Postmodernism is not the Antichrist for Gen X Missionary

Paula Harris, in the book, Postmission: World Mission in a Postmodern Generation, writes the chapter, “Postmodernism is not the Antichrist”. Paula at the time of writing was working with Urbana, the student mission convention of InterVarsity. In 2004 she co-authored the book, Being White: Finding Our Place in a Multiethnic World. In this post I’m providing a summary of Paula’s writing on postmodernism and mission.

I remember writing on a discussion list about engaging with postmodern approaches to Christian faith. In particular I wrote about the need to approach some parts of our lives with humility, fearlessly allowing for ambiguity and uncertainty. One response came back with what I can only call horror that I might be considering a postmodern point of view. It’s that kind of response to postmodernism that Paula engages here.

Paula starts her chapter by reminding us that postmodernism grapples with modernism, not with Jesus and the Gospel. As missionaries entering a postmodernist culture it makes sense to listen, learn and find ways of applying the gospel in a new context.

How many stories?

Harris introduces her readers to The Postmodern Condition, the work of Jean Francois Lyotard. Lyotard’s resistance to the dominance of one metanarrative comes from the perspective of a Europe traumatised by the Holocaust, an action that rolled out of the idolatry of efficiency. Zygmunt Bauman’s work on the Holocaust and Modernism ties in with Lyotard’s seminal work. The distrust of metanarratives is probably the postmodernist trend that most worries Evangelical Christians. But if they could see through the eyes of the traumatised they might begin to see the danger of idealising versions of reality in ways that require defence by force, perpetuation by violence and instruments of power.

Harris points out that postmodernity undermines metanarratives by exploring and listening to local narratives, the other voices that have been marginalized by the dominant culture. This has happened in the North American continent, not just in Europe, Africa and Asia. Harris points to the Spanish brutalization of Latinos in Mexico, and the forced southern migration of Mexicans by English settlers.

She cites Stanley Fish of the New York Times for his article,”Condemnation without Absolutes”, exploring a postmodern perspective on the attacks of September 11, 2001. Fish writes that people are bothered byÂ… “the idea that our adversaries have emerged not from some primordial darkness, but from a history that has equipped them with reasons and motives and even with a perverted version of some virtues”

Christian Apologetics

Paula Harris writes that Christians in mission must answer the accurate critique that Christianity provided the metanarratives for slavery, womens’s oppression, apartheid, the Jewish Holocaust, the cultural genocide of indigenous people, the Crusades, and stolen generations.

Apologetics for Harris is not just a matter of being right. It’s also about being humble enough to be wrong. She asks, “Am I holding my understanding of the gospel with humility? Does my faith express itself in gentleness, kindness, concern for justice?”

Morality

In the modern era, Harris writes, morality has been seen as a distinct and autonomous domain. Millard Erickson in his book, Truth or Consequences: The Promise and Perils of Postmodernism, says that the modernist approach to morality has been primarily a matter of rules and these rules have been negative prohibitions. Harris says that in a multicultural era we cannot afford to equate morality with the impropriety of violating cultural customs such as attending cockfights. She makes the link with the dilemma faced by the emerging church of the New Testament. In Acts 15 the Jerusalem give simple prohibitions: avoid idolatry, avoid fornication and avoid food with blood in it. “Which of these is still important?”, Harris asks.

Deconstruction & Poststructuralism

Harris draws our attention to the inadequacies of language. Truth cannot be simply transferred from person (writer) to another (reader). Postmodern approaches to communication tend to reject the idea of pure representation and authorial intention. Language fails to completely master, control or contain truth. The words we use never accurately convey the complexity of our intentions.

Différance

Paula Harris frames “differance” as an approach to mission that recognises people as subjects rather than objects of a Christian perspective. Repeating and reframing categories and names reframes and limits their power. For example, talking about the categories of non-Christians, pagans, seekers, the lost, raises the question of who is defining whom.

Pluralism

Harris points out that the early church & missionaries were not afraid of pluralism. Indeed they had very little choice.

Idols of Modernist Christianity

Harris refers to David Bosch on church and mission under modernity, found in his book, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission.

  • Reason has supplanted faith as the beginning point
  • The Enlightenment’s Subject-object separation applied to theology creating an “ugly ditch” of history separating us from past
  • Church and mission have been captivated by a philosophy of progress
  • Christians have come to believe that all problems are solvable – pushing God to the margins of human knowledge and ingenuity, attempting to ignore or resolve the problem of evil.
  • The Church has disintegrated into a loose gathering of emancipated, autonomous individuals.

Four Shifts in Modern to Postmodern Culture

Harris cites an InterVarsity USA group studying student culture in Reaching the Coming Generations.

  1. Objective to subjective
  2. Autonomous individual to community
  3. Metanarrative of progress to micronarratives
  4. Word to image

Paula finishes with the challenge of entering a postmodernist culture, living there and eventually having the discernment to recognise the idols of postmodernist culture.

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