“I define postmodernism as incredulity toward metanarratives”
Jean-Francois Lyotard
Postmodernism has been described like the era where everything is absolute subjective, it means that if you think that something is good for you, it is just good for you, and it is not going to have the same “good” effect on someone else. It is not the same in the Modern era where everything was absolute objective: “Tell me what you believe and I will believe it”
Postmodernism could be thought of as the Individual Era: “don’t tell me how to apply this Bible passage to my life. You don’t know anything about my life. Just tell me what it really means. I will decide how to apply it”.
But one of the values that remain from the worldview is the Relational Value is “Most people come to church because someone they trust invite them. Relationships will always be the best investments we will make”
The first period of Jesus’ ministry on earth was not to develop in the big cities or talking with the big masters of the time or preaching to thousand of people; it was in the country, in small places, and village. His main objective was clear and deep “Make Relationships” for a long time. Christians have been consumed with maintaining political power, conquering lands, writing laws, and a lot of other things that Jesus did not seem the least bit concerned with. Maybe this era is going to help us to recover some aspect of the early Christianity.
Postmodernism has been described like the era where everything is absolute subjective, it means that if you think that something is good for you, it is just good for you, and it is not going to have the same “good” effect on someone else. It is not the same in the Modern era where everything was absolute objective: “Tell me what you believe and I will believe it”
Postmodernism could be thought of as the Individual Era: “don’t tell me how to apply this Bible passage to my life. You don’t know anything about my life. Just tell me what it really means. I will decide how to apply it”.
But one of the values that remain from the worldview is the Relational Value is “Most people come to church because someone they trust invite them. Relationships will always be the best investments we will make”
The first period of Jesus’ ministry on earth was not to develop in the big cities or talking with the big masters of the time or preaching to thousand of people; it was in the country, in small places, and village. His main objective was clear and deep “Make Relationships” for a long time. Christians have been consumed with maintaining political power, conquering lands, writing laws, and a lot of other things that Jesus did not seem the least bit concerned with. Maybe this era is going to help us to recover some aspect of the early Christianity.
1 comment:
Hi Felipe,
Thanks for these comments. Just to clarify a few things, the concept of "absolute objectivity" is more of a concept that emerges out of the scientific community. During the modern era, science and rationality ruled. With that, it was believed that because of empirical evidence, that something could be validated as 'true' based on tangible, scientific proof. With that, came the emphasis on valuing things which were true - absolutely true, because they could be proven empirically (or tangibly). Most things were considered subjective, but those things that could be proven were considered the best and the most reliable.
With the emergence of the Postmodern era, people have rejected the 'metanarrative' of science and have become sceptic about things which claim 'absolute objectivity.'
During the modern era, theology was described as the "science of God." God came under the microscope of science. If claims about God could not be absolutely proven by the scientist (theologian), then they would not be considered objective. This would compromise the universal relevance of things like the gospel... which put the church in a huge predicament...
During the postmodern era, the metanarrative of science has been cast off, but it's been replaced with a radical subjectivity that rejects anything that claims to have universal relevance. This is a serious problem for the church... because if we cater to this thought-pattern in the same way that we catered to the scientific metanarrative, we end up always trying to justify ourselves...
Just some thoughts.
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