Book Review: A Primer on Postmodernism

A Primer on Postmodernism
By Stanley J. Grenz
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Grand Rapids, MI. 1996

We are living in a time when there are more and more resources available to us as we try to wrap our heads around postmodernism and how this relatively recent school of philosophy is impacting our churches today. In his small, but compact primer on postmodernism, Grenz attempts to put postmodernism into the context of modernism. In his book, he appropriately reflects upon the leading postmodern philosophers, Foucault, Derrida, and Rorty. Grenz gives us a thumb-nail sketch of the evolving characteristics of postmodernism and ends with a careful reflection on postmodernism in the context of evangelicalism. Grenz's primer is not exhaustive by any means, but he is liberal with his footnoting and provides substantial referencing to those who wish to explore further the philosophy of postmodernism. Since I am more of a practitioner than a thinker, I intend to reflect on the evolving characteristics of postmodernism and how these characteristics are impacting the church today.

Grenz book, A Primer on Postmodernism, is the result of a paper he presented at the Southeastern Regional meeting of the Evangelical Society in 1994. Grenz, is himself, more evangelical than I and tends to be more skeptical of postmodernism than I have found myself to be. In his interpretation of the church's doctrine and dogma through the lens of a postmodern philosopher, Grenz seems more reserved and falls a little short of dismantling and deconstructing the acceptable interpretations of church's belief as a postmodernist is inclined to do. He does, however, caution the evangelical gate-keepers to reconsider the radical individualism of modernism. In addition, evangelicals will need to be less dualistic and more holistic in their understanding and presentation of the gospel if our evangelical beliefs are going to be attractive to the coming generations.

Grenz identifies three themes that define the bulk of postmodernism. He identifies "rejection of self" and a greater awareness of "otherness". Second, he identifies logocentricism as destructive to the human community and believes that human beings create their own reality and their own understanding of truth with words and postmodern thinkers understand words as extraordinarily subjective. Finally, Grenz suggests that Richard Rorty's pragmatic utopia is also a hallmark of postmodernism. Rorty suggests that postmodernism understands truth as what works rather that what is theoretically correct. Each of these characteristics of postmodernism are a foundation for a system of thought that in the context of the gospel can be summarized in four areas of interpretation, post-individualism, post-dualistic, post-noeticentric, and post-rationalistic. Following, I will attempt to summarize each of these four themes and how it applies to church today as we move into this time we call post-modernism.

Let's begin with post-individualism. Individualism was the hallmark of the modern era. The post-modernist is less interested in the "I" of modernism and more interested in the "we" of today. Post-modernist believe that truth is not based upon hard science or data, truth is what the community believes is important and truthful. Post-modernist believe that it "takes a village to raise a child" and that truth and personal identity develops through the telling of a personal narrative that is embedded in the experience of the significant community, tribe, or family. The goal of post-modernism is the establishment of community in the highest sense. Post-modern people are unimpressed by a verbal presentation of the gospel. Instead, the post-modern generation wants to see wholesome, authentic, and healing relationships. Post-modernism is about "we" and not "I".

Second, the post-modernist struggles with the dualism of the modern era. The post-modern thinker is skeptical of the split between the physical and the spiritual. Soul and body is confusing and meaningless to a generation of people are reacting against individualism. The next generation of Christians is more interested in the human person as a unified being. The post-modern thinker integrates the emotional-affective as well as the bodily-sensual with the intellectual-rational person. One only need to think of the original Star Trek series where Dr. Spock struggled with balancing the perceived weakness of humanity with the more superior nature of knowledge and intellect to begin to see how modernism and post-modernism works itself out in popular culture. Then think about Star Trek: The Next Generation when we meet people like Troi and Data and we begin to see how Gene Rodenberry and the writers of Start Trek made their shift from modern to post-modern thinking.

A third characteristic of post-modernism is post-rationalistic. Post-modernism are not anti-knowledge as much as they believe that Christianity needs to be more than "right thinking" or correct doctrine. Post-modernist find truth validated in in the context of the transformative moments that move us from one dimension of truth to another. A post modern Christian understand religious truth as a personal experience of the faith that clarifies personal meaning and truth.

Finally, let me reflect upon the fourth characteristic of post modernism which Grenz identifies as post-noeticentric. First let me define noeticentric, noeticentric is the attainment of knowledge and wisdom. Post-modernist object to spirituality as the attainment of wisdom. They believe that knowledge is good only when it facilitates a good result. The post-modernist believes that one is not finished when they reach heaven, nirvana or some other state of intelligence. Consistent with post-modern thinking, spirituality must move us from passive reflection about goodness and heavenly things to activism and justice that facilitates goodness for the earth and all humanity.

Each of these characteristics reflect something of the Christian faith, but also all faiths. Although I would fully embrace many of these post-modern characteristics, I would caution post-modern Christians that the ministry we do is because of our Christian convictions and not because of our altruism or idealism. The gospel of Jesus Christ has gone forth in every era. While modernist believed in the superiority of humanity and intelligence, the post-modern believer seeks to be more relational with less emphasis on "right doctrine" or right faith. For me, I am empowered by the post-modern thinking and believe that the Christian faith was always about what the post-modernist believed, but somewhere in the transition from superstition to the modern era we began to believe that knowledge and wisdom had become a nomenclature for God and our theology and our understanding of faith began to migrate from the heart to the head. What post-modernism does for us is to give us the foundation to build a more holistic, and consequently more holy union between the heart and the head.