Western evangelicalism and 'postmodernism'

Josh Moody  |  Features  |  Letter from America
Date posted:  1 Jun 2010
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I understand the normal apologetic narrative of evangelicalism’s standard engagement with contemporary culture, and by and large agree with it.

Typically, we are told, that we now live in an age where ‘modern’ scientific certainty has given way, or is in process of giving way, to more ‘postmodern’ relativistic assumptions about the meaning of life. Along with this shift, and at its root, is an epistemological issue, which impacts how our language, conversation, preaching, evangelism and truth claims are made, or heard to be made at the least.

And connected to it is a different attitude towards morality, whereby the queen of moral achievement is a tolerant society where there is freedom to think and be whatever you want, as long as you also accept that anyone else can think and be whatever they want. This is not a free society in the ‘old’, ‘modern’, sense but relativistic pluralism, where truth is dependent on perspective and whereby there is nothing worse than saying or thinking that someone else’s behaviour is wrong, or even suspect.

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