POSTMODERNISM AND THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION
OF CHRISTIANITY
INTRODUCTION
A table is a
table unless we call it something else.
We create stories. We construct reality. George Carlin said, “The sky is
blue because we say so”.
A DESCRIPTION OF STORY
Postmodernists
talk about truth as a story (or narrative). Every person and each population
has their stories about what is real. The terms, truth, story and reality can
be used interchangeably.
What happens
to truth if it is not absolute and instead is a socially constructed reality? Truth becomes uncertain. Who says what is
true is true. There are many truths from which to select. Whoever has power creates
truth. Truth is not an objective-historical-fact.
The American
Dream is a shared story we (the majority) believe to be true. The stories we
tell ourselves (or are told to us by others and the media) become The Truth. In
this country, free enterprise capitalism is a presuppositional Truth.
A story can be a metanarrative, (e.g. the scientific method).
A meta-narrative is a world view. Christianity is a metanarrative. Metanarratives claim to have The Truth. Postmodernism
does not agree. Metanarratives are stories created by society (e.g. the American
female and male).
There can be
no God without humans who speak about God through stories. Analogy: Does a tree
make a sound if it falls and no one hears it? Without humans it is a moot
point. It makes no difference. If we
say, yes, we still have to create a social reality called noise. It is
impossible for humans to imagine a falling tree that does not make a sound. Postmodernism:
God can’t exist without our knowing God.
Which is
right: Resurrection or Reincarnation? It is enough to affirm the truth of the
Resurrection for Christians without denigrating Reincarnation for
Buddhists. A postmodernist would say
there are many faith metanarratives. Social constructionist thinking is
tolerant and respectful of religious differences.
A DESCRIPTION OF TRUTH
Christian
truth is exemplified by God’s exclusivity. Descriptions of the nature of God
include: God is Love. God is Truth. God is the Trinity. Christian truth is true
for Christians. It is not true in the same way for Hindus, Jews, and Muslims.
Each has beliefs that are true for them. Is there room for Christian truth to
assert itself as true and not claim to have all the truth about God? Postmodernists
would claim religious truth is like the elephant story. Just as each blind man touched a different
part of the elephant so each religion knows a truth.
Protestants
have denominational differences with each other. The problem is not with the
Baptist story or the Lutheran story. The problem is with those who believe they
have The whole Truth about God.
Peace would prevail if it were a matter of which truths to
follow. But that is not what happens. Truth, says the postmodernist, is
political; from institutions such as business, religion, and families to laws
and regulations of government. Since truth is politicalized, issues of power
arise. Who has the power becomes a
postmodern question.
What happens when
the truth becomes an objective-historical-fact?
Competition occurs. Differences are suspect. Consensus and cooperation
are difficult. Similarities are emphasized. “And so it goes.” The search for
The Truth can become futile, rigid, and either/or thinking. A search for religious truth as an objective-historical-fact has
led to countless wars, injustices, and millions of dead.
A DESCRIPTION OF VALUES
Postmodern
thinking is value driven. It advocates different realities based upon
diversity, pluralism, inclusivity and particularity. It wants non-dominant
stories (e.g. LGBT) to be heard and included in the dominant stories. There are stories of reality which the
dominant society judges or condemns as Un-American or Un-Christian.
In the
United States the Truth is all men [sic] are created equal. Postmodern thinking
and socially constructed ethics are not value free. A particular value is
determined by whichever majority rules.
A question for the social
constructionist is, “Who says?” “Who says” is not relativistic. It is power
driven. Rights and values are socially constructed by those with power who can
enforce their values. Consumerism is a
powerful shared economic truth in this country.
Is there a
difference between our truth as
understood by a postmodern thinker and the truth according to a modern thinker?
There is if we believe the emphasis is upon our
truth or the truth. How do we know the difference between the two? It depends.
In Christianity there are two ways to establish truth. One is through Divine
Revelation and the other is though a Divine Revelation as it has been revealed
to us. The former assumes an objective-historical-fact can occur independent of our perception or experience.
It is one thing to say God created the heavens and the earth as an
objective-historic-fact (truth) and
another to confess (our truth) that
God created the heavens and the earth.
Yada, a
Hebrew word, describes another kind of knowing; relationship knowing.
Epistemology asks how we know what we know. Postmodern thinkers say we know
through relational knowing. How do we
know God; as an objective-historical-fact or through a relationship?
It depends. If
it is possible to know something as a fact, the truth can be too. On the other
hand, when we are in relationship we have our
Truth. Relationship knowing is enough. Proof is not necessary. Relational truth (to be known by our God and
to know our God) is to have a cup that runs over.
To claim our God as “the Way, the Truth, and the
Life” makes it unnecessary to consider “our” as an objective-historical-fact. God
is a social construct. Does this mean that God is no more than a projection of
our ideal selves? No. It means God is relational. Would God exist if there were
no humans with which to relate? Postmodernists claim without humans to know God, God is nonexistent.
Relationship
knowing is a threat to the faith of the modern thinking Christian. Modern
thinking calls any truth fact that can be objectively proven by science, math,
laws of physics, the theory of evolution, the rational mind, or some other metanarrative.
A phrase
that is crucial to social constructionist thinking is the power of pronouns.
Each pronoun reveals a truth about the so called Truth. There are plenty of
examples of pronoun power; from the Ten Commandments to the Great Commandment,
from the Creeds to Scripture. “Our understanding
of the truth, about the Holy Trinity”
is our truth. We believe God gives us the ability to conceive of God
through the church’s socially constructed Scriptures and Creeds.
The our statements in “Our father…” our faith,
and our God are important. Not only
are these personal and communal pronouns they are social constructionists’
pronouns.
Does saying
God is our truth diminish or discount
God? There is a postmodern God: The God who is for us. God as an
objective-historical-fact is the problem for postmodernism. Some religious people say Divine
Revelation is objective and therefore proves God’s existence. While God as an
objective-historical-fact can be used to prove God is God, our truth statements speak about the God of the Bible relationally.
“Nothing can separate us from the
love of God…” “We love because God
first loved us.”
The
Christian Bible is a story of God’s love for God’s people and creation. If you
want to know God read the Bible. All
revelation has been revealed (and still is) to people. People are the
intermediaries between God and people. “You
shall love the Lord your God…” This
is a socially constructed truth written by the people of the Old and New Testaments.
SUMMARY
Reality is perception
and perception is reality according to postmodernists. There are Christians who
believe their perception about the Trinity is the only Ultimate Reality. It is not enough for them to say they have a
truth about our God but that it is The Truth about God. It is not necessary to
believe in the Triune God as an objective reality. This in no way minimizes the
importance of the Doctrine of the Trinity. Rather, this is a declaration of
faith. It is a humbling relief not to argue or worry about whether we have got
The Truth. We can hold to our faith
without trying to lord it over other religious truths.
We can
confess God as Father, Jesus Christ as Savior, and the Holy Spirit as Comforter.
Believers can say, “As for me and my people we
will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). and
“walk humbly with our God” (Micah
6:8).
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