The Book of Deuteronomy and Post-modern Christianity

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There is no one pope or creed that we can go to in order to ask pivotal questions and the history of the movement is too short to look for consistency. But from my experience in and reading of the emerging church, there is no reason to believe, at this point, that emergers deny any essential doctrine of the Christian faith. Remember, the soft postmodern mindset of the emerging church does not deny the existence of truth or the sinfulness of man or the atoning work of Christ. Hard postmodernism is necessarily antithetical to Christianity, but the soft postmodernism of the emerging church does not have any confessional or philosophical bent that would prevent them from being truly Christian.

Having said this, let me give the positives and negatives that I see with the soft postmodernism of the emerging Church.

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Soft postmodernism recognizes the need of mystery in the life of the Christian. We will all have some surprises when Christ returns.

From this we can learn a great deal. This ought to allow us to have some tension in our beliefs. Unfortunately, this maverick method of theological studies—all I need is me, my Bible, and the Holy Spirit—is something that we inherited from the humanism of the enlightenment. We exist in a community of believers who all have different circumstances which contribute to the truth which we seek. God is not working with us as individuals, but people who exist in a body of believers. This body of believers is made up of those who are alive and dead. The contributions of the saints of the past are still vital to our understanding.

God did not start working this century or at the building of your local church. These are all positives that the emerging church— that soft postmodernism—can teach the Church. As well, soft postmodernism has brought focus back to our method of doing theology. With its distrust in tradition, it has made the church look with suspicion upon unfounded traditions.

Fundamentalism started as a good thing and then became pharisaic with convictions preached from the mountain tops that are not found in Scripture.

Postmodern theology

Postmodernism unmasked these negative aspects of the fundamentalist church. Postmodernism is in rebellion against traditionalism, and this is not such a bad thing. The soft postmodernism of the emerging church is continually on the brink of compromise. As we said before, soft postmoderns are unwilling to stand for things of which they are uncertain. While this sounds good and noble, there are always going to be many things which we are less certain of than others.

Where does one draw the line of certainty? How certain does one have to be before he or she can hold and articulate their beliefs with conviction? I, for example, am not certain with mathematical certainty that the sun will rise tomorrow. Does this make me irresponsible and arrogant to believe that the sun will rise? In fact, it would be the very definition of insanity for me to demand mathematical certainty about the rising of the sun.

I have good reason for believing the sun will rise because of the amount of evidence. Therefore, I have a moral obligation to believe and plan according to the evidence. The evidence itself determines the level of certainty about the issue. It is the same with our beliefs. There are very few things in this life that I can claim with intellectual honesty to be one hundred percent certain about.

This overblown view of the need for absolute certainly or nothing can easily lead to moral anarchy. There is a formal name for this: This is the problem that hard postmodernism produces.

It is important for Christians to hold many of our beliefs in tension, but these beliefs must be limited to those that the Bible does not speak clearly on. Views about the nature and application of the atonement are not qualified for this type of uncertainty. Views about predestination, while there is legitimate room for disagreement, do not need to be sacrificed in the name of love.

One wonders if these were not important, why did God bother including them in Scripture? As well, while soft postmoderns seem to evidence humility with regards to their ability to come to know truth, this humility can often be misleading. While this could evidence a respect for the fall and its resulting effects upon the mind noetic effects of sin , it could also be because of the postmodern tendency to seek acceptance even when the cost is compromise.

The stronger your convictions, the more chance you have to be rejected. Soft postmodernism has few convictions, and this is not a positive.

Emerging churches, from what I have seen, are not attracting as many people from the culture as you might think. The ideology of compromise is not that attractive. We can have strong conviction about non-essentials as well as unifying under the essentials. As well, the Church needs to have balance with regards to the role of tradition.

While tradition can be a bad thing when it becomes baseless folk theology, it is also a good thing that needs to be embraced as a mouth piece of God. Not in the Roman Catholic sense, but in the sense that God is a God of history. He can be found in tradition many times. Tradition, kept in check, can be a beautiful thing.

The emerging Church needs to be careful that it does not have an overly selective use of tradition, either. Often times emerging churches can be found jettisoning certain traditions without consideration. The emerging church often uncritically accepts the earlier traditions of the church fathers, yet denies the Reformation a place.

I guess the Reformation is too divisive. In sum, hard postmodernism should be seen as a threat. It is not possible to be a hard postmodernist and be a Christian. Soft postmodernism on the other hand presents the church with many lost virtues of grace and irenics theology done peaceably.

Postmodern theology - Wikipedia

For this we can be thankful. But we must guard the truths of Scripture with the conviction that the evidence has presented. In short, let us be balanced in our understanding of the issues on the table and let us not lose the conviction that the truths of Scripture produce. Thanks to all my Introduction to Theology students for your editorial suggestions.

Our Lord knows that I need them! Handing Off the Baton 2 Timothy 4: Walking the Romans Road. Facing Winter Seasons 2 Timothy 4: You are here Home. Understanding the Postmodern Mind and the Emerging Church. Hard Postmodernism Unfortunately, the allusiveness of the movement in Christian circles compounds the problem.

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Separate different tags with a comma. To include a comma in your tag, surround the tag with double quotes. Skip to content Skip to search. Home This edition , English, Book edition: Author Baxter, James W. Deuteronomy -- Commentaries Bible.

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