A Tiny Bit on Postmodern Christians

I write this evening a headier sort of post. One of the things I am doing on my break is reading books which I have accumulated over the last few months that I have shelved neatly on the ledge of my bedside table. I am reading, right now, What Would Jesus Deconstruct? by John Caputo. More on the title, and the origins of the "what would Jesus do " do perhaps later in the week. "Deconstruction" is one of the words used in describing postmodern philosophy. All that we thought we could count on in the world is questioned and contradicted. The Enlightenment, with its scientific formulas, and reverence for logic and the mechanical, is passing away, those philosophers will tell us. We are all creatures of our own social context--what is true for us clearly is not always true everywhere. No one religion has the right to claim authority. This is what many postmodernists believe.

But there is a group of us, who strongly believe in the truth of Christ, who would still claim to be postmodern thinkers. In this book, Caputo makes the case that Jesus himself was a deconstructionist---with his coming and his life and words, he "deconstructed" religious practices and what constituted religious authority at his time. Since I have just started this book, I am not exactly sure where we are being taken with this.

When I first came into contact with the tenets of postmodern philosophy, through the eyes of Christian writers who did not reject all of it out of hand, but were trying to thoughtfully see how this phase of our social environment we call postmodernism calls the church to a different kind of life, I was fascinated. And captivated. So much I have read continues to call to a deep place within myself that speaks to me when I think about our denomination's structure and history. I would make a case that John Wesley was a deconstructionist. In fact I have.

Our faith expressions today, especially of those of my kids' generation, are much more open to mystery (and being comfortable with that); much more experiential; and much less based on what dogma is taught in what church, and much more interested in whether there is authenticity of relationship and a place for expression through the arts.

Somehow, I still feel as if I am supposed to be a voice for this---to be a person with one foot in one age and one foot in another---but not in a confused way, but in a bridge way. Okay, the metaphor got mixed up here, but I hope you postmoderns, especially, know what I mean...