Ministry in the emergingpostmodern world

©Brad Cecil1999

Col 2: 6 – 8 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus

the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted andbuilt up in him, and stablished in the faith,as ye have been taught, abounding thereinwith thanksgiving. Beware lest any manspoil you through philosophy and vaindeceit, after the tradition of men, after therudiments of the world, and not after Christ.For in him dwelleth all the fulness of theGodhead bodily.

1000 2000

• Manuscript/Oral Communication• Jewish/Greek/Roman Cultures• 312 Constantine unites Rome & converts to Christianity• 325 Nicene Creed• 400 St. Augustine Confessions

•Greek dualism becomes foundational theological assumption• 800’s John the Scot

•Primarily mystical• 1033 St. Anselm Prosologian• 1256 St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica

•1st systematic approach

MedievalPeriod

1000 2000

• 1452 Gutenberg Print Press• 1492 Columbus• 1517 Luther• German Bible• 1543 Copernicus Helio Centric• 1564 Galileo• 1588 Spanish Armada• 1611 KJV• 1644 Descartes Principles -Cogito ergoSum – Quest for an IrreducibleFoundation• Hobbes – Absolutism• Locke - Empiricism

Modern Period

1000 2000

Late Modernity• 1872 Darwin – man attempts to explain his origin• 1842-1910 James – The Science of Religion• 1859-1952 Dewey – Humanist Manifesto• 1856-1939 Freud – “man creates God”• 1882 Nietzsche – The Gay Science “God is dead. God remainsdead. And we have killed him.”•1908-1970 Maslow – Hierarchy of Needs man attempts to explainhis behavior and human motivation• Radical Individualism• Consumerism

1000 2000

• Wittgenstein•Tractatus•Philosophical Investigations - Language-games

• Quine•Web of Belief - Foundation to Web•The Two Dogmas of Empiricism

• Derrida•Deconstruction

• Rorty•Objectivity, Relativism and Truth•Philosophy and the mirror of Nature•The Linguistic Turn

• Hypertext/Internet – transforms communication

Postmodern Turn

Modern• Enlightenment Project• Foundationalism• Objective Truth• Scientific• Dualistic (Sacred/Secular)

• Empirical

Postmodern• Deconstruction Project• Web• Contingent Agreements• Narrative• Holistic• Experiential

©BCA2007

Postmodernity

• Not a life stage• Not a generational issue exclusive to Gen

X and Millenials• Primarily a shift in epistemology – the

way people process information and viewthe world

Spiritual FormationModern

• PrimarilythroughTeaching

• Reduction ofthe Arts(distract fromteaching)

• Reduction ofMystical &SymbolicElements

• Individualistic

Postmodern• Primarily

Experiential• Participatory• Integration of

the Arts• Integration of

Mystical &SymbolicElements

• Communitarian

Medieval• Primarily

symbolic• Mystical• Art• Localized

Transformational

Modern• Truth• Ideas• Information

Postmodern• Experience• Relationships

The New Self“From a self thought of as an object built up through cumulativeeffort to a present oriented self, realized, discovered, andactualized in a continual process.”

The New CommunityThe new concept does not allow the individual to exist prior to acommunity. Individuals can only be who they are by virtue ofthe role they fill and the ongoing tradition of those roles.Community is not collection of similar individuals; it is rather,individuals who participate in complementary interaction. It isthe individuals differences rather than their similarities thatenable them to contribute.

Faith is Back!!

“That postmodern turn toward the mysticshas yielded one of the most surprisingdevelopments in contemporaryphilosophical and theological thought: theamazing return of religion as the mostfeared other of Enlightenment modernity.”

Faith is Back!!

“The most explosive power in many forms ofpostmodern thought is the return of theUltimate repressed by the Enlightenment –the return of religion as a phenomenondemanding new attention, new description,and, of course, new critique.”

David TracyFragments, God the Gift and Postmodernism

We must think like missionaries again!Learning a new language, a new culture,with new ways of thinking andunderstanding. To articulate the grandstory entrusted to followers of God to thisnew world.

Missional Context

In many ways Christian theologies have becomeenslaved to the assumptions of modern philosophyand are far more Cartesian than Christian. It istime to repent from our shame of being people offaith and reform our theologies - recognizing theprofound limitations we have as human beings,seeking forgiveness for the arrogance of agreeingto modern assumptions and structures and ourclaims of complete and absolute understanding ofGod.

Repentance & Reformation