What Is Postmodernism?

Some descriptions incredulity toward metanarratives (Lyotard) capitalism in overdrive (Harvey) the acceleration of time and shrinking of space (Gergen) life in fragments (Baumann) But what is the modernism of which it is post?

What Is Modernism?
Three streams converge Renaissance return to sources, in particular Greek and Roman philosophy Reformation Luthers famous stand on conscience against the system Enlightenment centrality of human reason, science and progress

Question Authority!
Giants of Enlightenment Descartes - I Think Therefore I Am Kant - Noumenal/Phenomenal Divide

Star Trek Ambitions

Powerful cocktail of ideas which emphasize man as measure of all things, power of reason and science and debunking inherited authorities and superstitions Life can be rationally controlled and socially engineered Taylor management by the clock, workers as part of the assembly line machine

A Brief History Of Modern Times

The modern era is characterized by the industrial revolution unimagined scientific breakthrough French & American revolutions Optimistic dreams of progress and utopia Global expansion of empires, ideologies, nation states

Waking From Modern Dream?

Question Reality!
Postmodernism revolts against order, system, representation and meta-narrative Displays a tendency towards irony, parody, indeterminacy, many ways of looking at it The image of a Food Court Western steak, rojak, koay teow, capati, ABC. So it is with lifestyles, values and choices multiple, individually valuable and equally accessible. No one option is privileged.

Prophets Of Suspicion
Nietzsche Marx

Freud

Secular Prophets of Original Sin

Religion is the opium of the masses (Marx)
Keeps the workers docile while oppressed by the rich ruling class

Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires (Freud)
God is dead Truth is metaphor, Life is will-to-power against herd morality (Nietzsche)

Influential Po-Mo Thinkers

Derrida Foucault

Lyotard

My Mama Told Me So
In postmodern thinking, we are led to consider

Theres no discovered Truth, only constructed truths Truth claims are masks for power interests Truth is what works today (Richard Rorty)

Reality is determined by our perception, interpretive community, social construct We are prisoners of limits of Language. Gap between reality and words to convey meaning Celebrate novelty of difference, accept the walls of separation and just tolerate what is.

Is There Meaning Here?

There is no transcendent signified. Even if it exists, we have no access No fixed meaning in text. Only the readers response. (Derrida) Reveal power agendas hidden as truths in language and institutions (Foucault) No objective truth, we are left with value judgments, tastes and preferences

Are you in The Matrix?

Films like Truman Show & Matrix with theme of living in a controlled and constructed social environment Culture is the new absolute - a form of social determinism? Focus not on what we believe (content, objective, justification) but how beliefs are formed or inherited by context

Forbidden To Forbid
Who are You to Say? morality
If you prefer certain lifestyles, why should society, government, family or anyone else restrict it as wrong?

George Barna statistics

64% adults say truth is relative to person 83% teenagers say morality depends on situations Only 32% born-again adults believe in moral absolutes

Whatever Is, Is Right

Os Guinness cites how university students are more ready to justify the Nazis as products of culture and history The intolerance of the tolerant: The Freedom of our day is the freedom to devote ourselves to any values we please, on the mere condition that we do not believe them to be true
Harvard student speech

I Shop Therefore I Am
Hyper-Consumerism: If life is a supermarket, and moral choices are like the products on the shelves, then all that matters is personal choice. The only problem is the lack of freedom to choose. A determined failure to acknowledge limits and boundaries

Gospel: Opportunities
Weakened pride in autonomous reason and naturalistic scientism Openness to the supernatural Yearning for authentic relationships Need to see gospel embodied before it is proclaimed Be sensitive to context, history, culture, locality, earthiness, here-and-now rather than extreme other-worldliness

Gospel: Challenges
Suspicion of evangelistic propaganda, more conversation False dichotomy Love versus Truth. Speak the Truth In Love (Eph 4:15) Organized religion is out, personal spirituality is in Gospel subverted as one of many stories Social pressure of relativism which is intolerant of Christian faith in particular

The Calling
Understand the times, every era has its challenges Confidence in God and His truth Indwell the gospel, take the risk to effective persuasion Demonstrate earthly good Dialogue What Would Jesus Ask? C. S. Lewis argument from desire, longing? (1 Peter 3:15-16)

How Can I Discover My Mission in Life?

R. PAUL STEVENS

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