Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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
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
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)
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.
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?
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)
R. PAUL STEVENS
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