We're already Post Post Modern - Are you ready?

So I got to speak in a class at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary on Tuesday. I spoke for my friend and missionary Mark Wagner in his class 'Spiritual Issues in Evangelism'. Mark asked me to share cultural exegesis for Mill Valley as a way to guide his students in praying and waging battle for our community. I was very very excited to be able to share as I felt that it was an opportunity to put all of my thoughts together that had been kicking around my mind from many conversations, musings, and meditations about the community and context that God has me in.

Unfortunately (or fortunately) my mp3 recorder was out of batteries and the message was not taped. After talking demographics (conclusion- Mill Valley is predominately white and extremely well educated and extremely wealthy) and then identifying 5 major road blocks to the Gospel, I moved into what I felt was the most controversial section of my presentation, the discussion of the predominant world-view. After the presentation, Mark told me how profound he felt my world-view discussion was and that I should begin to flesh it out and write about as he felt that I was onto something. So here I am

My goal here is a humble first step in beginning the discussion of what is coming for many people and what is already here for those of us who minister in coastal major metropolitan areas. My hope is that this can be a seed for thinkers far greater than I to grab hold of and flesh out. I confess that my thoughts here are in the most elementary stages. I'm not claiming to have it all (or even in part) correct. But it is a starting point.

Throughout Christendom, everyone is talking postmodern. Like the name for the first automobiles (horseless carriages), the name post modern tell us that we really don't know what it is, we only know that it's different from what we had gotten used to. (We don't quite get post modernity, but we realize that it is past modernity). As the church shows up late to the party of cultural exegesis, finally starting to deal with a vast cultural shift in world-view, we have to realize that if we are just getting it now, it probably has already passed, or will be history very soon. For me, in seeking to crystalize my thoughts about my community (5 miles outside of San Francisco), I realized that this place isn't Post Modern. It isn't purely pluralistic and aperspectival. It has grown past that. So I went looking for some answers and found somethings that we shocking and a bit challenging to understand. So I'm going to lay them out for you all and I'm hoping that you will all join me in seeking to put some legs on it.

This next section I lifted straight from my notes for the lecture. I'll right about it after you see the section-

Mill Valley is not ‘Post-modern’
IT IS POST POST MODERN

Although post-modernity has been around for the greater part of the 20th century, the church is just coming to terms with it either already has reached it’s pinnacle or that pinnacle is already passed.

I would say, Mill Valley is already passed the post-modern worldview

My terminology for what I will say next is based on the philosophy of a man named Jean Gebser (1905-1973, poet, linguist, cultural historian, mystic, philosopher), and it currently being promoted by psycho/spiritual/evolutionary teachers such as Ken Wilbur and Andrew Cohen (give disclaimer)

Speaking of the evolution of human consciousness he lists 6 stages of development (actually Gebser had 5 but Clare Graves split the 5th into 2 parts)
1) Archaic – Instinctual, consciousness as barely distinct from the environment. Seen in infants

2) Magic (or Egocentric/Tribal) – seen in tribal groups, nature based religions and ritual, self as linked with tribe/clan

3) Mythic (or traditional) – great monotheistic religion, first time there is an awareness of soul, represents the expansion of the individuals identity to include an entire nation or belief system

4) Mental-Rational (or modern) – scientific rationality and reason/ the Western Enlightenment, focus on the material world and objects outside oneself

5) Pluralistic (postmodern) – emphasis on multiculturalism and egalitarianism. Gebser calls it ‘aperspectival’ the pluralistic self’s ability to see and appreciate multiple perspectives

6) Integral (post postmodern) – just beginning to emerge, human consciousness is understood to evolve through a hierarchical series or distinct structures, evolution supersedes egalitarianism as the primary value

-Andrew Cohen calls this Evolutionary Enlightenment
the journey from egocentric, to ethnocentric, worldcentric and then cosmocentric

The focus in MV isn’t primarily upon acceptance of ideas but conscious evolution of humanity
- there are truth claims in MV (they are right)
- land of liberal bigots, etc. (the last election proved that)
- the marriage of wealth, science and spirituality


I think Gebser nailed it and it gives a great picture of the overarching worldview of where I live. My assumption is that this view will spread simply because as the cities go, so goes the country. Post modernity was entrenched in New York and San Francisco 40 years ago and now has permeated the country. So if history continues, the overarching world-view of the major metropolitan areas will continue to diffuse itself through the country of the coming decades.

Post modernity is the marriage of the rationalism/materialism of modernity and the pluralism that comes from existing in a global community that is tied together through technology. But where I live, it's not simply rationalistic pluralism. There is an overarching 'spirituality' to the rationalistic pluralism. With the resounding popularity and rise to the yoga, Eckhart Tolle, and all types of spirituality we are seeing this. This is in lots of ways, a relatively newer development.

So this new, emerging worldview, what Gebser calls 'Integral' seems to take the the rationality of the Enlightenment (Modernity), the culturedness of Post modernity and now adds an overarching spirituality. Andrew Cohen, founder of the magazine EnligtheNext, speaks of this as the move from worldcentric (global pluralism) to cosmocentric (a worldcentric view that is married to cosmic/spirituality). The Integral mindset is the integration of physical wellness, emotional/intellectual astuteness, and experiential spirituality. This is what I'm seeing here in the San Francisco Bay Area. My guess is that you are seeing the same thing in your context.

So I'll close here with some initial thoughts on how this will affect the body of Christ, or maybe better stated, how the church needs to evolve meet this shift. In a lot of ways, this is what we are finding to be necessary for the Gospel to run forth in our community.

A 'holistic' Christian life
- I realize that holistic is a weighted word, but it's the only one that I can think of. Really to reach the post post modern world with the Gospel a believer must be fully integrated.

Their physical life must be Christ saturated. That means, by way of example, that how can we say we love Christ and our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit but we are horribly overweight and our temple is in disrepair. The post post modern mind sees the duplicity of this and realizes that something is amiss.

Their intellect must be astute and gripping. We must use the brains that the Lord has given us. Our arguments for Biblical teaching must rest upon solid logic. In a lot of ways, presuppositional apologetics will become the norm I think. Our Creationism must be more Barry Setterfield and Lambert Dolphin than Kent Hovind. Intelligent and educated people expect (and deserve) more than pithy shining on statements. The same with our emotions.

Christians walks with Jesus need to be REALLY SPIRITUAL. As I talk to the people around me, you find very quickly that they see Christianity as purely cerebral with no corresponding experience to back up the claims. If we are really honest, that is true for a lot of us and a lot of people in church. We have the Christian mental grid without any corresponding experience. Most of us are challenged when we read the book of Acts wondering, 'Why Not Now?' I have a friend who is a Yoga Instructor and I've been trying to get her to explain to me the philosophy and spirituality of yoga and she keeps saying to me, "Daniel, you have to try it. I can explain it to you but really once you experience it, you'll understand." When was the last time any of us did evangelism in this way. I think that the reason this is is not because we don't believe it, but because personally, we are not experiencing it. You can be a very successful church leader without having any corresponding spiritual experience. In order for the church to be successful in the this age (as in any age) we need to be really spiritual.


Okay, so what does everyone think? I'm totally open to thoughts/comments/ideas/clarifications.