Mo & PoMo (Part 2)
June 27th, 2007
(By John MacArthur)
Post-Modernism
Modernism is now regarded as yesterday’s way of thinking. The dominant world-view in secular and academic circles today is called post-modernism.
Post-modernists have repudiated modernism’s absolute confidence in science as the only pathway to the truth. In fact, post-modernism has completely lost interest in “the truth,” insisting that there is no such thing as absolute, objective, or universal truth.
Modernism was indeed folly and needed to be abandoned. But post-modernism is a tragic step in the wrong direction. Unlike modernism, which was still concerned with whether basic convictions, beliefs, and ideologies are objectively true or false, post-modernism simply denies that any truth can be objectively known.
To the post-modernist, reality is whatever the individual imagines it to be. That means what is “true” is determined subjectively by each person, and there is no such thing as objective, authoritative truth that governs or applies to all humanity universally. The post-modernist naturally believes it is pointless to argue whether opinion A is superior to opinion B. After all, if reality is merely a construct of the human mind, one person’s perspective of truth is ultimately just as good as another’s.
Having given up on knowing objective truth, the post-modernist occupies himself instead with the quest for “understanding” the other person’s point of view. So the words truth and understanding take on radical new meanings. Ironically, “understanding” requires that we first of all disavow the possibility of knowing any truth at all. And “truth” becomes nothing more than a personal opinion, usually best kept to oneself.
That is the one essential, non-negotiable demand post-modernism makes of everyone: we are not supposed to think we know any objective truth. Post-modernists often suggest that every opinion should be shown equal respect. And therefore on the surface, post-modernism seems driven by a broad-minded concern for harmony and tolerance. It all sounds very charitable and altruistic. But what really underlies the post-modernist belief system is an utter intolerance for every world-view that makes any universal truth-claims — particularly biblical Christianity.
In other words, post-modernism begins with a presupposition that is irreconcilable with the objective, divinely-revealed truth of Scripture. Like modernism, post-modernism is fundamentally and diametrically opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
(To be continued tomorrow)
That’s one of the worst descriptions of postmodernism I have ever heard.
Kevin Vanhoozer does a brilliant and fair job defining it in the introduction to The Cambridge Companion to Postmodern Theology.
This description is neither.
I dunno, this definition sounds pretty good to me. It’s really the “street” definition. It’s what pomo has caused to happen below the academic level, as its acid drips down and eats away at foundations.
I’m sure more “academic” tomes take more trouble to sound, well, academic. But that’s another sphere of debate, and when you strip out the pretenses, you’re going to find pretty much the same thing.
Pomo academics have sometimes been accused of playing mere “word games,” and that seems to be the case much of the time. Thus, they don’t like being labeled by words which some of us still think convey meaning and actually serve a real purpose, like defining things.
So, while it’s a layman oriented summary, I think this article is just fine. That’s my OPINION, of course, so tolerate it.
art, maybe you could say that without attacking the writer of this blog. maybe.
JSB-I must side with you, as well as MacArthur’s simple, yet accurate, definition of postmodernism.
I’ve been studying this cultural phenomenon fervently, as postmodern ideaology was what I had to COME OUT of, when I became a Christian. As I embraced pomo, it set me in direct opposition to Jesus’ claim to be the ONLY way the ONLY truth; either He meant that in literal terms, or He didn’t. For me to embrace Him, I had to do embrace the conviction that every other truth claim was wrong–regardless of sincerities–very non-pomo.
I understand too, that my distinction above, is still too simplistic to be accepted as credible in the pomo-sphere of understanding, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is beautiful in its simplicity. The pomo’s seem to share simliar problems in accepting this, with the Greeks in Paul’s day (1 Cor. 1:23).
They, the pomo’s (whether in the church or secular), can argue and debate this all they want, in their attempt to wrap their philosophy in more sophisticated and academic frames; but, the simple truth is, just as MacArthur stated above: “post-modernism is fundamentally and diametrically opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ”
I think Kristine hit it on the head in bringing up the simplicity of the Gospel. Paul writes: For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. (2 Cor 11:2-3)
What the postmodernist tries to do, as jsb alluded to with the “word games,” is to deconstruct language as we know it, and then reconstruct it in their own terms. They define what is and what isn’t, and then they look at us like we’re idiots because we don’t understand things. All of that is a complicated, crafty deception that leads us a way from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. How simple?
John 14:6 - Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
John 14:23-24 - Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”
Luke 9:23-24 - And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.”
Luke 14:26-27 - If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
All that to say that treating the Emerging movement or any postmodern assaults on truth with any sort of friendliness is to cheat on our husband to whom we have been betrothed (2Co 11:2). We are not to receive them or give them a greeting, lest we participate in their evil deeds (2 John 10-11).
Great Mike! I’ve referred to that snippet of 2 John MANY times but I can’t recall anyone else using it on a blog. A good example of this is our buddy Rick Warren, who will cozy up to anyone who supports his “P.E.A.C.E.” plan regardless of how they feel about “minor” issues like homsexuality or baby-killing.
[…] According to all the experts we live in a postmodern culture, one that has its own ideas about what is true and what is real. To the post-modernist, reality is whatever the individual imagines it to be. That means what is “true” is determined subjectively by each person, and there is no such thing as objective, authoritative truth that governs or applies to all humanity universally. The post-modernist naturally believes it is pointless to argue whether opinion A is superior to opinion B. After all, if reality is merely a construct of the human mind, one person’s perspective of truth is ultimately just as good as another’s. John MacArthur (Read the entire article here) […]