Crossing cultures with postmodernism

Violence, rage, sex, and spam are the buzz words of the present era, emphasized by the media. A hermeneutics of suspicion over politics, religion and the western world esp. the western male and America in particular. Basically anything that implies power is looked upon with suspicion. The reasons are true in some sense. Their voice at times resonates true in our experiences as well. The rulers of today at times have let us down. The clergy in living double standard lives have let us down. The western male in its efforts to conquer the world ravaged many third world nations. “The power structures of the modern era have to be brought down. If necessary like Marx suggests the peasants might have to take to arms.” Or Like Gandhi, adhere to the beatitudes of Christ, where weakness is strength. We are probably in the synthetic era that Marx suggests. And like Daniel Ch 2:43- 45 we have feet of iron and clay.

The modern era made lofty promises in science and other fields. Promising to prove all things removed myth, wonder and faith; like David Hume said, ‘worthy of being cast to the flames.’ As a result man went further away from himself. Religion borrowed greatly from Hume and attempted, with the help of Baultman- the demythologizing process of all its texts only to realize that it removed the very essence that brought man back to himself. They did not realize that when a man is in a state of happiness he shouldn't deconstruct happiness if he does he will no longer be happy. A poet is not a mad man but a rationalist could be- he is unable to relish the beauty of the Taj Mahal but begins immediately to deconstruct his text.

But today as a result of taking the modern era to task – myth is back- but then to distinguish between superstition and myth has become difficult. We have to face the challenge of-'Jesus works for you; crystals work for her'. The post modern era has to realize that in order to exist in a sensible way it has to rest on the shoulders of the modern era; Myth has to become fact. And to make sense of the ‘myth becoming fact’ it has to rely on revelation. If it fails to become fact it will slip into the miry superstitious pit. The ‘peace child’ that the ancients talked about in the form of folktales and legends became fact with the historical birth of Christ.

The fairy tale that proves to be true, good and beautiful in our experience is a tale worthy to be followed and taken seriously. Cinderella is given freedom to go to the ball but she has to be back by midnight if not she will be brought to a miserable state. Now this isn't true only in Cinderella's life but true in the life of everyone one. We all know that when we exploit and elaborate the freedom we have we end up miserable. Freedom has to exist within a framework. Nobody is absolutely free. The very thought of being free is binding. Like Stanley Jones says, sin gives you its kicks but before long, beware, it will give you its 'kick back'.

It is difficult to define the postmodern era; one, because it is against the idea of definitions and two because it's a cauldron of contradictory ideas attempting to live in harmony. Postmodernists themselves refrain from being branded as ‘postmodernists’. "The term postmodern primarily refers to 'time' rather than to a distinct ideology." Community and harmony (which as you will notice contradicts the first line of the article) are other buzz words in this era. The minority has a voice and the majority has to be sympathetic of its views even if the other is blatantly wrong (who is to decide what is wrong and what is right?). Diverse communities like- feminists, gays, Asians, pro-lifers etc… have a voice. But what if each of these communities has contradictory ideas? Where one thinks life is sacred and values it but the other devalues it. The only possibility, as many postmodern historians are predicting, is to enter joyfully back to the barbarous era. The monkey does not become a man but men become appy apes.

If history is written by the winners then decadents will say 'we will not believe the Holocaust ever happened it is just a power game to control the rest of the world'. Minority 'powers' like Iran can make such blatantly cold statements and get away with it. Many of these nations assume- 'the ideal 'democracy' is again a 'power strategy' that the west uses to control the rest of the world’.

There is resurgence in interest of the past- 'retro'. The postmodernist doesn’t look to the future but rather prefers to look at the past. The old has become new. Movies like Spiderman make constant references to old comic strips. Black and white is in. Designers make constant references to the past. In the days back then, one particular trend became fashion, so everybody wore bellbottoms. But today there are many trends and everything is only a matter of choice. We as Indians are now becoming tourists within our own culture; trying to connect and emulate old values. But our idea of values is only surface deep. Take a look at the surge in old age homes in India while we think that touching the feet of our parents is to enough to show them respect. Our worship experiences as well have become a play on the surface level. Leaving the worshiper where he was in the first place.

In the field of arts we can see these two ideas constantly pounded. Media has come to be the greatest medium for postmodern thought. The 'avant garde' where art is not limited to the frame- there is no frame and no reference points. Art doesn't point to anything beyond itself. Art can be interpreted however one feels. It is fine to interpret a piece of art based on your feeling but we should have the right feeling. Media now isn't concerned with what is 'true, good and beautiful' but rather with 'whatever works'. If nothing is true everything is possible. Like Nietzsche suggested: when we deconstruct an ideal or a virtue, when we strip layer after layer we realize that there is nothing in it. So religion, science and reason have no objective value in them. Nietzsche in his deconstruction descended but when it comes to absolutes which come from God we don’t descend, rather we keep on ascending. Then, when we go through layer after layer we will not find ‘nothing’ but we will end up finding something- God.

There has been a shift in our worldviews. Ravi Shankar says, ‘If you want to be happy stop thinking’. Here we can see traces of existentialism- the Heidegger and Sartre forms of existentialism. But Ravi Shankar doesn’t realize that many of those happy people are right now in either mental asylums or prisons.

The two main (apart from many others) tenets of postmodernism:
There are no absolutes: Many of the young people we come across will, over a cup of tea, assert that there are no such things as absolutes. For them there is no line that divides right from wrong or maybe there is a line that doesn't exist; it's just an illusion or maybe we draw the line wherever we wish to. Sexuality is not a given, it has to be discovered. And all the regulations that society has imposed on sex have been put aside and mocked. The challenge that the Christian is faced with is that the Bible has become ' just another religious text'; it cannot claim any absolute authority. If it claims, ultimate authority it is only for the purpose of power- to control and bind its members. In the past if someone were to commit adultery he would at least recognize that he has committed a sin and defied God and man. Today we not only have immoral behavior but a loss of moral criteria- sadly but sometimes, true even in the church today. Then again, a moral stance alone is not enough but a ‘moral imagination’ is necessary.

Language has no meaning: but it takes meaningful language to communicate this. Now, that might seem like a simplistic response to the postmodernist; he celebrates contradiction anyway. Language at one level might defer and might initially seem meaningless. We might use different words to communicate the same idea but the idea will still remain intact. The Christian isn't threatened by this, after all 'all news is old news happening to new people'-Malcolm Muggeridge. The tower of Babel comes to our rescue, where God destroyed, or like some philosophers of religion might suggest- 'God deconstructed language'. Whether he really did that or not is not my concern, but that, despite this 'deconstruction' the episode in Acts 2:1-12 still follows, where we see that the Holy Spirit pervades and intervenes in the lives of people through the language they understand and the in languages of different people groups.

C. S. Lewis says that a ship has to answer three questions before it sets out to sail; why is it there in the first place? Where is it going? How can it keep itself from bumping into other ships? Postmodernists undermine the first two questions. But they have taken the last question very seriously, maybe too seriously. In order to keep itself from bumping into other ships it has to answer the first and second questions. Why it is there, will help it answer where it is going and if it knows where it is going it will stay away from bumping into other ships.

We are to help the postmodernist to answer these three questions and help clear all the noise and cross all the hurdles that prevent him from understanding the gospel truth and thereby help him come closer to becoming a truly authentic human being. To show them that Christ is the way; that helps you from not getting lost, the truth; that helps you from not living a lie and stops you from cheating others, the life; that gives meaning to, your life, your joys and sorrows and everything else that falls in between.

Sometimes the ideal, ‘unity’, that Jurgen Habermas talk of with regards to the E.U, can destroy diversity. Unity is possible when we are able to appreciate consistency in diversity, resulting in a beautiful community.

The postmodernist leaves us with many challenges one is to show them, through our lives, that Christianity works because it is true. And what is true, is good and beautiful. And to wet their interest in the past we should show them Jer. 16:6. This will help them find the true, good and beautiful values of the past.

And Christ the Word became flesh. Like how the myth became fact, the word became flesh. Someone once said ‘Christ didn’t practice what he preached but rather preached what he practiced’. Christ put all those lofty words to life and we are left with the challenge of having to put all our jargon to action.

To help them understand that Christ though being God, gave up his 'power', made himself vulnerable, and allowed them to crucify him thereby redefining what 'power' really is (Matthew 5). And to help them understand that, like G. K. Chesterton says, 'the frame is the most beautiful part of the picture’.

– Bobby Thejus