All of this material is taken and adapted from an Albert Mohler lecture and from a chapter in his book titled “He is not Silent.”
Postmodernism is identified by these three tendencies:
The deconstruction of truth
The demise of the text
The dominion of therapy
The deconstruction of truth
Most arguments throughout history have focused on rival claims to truth. Postmodernism is a game changer because postmodernism rejects the very notion of truth. Truth cannot be universal or absolute or objective. Postmodernism is all about relativity and subjectivity being all there is. Truth is neither objective or absolute. Truth cannot be accessed through a commonly accepted method. Truth is made rather than found. Truth is socially constructed by individuals and subgroups. It is not universal for every culture constructs its own.
But the Revelation of God is universal and eternal and fixed and objective.
The demise of the text
It is the reader of the text who creates the meaning. It is a fallacy to ascribe one (and only one) meaning to a text or to speak of the author’s intent. Meaning is created by the reader in the act of reading.
This takes the old Bible Study question “What this means to me” to a whole new level.
But God expects us to labor diligently in order to interpret and understand the meaning of His Word.
The dominion of therapy
When truth is denied, therapy remains.
The crucial question shifts from “Is it true?” To “What makes me feel good?” In the postmodern world – death to objective and universal – all things are subjective and relative. So in the postmodern world all issues revolve around the self.
So the purpose of education is not to instill facts but to boost self esteem. Out with sin and judgment and guilt and in with authenticity and self-discovery.
And so we find that a pervasive moral relativism marks postmodern culture. What is immoral is judging anyone else or claiming to know what anyone else should do.