An Emergent Mess

I chuckle at the traffic sign stating there are no traffic signs (47 seconds). This is a classic example of self-contradiction illustrating the suspect grid that at least some emergent church folk operate. I will return to emergent thoughts in a minute, but first we must unearth the currents of thought behind the exterior of emergent. The undercurrent is postmodernism.

The philosophical ideas of postmodernism leaves its hopeful learners scratching their heads. Dizziness and vomiting shortly set in, followed by a demand for full tuition reimbursement due to the fact that they paid big bucks to learn truth only to be taught an intricate system of high sounding language announcing that there is no way to access objective truth. The self contradiction of postmodern thinking from the start in stating the inability to access objective truth claims while this very claim itself is an attempt at an overarching truth claim leaves me staring at the ceiling in hopelessness.

Postmodernism runs as a deconstructive school of thought that likes to destroy attempted statements of truth. To learn more about postmodernism’s ties to deconstructionism you’ll have to turn elsewhere. I lack confidence in my ability to state this relationship adequately, and therefore will not attempt to brush off the dust from my philosophy books and speak authoritatively on which I am ill equipped to handle.

I do know that when emergent meets postmodernism the games begin. And the games usually mean some guy in a coffee shop sipping drinks I don’t even know how to pronounce is “dialoguing” with others and making a whole lot of money. This is often done with playful cleverness, wit, and word play. That’s how its pumped into the mainstream with the popularly witty books that Brian McLaren is able to sell by the truck loads. In a “Generous Orthodoxy,” McLaren makes money by turning words and theological concepts upside down, holding them by their shoes, shake out all their meaning, and returning them upright with new imported meaning stuffed into his victims. He tears down words, and reconstructs them, but with his own new definitions. The result is that you’re reading the same words, but completely redefined, making the language now very confusing for anyone trying to understand historic orthodox Christian thought.

At the end of the day, language becomes laughable because the hardened postmodernist knows with this and other ills how futile are his hopes to convey meaning, intent, and any remotely meaningful truth. Language becomes a broken vehicle incapable of hauling meaning and truth. Postmodernism, put briefly, is the denial that we can have access to objective truth claims.

Bringing this strain of thought back into emergent and Christianity, we see that emergent’s association with postmodernism is a problem because Christianity’s special revelation, namely the Bible, at its core claims to make objective truth claims. If there are not notions of truth capable of grounding one’s life, but only a relativist dialoguing but never concretely settling upon anything muddy mess, then a firm foundation is ripped out from under a Christian’s feet, and all that can be left is emergent “dialogue” that doesn’t seem to have a end target in mind, namely, because by definition, it cannot claim to ever have access to such an end target.

Disclaimer: This is my current take and understanding of these issues. I’m by no means an expert, it’s just the sense I’ve formulated from my knowledge thus far on these issues. I’m sure, just as there is with practically anything, some who align themselves with certain strains of thought, they tweak and nuance their views and therefore fall outside my categorical understandings of how the current Christian milieu is being formed by the strains of thoughts addressed in this post.