Postmodern Crackup III

Thinking more about Colson's article and discussing it a bit at breakfast with Tom, I wanted to reflect on one major issue with postmodernity.

As I began to explore different voices, especially Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington, I was really surprised by how conservative they were. Their doctrine, their belief in Christ, their reliance on the Biblical text, their understanding of the whole of church history, their theology of God, their view of the role of men and women, ... all very, very conservative.

From Mars Hill Doctrinal Statement (sounds modern)

The scriptures ~ we believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the verbally inspired word of God, the final authority for faith and life, inerrant in the original writings, infallible and God-breathed (II Tim 3:16, 17; II Peter 1:20,21; Matt 5:18;John 16:12,13).

From Mars Hill Core Value - Beauty (sounds postmodern)

The Gospel is the story of God told from His perspective, to His glory. Only God is bigger than the Gospel. At first it sounds like a foolish paradoxical mystery. And so we try to make it sound more rational, believable and sane. It is not. The Gospel is neither rational nor irrational, but trans-rational.

They are often liberal in their speech, using words we would consider curse words, even in their preaching. Some, like Cooper (which may be partly because he is Canadian), are a bit more liberal politically. Some, like Hopkins, much more.

So Colson looks at some demographics, talks to some college students, and finds that they are more conservative about sex and marriage than their parents, and he assumes that since they aren't liberal, they also aren't postmodern.

Not so. It is just that it doesn't look like we thought it would. But they are definitely postmodern (or at the very least -- not modern).