According to the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, epistemology can be defined as the “branch of philosophy that deals with knowing and the methods of obtaining knowledge”. A fascinating subject. As Christians, how do we come to know what we know? By what standard do we evaluate ideas?

Postmodernism is a much harder term to define. It is a reaction against Enlightment ideas and the reign of modernity, specifically rejecting the perceived unbiased nature of pure reason. I have read some of David Wells’ book ‘Above All Earthly Pow’rs: Christ in a Postmodern World’ and already I’ve been intrigued by Wells’ summary of the effects of postmodern ideas, such as the replacement of commonly held virtues with privately held values.

For information on the topic regarding the effect of postmodern thought in Christendom, check out John Hendryx and Nathan Pitchford’s take on its effect on American Evangelicalism. They do a good job on exposing the supposed humility of the postmodern-thinking Emergent Church, which asserts that faithfulness is more important than certainty.

Emergent churches have key insight into the problems with American evangelicalism. I believe that accusations like, ‘Many evangelical churches are arrogant, lack authentic community, don’t engage culture and raise people that often have a set of core beliefs that do not inform their day-to-day lives’ are genrally true, exposing its man-centered selfishness (I readily confess that I am guilty).

However, the article also exposes the hypocrisy present in the solution, because the proposed solution is also man-centered and selfish! Their answer is basically, ‘well, we can’t really know anything anyway, because we can’t view the world through a genuinely objectivce lenses, so let’s toss doctrine out because it produces hypocrites, and replace it with a general call to live lives that follow Christ’s example’. Hendryx and Pitchford rightly point out that this is ‘trading one form of certainty for another’ and worse, it is a substitute for the Gospel.

If we are arrogant, the solution is not to work really hard to try and follow Jesus’ example. The ultimate humbling truth in the world is the Gospel. It says we have ZERO righteousness and that we need the righteousness of Jesus Christ. If we lack authentic community, the greatest truth we have to combat this is the Gospel: Christ died and restored Christians, and thereby we can have authentic communion with God, and that should motivate us toward genuine communion with others. If we aren’t engaging culture, let the Gospel sober us in realizing that all men are under the wrath of God until they trust by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for salvation. And if theology isn’t inspiring our daily lives, let’s ask ourselves: what are we truly living for that we think is bigger than God? The Gospel should be our motivation for showing fruit in ALL areas of our life, because Christ is to be our supreme joy.