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https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6631.1997.tb00056.x
Copy DOIJournal: International Review of Mission | Publication Date: Oct 1, 1997 |
Introduction The thesis of this essay is that a Christian critique of modernity(2) would include an examination of ourselves as Christ's church to see how we may become authentic, contextually-appropriate hermeneutical communities of gospel in a postmodern world.(3) Peter Drucker pointed out that, Every few hundred years in Western history there occurs a sharp transformation. We cross what. . .I have called a divide. Within a few short decades, society rearranges itself - its worldview; its basic values; its social and political structure; its arts; its key institutions. Fifty years later, there is a new world. And people born then cannot even imagine world in which their grandparents lived and into which their own parents were born. . . . We are currently living through just such a transformation.(4) There seem to be at least three ways we could go about reflecting on present crisis of transformation of modernity/postmodernity with reference to church. First, we could follow predominant tendency found in philosophical analysis of modernity and postmodernity and deal with ecclesiology from point of view of epistemology. In this case we might examine modernity and church in terms of church's presuppositions with regard to knowing: how we know, how we know with certainty, and how we know that what we know with certainty is true.(5) Second, we could approach topic through a accommodational or apologetic focus, standing with our feet placed in what we consider to be church and looking outward at modern/postmodern world in which we live. This would lead us to discuss ways in which postmodern critique of modernity may or may not offer world answers that humanity seeks - answers that perhaps church could offer.(6) In his magnum opus, David Bosch called for this kind of re-orientation of mission by speaking of the emergence of a postmodern paradigm. A time of paradigm shift is a time of deep uncertainty - and such uncertainty appears to be one of few constants of contemporary era and one of factors that engender strong reactions in favor of hanging on to Enlightenment paradigm, in spite of signs from all quarters that it is breaking up.(7) Clearly both epistemological and accommodational approaches are valid, important, and urgent. As Wilbert Shenk affirmed recently, Although culture of modernity has yet to be taken seriously as a subject of sustained missionary concern, my argument will be that this represents one of most urgent frontiers facing church in twenty-first century.(8) Alan Roxburgh recently commented, The central and urgent question for Christian mission in North America focuses on churches and their identity in culture of modernity. Congregations in this context are in crisis. It is a crisis, not just of internal identity and structures, but one that involves massive changes that have transformed modernity, shifting church from center of culture to perceived margins. As a result of these processes, questions about nature of a missionary encounter with our culture have reemerged.(9) A third approach, and one that I will follow here, calls for us to examine ourselves in terms of impact that modernity has had on us. If we can see clearly how modernity has clouded our own embodying of gospel, could we offer our postmodern world a more excellent way (I Cor. 12:31) than that which postmodernity wants to create? A testing approach is consistent with trends in twentieth century ecclesiology. Already at turn of century, Abraham Kuyper spoke about possibility of church's deformation.(10) The possibility of such deformation, not only with regard to sinfulness of individuals, but also in terms of church itself as an organic unity, calls us to test church against what scripture intends for us to become. …
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