I recently gave a talk to Cardiff University’s Staff and Postgraduate Christian Fellowship (SPGCF) on Christianity and Postmodernism. I’m now going to adapt that talk into a series of blog posts, to go up over the next couple of weeks.
Many Christians think Postmodernism = relativism = bad! Titles such as The Truth Wars, The Gagging of God and Meltdown: Making sense of a culture in crisis are typical of the evangelical reaction to postmodernism. Many of these are good books written by intelligent people saying vital things about the importance of capital-T Truth.
But I believe that Christians who rush to “defend Christianity” against the “challenges of postmodernism” are in danger of making a shallow assessment of a complicated set of ideas and philosophies, and of missing many opportunities and points of connection offered by postmodernism.
On the other hand, there are Christians who have embraced postmodernism with open arms, such as many in the emerging church. Writers such as Brian McClaren have reached a postmodern generation with books that seek to marry Christianity with a postmodern outlook. Others have written titles such as The Next Reformation: Why Evangelicals Must Embrace Postmodernity arguing that postmodernism is a good thing.
I find these postmodern expressions of Christianity a frustratingly mixed bag. Many postmodern Christian writers are annoyingly vague on important issues of Christian belief, and seem in danger of selling out completely to postmodern thinking, without weighing its ideas critically against the Bible.
In this series, I hope to briefly explain modernism and postmodernism in general terms. I then want to dig a little more deeply into what a few postmodern thinkers actually say. Finally, I’m going to try to highlight some of the points of connection and opportunity, as well as the conflicts and challenges.
As this is a series of blog posts based on a 40-minute talk, I apologise if I end up oversimplifying. Feel free to pick me up on anything you disagree with or would like to discuss further in the Comments!