Christianity vs. postmodernism:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
no middle ground
 
By David R. Wills
 
 

This is Part I of a forthcoming series of essays intended to: highlight certain key ideas related to postmodernism; explain some important ways in which postmodernism is subversive of orthodox Christianity; show how that many Christians are inadvertently promoting ideas and objectives of postmodernism; recommend a Biblical answer to the inherently false and destructive beliefs associated with postmodernism; and, to urge Christians, as the Bible says in Isaiah 58:12, to "raise up the foundations of many generations…."
 
 
Part I: Exposing the Lie
 
The term postmodernism is lately beginning to filter down, from its origins among a cadre of supercilious intellectuals and so-called artists, all the way to the level of common vernacular.  While it seems the meaning of the word postmodernism is not well understood by most people, yet the ideas it embodies have profoundly affected an entire generation, in a host of ways that typically aren't seen for their connection to postmodern beliefs.  Ignorance does not lead to bliss, confronted as we are by postmodernism's unrelenting assault upon the pillars of Christian beliefs and culture.
 
The ideas of Christianity and of postmodernism, respectively, are incompatible and irreconcilable.  The struggle for the ascendancy of postmodernism (and its precursors), which struggle has dramatically increased in scope and intensity from about the mid-twentieth century, constitutes a major ideological war against Christianity.  This perspective, in fact, offers the most meaningful framework for understanding the so-called 'culture wars'.  Furthermore, as it was Christianity (and not ancient Greek and Roman cultures) that largely provided the foundational principles for Western civilization, the diminution of genuinely Christian influences within Western societies, due to postmodernism's deleterious effects, substantially explains those societies' precipitous moral and, less apparent, material decline.
 
Postmodernism consists not of one but of many associated concepts, and is perhaps best described as a rubric-a category or classification of ideas, or a worldview.  Accordingly, as postmodernism has become the prevailing worldview amongst erstwhile Western societies, practically every aspect of contemporary culture has been subjected to-and in many cases completely redefined by-the influences of postmodernism.  Two very important examples, of new cultural norms that until a generation ago were never identified with Western culture but which have now been legitimized and institutionalized by a postmodern worldview, involve abortion and homosexuality.  The tectonic shift in popular opinion and public policies related to those two vitally important issues, suggests the operations of a force that is pervasive and effectual, as well as it is alien to the beliefs of our long succession of ancestors.  Needless to say, that force is inimical to Christianity.
 
Among its numerous chimerical 'definitions', the following succinctly describes the essence of postmodernism: "A worldview that emphasizes the existence of different worldviews and concepts of reality, rather than one 'correct or true' one."[i]  William V. Dunning, Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts at <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Central Washington University in Ellensburg, WA, and author of The Roots of Postmodernism, when asked by an interviewer, "What is 'postmodernism'?" replied:
[W]here the modern believed it was through the [brain's] architecture designed to interpret the five senses that we knew and constructed our reality, the […] pomos [postmodernists] held that it was through our language that we know ourselves, reality and the world.  And language to them included our verbal language as well as our rituals, ceremonies, culture, clothing, etc: each a language within itself.  [Note, "language" means far more than just words.]
The moderns believed that we came to understand science and the world through careful and objective scientific observation […] pomos, on the other hand, believe there is no such thing as objective observation[….]  [Thus, for instance, printed words on a page of text are not susceptible of "objective observation".]
 
The postmodern would insist that no person or text ever contains any complete truth[….]  Each text (or person) is limited by a particular assumption, bias, or focus to just part of a truth, or to one (or even a few) point of view of something that has many different but valid points of view.  This is not the same as the oft repeated, but wrong, bromide that the "postmodern insists there is no truth"[ii]  (emphases added).
 
Dunning's last sentence is patently misleading and false.  In the context of his own words, his disclaimer can only mean that 'there is truth'-but only for each individual in his or her own mind; otherwise, there is no such thing as truth that can be objectively known, much less shared with anyone else.
 
As Dunning said, it is commonly held that "postmodern[ism] insists there is no truth".  It were more accurate and honest for him to say, however, that postmodernism insists there is no common or universal truth, or sometimes called 'absolute' truth.
 
Concerning Dunning's suggestion that it is "through our language that we know ourselves, reality and the world", the late philosopher Jacques Derrida (d. 2004), whose fantasies pertaining to language have powerfully served the interests of postmodernism, insisted that the 'meaning' of words is 'fluid' and not static, not fixed.[iii]  Accordingly, even postmodernists' 'personal reality', or 'personal truth', can never really be known even by themselves-except, perhaps, transiently, as that must ever be changing.
 
Ironically, every attempt at defining postmodernism is refuted in the supposed 'meaning' of that term, which at once highlights the irrationality inherent in its propositions.  For, among its tenets, postmodernism insists that words possess no certain, universal meaning: their meaning is determined in the context of one's own frame of reference at any given time and under any given set of circumstances.  Only by denying logical necessity, though, can postmodernists, in light of their own arguments, ignore the fact that each and every definition of postmodernism must therefore be equally 'valid'-and thus equally meaningless.  There can be no 'true' or meaningful definition of postmodernism if, as postmodernists affirm, objective knowledge is not possible and objective reality is a myth.
 
On the one hand, extreme individualism is the essence of postmodernism, allowing only that personal experience and perception are valid or 'true', to each individual.  On the other hand, in order to justify such a claim, postmodernism requires the wholesale rejection of what has been called the 'categorical imperative': "a moral obligation or command that is unconditionally and universally binding".[iv]  In so doing, postmodernism would make all individuals alike, to the extent it may succeed in fashioning an homogenous society consisting of none but outlaws and anarchists.
 
The real 'roots of postmodernism', however, lie deep in the dark netherworld of rebellion against authority.[v]  Of course, the Supreme Authority, against which postmodernism-or rather, postmodernists-are in rebellion, is God.  Yet, long ago, in his omniscient foreknowledge, God revealed the coming of an age of lawlessness, in which the prevailing worldview would be characterized by the rejection of truth in favor of personal gratification (anarchy).  The Spirit of God referred to that period of time as "the last days":
 
2 Timothy 3:1-5,7
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away[….]  Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth (emphasis added).
 
2 Timothy 4:3-4
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables (emphasis added).
 
It should be clear to the reader that postmodernism is antithetical not only to the precepts and spirit of Christianity but, explicitly and most importantly, to the written Word of God.  By far the most pernicious aspect of postmodernism is its rejection of the veracity and authority of God's Word.  Postmodernism's focus and purpose, in denying the existence of universal or absolute truth (or that such truth is knowable to humans), is to denounce and confute the truth of God; to renounce all personal accountability to God; and, not least, to overthrow the claims-and thus all possible effects- that the written Word of God may have upon human societies, so long as its authority stands unmolested.
 
Note, carefully, I did not say that postmodernists object to the existence of 'sacred texts', including the bible….
 

[i]  "Definitions of postmodernism on the Web:"  Online at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=GGIH,GGIH:2006-51,GGIH:en&defl=en&q=define:postmodernism&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title

[ii]  "Bill Dunning: Still Reaching".  Interview of William V. Dunning, by Clan Thompson. Clan Thompson's Celiac Site; online at http://www.clanthompson.com/life_success_dunning.php3 ; obtained March 20, 2007.

[iii] "Jacques Derrida".  From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia; online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrida ; obtained March 21, 2007.  "As defined by Derrida, postmodernism is, if any one thing, a revolt against the western metaphysical idea that there is a being, or logos that grounds knowledge, meaning and language[….]  At its core, if it can be said to have one, deconstruction is an attempt to open a text (literary, philosophical, or otherwise) to several meanings and interpretations."
 

[iv]   Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary.  Online at http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/categorical%20imperative
 

[v] "Postmodernism-Post-Christian and Post-Science?"  Christians in Science; online at http://www.cis.org.uk/magazine/feature_Unsworth.shtml ; (March 20, 2007). "Postmodernism is deeply suspicious of any final claims […], and of anyone claiming to have authority.  It is characterised [sic] by tolerance of all beliefs, as long as what is true for you does not imply that it is also true for everyone else."