Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Seeing Beyond Modernity and Postmodernity
The Adventism of my youth was rooted and established in modernity. As a child, my mind was filled with the heady imagery of the grand narrative of God's people culminating in the ultimate end time showdown between us the Sabbath keeping remnant and the raving, depraved, even demonic others. Ellen White's writings were referred to as "The Spirit of Prophecy" as if they contained all encompassing, infallible truth. My elders spoke of having "the truth" as if we had reached the zenith of modern Biblical sholarship and theology with nothing more to learn and certainly nothing to revise. Evangelism was accomplished through extended lectures where this truth was expounded to all important individuals. I came of age in the last towering heights of modern influenced Adventism.
The Adventism of my young adulthood is undermined and deconstructed by postmodernity. Emerging as a critique of the arrogance and violence inherent in the meta-narrative of modern progress and colonialism which led to horrible injustice and outragous atrocities in the 19th and 20th centuries, postmodernity has functioned as an effective chemotherapy against the cancer of unchecked modernity.* In the process, foundations have been demolished. Ellen White has been knocked off of the precarious pedastal we placed her on by intellectuals who failed to be awed by modern apologists. Truth is recognized as relative and a claim to have all of it has become ridiculous if not overtly evil. Evangelism is a dirty word to many people and more important than intellectual truth for individuals is practical results for humanity. In Europe, where postmodernity ignited and took off, the fallout for Christianity and Adventism in particular has not been pretty. Along with the rest of North America, I seem to be rocketing along the same trajectory.
The Adventism of our future is open before us and the way is now cleared for new improvisations of ancient faith. In looking back to our premodern foundation as articulated by Paul, I find a hopeful way forward through the rubble. With postmodernity's deconstruction of the proud, modern, self-reliant, fully-informed individual, the way is open for a new way of being human. As N.T. Wright puts it, "If anyone is in Christ -- new creation! Not 'Cogito, ergo sum' but 'Amor, ergo sum': I am loved, therefore I am." Now that modernity's claim to be able to know all things objectively is shown up as a power-play, Paul's method of knowing in part and loving the other while respecting their 'otherness' becomes possible. Since the exploitative, power-based underbelly of modernity's grand narrative of scientific progress and intellectual enlightenment has been revealed, there is room for the counter-intuative epic that Paul proclaimed based on love not power with the Cross of Christ at the center.** I'm seeing the future of Adventism through Paul's eyes, and it looks good!
* For more on this concept, see Brian McLaren's chapter in the new book, Emergent Manifesto of Hope.
** These thoughts are quoted from and inspired by N.T. Wright's book, Paul In Fresh Perspective.
The Adventism of my young adulthood is undermined and deconstructed by postmodernity. Emerging as a critique of the arrogance and violence inherent in the meta-narrative of modern progress and colonialism which led to horrible injustice and outragous atrocities in the 19th and 20th centuries, postmodernity has functioned as an effective chemotherapy against the cancer of unchecked modernity.* In the process, foundations have been demolished. Ellen White has been knocked off of the precarious pedastal we placed her on by intellectuals who failed to be awed by modern apologists. Truth is recognized as relative and a claim to have all of it has become ridiculous if not overtly evil. Evangelism is a dirty word to many people and more important than intellectual truth for individuals is practical results for humanity. In Europe, where postmodernity ignited and took off, the fallout for Christianity and Adventism in particular has not been pretty. Along with the rest of North America, I seem to be rocketing along the same trajectory.
The Adventism of our future is open before us and the way is now cleared for new improvisations of ancient faith. In looking back to our premodern foundation as articulated by Paul, I find a hopeful way forward through the rubble. With postmodernity's deconstruction of the proud, modern, self-reliant, fully-informed individual, the way is open for a new way of being human. As N.T. Wright puts it, "If anyone is in Christ -- new creation! Not 'Cogito, ergo sum' but 'Amor, ergo sum': I am loved, therefore I am." Now that modernity's claim to be able to know all things objectively is shown up as a power-play, Paul's method of knowing in part and loving the other while respecting their 'otherness' becomes possible. Since the exploitative, power-based underbelly of modernity's grand narrative of scientific progress and intellectual enlightenment has been revealed, there is room for the counter-intuative epic that Paul proclaimed based on love not power with the Cross of Christ at the center.** I'm seeing the future of Adventism through Paul's eyes, and it looks good!
* For more on this concept, see Brian McLaren's chapter in the new book, Emergent Manifesto of Hope.
** These thoughts are quoted from and inspired by N.T. Wright's book, Paul In Fresh Perspective.
Labels: Acts, community, Epicenter, evangelism, postmodernity
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Steve, that's a loaded question as there are variations and many schools of thought, and not just from an Adventist perspective. I'll leave the longer answer to Brenton. At its most stripped down form, it's "Authentic Christianity." A flavourful twist of a postmodern Adventist maybe be someone who embraces elements of Catholicism, Judaism, evangelicalism and Gnosticism who may still hang on dearly to the Sabbath message. A Google search of the two words will land you in the right places, I promise.
Peace,
Marcel
Peace,
Marcel
Steve,
Thanks for your question. I took a vacation and unplugged for a while so I apologize for a delayed response.
I agree with Marcel's point that there are many variations and schools of thought on this. I will offer my own thoughts for what they are worth. I am a young interested resident physician, not a learned theologian or wise philosopher.
Since postmodern thought tends to be a negation of the excesses of modernity and therefore undermines some of the modern assumptions on which Adventism was founded, I worry that the decimated numbers of indigenous Adventist Christians in Europe might be an indication of what postmodern Adventism will/does look like. Not pretty.
I also think that with the undermining of metanarratives which previously bound larger groups such as North Americans, Christians, Adventists, etc. together, there is and will be increasing 'tribalization' with resulting/reactive polarization. I see this occuring in Adventism with increasing stridency in the voices of various Adventist subgroups calling for Adventism to conform to their own conservative, evangelical, progressive, historical, feminist, etc. perspective. Some of these voices I agree with wholeheartedly, others frankly scare me. Never-the-less, I think we need to learn to listen to one another and Paul's call to unity amidst diversity seems to me a very practical message for the current climate of increasing tribalism.
My hope then is that the largely negative voice of postmodernity will provide an effective cure for the arrogance of unchecked modernity and allow faiths of all sorts to re-evaluate their core and articulate a positive way to seek God together in the 21st century. For Adventism, this means to me that we will be called back to the primary Christian virtue of love and will become more 'orthodox' by believing and interpreting in the right way (love) rather than focusing primarily on having the right beliefs.
I don't think our goal should be to become postmodern Christians of whichever denomination any more than it should be to remain modern Christians. Rather, we have a unique opportunity at this time of worldview transition to return to the essence of faith and focus on knowing God and loving others (i.e. Marcel's 'authentic Christianity'). This is what I meant by seeing beyond modernity and postmodernity.
I am still thinking about these things and I am not wholly satisfied with my answer to your question, but that is where I am right now.
Thanks,
Brenton
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Thanks for your question. I took a vacation and unplugged for a while so I apologize for a delayed response.
I agree with Marcel's point that there are many variations and schools of thought on this. I will offer my own thoughts for what they are worth. I am a young interested resident physician, not a learned theologian or wise philosopher.
Since postmodern thought tends to be a negation of the excesses of modernity and therefore undermines some of the modern assumptions on which Adventism was founded, I worry that the decimated numbers of indigenous Adventist Christians in Europe might be an indication of what postmodern Adventism will/does look like. Not pretty.
I also think that with the undermining of metanarratives which previously bound larger groups such as North Americans, Christians, Adventists, etc. together, there is and will be increasing 'tribalization' with resulting/reactive polarization. I see this occuring in Adventism with increasing stridency in the voices of various Adventist subgroups calling for Adventism to conform to their own conservative, evangelical, progressive, historical, feminist, etc. perspective. Some of these voices I agree with wholeheartedly, others frankly scare me. Never-the-less, I think we need to learn to listen to one another and Paul's call to unity amidst diversity seems to me a very practical message for the current climate of increasing tribalism.
My hope then is that the largely negative voice of postmodernity will provide an effective cure for the arrogance of unchecked modernity and allow faiths of all sorts to re-evaluate their core and articulate a positive way to seek God together in the 21st century. For Adventism, this means to me that we will be called back to the primary Christian virtue of love and will become more 'orthodox' by believing and interpreting in the right way (love) rather than focusing primarily on having the right beliefs.
I don't think our goal should be to become postmodern Christians of whichever denomination any more than it should be to remain modern Christians. Rather, we have a unique opportunity at this time of worldview transition to return to the essence of faith and focus on knowing God and loving others (i.e. Marcel's 'authentic Christianity'). This is what I meant by seeing beyond modernity and postmodernity.
I am still thinking about these things and I am not wholly satisfied with my answer to your question, but that is where I am right now.
Thanks,
Brenton
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