Blogging in a postmodern world Blogging is the perfect medium for the postmodern world. Postmodernism says that there is no one objective truth but, instead, each person's experience allows them to understand their own truth. Our friends at Wikipedia can help with the definition of this a bit (taken from the entry for Postmodern philosophy):

The writings of Lyotard were largely concerned with the role of narrative in human culture, and particularly how that role has changed as we have left modernity and entered a "postindustrial" or postmodern condition. He argued that modern philosophies legitimized their truth-claims not (as they themselves claimed) on logical or empirical grounds, but rather on the grounds of accepted stories (or "metanarratives") about knowledge and the world -- what Wittgenstein termed "language-games." He further argued that in our postmodern condition, these metanarratives no longer work to legitimize truth-claims. He suggested that in the wake of the collapse of modern metanarratives, people are developing a new "language game" -- one that does not make claims to absolute truth but rather celebrates a world of ever-changing relationships (among people and between people and the world).

Thanks to the Internet and tools like Blogger, everyone now has the ability to post their thoughts and feelings for all to read. And everyone's opinions are equally valid, right? Well, no.

As Christians, what are we to make of this? Mac over at Tennapel.com has this interesting post discussing postmodernism and Christianity. He makes some good points, but he left something out. First this:

Therein lays the key, because it is no more necessary that a new convert believe there is objective truth than the Jewish converts in Galatia needed circumcision to become followers of Jesus (and Paul suggests that those who would insist upon that condition should just go all the way and castrate themselves). The insistence is first and foremost on faith alone and making real connection with God in Christ.

After that, all of our theologies are flawed and mirror dim.

Do I believe there is objective truth with a capital “T”? Well, yes. I’m just not the authoritative repository of it, and neither are you.

No...but the Word of God is. We must always clearly state that the Word of God is objective truth. However, this does not mean we cannot have open discussions with folks. He continues...

Well after hitting a few Christian blogs on Postmodernism, it became clear to me that while subjectivism is a philosophical issue (it isn’t a practical one) the real resistance in Christian circles is the utter distaste for dialogue and biblical narratives.

It’s just so much work to actually study the biblical narratives! Can’t someone just boil it all down for me in tract form? Oh look! They did!

And openly and respectfully talking with people? Gah! Can’t we just judge them and be done with it?

...

But I’ll point you to two example for Postmodern consideration. The first is the woman at Jacob’s well in John 4. The second is Philip out in the desert with the Ethiopian eunuch (toward the end of Acts 8).

The examples show how the Lord found people where they were and used their stories as a way of helping them to faith. This I wholeheartedly agree with. We must be willing to dialog with everyone and meet them where they are.

This is where blogs come in to play. A blog allows us to see people where they are. It helps us understand the different philosophies, trains of thought, and logic that is being used to understand the world. I read blogs both to enlighten myself as well as to understand the world around me.

It is imperative that we understand who the person (or persons) behind a blog are before we begin reading so that we know how to approach it. History teaches us that those with great oratory powers could persuade great numbers of people to follow them; so it is with blogging. Someone who is a talented blogger can begin gaining influence over their readers.

That being said, I follow the practice of reading at least one blog a day of someone I admire and one blog a day of someone with whom I do not agree. This helps me understand others and give me the ability to meet them where they are.

For me, some good blogs of those I do admire are:

• Hugh Hewitt
  
• Doug Tennapel
  
• Mark D. Roberts
  
• John Mark Reynolds
  

A couple blogs I keep up with from those whom I do not always agree:

• The Huffington Post
  
• CrossLeft
  
• apophenia (blog of an IS researcher in my field)
  

I am not scared of postmodernism; I want to use the power it brings. In this postmodern world, we cannot persuade people to follow Jesus through logic alone. We need to engage them where they are, hear their stories, understand their worldview. Not only will this allow us to reach others, it may allow God to work in our lives in new ways.  ¶ 6:58 AM 1 comments