Wednesday, April 13, 2005
post-modernism undefined
Here's the second post, committed to you a few days ago.
Sally Morganthaler:
“What does it mean to be post-modern? It means that you are part of the biggest mind-shift in over 200 years, and your outlook on self, society, truth, reality and the meaning of life is a reaction against the long, dry reign of rationalism. As a postmodern, you’re right brained as well as left. You’re pro-mystery and anti-humanist. You consider yourself spiritual, but not necessarily religious. You believe there are other ways of knowing beyond reason and that truth goes way beyond what we can discern or verbalize. So you watch shows like X-Files, and depending on your age, maybe even Touched by an Angel. If you’re post-modern, the whole concept of human progress and self-mastery makes you gag.”
This is the dilemna. I don't think I know much, if anything about post-modernism as a theory, though I do know a little about it as someone who has witnessed it in practice and therefore been part through that involvement. Many of us don't really "understand" it, or...here's the catch...can't really define it. So, the question for me is, if you need to evaluate and define it, are you IT? As I write this, I refer to groups who clearly have struggled with the definition of it amidst the exuberance to pursue it. Seems weird to have a group, totally sold out to God, want to make a difference by having the church experience in a way that goes hand in hand with the needs of the culture, yet struggling to understand the culture that they're planning to impact. Am I making any sense?
Church definitely has its own culture. Time warpish on some levels. Irrelevant sometimes. Amazingly poignant on yet other plains. I have sometimes questioned why the way we've been doing church for more than 30 years isn't considered acceptable to many people now. I'm working through that question and realizing that people in today's culture question more, suspect more, need more than a generation ago. We have seen and experienced so much via technology, the media, educational facilities, peer groups. We delve into different things than our forefathers did. On some levels it has led to callousness, floundering, and a taste for much more than the human psyche is made to handle. Enter spirituality. A redemption, so to speak, and perhaps an integration of all that they see and do. A holistic melding of the senses. Actually, it may sounds like some New Testament stuff and history lessons we've taken.
Remember the phrase "there's nothing new under the sun?" True in a way. Throughout history we regurgitate and recycle worldviews, struggles, religions. Perhaps with a different cocktail mix, making it look different on the surface. Then when we strip it away to the basics, the framework reveals that it is a recycled product. Doesn't seem so spectacular after all.
There's nothing wrong with using varied mediums to enhance our worship of God or to attract people to worship of Him. Our fault may be in getting caught up and lost in those trappings, and of falling into a formula or cliche while saying that we are staying away from formulas.
I say bring on a responsive reading or a gutsy media presentation. What I'm against is becoming so occupied with the "how" of doing it that we lose sight of actually doing it. That we are so occupied with being "cutting edge" that we lose sight of the end goal.
Sally Morganthaler:
“What does it mean to be post-modern? It means that you are part of the biggest mind-shift in over 200 years, and your outlook on self, society, truth, reality and the meaning of life is a reaction against the long, dry reign of rationalism. As a postmodern, you’re right brained as well as left. You’re pro-mystery and anti-humanist. You consider yourself spiritual, but not necessarily religious. You believe there are other ways of knowing beyond reason and that truth goes way beyond what we can discern or verbalize. So you watch shows like X-Files, and depending on your age, maybe even Touched by an Angel. If you’re post-modern, the whole concept of human progress and self-mastery makes you gag.”
This is the dilemna. I don't think I know much, if anything about post-modernism as a theory, though I do know a little about it as someone who has witnessed it in practice and therefore been part through that involvement. Many of us don't really "understand" it, or...here's the catch...can't really define it. So, the question for me is, if you need to evaluate and define it, are you IT? As I write this, I refer to groups who clearly have struggled with the definition of it amidst the exuberance to pursue it. Seems weird to have a group, totally sold out to God, want to make a difference by having the church experience in a way that goes hand in hand with the needs of the culture, yet struggling to understand the culture that they're planning to impact. Am I making any sense?
Church definitely has its own culture. Time warpish on some levels. Irrelevant sometimes. Amazingly poignant on yet other plains. I have sometimes questioned why the way we've been doing church for more than 30 years isn't considered acceptable to many people now. I'm working through that question and realizing that people in today's culture question more, suspect more, need more than a generation ago. We have seen and experienced so much via technology, the media, educational facilities, peer groups. We delve into different things than our forefathers did. On some levels it has led to callousness, floundering, and a taste for much more than the human psyche is made to handle. Enter spirituality. A redemption, so to speak, and perhaps an integration of all that they see and do. A holistic melding of the senses. Actually, it may sounds like some New Testament stuff and history lessons we've taken.
Remember the phrase "there's nothing new under the sun?" True in a way. Throughout history we regurgitate and recycle worldviews, struggles, religions. Perhaps with a different cocktail mix, making it look different on the surface. Then when we strip it away to the basics, the framework reveals that it is a recycled product. Doesn't seem so spectacular after all.
There's nothing wrong with using varied mediums to enhance our worship of God or to attract people to worship of Him. Our fault may be in getting caught up and lost in those trappings, and of falling into a formula or cliche while saying that we are staying away from formulas.
I say bring on a responsive reading or a gutsy media presentation. What I'm against is becoming so occupied with the "how" of doing it that we lose sight of actually doing it. That we are so occupied with being "cutting edge" that we lose sight of the end goal.
// posted by Annette @ 8:05 p.m. 