Some thoughts on post-modernism

By definition, almost, if I consider myself a post-modern, I'm not. So I won't claim to be, or not to be, one. I do find myself increasingly rejecting much of modernism, while holding on to other items of it. In many ways, I belong to a "bridge" generation -- I'm very late in the baby boomers generation, what some have labeled a 'tweener (those late in the baby boomer cycle or early in "generation X" or whatever the next generation is called).

(click here to see more about my exposure to postmodernism and some previous thoughts on the topic)

I do find much to be appreciated in both modernism and postmodernism.

The clip above (http://www.youtube.com/v/9RA-JzVxGTg for those who get this imported into Facebook or the like) illustrates one of the supposed differences between modernism and postmodernism -- belief in objective truth vs belief in relativistic truth. What a load of crap this is, at least as a "defining" difference. It is characteristic, but not a part of the definition. In fact, there really is no good definition of postmodernism.

Do some postmoderns belief in relativism? Yes, they do. But this is at best characteristic of postmodernism, not defining. In fact, a flaw of moderns is their need for clear definition. And in defining postmodernism, they find a cause to reject everything about it. Modernistic thinking, which dominates Churchianity too often, is setting up a kind of cultural war. Rather than comparing and contrasting the two schools of thought (though it is actually only one, as only one builds walls), they defend and more often attack.

And if they aren't attacking, moderns are busy defining postmodernism in modernistic terms. As the "expert" moderns teach other moderns about postmodernism, they perpetuate the division, the misconceptions. So the moderns end up trying to convert postmoderns to modernism, rather than trying to bridge the gap.

To me, postmodernism represents a great opportunity for the church. At the beginning of the modern era, modern thought corrupted the movement of Christ and so much of discipleship became about knowledge and discerning truth. Postmodernism is characterized (not defined :-)) by an emphasis on experience, on doing. Modernism seems to be characterized by a thought that you are how you think. Postmodernism, to quote a character from Batman Begins, "it's not who you are underneath, it's what you do that defines you". There is opportunity to swing the pendulum back, but if modern thinkers persist in thinking in terms of walls, they miss a chance to influence and the pendulum will swing (in some ways, is swinging) to far the other way.