Relating to Postmodernism: A Rough Typology of Evangelical Positions

I'm going to risk making a typology of relations between evangelicals and "postmodernism." It is not meant to represent a fixed and forever stable arrangement, but a way to help us organize our thinking about the topic and more clearly see where people stand. The borders between types are porous and continually under revision, to be sure.

I suggest that three relations between evangelicals and postmodernism can be made out from the ongoing conversations. Each relation is multidimensional. They consist of at least a value judgement (postmodernism is good or bad, inferior or superior) and a movement (a move toward embracing postmodernism, a move away from postmodernism).*

1) Some Evangelicals reject postmodernism as making no sense and they consider it dangerous to their faith.

In a review of a certain book, one evangelical put it this way:

It is a helpful warning about the dangers of postmodernism. But this explicit warning has a subtext not intended by the writers. This subtext is an urgent cautionary reminder of the dangerous direction that the evangelical movement has taken.

Or a critical blogger's view on the matter. In this quote, he questions the evangelical and conservative credentials of an author known to be linked to the Emerging Church movement:

Here’s a bit more information for you concerning Dan Kimball, and I do happen to think he’s a nice guy, which shows he is actually quite dangerous to the historic orthodox Christ faith we know is the Truth.

These two voices define postmodernism and the faith practices and leadership that are emerging from those conditions as dangerous to more traditional understandings. The relationship they establish is oppositional. The traditional view is seen as superior to the emerging views. There is also a movement to distance, to not genuinely engage or try to understand, but to denounce and dismiss.

2) Some evangelicals are more or less attempting to make sense of this new cultural context that people often refer to as postmodernism. Yet this engagement does not render identity. Rather, these evangelicals continue to be grounded by modern beliefs and faith practices.

One of the more popular voices in this camp articulates his view toward postmodern faith practices and beliefs:

Contemporary evangelicals face the responsibility, not only of becoming conversant with the Emerging Church, but of continuing a conversation about what this movement really represents and where its trajectory is likely to lead. Some of the best, brightest, and most sensitive and insightful individuals from the younger evangelical generation have been drawn to this movement.

Echoing the sentiment of other popular authors, he remains critical:

Yet, "Once we have acknowledged the unavoidable finiteness of all human knowers, the cultural diversity of the human race, the diversity of factors that go into human knowing, and even the evil that lurks in the human breast and easily perverts claims of knowledge into totalitarian control and lust for power--once we have acknowledged these things, is there any way left for us to talk about knowing what is true or objectively real? Hard postmodernists insist there is not. And that's the problem."

Evangelicals speaking from this position seem to cast a more ambiguous judgement toward postmodernism and the faith practices that emerge from it. They are closer to postmodernism than those evangelicals in position 1 insofar as they are willing to engage (though somewhat suspiciously). The relation is one of resemblance. This perspective enables them to see that people expressing postmodern practices are complex and layered, with more or less "hard"/rigorous/consistent philosophies in circulation. While evangelicals in position 2 seem to be more willing to engage, they continue to remain rooted in certain modern conceptions, such as propositional truths and their relevance to their faith. Thus, on certain fundamental issues, there are disconnects between positions 2 and 3. One of the key consequences of this paradigmatic gap is misunderstanding and contention.

3) Some evangelicals identify themselves and their faith communities as "postmodern." Not to conflate all so-called postmodern evangelicals into a coherent whole, there are varying flavors and stripes. In relation to positions 1 and 2, however, these evangelicals find postmodern faith practices and ways of believing to make sense. It isn't simply a relativism of the faith, as those in 1 and 2 argue, but a reconstitution of what it means to be Christian and particularly to be evangelical.

As one postmodern evangelical framed the attraction to this new theology:

Deconstructive theology is an excellent rejection of the evangelical-fundamentalism of their youth and all its ills in the face of a radically pluralist, post-Christendom, post-modern world. Many emerging church folk are allergic to anything that smacks of a.) an intolerant judgmental exclusivism, b.) an arrogant, even violent, certainty about what we do know, and c.) an overly-rationalized hyper-cognitive gospel that takes the mystery out of everything we believe. If I have over-stated myself, forgive me. But I too have felt these pangs in relation to my own evangelical upbringing. Deconstructive theology is an excellent avenue of resistance to all these maladies.

Or in the words of another:

Obviously, I feel strongly that the road to inner peace and connection with our Creator is through Jesus. If you are one of the more than two billion Christians in the world, you may feel the same way. But in case you don't.... I'm not going to try to convince you that you can only do these thing if you believe in Jesus--I've seen lots of people try to convince other people about Jesus, and it's rarely successful.

The point seems to be to experience God with others; indeed, to find God in the Other and not just attempt to convert them. The aim is to not assume that we have a Secret, but to recognize that Others can know too. It is about relating to Others, to God and to oneself in a fruitful way. It is about moving beyond the management and confinement of Christ to the religion of Christianity. Evangelicals speaking from position 3 see the possibilities of postmodernism. It enables a liberating break from the foundational and fundamentalist viewes espoused by the dominant traditions articulated by positions 1 and 2.

To briefly conclude the typology, I've argued that evangelicals relate to postmodernism in three ways. Where some view postmodernism with critical skepticism and even fear, others embrace it with open arms. The difference is concrete. The question is how to deal with it. Can we relate to difference? Or must it be converted or excluded?




*On analyzing relations between self and other, I drew from Tzvetan Todorov's The Conquest of America