Why Post-Modernism is Good for the Church

The title of this post was the title of a seminar that I recently attended at Northern Seminary near Chicago. I thought I would break from my previous topic (The case for non-violence), and write a few notes on the seminar. The seminar was led by David Fitch, author of "The Great Giveway" and professor at Northern.

Let me just make a few observations. First, post-modernism is a terribly broad idea, and there is no cut-and-dried consensus on what the movement is all about. Consequently, the range of opinion between Christian theologians runs from enthusiastic embrace, to mild tolerance, to outright charges of heresy. That is part of what makes studying the movement and its followers in the church so entertaining - you know there will always be a spirited debate!

The second observation is that I was amazed at how little many pastors know about the movement. Even those in attendance at the seminar were not very well prepared for the discussion.

So - in a nutshell - here is why David Fitch says that postmodernism is good for the church. Postmodernity allows for a critique of the way modernism has captured the church. In essence it frees the church to be the church. We are free from the attractional model of church - producing goods and services for people shopping for services - to embrace a missional paradigm - that we are participating in the mission of God. It frees us from the mega-church mania - and allows us to embrace more organic movements. It frees us from apologetics based on scientific evidence - to embrace hospitality as the way to touch the world.

Here is an illustration David used to outline some of the changes from modern church to the post-modern church.

Gone (Modern)

Must be relevant

Coercive arguments

Consumerism

New and improved

Here (Postmodern)

Compelling ways of living

Hospitality

Deep spiritual formation

Oganic community and ancient traditions

Love to hear some comments. What is your take on the post-modern movement? Why do you like or not like about what you have heard? Will it allow the church to be more like the church, or is it a fad that will soon wither away like other movements?

Peace in the Hebrew Bible

I want to continue my line of thought that I have been on for a few more posts. In my last post, I described a way of reading Scripture so that the conquest narratives of the Old Testament do not have the last word on violence. Let me fill out this picture on the Hebrew Bible before I go on to Jesus - and show that peace is a major theme in the Old Testament. Some may be shocked by that statement - so here goes.

We must start with Genesis - particularly with the creation account in Chapter 1. Notice that God speaks the world into existence without violence. He simply speaks and an ordered creation comes into being. We sometimes overlook this. There were other creation stories in antiquity. The Enuma Elish is a early Babylonian creation story - its story tells us how human life came about. In the story, the Gods war for supremacy. In the midst of the slaughter of one another Marduk rises to power and decides to create the earth and humans out of the blood of one of the other executed Gods. Thus, this ancient story sees the beginning of the world and human life being born in violence. Violence is the norm of human existence. But as I said, this is not so for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He simply speaks and brings about a peaceful garden where man and woman, created in his image, are to dwell in shalom.This vision of peaceful existence with God and with one another is set as the backdrop for the biblical story. Even though humankind finds living in peace difficult - it is the state of which God's redemption draws us.

This vision of peace is picked up again by the prophet Isaiah.

Isaiah 2:2-4
It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of Yahweh
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and shall be raised above the hills;
and all nations shall flow to it,
and many peoples shall come, and say:
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that God my teach us His ways
and that we may walk in His paths"
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall decide for many peoples;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.

That is a vision of where God's spirit is leading us. The prophets of old were leaning into this vision of redemption, righteousness, and peace. As I said in the beginning, the horizon of the Old Testament is one of God bringing us back to peace - His original intention. And amazingly, breaking in the dawn of Jesus' birth is the announcement of the angels - "...peace on earth...(Luke 2:14) In the next post I will note how the message of peace is lived and proclaimed by Jesus.