Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

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to develop. Even after several decades, postmodernity has really done little to
substantively alter modernity, which has proven to be far more resilient than postmoderns
anticipated. Even as previous romantic movements (e.g., Existentialism) failed to
dislodge modernity as the primary worldview in the West, so now the postmodern
cultural wave seems to have failed.
Postmodernity -- in conjunction with Post-Christendom and Post-Colonialism -- has
really been most successful in dislodging the moral and religio-cultural hegemony of
Christianity from broader Western societies. Further, as the faith has grown in the non-
West, it has diminished in all Western nations, save North America. Even there, these
powerful cultural dynamics have produced significant changes in the faith.
While Christianity is still quite influential in the West, the faith no longer holds a place
of social privilege, as it did for centuries under the sway of Christendom. Christian moral
imperatives are not as widely respected, nor deeply ingrained in Western societies as they
once were. The growing division between facts and values that Lesslie Newbigin
identified several decades ago is an ever-present reality. Science, the true passionate
expression of modernity, continues its progressive march to ‘save the world,’ virtually
unabated. The realm of personal values, however, has changed significantly over the past
several decades.
Western thought reached real frustration and emptiness in extreme postmodernism.
Yet, the postmoderns have never been able to suggest a better way forward: they have
always, only been critics. Because of this, the postmodernity is waning, little able to
continue its battle against modernity and all the other long-established institutions and
traditions so deeply rooted in Western societies. Again, as William Lane Craig said, the
biggest problem with postmodernism is “that it is so obviously self-referentially
incoherent. That is to say, if it is true, then it is false. Thus, one need not say a word or
raise an objection to refute it; it is quite literally self-refuting” (Craig, in Cowan,
2000:182). One might add, postmodernism is self-destructive, shifting sand, wholly
unable to support anything substantive, or lasting.
Ernst Gellner concluded: “Postmodernism as such doesn’t matter too much. It is a fad
which owes its appeal to its seeming novelty and genuine obscurity, and it will pass soon
University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa