Postmodernism & Beyond

I finished Stanley Grenz's work "A Primer on Postmodernism" today. As I did so, it made me realize that I need to confess a bias. As someone who identified myself as a progressive mainline person, there were a few publishers of religious materials that I avoided like the plague because (even in my seminary training) I was told they featured materials by folks who came from the wrong side of the theological tracks, if you will. Unfortunately I was too lazy to unpack all of the biases that lay behind that assumption. Nevertheless over half of the books I've read to date have come from these publishers. As I finish each book I'm reminded of just how wrong I was to put such limitations on my spiritual explorations. No more! With that brief confession, I'm on to my thoughts for the day. As I finished the last four chapters of Grenz's, I realized there were two things that separate my beliefs from some of the mainstream evangelicals. These realizations sprung from the last chapter of Grenz's book where he evaluated postmodernism from his largely mainstream evangelical perspective. The first difference has to do with one's response to the postmodernist suggestion that there is no single, unified center of reality. While I would strongly agree with mainstream evangelicals that there is indeed a center we have as a people of faith, I would part ways with them regarding our ability to truly know or comprehend the fullness of that Center. It seems from much of the verbiage they use (or verbiage that is attributed to them by the media) that many mainstream evangelicals would suggest we can fully know the Center through the sacred writings of our tradition (i.e. Old & New Testatements) and the historic creeds of our faith. I would disagree. While the God revealed in Jesus is indeed the Center of my life, I believe this God is so expansive that the true essence of God transcends even these resources. This (on most days) leads me to a deep sense of humility about my faith as I try not to confuse my beliefs about God with God Godself. Second, I would differ from some of the mainstream evangelicals in their understanding of the role of community. In many evangelical communities, it seems the role of the community is primarily to impart the faith. I tend to see the role of the community instead as providing additional glimpses or insights into the nature of God - insights that I would otherwise never have given my own inherently limited perspective. Nevertheless, despite some differences between myself and some mainstream evangelicals like Stanley Grenz, I thoroughly enjoyed Grenz's book and would recommend it as an important resource to help provide a philosophical and theological foundation for work on postmodern/emergent worship. Yesterday, I said I hoped that my work in the last four chapters of Grenz's work would provide tangible tools for helping walking a congregation through the transition from worship based on a modern model to worship based upon postmodern models. I found a doozy of an insight in this area. In Grenz's discussion of Richard Rorty's work, he wrote: "The proper goal of philosophy is not to uncover ojective truth but to maintain the discussion among these differing interpretations" (158). "Maintaining the discussion". What a wonderful phrase to use to hold communities together in the midst of important, difficult - and sometimes painful work! Before I close I want to thank those of you lifting prayers for my father following his heart attack last weekend. We've had a series of ups (immediate response to the balloon pump installed in his heart last Sunday) and downs (the need to replace the pump Tuesday). I hope you'll keep him and our family in your continued prayers. Tomorrow I'll start working with Jim Kitchens book "The Postmodern Parish". Til next time...