CURREN T TRENDS PARADIGMS LOST...Jeremiah 29:4-10 7Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city...
Transcript of CURREN T TRENDS PARADIGMS LOST...Jeremiah 29:4-10 7Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city...
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CURREN T TRENDS
PARADIGMS
LOSTGood (and Bad) News for the
Thoroughly Modern World
Part One
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“New Deep”
by John Mayer
I’m so alive
I’m so enlightened
I can barely survive
A night in my mind
I’ve got a plan
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I’m gonna find out just
how boring I am
And have a good time
Cause ever since I tried
Trying not to find
Every little meaning in
my life
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I’ve been fine
I’ve been cool
With my new golden rule
Numb is the new deep
Done with the old me
And talk is the same cheap it’s been
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Is there a God?
Why is he waiting?
Don’t you think of it odd
When he knows my
address?
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And look at the stars
Don’t it remind you just
how feeble we are?
Well it used to, I guess
Cause ever since I tried
Trying not to find
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Every little meaning in
my life
I’ve been fine
I’ve been cool
With my new golden rule
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Numb is the new deep
Done with the old me
And talk is the same
cheap it’s been
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Stop trying to figure it
out
Deep will only bring you
down . . .
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Numb is the new deep
Done with the old me
I’m over the analyzing
tonight
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Millard Erickson
Modern view of knowledge:
certain
objective
good
Postmodern view of knowledge:
uncertain
not objective
not good
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Modernism:
Good News/Bad News
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What is Modernism?
• Ancient, Medieval and Modern
• Thomas Oden asks is modernism a . .
• Time period (between the “two
walls”)?
• A moral phenomenon?
• A worldview?
• All of the above!
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Theism
Nature
People
God
God God
God
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Deism
God God
God
People
Nature
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Modernism/Naturalism/Secularism
God? God?
God?
Nature
Individual
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Modernism/Naturalism/Secularism
God? God?
God?
Nature
IndividualMechanistic
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Modernism/Naturalism/Secularism
God? God?
God?
Nature
IndividualMechanistic
Materialistic
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Modernism/Naturalism/Secularism
God? God?
God?
Nature
IndividualMechanistic
Materialistic
Individualistic
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Nihilism
Individual
God GodNature
So what?!?!
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Existentialism
Individual
Objective/Subjective
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Post-Modernism
?There is no truth,
only perception
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What is Modernism?
The modern worldview:
1. “The world is a machine” (mechanistic)
sense of control
optimism
pragmatism
analytical thinking
future orientation (e.g. planning,
predicting)
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What is Modernism?
The modern worldview:
1. “The world is a machine” (mechanistic)
measurability
order
fairness
frankness
luck
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What is Modernism?
The modern worldview:
2. “Only matter matters” (materialistic)
“seeing is believing”
focus on the physical and visible
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What is Modernism?
The modern worldview:
2. “Only matter matters” (materialistic)
dualism evident in:
spiritual vs. physical
faith vs. science
private vs. public
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What is Modernism?
The modern worldview:
2. “Only matter matters” (materialistic)
accumulation of things
athletic achievement
physical beauty and prowess
view of time
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What is Modernism?
The modern worldview:
3. “I am alone” (individualistic)
self-reliance
contractual groups
private ownership
future orientation
privacy
moral relativism
2. “Only matter matters” (materialistic)
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Hebrews 13:7-8
7Remember your leaders, who spoke the
word of God to you. Consider the outcome
of their way of life and imitate their faith. 8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and
today and forever.
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2 Corinthians 10:5
5We demolish arguments and every
pretension that sets itself up against the
knowledge of God, and we take captive
every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
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CURREN T TRENDS
PARADIGMS
LOSTGood (and Bad) News for the
Thoroughly Post-Modern World
Part Two
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POSTMODERNISM
I. What is “postmodernism”?
Depends on who you ask! People use the
term “postmodern” in different ways.
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POSTMODERNISM
I. What is “postmodernism”?
A. Huston Smith’s three types:
1. Minimal postmoderns: simply observe
that there is no single worldview accepted
by everyone.
2. Mainline postmoderns: believe no
single worldview will ever be accepted by
everyone again.
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POSTMODERNISM
I. What is “postmodernism”?
A. Huston Smith’s three types:
3. Hardcore postmoderns: say “good
riddance” to the days when major
worldviews prevailed because they
oppressed people.
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POSTMODERNISM
I. What is “postmodernism”?
A. Huston Smith
B. Millard Erickson’s “soft” and “hard”
postmodernism:
1. soft: rejects the absoluteness of science
(and other modern excesses) without
denying the possibility of truth.
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POSTMODERNISM
I. What is “postmodernism”?
A. Huston Smith
B. Millard Erickson’s “soft” and “hard”
postmodernism:
2. hard: rejects any notion of truth,
objectivity or rationality
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POSTMODERNISM
I. What is postmodernism”?
A. Huston Smith
B. Millard Erickson
C. Stanley Grenz:
From Mr. Spock to Data
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POSTMODERNISM
I. What is postmodernism”?
A. Huston Smith
B. Millard Erickson
C. Stanley Grenz
D. Walter Truett Anderson: From
“exoterica” to “esoterica”
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POSTMODERNISM
EXOTERIC
doctrinal
objective
external source of authority
revelation
exegesis
outward symbols
ESOTERIC
experiential
subjective
internal source of authority
mysticism
feelings
inward
transformation
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POSTMODERNISM
EXOTERIC
organizational structures
attempts to order society
worship as information
Holy Spirit wrote
the book
ESOTERIC
personal, individualistic
makes no such attempt
worship as celebration
Holy Spirit still inspires
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POSTMODERNISM
I. What is postmodernism”?
A. Huston Smith
B. Millard Erickson
C. Stanley Grenz
D. Walter Truett Anderson
E. Monte Cox
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POSTMODERNISM
WEST v. EAST
Mechanical Personal
Material Spiritual
Individual Communal
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POSTMODERNISM
MODERN
Be rational, be in control.
Plan ahead.
Big and complex is good.
POSTMODERN
Be loose, even lose
control.
Focus on the here and
now.
Simplify. Minimize.
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POSTMODERNISM
MODERN
We can do it.
Be aggressive, aspire to
greatness.
Law and order.
POSTMODERN
Go with the flow. Why
fight it?
Chill.
Spontaneity.
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POSTMODERNISM
II. What’s driving it?
A. Simplest answer?
Dissatisfaction with modernity.
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POSTMODERNISM
II. What’s driving it?
B. Change in the way we view knowledge (Erickson):
1) For moderns, knowledge is certain, objective and inherently good.
2) For postmoderns, knowledge is NOT certain, NOT objective and NOT necessarily good.
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POSTMODERNISM
II. What’s driving it?
C. Cynicism about
truth
1. “Why ask
why?”
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POSTMODERNISM
II. What’s driving it?
C. Cynicism about
truth
1. “Why ask
why?”
2. “Numb is the
New Deep”
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POSTMODERNISM
II. What’s driving it?
D. Four driving -isms:
1. Pluralism
a. urbanization
b. mass communication
c. immigration
d. increased mobility and exposure to others
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POSTMODERNISM
II. What’s driving it?
D. Four driving -isms:
1. Pluralism
2. Relativism
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POSTMODERNISM
II. What’s driving it?
2. Relativism
a. Three umpires:
1) “There’s balls and strikes and I call’em the way they are.”
(naive realist)
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POSTMODERNISM
II. What’s driving it?
2. Relativism
a. Three umpires:
2) “There’s balls and strikes and I call’em the way I see’ em.”
(perspectivalist or critical realist)
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POSTMODERNISM
II. What’s driving it?
2. Relativism
a. Three umpires:
3) “There’s balls and strikes, but they ain’t nothin’ til I call’ em.”
(postmodernist or radical perspectivalist)
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POSTMODERNISM
“There is no lighthouse
keeper. There is no
lighthouse. There is no
dry land. There are
only people living on
rafts made from their
own imaginations. And
there is the sea.”
(Dominic Crossan)
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POSTMODERNISM
II. What’s driving it?
D. Four driving -isms:
1. Pluralism
2. Relativism
3. Individualism
4. Materialism
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POSTMODERNISM
III. Implications for spiritual formation
A. Changes what it means to be
“spiritual.” Spirituality can be
customized from many options to suit
one’s own tastes.
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POSTMODERNISM
1. Phil Jackson’s “Zen Christianity”
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POSTMODERNISM
1. Phil Jackson’s “Zen Christianity”
2. “JewBu”
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POSTMODERNISM
1. Phil Jackson’s “Zen Christianity”
2. “JewBu”
3. Baha’i
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POSTMODERNISM
1. Phil Jackson’s “Zen Christianity”
2. “JewBu”
3. Baha’i
4. Oprah spirituality
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POSTMODERNISM
1. Phil Jackson’s “Zen Christianity”
2. “JewBu”
3. Baha’i
4. Oprah spirituality
5. Eat, Pray, Love
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POSTMODERNISM
Self-identified
“spiritual but not
religious” rose
from 24% in 2005
to 30% in 2009.
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POSTMODERNISM
“The trouble when people stop believing in God is not that they thereafter believe in
nothing; it is that they thereafter believe in everything.”
G. K. Chesterton
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POSTMODERNISM
III. Implications for spiritual formation
A. Changes what it means to be
“spiritual.”
B. Makes religious exclusivism (and
evangelism) extremely unpopular.
C. Frees us from modern excesses
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POSTMODERNISM
IV. Bridging the gap
A. Must retool in light of these changes.
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POSTMODERNISM
IV. Bridging the gap
A. Must retool in light of these changes.
B. Must build bridges using the raw
materials of postmodernism.
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POSTMODERNISM:
Good News/Bad News
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POSTMODERNISM
Humility . . . because
• “We know in part”
• We are messengers
• We follow Jesus
Confidence . . . because
• “We know in part”
• We are messengers
• We follow Jesus
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CURREN T TRENDS
PARADIGMS
LOSTMaking the Best of It
Part Three
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Jeremiah 29:11
11“For I know the plans I have for you,"
declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you
and not to harm you, plans to give you hope
and a future.
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Jeremiah 29:4-10
4This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of
Israel, says to all those I carried into exile
from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5"Build houses
and settle down; plant gardens and eat what
they produce. 6Marry and have sons and
daughters; find wives for your sons and give
your daughters in marriage, so that they too
may have sons and daughters. Increase in
number there; do not decrease.
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Jeremiah 29:4-10
7Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the
city to which I have carried you into exile.
Pray to the LORD for it, because if it
prospers, you too will prosper." 8Yes, this is
what the LORD Almighty, the God of
Israel, says: "Do not let the prophets and
diviners among you deceive you. Do not
listen to the dreams you encourage them to
have.
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Jeremiah 29:4-10
9They are prophesying lies to you in my name.
I have not sent them," declares the
LORD. 10This is what the LORD says:
"When seventy years are completed for
Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my
gracious promise to bring you back to this
place.
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Jeremiah 29:11
11“For I know the plans I have for you,"
declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you
and not to harm you, plans to give you hope
and a future.
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MAKING THE BEST OF IT
The relationship between “Christ and Culture”? Richard Niebuhr’s (1951) classic categories:
1. “Christ against culture.” Christians should withdraw from society to avoid being tainted by it.
2. “Christ of culture.” Christians should adapt the church to the culture in which they live.
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MAKING THE BEST OF IT
The relationship between “Christ and Culture”? Richard Niebuhr’s (1951) classic categories:
3. “Christ above culture.” God is “neutral” on “culture”; Christians should embrace great diversity when it comes to Christian faith and practice.
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MAKING THE BEST OF IT
The relationship between “Christ and Culture”? Richard Niebuhr’s (1951) classic categories:
4. “Christ and culture in paradox.” Christians must live in the tension between loyalty to Christ and conformity to culture.
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MAKING THE BEST OF IT
The relationship between “Christ and
Culture”? Richard Niebuhr’s (1951) classic
categories:
5. “Christ transforming culture.”
Christians live in the world to
transform the culture.
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MAKING THE BEST OF IT
Is John Stackhouse,
Jr. right? Is “Christ
and culture in
paradox” the best
answer option? Can
we only hope to
“make the best of
it?”
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MAKING THE BEST OF IT
Craig Van Gelder in
Missiology (October
2002) on postmodern
“bridges” and
“challenges” . . .
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MAKING THE BEST OF IT
Postmodern bridges—good news/bad news:
1. Spirituality
a. Good news: now people take for
granted the possibility of God or the
supernatural
b. Bad news: the relativistic, customized
and personalized views of “God.”
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MAKING THE BEST OF IT
Postmodern bridges—good news/bad news:
2. Community
a. Good news: tapping into the desire
among many to belong
b. Bad news: to get past their
objections to organized religion
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MAKING THE BEST OF IT
Postmodern bridges—good news/bad news:
3. Story/Narrative
a. Good news: to present the gospel as
story, not just principles and/or rules
b. Bad news: to not lose the truth in the
midst of stories that all seem equally
legitimate
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MAKING THE BEST OF IT
Postmodern bridges—good news/bad news:
4. Preference for the experiential
a. Good news: we do offer the possibility
of an experiential encounter with the
living God
b. Bad news: experiential faith must be
supported and sustained by an
intellectual understanding of the faith
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MAKING THE BEST OF IT
Postmodern bridges—good news/bad news:
5. Holism
a. Good news: the gospel properly
understood does present a holistic view
of creation
b. Bad news: presenting a Christian
holism that takes sin seriously
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MAKING THE BEST OF IT
Postmodern bridges—good news/bad news:
6. Individual preferences
a. Good news: Christ can come into any and all contexts.
b. Bad news: convincing people that the “finite” (God Incarnate as a Jew in ancient Palestine) can bear the “infinite” (the timeless message for all everywhere)
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MAKING THE BEST OF IT
Postmodern bridges—good news/bad news:
7. Irony and Paradox
a. Good news: You want irony? There’s
plenty of irony here!
b. Bad news: Can lead to relativism
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MAKING THE BEST OF IT
Postmodern bridges—good news/bad news:
8. Openness to different ways of “knowing”:
a. Good news: God can and does reveal
Himself through intuition and emotion.
b. Bad news: Grounding intuition and
emotion in the facts of the gospel and getting
our own folks to embrace these other ways
of knowing.