Moving Past Postmodernism
Wayne Turner

Clearly, the Western world is in a time of transition. Nations are rising and falling, human migration is transforming the face of our cities, social attitudes are shifting.  Cultural institutions that attempt to shape human thought, such as universities and organized religion, have also undergone a transformation in their approaches to knowledge in the last thirty years.  The cracks in their foundations are beginning to reveal the results of postmodern approaches to truth that centre on individuals “constructing meaning” for themselves rather than searching for an external and objective reality.
           
            The “modern” worldview, which dominated Western thinking through much of the 20th century, looked for truth (in religion, “the truth”) and human progress through reasoned, scientific inquiry. Disillusionment with the ills of the modern world in the late 20th century led to “postmodern” views, which questioned the ability of the individual to know anything for certain—(“many truths”).  In turn, as a new generation that has grown up with reality TV and the Internet responds to the failure of postmodernism’s relativity and skepticism to find “any truth”, or to provide meaning and stability, we wonder what form post-postmodernism will take?

It appears that there’s bad news and good news.

            The bad news is the “dumbing down” of mainstream culture as knowledge and thinking have become increasingly relative and subjective. Both religious and secular observers have recently noted the public’s apparent disdain for thinking.  In a recent Christianity Today review of 21st Century Apologetics by Timothy Keller, Anthony Sacramone asks, “…in an ADHD world in which factoids supplant facts, rage overrides reason and the sui generis self (lit., of its own kind, unique – Ed) knows none of the permanent things, how does the Christian soul-winner keep cool, engage the easily distracted and defend the faith …?”

             In “Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?”, a New York Times article, Patricia Cohen relates the appearance of Kellie Pickler, “American Idol” contestant on “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?”, who was asked, “Budapest is the capital of what European country?”  Pickler replied, “I thought Europe was a country.”  When told that her 5th grade partner’s answer was Hungary, she said, “Hungry?  That’s a country?…I’ve never heard of it.”  Cohen goes on to mention that a number of writers “bemoan the state of American culture.”  She focuses especially on Susan Jacoby’s new book, The Age of American Unreason.  pointing out that Jacoby feels that there is now a “generalized hostility to knowledge.”  Jacoby’s summary of the prevailing attitudes is “(that) too much learning can be a dangerous thing … and … that there is no such thing as evidence or fact, just opinion.”   Cohen notes, “Not only are citizens ignorant about essential scientific, civic and cultural knowledge, she said, but they also don’t think it matters.” 

            Nicholas D. Kristoff, op-ed columnist for the New York Times, in “With a Few More Brains…” quotes Jacoby, “America is now ill with a powerful mutant strain of intertwined ignorance, anti-rationalism, and anti-intellectualism.”  As an example, Kristoff points out the widespread belief in flying saucers and government conspiracy theories, including the 9/11 attack.

            Although these comments refer to American culture and thinking, can Canadians be very far behind?

            Even more serious is the corresponding decline in the religious world.  What was once a general Biblical knowledge underpinning North American culture has been displaced by a widespread Biblical illiteracy even among many of those who profess some form of faith.  In a sometimes well-intentioned attempt to communicate to a culture that is not attracted to reasoned, study-based approaches to learning spiritual truth, outreach methods are increasingly being based on consumer and entertainment preferences.  Someone has observed that some church lobbies seem more like food courts in malls.  Sociologist Alan Wolfe is concerned that the call to self-denial and sacrifice has been displaced by a watered-down, feel-good religion that caters to religious consumers.  Doesn’t this sound like the blind leading the blind?  How can people find real hope and faith in Christ, or the meaning and answers for life that Jesus offers?  How can people find spiritual satisfaction when they are only being offered distractions or momentary bandages instead of real solutions and substance?
 
            Is there any good news?  Winnie Hu, in another New York Times article, suggests that there may be.  She notes a growing trend among university age young people who are enrolling in philosophy courses.  She sees this, in part, as a search for answers to the “big questions” – the “life examined.” She speaks of a “new generation … who are drawing modern-day lessons from the age-old discipline as they try to make sense of their world.” 

            In other words, these young people are looking for understanding and meaning.  Could this be seen as postmodernism’s ultimate inability to provide any real answers?   But why are they looking for these answers in university philosophy departments and not churches?  Is it because they can only see the emptiness of today’s dumbed-down and watered-down religion?  That the postmodern heritage passed on to them has left them distrustful of religious institutions and simplistic answers that show little difference from any other part of society?  However, speaking in another age of skepticism that looked to human philosophy for guidance, Paul described the result as “their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:21).

            Peter tells us that it wasn’t through silver or gold (or anything else of this world) that we were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down from our forefathers. (1 Peter 1:18).  The New Testament repeatedly reminds us that the Gospel is not based on the wisdom of men or conforming to worldviews that rise from human thinking.  Discipleship is daring to believe in and to confront culture with God’s eternal truth.  Jesus included loving God with the mind, as well as the heart and soul, in the greatest commandment. To teach truth, we must know it and then live it. How many church members today have replaced solid Bible study with the casual reading of popular religious writers – the substance of scripture with what is little more than “religion light”?  How many have abandoned the meat of God’s word for something that could not even be considered spiritual milk?  And how many of us have allowed that word to transform our beings so that our daily life, as salt and light within our culture, testifies to the reality and power of God’s truth?   For a post-postmodern generation, this may be the entry point to the deeper conversation about the reasons for the hope that we have. (I Peter 1: 15)