POSTMODERNISM 101

What is Postmodernism?

Postmodernism simply defined is a movement or set of movements that have grown out of the modernism movement. Hence the term "post" means coming after or later.

Currently, this term is becoming more widely used by philosophers, social scientists, art critics and theologians to describe our culture, contemporary art, economics, and our present social conditions. In short, it is many times used to describe the way that most of the world is currently thinking.

The Evolution of Postmodernism

To understand the postmodern movement it is useful to become familiar with the modern movement and the pre-modern movement. Pre-modern cultures, or societies, were based on a religious or sacred worldview, or paradigm. In pre-modern times, people tended to live at the mercy of their environs, or their guiding spirits, religions, and/or gods. During the 18th century in Europe, pre-modern times gave way to modern times. The great watershed in European history is the 18th century enlightenment when the key intellectuals of Europe emphasized the need to base a "modern" society on a more secular world view that theorized, or idealized, concepts of rationality and progress through the emerging sciences and the scientific method. As a result, most people came to believe that we live in a modern secular society that is "better" than earlier societies because of our modern scientific advances, such as those in medicine, engineering, pedagogy, and other sciences.

More recently, however, various thinkers, or post-modernists, have emerged who have critiqued these notions born of the enlightenment. These thinkers have been more skeptical about the claims of modernity and science. Further, these post-modern thinkers are critical of modernist who promulgate "high" cultural forms of art, music, literature, etc. because they say they are elitist and sterile.

Post-modern thinkers, who are far too diverse to provide a singular characterization, are busy critiquing and attacking the most fundamental assumptions of those who still subscribe to enlightenment principles as well as to elitist conceptions of art. Post-modern thinkers don't generally want to return to a society based on religious dogma, nor do they want a society based too exclusively on the dogma of science and technology or high culture artists. Many post-modern thinkers think of themselves as more radically skeptical and democratic than the old "modernist" intellectuals so they often tend towards libertarian models of society with less big government and bureaucracy and towards popular culture art forms. Post-modern thinkers generally don't believe in capitalism nor do they believe in socialism, both of which are modernist ideals. However, any characterization of post-modernist thinkers as a sort of political movement with a coherent philosophy is a crude over-simplification.

Post-modern thinkers can be found in many diverse fields and they have often been chastised by traditionalists (i.e., modernists) who see post-modernists as contributing to the "crisis of uncertainty" within Western societies. Critics of post-modernism emphasize that post-modernism have led to an erosion of tradition, of history, of cultural or national identity.

However, post-modernist retort by pointing out that Western societies are actually entering a new stage in history because of the momentous economic and political changes in capitalism, a new form of globalization that is the product of advanced communication, and production technologies that making the world a smaller place. All of these forces work to conflate the notion of time, reconfigure the notion of cultural identity (leading to the possible formation of multiple identities), and erode the foundations of the old nation-state model of societies.

Gabrielson, T., Scott, C., Sloan, K., and González, C. (2001), Postmodernism 101: A Crude Introduction. Retrieved April 22, 2005, from University of Texas at Austin, Education in the postmodern Web site: http://www.edb.utexas.edu/faculty/scheurich/proj6/pags/pm101_1.htm

 

What is the Postmodernism Movement After?

The postmodernism movement is born of the idea that human reason should not be held as the main source of finding truth. It is skeptical of society giving reason a privileged position over other ways of finding truth because it can lead to depriving other mediums of the truth from being heard. It contends that modernism has put too much emphasis on human reason as a way of finding truth and by doing this created a bias against other cultures that resulted in their views and beliefs being ignored or not put on the same plane. The postmodernist desires and hopes to level the playing field and make sure that all cultural and minority beliefs are given a voice in public discussion.

It states that there are other ways of discovering truth other than human reason such as feeling, experience, stories, metaphors and intuition. The postmodernists are more open to finding truth through feeling and experience. They believe that truth is relative (with no absolutes) and accept and respect all beliefs as true and equal.

Why We Should Care

Postmodernism has some good things that it brings to the table such as the idea that the truth can be found in more ways than solely on human reason (a good reminder to us all) and an increased concern to value all opinions and accept everyone. Yet, what we are beginning to see is that truth with a capital "T" (or fact) is getting lost or snuffed out with a new belief that truth is relative.

The relativist belief is that there is no objective absolute truth. What this does is it elevates opinions and feelings to an equal plain with truth (many times with the objective to not offend anyone). It is true that all viewpoints should be on the same playing field and equal, but they should not be converted to truth just because someone thinks it so.

"Truth" under this premise can become what one wants it to be even if it goes against logic and reason. Hence the statement, "Something can be true for you, but not true for me" comes to play. The danger is that we can blur reality and lose many of the principles that have helped our society thrive through the ages. For instance, it has been reported that many professing Christians now claim not to believe in absolute moral values.

How Do We Reach a Postmodern world?

By understanding the world we live in we can more effectively reach it for Christ. If we are still thinking like modernist we will be living in a world that no long exists and we will be baffled by why the same things that worked 50 years ago are no longer working today. We must learn to accept the world we live in and find the ways that will work to reach it. Just like a missionary who goes overseas studies the culture of the country he is going to we must become familiar with how our world is thinking.

Yet, we must be careful not to conform Christianity to our culture but rather find ways to conform our culture to Christianity. We must never let go of what we believe in but rather we must find creative ways to present what we believe in to a ever-changing world.

So, if our culture speaks the language of methaphor, experience, story, and intuition then we must present the truth in this way. For example the use of films like The Matrix, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, etc. are creative ways to engage a postmodern culture. The Arts, Theatre, media, reflective listening and respect are also very effective avenues to pursue. In conclusion, the more we study our culture the more we will learn what makes them tick, what interest them and how they most like to be engaged.