thought.
William James, one of the philosophers of pragmatism, said, “Truth’s
verification is its cash value in experiential terms.”[12]
Religious content is losing relevance as people more and more desire to have
their “felt needs” met. People now want a religion that “works,” or that they
can use to make them happy. So in order to get people into the church, church
leaders are willing to give them what they want. The name for this movement in Christianity is the Church Growth Movement. The new model for the church is the marketplace;[13] the church is established along the lines of a business, the pastor functions as the CEO, and the target group is the customer base. The church is less theocentric and more anthropocentric. John D. Hannah has noted, “To parrot David Wells’s judgement of the church at large, and I have in mind the evangelical one, theology is fast becoming ‘an embarrassing encumbrance.’ The doctrine of the utter otherness, or holiness, of God has been replaced by the idol of the moral self. God is slick and slack, happiness is the opposite of righteousness, sin is self-defeating behavior, morality is a trade-off of private interests, worship is entertainment, and the ‘church is a mall in which the religious, their pockets filled with the coinage of need, do their business.’”[14] Consumerism is most prominent in American megachurches
which provide a string of ministries designed to meet the felt-needs of various
special interest groups. Bruce Shelley and Marshall Shelley have written,
“These churches are able to pack large numbers of people into an auditorium to
participate in a single service of worship, but the audience is no longer
united by the shared beliefs summarized in a denominational covenant. Many are
attracted by some specific ministry of the church: care for mothers of
preschoolers, support for single parents, financial counseling and others. The
denominational or generic name over the door seems to be irrelevant. Under the
shelter of the congregation’s umbrella, deeper commitments are expressed in the
diverse special interest groups sponsored by the congregation.”[15] Consumerism is also dangerous to the church because of
its effect on theology. Millard J Erickson has expressed well this sentiment as
it relates to the disappearance of evangelical theology: This disappearance of theology can be seen in two realms: the actual life of evangelicals and evangelical ministry. Evangelical piety has become very internalized, very privatized, a development that reflects the broader psychology of our day. At one time happiness was considered by evangelicals to be a by-product of right behavior. Now happiness has become the main goal of concern and activity. This experience of feeling good has increasingly become the object of much evangelical activity. This has enabled it to be very successful, for the consumer mentality simply is not hospitable to the habits of reflection and judgment required to frame and defend orthodox belief. Wells shows the parallels between the message of Robert Schuller and that of Harry Emerson Fosdick. He says that the psychologizing of life undercuts historic Christianity at three points: (1) it assumes the perfectibility of human nature, contrary to the Christian gospel; (2) it undermines the desire and capacity to think, thus making theology impossible; (3) it severs interest in the outside world, sacrificing culture for self. Not only the understanding of
the nature of evangelicalism but the understanding of ministry has been corrupted by modernization. Two
roles that are highly admired in our society have become the models that
ministers now tend to adopt: the psychologist and the manager. Thus, preaching,
even in evangelical pulpits, tends to be therapeutic, and the pastor is seen as
the CEO of a corporation, responsible for its efficiency and growth. This is in
keeping with Well’s contrast between two types of ministry–one theologically
based, the other professional in orientation. In the latter, one’s occupation
has become a career, in which advancing to larger, more financially rewarding,
and more prestigious positions is the goal. Wells describes in considerable
detail the process by which this has happened, and the present status of
ministry and of the church. The new style of ministry is not actually one that enables the laity. In
fact, Wells refers to the second type of clergy as the “new disablers.” The
result of their ministry is to create what Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon have termed
practical atheism:
“It is an atheism that reduces the Church to nothing more than the services it offers or the good feelings the minister can generate. In other words, where professionalization is at work, there the ministry will typically be deprived of its transcendence and reduced to little more than a helping profession.” It has produced a kind of sentimentality “that wants to listen without judging, that has opinions but little interest in truth, that is sympathetic but has no passion for that which is right. It is under this guise of piety–indeed, of professionalization–that pastoral unbelief lives out its life.”[16] Consumerism undermines the
gospel and the authority of Scripture by promoting self over the Lordship of
Jesus Christ. To be faithful to the Lord, the church must draw its message,
mandates, and direction from Scripture, not from the culture. God is at the
center of the universe, not man. THE SOLUTION - HOW DO WE GET
OUT OF THIS MESS? We must reassert biblical
doctrine. Theology is the foundation of Christian living and of world missions.
Without biblical theology, without thinking and living biblically, there is no
motivation or basis for missions. We must re-emphasize the essential Christian
doctrines beginning with theology proper, the doctrine of God. The doctrine of
God is the foundation of all doctrines. Christianity today is so man-centered
that God is almost forgotten. John Piper wrote, “Missions is not the ultimate
goal of the church, worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t.
Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When
people from all nations are before the throne, missions ends. Missions is a
temporary necessity, but worship is eternal.” The Bible gives us a glimpse of
what we’ll be doing for eternity. In Rev. 5:9 we read, “And they sang a new
song, saying: “You are worthy . . . for You were slain, and have redeemed us to
God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation . . . .” From the doctrine of God, we
must also re-emphasize the other great doctrines of the faith, especially the
doctrines of hell and the exclusivity of the gospel. The “tolerant” postmoderns
will find these doctrines intolerable. However, these are the doctrines that
provide the basis for missions. These doctrines and many others are being doubted
and disbelieved, not just outside the church but even within the church. The
gospel itself is undermined today by ecumenical movements such as ECT
(Evangelical and Catholics Together).
This is no time for slackness or wimpiness in our beliefs and in our
preaching. We must do what Jude said in his epistle, “. . . contend earnestly
for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” This is nothing
new. The church has always faced false doctrines and false teachers. We faced
them yesterday, we face them today, and we will face them tomorrow. May the
Lord find us faithful stewards of His truth. PRACTICAL IDEAS FOR CHURCH
MISSIONS INVOLVEMENT
Notes:
[1]Friedrich Nietzsche, “The Madman,” Gay Science 125, in The Portable Nietzsche, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Viking, 1954), 95-96. [2] James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A
Basic World View Catalog, 3d ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1997),
173. [3] Ibid., 175. [4] Ibid. [5] Gene Edward Veith Jr., Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture, (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1995), 32-33. [6] David Breese, Seven Men Who Rule the
World From the Grave (Oklahoma City: The Southwest Radio Church, 1980),
20-21. [7] Sire, 175-84. [8] Don Matzat, “Apologetics in a
Postmodern Age,” Issues, Etc. Journal 2, no. 5 (Fall 1997): 7. [9] Postmodernism’s influence in these areas is superbly treated in Dennis McCallum, ed., The Death of Truth (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1996). [10] Charles Colson, “Welcome to McChurch,” Christianity
Today, 9 November 1992, 33-35. [11] Ibid. [12] Michael Horton, Polemics, audiotape of interview by Don
Matzat on the radio broadcast Issues, Etc. 5/4/97. Available from Issues, Etc. 1-800-737-0172. [13] Gene Edward Veith, Postmodernism,
audiotape of interview by Don Matzat on the radio broadcast Issues, Etc.
10/12/97. Available from Issues, Etc. 1-800-737-0172. [14] John D. Hannah, The Coming Evangelical
Crisis: Current Challenges to the Authority of Scripture and the Gospel,
ed. John H. Armstrong (Chicago: Moody Press, 1996), 156. [15] Bruce Shelley and Marshall Shelley, The
Consumer Church: Can Evangelicals Win the World Without Losing Their Souls? (Downers
Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992), 64. [16] Millard J. Erickson, Postmodernizing the
Faith: Evangelical Responses to the Challenge of Postmodernism (Grand
Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), 34-35. |
