What is postmodernism?

The term ‘postmodern’ gets thrown around a lot these days to describe everything from philosophy to architecture to technology, to how ‘disobedient and disrespectful’ the younger generation is today.  But what does it really mean?  Admittedly the definition is a bit slippery.  I heard a bit of an interesting conversation on NPR last night that was helpful to me in articulating what postmodernism is all about.  The speaker put it in terms of English grammar and a bit of history. 

 

When the Enlightenment emerged and, with it, science and reason, the world of thought was broken into two very different spheres: Fact and Opinion.  Facts were things that could be ‘proved’ scientifically.  Opinions were anything that could not be ‘proved’ by the methods that were approved for proving things.  Get it?  So, Fact and Reason is the world of science.  Opinion is the world of emotion and religion.  Religion, faith, belief—whatever you want to call it was (and still is) relegated to the realm of personal opinion.  So that’s how you get politicians who can say, “My religion will have no influence on the way I govern the nation.”  Think about that statement again.  What they are saying is that My religion (the world of opinion) will not have an impact on the way I govern (the world of facts and reason) the nation.  In a modern context that is a perfectly acceptable answer.  Or take a church-going religious person who prays on Sunday (his personal opinion) and then runs his business (the world of reason) during the week according to what is reasonable for generating maximum profit without any consideration for Christian virtues that might inform how he treats his employees. 

 

This distinction gives rise to breaking our lives apart into Public and Private.  Economics and Science are public.  Religion and Faith are private.  Thus, “My (private) religion will have no influence on the way I govern (public) the nation.”  Well, that’s just one example.  It’s really a question of how we know things.  How do you know something is true?  The modernist says, “I have facts that prove it.  If it cannot be proven by the scientific method, it’s just your personal opinion.”  

 

Now, in terms of grammar.  In grammar, there are three persons: 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd.  (I, you, he/ she/it)

 

First person is the world of opinion (What I believe to be true; what I feel)

Third person is the world of ‘fact’ (What is proven)

 

Postmodernism looks at this and asks two questions, “Who are you who believe something to be true?” and “By what criteria do you determine something to be fact?”  The answer that postmodernists offer for both questions is the 2^nd person—the world of social location—the you (plural, likely).  Each of us is part of a larger story that any of us standing alone.  Acknowledge it or not, you are part of a complex social matrix comprised of your socioeconomics, skin color, religious heritage, national identify, time in history, and on and on.)  This “2^nd person” identity is informative and formative for who you are even when you think you are coming to independent conclusions about what you believe.  And furthermore, this “2^nd person” identify is formative for how you determine what is factual (3^rd person). 

 

Some postmodernists go so far as to say that there is no 1^st person and no 3^rd person.  You cannot come to independent conclusions aside from who you are in your social location and there are no universal facts at all—everything is a product of your social location.  (While I’m compelled by the postmodern correction of modernism, I think this goes a bit far—but hey, who am I, right?)

 

This move to postmodernism has everything to do with young people returning to Tradition in worship and church.  The modern manifestation of church is a worship service disconnected from the social construct (the Tradition) from which it comes.  It’s a ‘contemporary’ service that doesn’t use church language, church symbols, or anything having to do with church.  It only focuses on the 1^st person (what are you feeling today—what is your private belief in God and why you should have such a belief (the fact of the authority of the Bible).  Postmodern or ‘emergent’ movements return to the second person and young people are leading the way.  They are saying, “We know we are part of a bigger story and we want to experience it.”  So, let us experience the richness of the Tradition, but make that Tradition as expansive as possible, including elements not found in our parents and grandparents American, Protestant services—that’s not wide or deep enough.  Give us Celtic meditations, Orthodox prayer practices, Catholic candles, give us incense and silence, give us ways to express our own appropriation of the Tradition and then let us lead the way.  Be honest about the chaotic and mysterious origins of the Biblical letters and their formation as the church’s canon.  It’s a 2^nd person book of narrative, not a 3^rd person book of fact disembodied from the community that produced and collected it.  I want to be part of something bigger than me, but also something that makes me part of the community as well.  Give me a worship/ church experience that is 3^rd person (tell me what is known and I can trust), 2^nd person (let me experience who we are together), and 1^st person (let me experience all of this for myself and make it my own.)  Isn’t it interesting in light of the grammar of faith that theologians long ago figured that God is best understood to be Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--One in three persons.