Finishing up this big foursome, I felt like I had to at least try to define postmodernism and how the fall of the old regime is affecting what culture producers are doing now. For reasons I’ll go into below, the parameters of pomo are a little indistinct, but hopefully this’ll give an idea about it. And if you feel like skimming, you can skip down to the bottom for my two-cents on what Christian churches need to know about the current cultural climate.

Who believes?
Going over some of the modernist hubris with a friend, he looked perplexed and said, “Does anybody really believe that?” And the answer is: Ohhhh yeah. Definitely.

Artists, philosophers, writers, social scientists and the like comprise the subset of society that charts out the latest fad, and they believed in the secular values of Enlightenment and modernism as long as they possibly could. You may not know anybody that falls into this category, but trust me, they have a big say in what plays and what doesn’t in the public forum. They teach it, they talk about it, they care about what it means and where it’s all going. And part of the reason I’m bothering to blog about this is that I think Christians should at least have some Cliff’s notes on what it might indicate.

What do they believe?
Those who were strong advocates of modernism aren’t generally that keen to advocate postmodernism, and so it gets a little difficult to define. The cultural elite who thought they’d died and gone to heaven when they were reading Darwin, Freud, Nietzsche and Marx spawned a generation that thought they’d died and not gone to heaven when they read that Nietzsche was Hitler’s favorite philosopher and Marx was Joseph Stalin’s excuse for gulags and firing squads. In short, history just didn’t bear out the glowing prognostications of the modernists. Darwin’s theories are at least partly to blame for the much more troubling social Darwinism, and Freud’s methods, in spite of major cheerleading and underwriting from his devotees, didn’t eradicate all anxiety, guilt and neurosis (in fact, just the opposite). That all led to an understandable lack of confidence. So whereas modern Art is:

• self-conscious (I might almost say ’self-important’);
• optimistic about modernism, society and the future; and
• rationalistic, favoring quasi-scientific formulas and technical-sounding jargon even when it claims to be experimenting —

– postmodern art is:

• reflexive (reacting to society’s likes and dislikes rather than trying to plot them);
• pessimistic about modernism, society and the future; and
• less rational, more open to being playful, spontaneous or just entertaining.

Modern art: think Mondrian (left). Postmodern art: think Lichtenstein (right).

And branching out to the world outside of just Art, Wikipedia’s entry on postmodernism says that it has had an impact on “philosophy, art, critical theory, literature, architecture, interpretation of history, and culture” and is roughly defined by the following beliefs or attitudes:

• A continual skepticism towards the ideas and ideals of the modern era, especially the ideas of progress, objectivity, reason, certainty and personal identity, and grand narrative in general.
• The belief that all communication is shaped by cultural bias, myth, metaphor, and political content.
• The assertion that meaning and experience can only be created by the individual, and cannot be made objective by an author or narrator.
• Parody, satire, self-reference, and wit.
• Acceptance of a mass media dominated society in which there is no originality, but only copies of what has been done before.
• Globalization, a culturally pluralistic and profoundly interconnected global society; decentralized in all types of global processes.

Is postmodernism good for orthodox Christians?
Good question. My impression is that other Christian culture watchers say ‘no.’ I suppose I think it’s a Stay-tuned-and-find-out situation right now. If I don’t share the pessimism, it’s because I think the distrust of Enlightenment hubris is tremendously promising. Even if we can’t say categorically that orthodox Christianity has won, modernism has certainly lost. As noted above, postmodernists are skeptical and satirical, but for the first time in centuries they’re skeptical and satirical not just of traditionalists but of themselves – of their own ominiscience, of their own correctness and — most importantly — of the ability of godless man to ensure a culture for himself that is fair, good, lasting and beautiful. How long have we been saying that secular humanism is flawed? How long have we tried to point out problems and biases? Heck, we won the argument and no one was even listening to us!

Can an active, intelligent, caring Christianity step into the breach? It would be more surprising if it didn’t. But it has to be all those things — active, intelligent and caring. It has to be a healthy and vigorous defender of the Truth, and Christians have to be fully versed in what the Truth is. This isn’t the time for bumper-stickers and tacky 2-cent tracts. We need to know what we believe and be able to articulate it to people who are used to arguing. If we don’t know what we believe, time to find out. We have to live in a way that shows that we put our money where our mouth is — make no mistake; the pomo generation is more able to spot a phony than the modern one, not less. If we can’t stand the scrutiny, we’d be better off working on ourselves first.

And if we do think we’re ready to take our act on the road, it doesn’t mean we should dust off all the Faith-a-thon pamphlets and start cooking for the revival meetin’. Taking the opportunity of postmodernism to just revise the old methods of reaching people will guarantee that we miss this window of opportunity. Note the changes indicated by postmodernism — the globalization, the love of intelligent debate, the changes brought by the Information Age — and consider the following:

• Think locally and regionally in terms of evangelism — Think garage bands as opposed to stadium rock concerts. It’s amazing what you can do on a small scale these days, and it will be customized and personal — two things that people don’t see much these days.
• Think globally in terms of the definition of community — Helllllooo, blogosphere!
• To quote my favorite John Mark Reynolds’ mantra: Be a culture-producer, not a culture consumer. Have you noticed that these days ordinary people can make music, write books, produce art and create movies that can be enjoyed by people around the world? You may not get the readership that Harry Potter gets, but if you’ve got something to say, you don’t need to wait for a publisher and marketing firm to give you the go-ahead. Stop paying for other people’s creations. Start making your own.
• Create your own paradigm — The same idea about producing culture applies to other aspects of your life. Cook your own food — better yet, grow your own food — and consider selling what you cook. Do some gardening or farming, or support local gardeners. Do your own recycling and ecology-watching (don’t grouse about what everyone else is doing). Run your own business if you can. In short: keep it simple; cut the ties to mass-produced stuff when you can; make things count.
• Be yourself. Live the Christian life. Don’t try to be cool or trendy according to the world’s ideas. These days there’s nothing more winning than being genuine, natural and at peace.
• Don’t hardsell. Be kind to all people, including people that you think need to come to your church. This isn’t the 1800’s — everyone you meet has telemarketers, spam e-mailers, charities, workpeople, family members and media personalities trying to sell them a product or point of view every hour. Don’t be another ad they tune out. Respect people’s intelligence, their free will and their space. Don’t badger or nag.

Sounds like a lot, I know. But it’s rewarding work. Christians have been pushed out of the culture for too long. If we want to put a Christian worldview back where it might get noticed once in a while, we’ve got our work cut out for us. If we choose to spend the next generation or two isolating ourselves, licking our wounds and failing to notice the opportunities that exist, we deserve what happens when that opportunity gets away.