Post-Modern, Post-Christian, huh?

There is a lot of talk by theologians, concerned lay and ordained leaders, as well as sociologists about the changes our society is experiencing and what these changes mean for Christianity. Yet, the average Christian is usually unable to name these trends, though most of us are able to tell things are not what they once use to be as far as the Church and society are concerned. Sociologists are telling us that we are living in a society that is making the following transitions (among others):

From Modernism to Post-Modernism

Modernism was a way of thinking about the world that was rooted in science, logic, and a relatively stable Western world. Modernism is still a powerful force across the planet and many people (particularly Baby Boomers and older generations) tend to view things from a modernistic perspective. Modernism holds that there are in fact real answers to the questions we might ask about life and these answers our found through science, logic and for many moderns, religion.

Post-modernism denies that there are any real answers to any questions (though all questions are real and meaningful). This is because no one has the ability to be truly objective and thus any answer is subjective and thus flawed from the get-go. Post-modern folks are very skeptical about religious truth claims and tend to believe that spiritual and religious truth is purely subjective, a matter of personal opinion (this is a pretty loose summary of modernism and post-modernism.

From a Christian Society to a Post-Christian Society

There was a time in the United States (as recent as fifty years ago, depending on where you were living) where Christianity and American society were mutually supportive of one another. To be a good citizen meant you were also a good Christian. During this time American Christianity tended to serve as a “chaplain” to society supporting its leaders, serving as its conscience, and encouraging its social values and practices. Pastors were often the most respected members of their communities and the Church had a very public role to play across the spectrum: political, social, familial, educational, religious, etc.

This period of time is quickly coming to an end (and already has in many parts of the country). Increasingly, expressions of Christian faith and practice are being forbidden from public venues and limited to the realm of private belief. Also, you no longer need to attend church or believe in the Christian faith to receive education, health-care, or adequate social standing in society. Research (click here) shows that the younger generations (Generation X and Y) are indeed very spiritual, but they don’t tend to view the Church as being a spiritual place, instead they view it as an institution that is outdated and out of touch with reality (whatever they may be.. of course). The result of all this, is that increasingly, North American Christians are becoming, and will become (like European Christians are finding themselves) more and more marginalized and more and more a minority.

This actually could, in God’s providence, be a good thing. I say that because this transition in our society is forcing Christians to think about what does it really mean to be a follower of Jesus, and what are our distinctive values, and what does it mean to live as a minority people surrounded by others who do not necessarily share our beliefs? It is also forcing congregations to re-think how they organize themselves and what their real purposes are. I am hopeful that in the midst of these societal transitions God will lead us back to Christian basics and back to discipleship – the result being a strengthened and more faithful North American Church.