{"id":25754,"date":"2020-02-06T17:41:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T01:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=25754"},"modified":"2020-02-06T17:41:46","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T01:41:46","slug":"the-classroom-remembered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-classroom-remembered\/","title":{"rendered":"The Classroom Remembered"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my second year of graduate school (the early 2000s), I took a course titled, Ministry in Emerging Culture<\/em>. It was full of mostly potential church planters who were preparing to plant churches in various contexts within the US. The \u201cemerging church\u201d movement was brand new, and discussion centered around what ministry would look like in this new, postmodern world. Some class times concluded with great hope, some with paralyzing fear, and many with utter confusion. No one seemed to be able to discuss postmodernity with any clear understanding. It felt as if we were being launched into the \u201cgreat unknown\u201d and given the task of building an invisible Kingdom where there was no ultimate truth, and meaning was just beyond our reach. After reading Rockford University professor, Stephen Hicks\u2019s Explaining Postmodernism<\/em>, I wonder if that course is still being offered and if Hicks might bring some clarity to students wrestling with this topic today\u2026or maybe not.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it seems that Hicks\u2019s attempt to explain postmodernism has only proven how difficult the task truly is. While he has become a well-known commentator on postmodernism, he certainly has amassed a large share of ardent critics. On one hand, the book is described as, \u201cstudded with clarifying distinctions and is written in a style that seamlessly integrates primary material into the narrative, making explicit the common themes underlying postmodernism.\u201d[1]<\/a> On the other, it is referred to as \u201cfull of misreadings, suppositions, rhetorical hyperbole and even flat out factual errors.\u201d[2]<\/a> The explanation of postmodernism is certainly up for debate.<\/p>\n

As I read the differing reviews of Hicks, I was taken back to the seminary classroom where we tried to make sense of the terrain we were facing. One of our required readings in that course was Len Sweet\u2019s SoulTsunami. <\/em>In this book, Sweet challenged the church of the 90s to consider the \u201ctidal waves of change\u201d necessary to realize what he termed a \u201cPostmodern Reformation.\u201d[3]<\/a> As I flipped through the much-notated pages of that book, I came across a statement that rings especially true now, after two decades of observing and living in this postmodern tension Sweet was forecasting:<\/p>\n

\u201cPostmoderns are deeply suspicious about any and all metanarratives that provide all-encompassing authority for everyone, everywhere\u2026for this reason, postmodern Christians (who refuse to relinquish metanarratives of God, Creation, the Fall, Redemption, or Eschatology) will be dealers in love more than dealers in dogma. However, postmodern culture needs more truth, not less. The difference is that Truth is not a principle or a proposition but a person\u2026Surrendering to Jesus is not subscription to some \u2018article of faith\u2019 but merging one\u2019s personal story into the story of the Son of God and the Savior of the world.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hicks, as well as previous readings from Taylor[5]<\/a> and Smith[6]<\/a>, remind us that one of the distinguishing characteristics of the postmodern age is the refusal of the metanarrative. Sweet\u2019s words from the not-so-distant past challenge us to lean into the tension of our current reality, bringing our life\u2019s narrative to the conversation. Even though the explanation of postmodernity may be a controversial one, it seems the answer for the church might lie in humanizing our invitation to faith rather than arguing about it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

____________________________<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Steven M Sanders, \u201cStephen R. C. Hicks\u2019s Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault:\u201d 28 (n.d.): 14.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> \u201cA Review of Explaining Postmodernism by Stephen Hicks,\u201d Areo<\/em>, last modified October 17, 2018, accessed February 6, 2020, https:\/\/areomagazine.com\/2018\/10\/17\/a-review-of-explaining-postmodernism-by-stephen-hicks\/.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Leonard I Sweet, SoulTsunami: Sink or Swim in New Millennium Culture<\/em> (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan, 1999), 186.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid, 385.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Charles Taylor, A Secular Age<\/em>, 2018.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor<\/em> (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my second year of graduate school (the early 2000s), I took a course titled, Ministry in Emerging Culture. It was full of mostly potential church planters who were preparing to plant churches in various contexts within the US. The \u201cemerging church\u201d movement was brand new, and discussion centered around what ministry would look like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"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":[1764,395],"class_list":["post-25754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hicks","tag-postmodernism","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25754","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\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25755,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25754\/revisions\/25755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}