For the last few years I have gleefully been telling people that I am “sooo Post-Modern.” It is a badge I have worn in a bizarre, almost fan-boyish sort of way. I would proudly talk about how much comfort I took in the “mystery” of life and how beautifully complicated the murky grays of moral ambiguity and free will made our existence. I railed against the evils of Modern thought and it’s attempts to define and systematize every part of the human experience.

But last night I had a profound shift in my philosophical and theological world view. I posted a few weeks ago a video from TED by a guy named Steven Johnson. One of the things he argued in his talk about how great ideas are generated is that they do not come as a sudden epiphany but rather build slowly in our minds over time until we finally realize they’re there. As I’ve been researching art and theology for my thesis I think this conclusion was building slowly in my words and thoughts. That conclusion? Post-Modernism is dying.

This I actually say without the least bit of sadness. See, what brought me to this point was the realization–through some of the stuff I was reading–of what the ultimate logical conclusion of Post-Modern thought is. Because I’m going to get a little into semantics it’s probably a good idea to offer some working definitions of what I mean by Modern and Post-Modern. When I say Modern I mean the idea that the ultimate goal of humanity and the pinnacle of human achievement is knowledge. From science to politics to theology we have worked to quantify, qualify, and categorize everything in our lives so that we can come up with the perfect systems for living life. When I say Post-Modern I am referring to the popular belief from the last few decades that this categorized life of Modernity is a sham, it’s a gnostic existence that lifts knowledge above experience. Instead Post-Modernism embraces human experience and relativism in an attempt to let everyone define what is true for themselves. Far be it from me to say that I know how to live life more rightly than you! But just as the clinical coldness of Modernism has failed to give us a formula for right living, Post-Modernism offers only a deconstruction of the human experience into a valueless abyss as an alternative.

We as human beings desperately long for meaningful connections with others. I believe, and have argued, that people are designed to live in relationship with others. We feel most complete when we have a community of people who love and care for us, when we have a place to belong. Those communities are always centered around some commonly held Truth that all members believe in. When I use the capital “T” Truth I’m referring to is not just scientific Truth like gravity or thermodynamics but also moral and spiritual Truth. If in a Modern world we slavishly twist every part of our lives into conformity with the Truth in exchange for community and identity, in a Post-Modern world we forfeit any meaningful existence because all absolute Truth must become relative truth (lowercase “t”). It is a world devoid of rules and meaning because what is real and important to me is never the exact same as what is real and important for you. Life is about finding the Truth to which we are willing to sacrifice our personal “truths” (lowercase “t”). For me this Truth is Christianity and the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

There is always going to be tension and ambiguity over things that some claim as Truth which others say is not, but to deny the existence of any Truth as Post-Modernism demands is to live a life without meaning. The balance is somewhere in the middle. Some people will claim that Truth is worth killing others over, I disagree and will stand against “Truth” that claims that. Post-Modernism importantly broke the iron grip of gnosticism Modernity had allowed to rule our existence, but in doing so it cut all lines and has drifted off into the dark night. We need anchors, we need Truths to which we can moor our lives. To a world and culture that is discovering the bankruptcy of a purely relativist worldview, to people who are tired of being adrift and alone, I will offer a humble invitation to experience a Truth to which they can cling and not face the darkness alone.

Filed under: life by Jonathan