Exhortations for Postmoderns

Trevor asks, “What does a post-modern Christian look like?” As has probably already become clear from some of my other comments, I’m rather cynical about the term “post-modern.” To be candid, I think that that what is often called post-modernity is nothing really new at all. Sure, there are so-called post-modern philosophers (Derrida, Foucault, etc), and these guys are worth a read, but they really amount to a radical skepticism of the presuppositions of various caricatures of the Enlightenment. My (admittedly superficial) read of these guys leaves me with the impression that, at the end of it all, we are nothing more than prisoners of our own skulls and appetites. These are hardly new ideas and hardly ones that a Christian can affirm. Socially, however, what passes for post-modernity is really not much more than a re-vitalization of certain treads of that were already expressed in the Enlightenment (ie., Romanticism).

Apart from the mini-rant, I do have something constructive to say. This is going to sound pompous and self-righteous. I only intend it playfully; please read it that way.

I offer “10 exhortations to so-called Post-modern Christians.” You will see that they are not quite original and have been cribbed from another book:

1. Have no other Gods before YHWH. Remember, you’re identity is in your baptism and not in your location in any cultural movement. In fact, you may find that your cultural situation runs both with and against the grain of your Lord’s command (most likely the latter). Ultimately, appellations before the word “Christian” are not important. Take your guidance from that word alone.

2. Do not make for yourself an idol. There is no such thing as a “post-modern God,” nor is there a “modern God.” Stop trying to create the one and melt down the other. God is God. Postmodernism and modernism, and any other ism, is not a box that God has to fit into.

3. Do not take the Lord’s name in vain. The Modernist application of God’s name to absolutist politics, the progress of science and history, and uniformity are no worse than the application of the same name to diversity, relativity, and textual indeterminism.

4. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Rest and go to church. Cynicism is hard on the soul. Take a break and give one to others. Worship, hear the Word, and participate in the sacraments.

5. Honour your father and mother. Your spiritual fathers and mothers invested a lot in you. Yeah, they did some stuff you didn’t like all that much. Yet you actually owe them something. Don’t jump ship and don’t go around bad-mouthing your elders as “fundies.” Even the real fundies had some legitimate concerns. Honour them.

6. You shall not murder. Your interest in tradition is a good idea. Tradition, however, also went on in the generation just before you and continues to go on in the one you find yourself. Don’t kill them off. Perhaps those contemporary streams that you find so un-appealing are there for a reason, or at least hold some meaning for others. Be gentle and patient.

7. You shall not commit adultery. In your supposed freedom from the sexual moorings of your heritage, don’t forget that the body is the Lord’s. You can make a big mess of it. Perhaps, just perhaps, some of those moorings we are so quick to throw off rightly “got” the sacredness of what goes on in the bedroom of a married couple in a way we forget.

8. You shall not steal. Ancient-future faith stuff is sexy but don’t cherry-pick the Great tradition. The liturgies, rituals, and theologies of the Church are complex and integrated things. It does not show respect to them when they are cut-and-pasted at your whim. Taking a ritual from a medieval Celtic liturgy, dropping it into the middle of a worship service with a rock-band and following it up with some lectio divina is just downright superficial.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour. When you go about critiquing your evangelical forefathers, take the time to hear them carefully. It is a lie that so-called modernist evangelicals (or “fundies”) didn’t care about love of neighbour or community or thought that the Bible was only a book of propositional truths. Sometimes they acted like they did… but take the time to actually hear what was going on a generation or two ago.

10. You shall not covet. Ask yourself, “Is my infatuation with “post-modernity” a way for me to gain prominence through caricatures of the evil modernists and shock-value of debunking recent tradition? Am I trying to get the mantle of leadership from my elders before my time?”

Sorry, this is my feeble attempt to keep it light 