Due to travel and work schedules, no posts will be forthcoming during the next two weeks. Lord willing, see you again around 25 June. Until then, live by faith; walk in the light.

Postmodernism
…and Truth

In his essay, “Truth, Contemporary Philosophy and the Postmodern Turn”, philosopher JP Moreland has this to say about the relationship of truth and postmodernism:

As a philosophical standpoint, postmodernism is primarily a reinterpretation of what knowledge is what counts as knowledge. More broadly, it represents a form of cultural relativism about such things as reality, truth, reason, value, linguistic meaning, the self, and other notions. On a postmodernist view, there is no such thing as objective reality, truth, value, reason, and so forth. All these are social constructions, creations of linguistic practices, and as such are relative not to individuals, but to social groups that share a narrative.

To Moreland and many others this denigration of truth is the key problem with postmodernism. This is a major problem for Christians who believe the truth can be known in Christ, for He is the way, truth and life (John 14:6). The Gospel is not a social construct but it is God’s good news. It is a story for all people for all times. It is not relative to a certain time or place.

Truth is not created by people it is discovered and truth is not dependent on belief to be true. This is why postmoderns reject the correspondence view of truth [a proposition is true when it corresponds to reality]. When truth is constructed in the postmodern sense, how can it exist independently of those who construct it? Truth is not dependent on integrating it into an individual belief system and as such, it not a creation of believers. Objective truth exists whether you, I or JP Moreland believes it.

There is more than a little disingenuousness in the postmodern position on truth. Esther Meek, Professor of Philosophy at Geneva College in her book Longing to Know, is extremely critical of the irresponsibility of failing to recognize objective truth:

It is not responsible to deny objective truth and reality in knowing; it is irresponsible. It is not responsible to make the human knower or community of knowers the arbiters of a private truth and reality; it is irresponsible.

The postmodern view of truth fosters irresponsibility and makes our individual decisions irrelevant to the overall good of humanity. Why? Because we are responsible for constructing our own truth for our own space and time and there is no reality or truth that binds us all together as humans created in God’s image. We are not responsible to and for each other. There is only self-seeking in a culture of private truths. There is an absence of loving one another and your neighbor. There is no imperative to proclaim the truth of the Gospel.

Postmodernism and truth is a challenge to Christians today. Truth is exclusive in and through Jesus Christ not a choice by or construct of individuals or communities. It requires courage and resolve to defend the truth in today’s cultural climate. But, it must be done or the Gospel is lost in a sea of relative truths. The Gospel is the only hope for all mankind. Moreland calls postmodernism “intellectual pacifism” in its treatment of truth. We must take Paul’s advice and put on the full armor of God and boldly proclaim the Truth of the Gospel [Eph. 6: 10-20].