The village I lived in along the southern coast of Kenya had a socialist nature to it. Within that village, commodities were communal and meant to be shared. If I bought a ladder, it naturally was for the collective use of the entire village and can be returned to me upon request. There was a simplistic beauty in the collective sharing. Yet, it was also oppressive. When a neighbor bought a set of spoons for his family, one by one they all began to disappear until he was left with one spoon. In such a culture, his purchase of the spoons was seen as him getting ahead of the others and so he was always forced back into the poverty of the whole.<\/p>\n
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Over the last few months, we have read quite a bit about how identity politics and liberalism have gone too far. Left to their own end these ideologies have self-destructed. In this week\u2019s reading by Stephen Hicks, he demonstrates how postmodern thought has undermined previous Western theologies. His book, Explaining Postmodernism<\/em>, covers lots of historical philosophical development and deconstructs postmodernism from a secular, classical liberal perspective.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One aspect of the book I want to focus on is the argument between socialism and capitalism. On its own, socialism sounds great. The idea of equality among others, the restraint of the elite and care for the downtrodden even sounds biblical. We can read about how the early church in Acts had all things in common and there was a collective concern for the poor.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Classic Marxist socialism has four major claims:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Why has socialism never actually been lived out well? Why has it always led to such destructive tendencies? Hicks writes, \u201cSocialist practice has time and time again proved itself more brutal than the worst dictatorships in history prior to the twentieth century.”[2]<\/a> Is it because the societies that have done this have tried to do this from an atheistic perspective? Can socialism work if built on values born out of the kingdom of heaven? What if socialism was not grounded in atheism but rather in the ethics of Jesus Christ?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In a more recently published book, Strange New World, <\/em>written by a Reformed Christian, Carl Trueman, also details the historical trajectory of philosophy. His book, while focusing on the sexual revolution, highlights how these traditional philosophies intersect with Christian thought and theology. He writes, “it is my belief, however, that these elements of what we call the sexual revolution are actually symptoms of this wider turn to expressive individualism in the west… Is my contention in this book that expressive individualism provides the broad backdrop to these aspects of what is commonly called the sexual revolution.”[3]<\/a> While I might not fully agree on the practical applications to the issues Trueman lays out in his book, I admire the desire to approach postmodern beliefs from a Christian perspective.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But what next? Is it possible to apply kingdom of heaven principles to earthly societies? The early church seemed to be able to do it, but they did so outside of the political arena. Furthermore, this church exemplar did not seem to last very long. Socialism worked for the most part in the village setting I referenced above simply because it was limited in scope and rather apolitical.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Has postmodernism run its\u2019 own course to its end as well? The guest speaker on a recent podcast of \u201cTheology in the Raw\u201d seems to think so. Patrick Miller was asked by the host, \u201cWhy are we emerging out of postmodernism?\u201d He responds, \u201cWhat could be more nihilistic than re-electing a thrice divorced, post-postmodern, incredibly cynical dude that everybody seemed to dislike four years ago and saying, you know what though, we\u2019re just going to believe in him\u2026 We\u2019re moving out of post modernity into something else.\u201d[4]<\/a> Miller highlights how Trump could easily be deconstructed but society chose him and wants to believe him anyways. He also highlights how podcaster Joe Rogan, who once would distance himself from theological conversations now wants to engage in discussions on miracles and theology.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n When Trump won this last election in November, it was a referendum against the woke-liberal-Left. It was our nation saying we have had too much postmodern deconstruction and identity politics. Our nation wanted the pendulum to stop swinging so far to the Left. Trump\u2019s election has helped usher us into a new era, one that Miller labeled as post-postmodernism but adds that a good name for it really has not yet been coined. Rather than stopping the pendulum from swinging too far to the Left, or pushing it back to the Right, Trump seems to have removed the pendulum all together. The direction we are now going is confusing. Billionaires are forcing us into a recession which will allow the billionaires to get even richer. Will this be the end of liberal capitalism in our country?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Given more space, I would love to highlight Yascha Mounk\u2019s book, The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure<\/em>.[5]<\/a> Mounk posits a pathway forward (albeit a human-centered rather than God-centered approach) but in a post-postmodern society is this even possible?<\/p>\n __________________________________________________________<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Stephen Ronald Craig Hicks, Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault<\/em>, Expanded edition (Roscoe, IL.: Ockham\u2019s Razor, 2014), 86\u201387.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Hicks, 87\u201388.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Carl R. Trueman, Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution<\/em> (Wheaton: Crossway, 2022), 24.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Preston Sprinkle, \u201cBeing Joyful Outsiders in Our Turbulent Cultural Moment: Patrick Miller,\u201d Audio, Theology in the Raw, accessed March 12, 2025, https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/being-joyful-outsiders-in-our-turbulent-cultural-moment\/id1018952191?i=1000696488427.<\/a><\/p>\n\n