15

May

yeah… i’m a pomo. so what?

Posted by Matt  Published in Uncategorized

Ok, apologies to all of my readers who are already postmodernists (pomos), this post isn’t for you. No, this post is instead for those who know me (in person), but don’t quite know what I stand for anymore, and have likely heard some negative opinions on my viewpoints.

Ok, so what do I stand for?

The desecration of all things sacred, and the destruction of America.

Ok, just kidding.

Truth:

Seriously, let’s run over it. You’ve probably heard some negative connotations associated with post modernism. The biggest of these is normally “Post-modernists deny absolute truth.” While this may be true in some cases, you’ll find that most Christian Post modernists do not deny absolute truth exists; instead a generalized opinion is that we don’t quite have a full grasp of what absolute truth is. In my personal opinion, God represents absolute truth, and since we can’t know God wholly we can’t quite fully grasp absolute truth. I am completely fine with saying that I don’t have a grasp on truth, and that I’m (likely) wrong on many things.

Church:

I’m still working through a lot of the things I think about when it comes to the gathering of “Christians.” What I do know is that church isn’t confined to meetings approved by elders, pastors, or any other leadership, rather church can (and should) happen in coffee shops, pubs, houses, and any other place where believers can talk. While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with singing corporately (in fact I think the bible applauds it), I am not a fan any longer of building services around the format of 45 minutes of music, 30 minutes of talking, and another 5 minutes for a feel good song to send them out on. That’s personal opinion, I don’t really think there’s anything wrong with it, I just don’t like it. (If you like it, then it’s cool with me)

The Bible:

I grew up with the whole inerrant view of scripture (God breathed meant perfect and without flaw or error). My opinion has been changing for some time, but was strongly altered after reading “Misquoting Jesus.” I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in the topic of inerrancy.
So with that out of the way, how do I view the Bible?

As God breathed and divinely inspired. ☺ Yet, one cannot deny the human aspect of the scripture, it becomes evident when comparing just the gospels to one another. I feel like we can gather a ton of light from studying the holistic themes of the Bible, as well as trying to see each individual author in light of their human bias and audience.

I’m sure there are plenty of other themes out there that need to be discussed, and I’ll do those in due time, but that’s the down right basics of what I am now.

Questions?
As always, post em.

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  • Greg Britt
    Truth is determined by how it makes me feel. Postmoderns value non-rational ways of knowing such as emotion, intuition, and cooperation

    Postmodernists believe that there is no world outside of human thought
  • Jen
    Do you own the "Misquoting Jesus" book, and can I borrow it (if so)?
  • Greg- those are some pretty sweeping statements. I think you'll find that postmodernism is just as broad an avenue as modernism and evangelicalism and pulling definitions from your worldviews textbook won't quite cover the conversation.
  • Nate
    Just out of curiosity, you expressed your views on the Bible, and it made sense. But, do you believe the Bible has errors in it because of its human aspect?
  • Nate- Yeah, I believe the human aspect of the authors if the source of the errors. I certainly don't believe that the errors are God made. To be very clear- I do believe the Bible to be a God inspired book, but to say it is without error is a fallacy.
  • kyle robinson
    I swear, i keep reading "pomo" as "porno", it looks almost exactly the same. *but what does it mean?*

    Funny thing is that although I consider myself almost the polar opposite of the whole emergent church/postmodernism movement, I agree with almost everything you said on "church." As far as truth goes I think you're right that we can't absolutely know truth. But I do think that with some effort we can understand it much better than many expect. I just get the feeling many Christians are attracted to this movement because they're intellectually lazy and would rather say "well, we can't really know all that much about God" and call it a day, rather than sitting down and trying to understand the debate between predestination and free will, for example. But obviously you're not that type, you're clearly quite interested in more serious Bible/church stuff. I guess it's just my nerd-Christian side wanting to mind-beat the more casual churchgoer into submission, hrm.
  • Hmm, I actually think you may have missed where most emergents stand when you said they could be intellectually lazy. In fact, I'd say that most emergenty type people that I have met are more scholarly, more intellectually driven, and more desirous of knowledge than (almost all) the evangelicals I have met.

    No, the whole truth thing is not a cop-out, but a genuine opinion. Saying that we can't know absolute truth absolutely (here on Earth, or at least here in this present day) isn't trying to get away from seeking truth, but more of an admission that we're certainly wrong in some areas that we think are truth. I think, in most part, emergents want to know as much about God as possible.

    Now, you said "Funny thing is that although I consider myself almost the polar opposite of the whole emergent church/postmodernism movement"

    Just out of curiosity, then, are your more aligned with the New Reformer type people? If you are, I completely respect that, I respect their admission that the modern church is in desperate straights, and I hope that theological differences can be brushed aside when the common good calls for it.
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