{"id":20015,"date":"2018-11-08T08:29:08","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T16:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=20015"},"modified":"2018-11-08T09:08:27","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T17:08:27","slug":"a-dance-with-postmodernism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-dance-with-postmodernism\/","title":{"rendered":"A Dance with Postmodernism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Elliot\u2019s Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em>is fascinating and overwhelming all at the same time for me. To consider the amount of effort exerted to define the word \u2018society\u2019, let alone all the theories underneath it, is mind-boggling. Humans have been attempting to make sense of our world for a long time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was drawn to the section on Postmodernism because of how it helped me make sense of my world years ago. In hind sight, our dance with postmodernism was not a long one but it was an intense one. We moved in 2002 to Dallas to start a Young Adult Ministry for twenty-somethings; we called it The Gathering.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We did not know what a Young Adult ministry was and had never experienced one. But we understood the senior pastor\u2019s vision to provide a spiritual experience for the all the college-age and beyond that had left the church after high school. We had lots of candles, acoustic worship and coffee. We taught from a stool. We were cutting edge and non-traditional. We were \u2018postmodern\u2019 or so we thought.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Brian McLaren, Donald Miller and Rob Bell were some of the voices that invited us the postmodern dance. And we could not get enough of it. We did not know about Deleuze, Guatarri, Jameson and Bauman and other postmodern theorists that Elliot refers to. We would not have said it this way but we felt its effects:<\/p>\n

\u2018The postmodern confounds modernist hierarchies \u2013 with its dislocating subversion of ideological closure, its interpretative polyvalence, its self-reflexive pluralism.[2]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We were experiencing a liquidity and lucidness we had never known. Everything seemed up in the air; we felt wide open. When McLaren\u2019s New Kind of Christian[3]<\/strong><\/a><\/em>came out in 2007, we devoured it. Individually and as a leader community, the idea that postmodernism was a way forward between conservative evangelicalism and liberalism was a lifeline. It made sense and provided \u2018structure\u2019 for the deconstruction process we were in. We had so many questions. We did not know where we were going to land with all of this but it seemed like our only option was to leave our modern charismatic church for a more postmodern one.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I reflect on this, I was reminded of how this intense, scary journey came to some conclusion. Near the end of this tumultuousness, a divine encounter of sorts helped me move forward.\u00a0We were on the same missions trip at Mardi Gras that we had participated in for the last 6 years. But this time I was deep into our postmodern church crisis. I secretly questioned everything. And I was exhausted. I could not worship or enjoy or lead like previous years \u2013 how could I? I thought I was a completely different person with too many questions and not enough answers. How could I participate in church experiences, let alone evangelize, when I was no longer certain if the Church was even good\u00a0<\/em>any longer?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I thought all I had was unanswered questions. It was in this frame of mind that some gentle questions came to my consciousness,<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What do you know? What are you certain of?<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was not a rebuke for having deep questions or doubts. It was not a lecture about doctrine or absolutism or the evils of tolerance. It was not a defense of all I had experienced in church but it was a way forward.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was an invitation to return to what I knew for certain without ignoring the very real questions I still held. As I sat there, surrounded by the very familiar church culture I had always known but now was unsure of, I realized I did\u00a0<\/em>know some things. Deep down, I still held several deep beliefs. But the list was much smaller than it was in Bible college. Much smaller.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

There were only a few things I could hold to now \u2013 the kinds of things that could be found in the Apostles Creed[4]<\/a>. I held church practices and doctrinal distinctives much looser. I no longer needed to be right or pretend to know all the answers. There was new room for faith and the unknown.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To stay with this metaphor, I am glad I danced. I believe I am better and lighter for it. It enabled me to realize that both modernism and postmodernism are insufficient anchors for my life. And I now know that whatever is next in the inevitable waves of social theory, when handled critically, will also be useful to me to that end.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a>Elliott, Anthony.\u00a0Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction.\u00a0<\/em>Routledge: New York, NY, 2014.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>Ibid., 286.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>McLaren, Brian D.\u00a0A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journe<\/em>. SPCK, 2013.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>https:\/\/www.crcna.org\/welcome\/beliefs\/creeds\/apostles-creed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthony Elliot\u2019s Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction[1]is fascinating and overwhelming all at the same time for me. To consider the amount of effort exerted to define the word \u2018society\u2019, let alone all the theories underneath it, is mind-boggling. Humans have been attempting to make sense of our world for a long time.   I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[718],"class_list":["post-20015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anthony-elliot","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20015"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20020,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20015\/revisions\/20020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}