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Postmodernism: Is truth stranger than it used to be?
by Duffy Robbins

When youth workers talk about postmodernism, it tends to be in terms of resignation, admiration, intimidation or, in some cases, even damnation. In recent issues of Good News, we have grappled with postmodernism. Should we jump on the bandwagon of po-mo (postmodern) youth ministry, or is there sufficient reason to be po-mophobic?

There are, in fact, some facets of postmodernism that can be embraced by youthworkers who are committed to the strong embrace of Scripture.

(1) We can affirm postmodernism's insistence that there is more than one way to know. Scripture teaches us that there is simply more to reality than can be grasped through objective, rational thought. The writer of Hebrews describes faith as ".the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). It is the difference between looking at romance from the clinical standpoint of a psychiatrist and actually personally being in love.

The Psalmist writes, "Taste and see that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8), not "Learn theological concepts and see that the Lord is good." In fact, we can discover much about God's goodness through the learning of theological concepts, but there is a learning process more experiential as well. It is the difference between learning about love from a psychology text, and learning about love from one you love. It is possible to learn, and to be misled, by both. But, neither means of learning by themselves can teach all that there is to know.

For too long, we have put teenagers in bland, stuffy rooms, with Bibles and curriculum, and expected them to fall in love with God just by giving them information (modernism). Perhaps we've forgotten in our youth ministries what we've always known about romance: location, music, candles, atmosphere, all of it enhances the experience of falling in love. If we want kids to fall in love with God, we need to give more attention to these elements of the faith experience as have centuries of Christians before us (see Dan Kimball's The Emerging Church: Vintage Christianity for New Christians, Zondervan).

(2) We can agree with postmodernism that human reasoning alone cannot be trusted to lead us always to reality. When I was a college student, I was very much helped by Josh McDowell's Evidence That Demands a Verdict because it offered rational, historical, archaeological reasons for belief. It was a book ready-made for the modernist mind-set. "Add up these truths, and you'll become a believer."

But, there's only one problem: for today's kids, evidence has almost nothing to do with their verdicts. They've grown up learning to mistrust that rational kind of knowing. From their perspective, while that kind of rational knowing has left us healthier, better fed, better educated, more technologically advanced than we have ever been, it has also left with the same enemies that have always plagued humanity: disease, loneliness, isolation, hatred, poverty, bigotry, greed, hunger for power, laziness, and ecological disaster, to name but just a few. What many of our young people are left with is cynicism, anger, and disillusionment.

Needless to say, this disenchantment is not new with postmodernism. All the way back in the first century, Paul made it quite clear that human reasoning is flawed. "Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.." (Romans 1:22). Our prejudices, biases, affections, and hormones lead us to make unreasonable, unwise choices in everyday life, and inaccurate assessments of objective reality. Indeed, it was precisely this arrogance that led to the Fall. We think we see well, but our minds are darkened (2 Corinthians 4:4). If better education, more rational knowledge, and better evidence is all it takes to make the world a better place, why do our kids see the cultural landscape littered with broken lives, bruised hearts, and burdened people?

(3) We can affirm postmodernism's insistence on the importance of community. Postmodernists argue that our knowledge is shaped and informed by experience. So, it only makes sense that our knowledge will be more complete if it is shaped and formed by a collective experience that is bigger than our own. One of the buzz words that kids hear in school-indeed, we all hear it everyday-is the term multiculturalism. It is essentially an outgrowth of this notion that we are more likely to arrive at truth if we are informed by those of other cultures who might see truth differently.

While we cannot completely embrace this notion of multiculturalism, we can celebrate this emphasis on community-a central element of life in the New Testament church (Acts 2:42-47). The disconnectedness of modern life is neither healthier nor more biblical. While Christianity affirms individual responsibility; it also affirms the individual's responsibility to the community. This sense of connectedness and accountability has been lost in the privatism that now permeates even church life.



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