Monday, October 20, 2008

Truth, Christ and the Postmodern World

Well I read Voddie Baucham Jr's paper on Truth and the Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World found in the book The Supremacy Of Christ in a Postmodern World (edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor) last night. Through the questions 1) Who am I? 2) Why am I here? 3) What is wrong with the world? and 4) How can what is wrong be made right? he juxtaposes Christian theism with postmodern secular humanism.
Baucham Jr based his Christian theistic answers from Colossians 1:12 - 21. He works consistently from a reformant styled theology and was a good read in that respect. For example 'Who am I? The crown and glory of the creation of God. What is wrong with the world? What is wrong is me.'
In regards to the postmodern worldview he makes some interesting points against the consumer styled society. For example;

'What if we saw our studies as stewardship? What if we raised our children not to go and do something just because it would make us proud but instead raised them so that they would discover the way that God has put them together?...What if we continually taught them to focus on the supremacy of Christ in truth and how he relates to our very purpose for existing?'

However, while making these points it seems his view on postmodernsim is pessimistic and possibly simplistic. He arrives at the conclusion that the postmodern worldview leaves humanity

'empty and hopeless; man is left worthless, and you are left to pursue your own satisfaction and never find it.'


However despite this feeling I enjoyed his analysis of postmodernism more than the Christian theistic break down.
In the end he arrives the anticipated place where Jesus is supreme and the basis for Christian truth. From him we derive our meaning, purpose and a directive. I didn't find much new in the Christian breakdown, but I enjoyed his analysis of the postmodern worldview, despite the pessismistic feeling.

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