Postmodernism, Modernism and Theology

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Doing versus Being

Posted Friday, January 05, 2007 by Charlie Trimm
Categories: Culture and Theology   Comments: 1
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I was reading 1 Corinthians 6 the other day and I came across the command to not associate with a so-called brother who was covetous, along with a list of other bad things. But when was the last time you saw church discipline being conducted because of coveting? I never have, and I come from a church where church discipline is practiced. As I was pondering why this was, it occured to me that perhaps this is another effect of the Enlightenment and the rise of science. Attention was given to things we could prove and show by argument. If you could not show prove it objectively, then it was subjective and worthless as far as proving anything. Hence, church discipline was done only on things that could be "proven" objectively. The focus is no longer on being godly, but on acting godly. While I do not want to undervalue acting godly, it seems that we focus so much on doing that we forget about being. As another example, look at many evangelical. books about developing a heart for God. What do they tell us: they give us a list of things to do. We need to focus on being godly and loving God as well as living godly. Read more of Doing versus Being

Of Umpires and Postmodernism

Posted Sunday, January 21, 2007 by Charlie Trimm
Categories: Culture and Theology   Comments: 23
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My mom is taking a few seminary classes and recently I was helping her study for a test for a theology class. In one of her textbooks (Survival Guide to Theology ), I came across a very helpful way to illustrate the difference between modernism and postmodernism. This topic is an important one today for all areas of life, including theology, and being able to illustrate the difference helps us understand the difference. Read more of Of Umpires and Postmodernism

JP Moreland, the IFCA and Philosophy

Posted Friday, March 09, 2007 by Charlie Trimm
Categories: Culture and Theology   Comments: 19
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This week was the NW regional meeting of the IFCA. Since I grew up in an IFCA church and am now serving there, I have been going to them whenever I am able, and this one was an opportunity I did not want to miss since the main speaker was JP Moreland. From the moment I heard that he was going to speak, I thought it rather a strange choice and wondered how he would be received. For those of you who do not remember, John MacArthur was almost kicked out of the IFCA a few years ago for his views on the sonship of Christ and the blood of Christ (Further details hereand here ). Then the seminary associated with MacArthur, Master's Seminary, was begun partly because Talbot Seminary (at Biola) was going too liberal, so some of the professors left there for Master's. Now the link in all this is that JP Moreland is a professor at Talbot. So someone too liberal for Masters who is too liberal for the IFCA is coming to speak! I guessed it would be an interesting time, and it certainly proved to be. Here are some of the interesting things that he said. Read more of JP Moreland, the IFCA and Philosophy

What happens if God dies?

Posted Thursday, April 05, 2007 by Charlie Trimm
Comments: None
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I've been reading a rather thick but good book recently, entitled Is there a  meaning in this Text? by Kevin Vanhoozer. I am only a 1/4 of the way through it (It's 500 pages and dense reading) but he presents some fascinating points. One of his claims (at least, I think he makes the claim and is not just quoting another idea) is that once God is taken out of the picture (as in secularism), then it is only a matter of time before the author gets removed as well (as in postmodernism). In postmodernism, the author no longer determines the meaning of the text, but texts are essentially removed from the author. Vanhoozer notes that when life is separated from God, then the logical conclusion is that there is no center of existence in the big picture. And if there is no big center, then why should each text also be restricted to one meaning? I just thought it interesting. Read more of What happens if God dies?

The Anti-Formula

Posted Sunday, April 08, 2007 by Charlie Trimm
Comments: 4
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I've been pondering recently the use of formulas. Mostly this has been from my reading of material from the emerging church. They were talking about how they strongly dislike formulas, such as in church planting. I've heard stories of church planters who plant a church and the first Sunday there is already a constitution and a fully functioning church. The emerging church on the other hand spends time in the community trying to figure out what the people are like before they start the church. Now I am not happy with where the emerging church ends up taking their ideas, but the basic foundation is good: formulas can be bad. This anti-formulic thought has implications for every aspect of our Christianity. How do we do church? How do we counsel people? How do we have fellowship? How do we teach? The list could go on for a long time. Now to balance this, there are some formulaic ideas that we have to follow. For example, if a friend of mine tells me that he is sleeping with somone else's wife, I will formulaicly tell him he is sinning. Even here, though, how I tell him will differ depending on a variety of circumstances in the context. My thought overall is that we need to be careful how we use formulas. Modernism, as it was closely associated with science and rules, made formulas for everything. Postmodernism, with its disregard for consistency, has rejected formulas all together. We need to find the middle ground. Read more of The Anti-Formula