Truth and the New Kind of Christian: The Emerging Effects of Postmodernism in the Church

by R. Scott Smith

The latest clarion call in the never-ending cavalcade of "what's new" in the evangelical world is the confident assertion from some quarters that the church needs to embrace "postmodernism" if it is going to engage postmoderns effectively. Pastors trying to break down the often indigestible subject matter of postmodernism into bite-size chunks in order to equip their people to engage it, and teachers who are aiming at giving their students a working knowledge of the way postmodernism is impacting the church will find a good deal of help from Smith.
- J. Ligon Duncan III , Senior Minister, First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, Mississippi Scott Smith and I agree on a lot. We share a deep commitment to Jesus Christ, a love of the Bible, and a passion for the church. We also agree that we're currently living in a liminal time, and it's those "boundary times" when people look most closely at the beliefs that underlie their practices. So, we've all got some things to figure out right now, including what we can really know and the certainty with which we can state our claims in a pluralistic society. I appreciate Scott's voice in this conversation. He is a careful reader of my work, and he writes with a gracious and generous tone. Interlocutors like Scott will be a helpful challenge to all of us in the "emerging church." I consider him a friendly critic and a brother in Christ.
- Tony Jones , author of Postmodern Youth Ministry and National Director, Emergent Scott Smith is uniquely suited to enter the Emergent conversation with this helpful volume. Not only is he an analytic philosopher with a razor-sharp mind who has specialized in analyzing postmodernistic views on the relationship between language and the world, but he is also a man who cares for the lost, loves the church, and has an ability to communicate complex truths to people in the pew.
- Justin Taylor , Executive Editor, Desiring God Every leader in the new Emergent Movement will want to read this fascinating book. They simply will not find a more engaging, knowledgeable, balanced, and kind treatment of their concerns, ideas, and practices.
- Craig J. Hazen , Professor of Comparative Religion, Biola University Scott Smith's study challenges us to take seriously the truth claim of the gospel both in how we proclaim it in words and in how we manifest it in our personal and community lives.
- Gary Inrig , Senior Pastor, Trinity Church, Redlands, California

Genres: Philosophy, Christianity, Church

208 pages, Paperback

First published November 8, 2005

About the author

R. Scott Smith is Assistant Professor of Ethics and Christian Apologetics at Biola University in California. He is the author of Virtue Ethics and Moral Knowledge. Dr. Smith has lectured and presented numerous times on his specialty, postmodernism, and he is also the secretary-treasurer of the Evangelical Philosophical Society.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

R. Scott Smith opens up this treatment of the Emergent Church movement and postmodernism’s effects on the church, “It is obvious in Western Society that many people think moral and religious truths are relative. Not only is this idea clearly taught in secular universities, our media also trumpet it. But it has not been the position of historic, orthodox Christianity. In that light, it is surprising how many Christians now think that way as well.” Smith reiterates the finding of a Barna poll that only 32 percent of Christian adults and only 9 percent of Christian teens think that ethics are not relative. Why has the Christian church in America embraced such a postmodern idea? Who is involved in this “Emergent” movement, both at a pastoral, popular level and at the academic, scholarly level? What affect does it and will it have on the university, the culture, as well as Christian belief and ministry?
Ever since Brian McLaren published A New Kind of Christian the Emergent movement has only gathered steam. One of the largest annual pastors conventions, The National Pastors Conference, has a track dedicated to emergent themes and issues. The Emergent church is “emerging” at many levels: Tony Jones is the national youth pastor, author of Postmodern Youth Ministry; Brian McLaren, previously mentioned, is the defacto pastor and leader; the late Stanley Grenz, along with John Franke, are Emergent’s national theologians (co-authoring Beyond Foundationalism: Shaping Theology in a Postmodern Context, which has recently been re-released in an updated edition); while Nancy Murphy, Brad J. Kallenberg, and Stanley Hauerwas are Emergent’s philosophers. While this might send some reeling because of the comparative immensity of the information involved, R. Scott Smith has provided us a invaluable resource in Truth and the New Kind of Christian in which he guides us through the comparison of modernity to postmodernity in chapter one followed by a quick survey of Hauerwas, Grenz, Franke, and Kallenberg and their take on Christianity from a postmodern perspective.
This little book covers a lot of ground in a short amount of space. After carefully analyzing both McLaren and Jones in the Emergent Church, especially on pastoral ministry, in chapter three, Scott moves on to “explain how postmodernism is surfacing within academic departments in . . . universities.” Not only does Scott carefully critique postmodernism’s core philosophical ideas in chapter five, he graciously and appropriately recognized some of the strengths and insights of the Emergent movement. Such agreement included McLaren’s and Jones’ recognition of the symptom of a formulaic approach to Christianity without accepting their remedy of a new (i.e. postmodern) kind of Christianity.
In his critique of postmodernism Scott leaves the issue of relativism for last. He exhorts Christians not to “embrace, relativism, despite the appeals and pressures in our culture to be tolerant and open-minded." He wraps up the book with a case on why we can know objective truth (contra relativism) in morality, religion, history, and other areas.
Scott ultimately believes that postmodernism and the Emergent movement “has misdiagnosed the problem and, thus, the solution” and provides several suggestions the resolve those problems, such as; not demanding certainty in order to have knowledge, provide safe places for people to connect that provides satisfying teaching that engages the whole person in order that “we really seek to live out the faith in deeply authentic ways, as Jesus’ disciples.” He has provide a clear and accessible chapter without over simplifying the nature of objective truth. He graciously concludes that the Emergent movement has “many good insights for us to consider, there simply is no good reason to give up the historic, orthodox Christian position that we can and indeed often do know objective truth, . . . revealed to us in general and special revelation. Survival of the Christian faith (at least in this culture) may well depend on our holding fast to that truth.”
Truth & the New Kind of Christian flows easily from the philosophical roots of postmodernism to the influence of the Emergent church on contemporary Christianity in ministry, ethics, philosophy, and doctrine. Also, of great help, was an annotated bibliography categorized both by topic as well as by level of difficulty. A great analysis of the Emergent movement has been provided in this short but deft work. R. Scott Smith is to be commended for the service he has provided.

[Trevor Atwood]

I bought this back 14 years ago, pre-seminary, and had no clue what the author was talking about so I stopped reading about 60 pages in.

I picked it up again a couple of weeks ago, and I’m thankful I did. Though it’s addressing the long dead “emergent church” movement, it’s content is relevant because if it’s address of post-modernism in the church.

One of the things I most appreciate about Smith is how carefully and thoughtfully he engages the viewpoint of his “opponents”. He doesn’t completely dismiss all the conclusions and practices of Pomo- ministers, but gets at the idea behind them.

This is a very helpful and thoughtful look at post-modernity through the lense if the church.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

A helpful, layman's-level analysis of what postmodernism is, how several Christian philosophers, theologians, and pastors are embracing it, and why. Smith's book is a focused, readable guide through very difficult terrain (although there are inevitably moments in the volume when certain readers unschooled in formal philosophy training, such as I, may get a bit lost). What's more, Smith's tone is very charitable towards his opponents (and thus he is a good role model for other Christians who converse with postmodern-leaning people). I only wish that his focus on Brian McLaren would not have been limited only to his book "A New Kind of Christian", but rather would have also taken on "A Generous Orthodoxy", since, in this work, McLaren's embrace of po-mo (and his contempt for classical Christian orthodoxy) is spelled out a lot more clearly.

[Matt Mason · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard and challenging concepts made ... still hard. Should come with a bottle of Excedrin. It was helpful at many points - which is why I kept trudging through.

[Pieter Lombaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on post-modern trends inside the church.

[Luís Branco · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is indeed a fantastic book. It has some very important insight on postmodernism, its roots, it's present and it's future.