Postmodernism Says: The Reports of My Death Have Been Wildly Exaggerated


Abstract:
Most Christians are still walking around thinking that they wrap their ideas in words, that words are containers of meaning, that there is a message "contained in" the gospel, a "kerygmatic core," that the medium may change but the message must remain the same to be authentic and true.

Body:


I love Andrew's blog, and visit it regularly. I admire him for what he says and the way he lives it out. I'd love to meet him and follow him around to some happenin' places some day. This post kind of set me off, though. I've heard and read a lot of stuff about how we are now "post-postmodern," and I think it's hooey. Wishful thinking, maybe. My perspective may be a bit different because I'm in the U.S., but I suspect that arguments about what is or is not postmodern are part of the evidence that it's still a powerful thing!

I do not claim to be an expert on postmodernism. But whether you mark the birth of postmodernism long ago with Nietzsche, or just a few decades ago with Foucault, I do not think it is time to drive the nails in the coffin just yet. I think about Kant writing What is Enlightenment, having no idea that we would still be dealing with modernism or the concept of enlightenment over 200 years later. We've only had a few decades of talking about postmodernism, so I suspect that if history is any indication, we'll have plenty more!

Part of the reason I do not think the church is ready to move "beyond" the idea of the postmodern is that we have not truly dealt with the idea of language and what it means for preaching and evangelism. The linguistic turn that began in the 1800's has been a major source of postmodern thinking. In the 1920's, I.A. Richards was writing that we have the wrong idea about language. It is not most effective when it is precise and crystallized. It is often most useful when it is fluid and ambiguous. Most speech is metaphorical, not literal: the leg of a table, the head of an organization, an arm of the Republican party, the Body of Christ. Feminist attention to inclusive language is about language and power. Foucault's examination of sexuality and of the justice system is about language and power.

The Church, the Gospel, the words of Christ, the very Word itself - all have to do with language and power. What we have seen develop in the emerging church and responses to it are about language and power. Who owns the Good News? Who controls how we talk about it? To whom are we accountable when we preach and teach? Folks, this is about language and power. The Word that was made flesh relativizes all other words. Love emerges as a greater power than swords and crosses and Pax Romana. Obedience to Christ trumps obedience to the emporer. This is about stripping away masks, exposing religious posturing, bringing people into honest and personal relationships with each other and their Creator.

Who owns the word "evangelical?" Who gets to decide how it is used and what it means? Who owns the word "emerging?" Who gets to define what "church" means? Who decides what is orthodox and what is not? Who pronounces a community "authentic" or not? Language and power. Language and power. Language and power.

Most Christians are still walking around thinking that they wrap their ideas in words, that words are containers of meaning, that there is a message "contained in" the gospel, a "kerygmatic core," that the medium may change but the message must remain the same to be authentic and true. I say that there is no surgery you can perform, no scalpel sharp enough to separate medium and message. That's the point of incarnation. The medium is the message. Is that postmodern enough for the church? It's 2000 years old. It predates Augustine, Aquinas, Descartes, Kant, Hume, Tillich, Barth, and all the other dead white guys. It may be older than that. It may be as old as a voice out of a burning bush that says, "my name is I AM THERE. - Now go and give Pharoah a message for me." Language and power.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer longed for a "religionless Christianity in a world come of age." He was talking about a kind of Christianity that had stopped using God-talk to make up for its own insecurities. A Christianity that was ready to be friends with God, able to speak to a world that was mature enough to handle its own pluralism. I think we have just begun to tap into that idea. I'm not ready to put it on the shelf.

I do think it is unfortunate that the word "postmodern" has itself become a piece in a larger language-game. Who owns it? I don't mean to come off as a postmodern cheerleader. I'm still trying to figure out what it means. And as I've said before, I'm not terribly interested in abstract philosophical speculation about epistemology. I'm more interested in the question of who "wins" in such disputes about what is or is not properly "postmodern," and whether that is a good or a bad thing. Who stands to gain in these arguments? Why are they so invested in them? When people get hot about ideas like "Biblical worldviews," I suspect that's code-talk for other stuff. Like whether it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a liberal to get into heaven. (Where "liberal" means what it does in the U.S. of A.) I hear more of the disputes of the Pharisees and the Saducees than of Good News in these arguments.

Try to deny it, and it bites you in the backside: language and power. Pontius Pilate stands there in front of a bound messiah and asks, "what is truth?" Language and power. One of the responses to Jesus' teaching is Who are you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come here to destroy us? I know who you are - the Holy One of God! Language and power. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil things about you for my sake. Lang--- you get the idea.

(BTW, Andrew - peace, and keep up the great work!)

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Edit: (02-09-2006) Silly of me not to mention all the brouhaha over recent translations of the Bible. I really like how the folks at Better Bibles Blog have been talking about the issue.

Posted: Sun - February 5, 2006 at 08:23 PM           |

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