03/23/2016
Postmodernity is that which follows modernity. Yet it is a radical change, especially from that which was moral, ethical, and spiritual. It is a change in thinking (philosophical) and acting (cultural).
Academic or philosophical postmodernism is reflected by emptiness of existence. Yet most Americans have no concept of philosophical postmodernism. They just live in the world into which they were born and try to make the most of it.
1. Acknowledge your culture-encoded version of Christianity. It’s important for an apologist to look at his faith through the eyeglasses of his culture so he can more effectively communicate his faith in a way that it’s understandable. Post-moderns are often sensitive to overstatements that come across more as dogmatism than as someone still in the process of learning and growing.
2. Affirm truth, love, and compassion. The apologist must know the truth of Scripture and communicate it with love and compassion. When postmoderns knows you care about them, they will listen to your message. Postmodernism tends to chasten the know-it-all arrogance of a modern world. Only God knows all truth; no one believer has a full grasp of truth. The apologist, like all believers, must assume the attitude of a learner and a fellow traveler on the road of life.
Christians can even agree with some of the relativism that postmoderns are quick to notice on certain issues. Without compromising on the absolutes, without denying the claims of Scripture, we can acknowledge matters on which we can’t know all things and which God hasn’t spoken.
3. Magnify the importance of faith perspectives. Realize that all conclusions involve a degree of faith. Science doesn’t know all things. Science can’t examine all data, and the human mind is not infallible in arriving at conclusions. So there is an element of faith when we come to a conclusion.
4. Show respect. The desire to be fair—to treat others no more harshly than one treats oneself or wants to be treated—is precious to postmodernists. So speak to them with respect to their opinions and the way they arrive at conclusions, while showing them that Christianity is a better way.
5. Learn to listen to postmodern stories. In the postmodern world, we need to tell our own personal stories: unsanitized, rough and lumpy, not squeezed into a formula
tolerance as “tolerating or being tolerant, especially of the beliefs and customs of others, even though these are not like your own.” Therefore, to tolerate means to allow, permit, or recognize and respect others’ beliefs and customs without sharing them.
