How Postmodernism Challenges Christian Apologetics and Where Hope Still Shines

Postmodern Apologetics

Unbelievable? recently hosted a panel discussion with four Christian leaders on the current state of apologetics. The guests acknowledged that as culture changes, our apologetic methods must keep pace. They offered critiques of the past and suggested ways to move forward. If it is true that we are experiencing what apologist Justin Brierley describes as a “Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God,” then we need to be prepared to parent a baby boom of new believers. I want to focus on what I believe is the biggest cultural obstacle to the spread of the Gospel, namely, postmodernism. 

Postmodernism, like modernism, is a broad philosophical concept that describes how culture perceives and processes the world. You won’t find advertisements for a postmodern rally, nor will you encounter a member of the “Young Postmodernists Club,” because it isn’t a specific ideology but a way of thinking about reality. While philosophical outlooks like modernism can lead to distinct ideologies with clear doctrines—such as atheism, scientism, and materialism—postmodernism is a different matter. Instead of generating new ideologies, it dismantles existing ones. It destroys every metaphysical map, leaving us to navigate the world unguided. French philosopher Jean-François Lyotard succinctly summarized postmodernism as “incredulity toward metanarratives.” 

Postmodern turn

One of Christianity’s problems has been its inability to recognize emerging cultural trends and develop appropriate apologetic responses proactively. Most recently, our preoccupation with debating modernist ideas in their atheistic, scientistic, and materialist incarnations has left us ill-prepared to address the challenges posed by an emerging and metastasizing postmodernism. A 2017 survey by Summit Ministries and the Barna Group warned that the greatest threat to Christianity wasn’t secularism but postmodernism and its religious arm, the New Spirituality. Sadly, we were so busy watching the modernist threat recede in our rearview mirror that we failed to notice that culture had turned on its blinker and was making a postmodern turn, forcing us to frantically reroute and catch up.

In fairness, modernism has been a significant historical thorn in Christianity’s side. However, instead of treating it as one of many threats, we granted it most-favored worldview-sparring status and failed to see that the world had moved on and was becoming increasingly postmodern. We so zealously debated our atheist friends on the cultural front porch that we failed to notice a suspicious band of postmodernists had snuck into our backyards and kidnapped our children. We tried to find them by posting their pictures on church prayer walls, but instead of missing persons, they became poster children for a postmodern, post-truth, post-Christian worldview. Now they are gone. How do we get them back? 

Tribal talk

Evangelizing postmodern culture is more like evangelizing a remote tribe than speaking to a convention of like-minded individuals. If missiology has taught us anything, it is that we must first understand a culture’s language, stories, and customs before making the Good News relevant. I am not advocating rewriting Christian orthodoxy; I am simply asking whether there is a better way to convey the unchanging Gospel to a postmodern culture that keeps moving the goalposts. 

One of the goals of the Protestant Reformation was to put the Bible into the hands of the common people by translating it into the vernacular. Our youth speak a different epistemological language, largely driven by emotions, feelings, and personal experience. They aren’t interested in conducting intellectual séances to conjure up abstract proofs of God’s existence; they want to know whether He will be with them as they trudge through their day. They don’t want to step into a church that feels like a distillery of doctrine; they want to attend a wine tasting where they can taste and see that He is good. We may want to give them food for thought, but what they really need is nourishment for their souls. 

Pillars of postmodernism

One problem with engaging postmodernism is that it lacks a distinct identity or ideology. It is rather an anti-ideology that denies truth, authority, and reason. It is very difficult to have a constructive conversation with someone intent on deconstruction. Modernism, at least, tries to build a world without God. Postmodernism, on the other hand, is content to dance in the rubble. 

While modernism is often linked to secularism and atheism, the most common demographic categories associated with postmodernism are “woke” or “progressive.” These labels, however, are problematic because it’s unclear whether they awoke from a dream or a nightmare, and it appears their progressive ideology is going nowhere. Nonetheless, I believe three tentative yet observable pillars of postmodernism can be addressed apologetically. 

1.     Truth is subjective

2.     Authority is oppressive.

3.     Faith is activism

Truth is subjective – Feelings

Truth is traditionally understood as the “correspondence of thought and reality.” In postmodern parlance, however, it has been redefined as the “correspondence of feelings and reality.” The radical reduction of identity, popularized by Descartes as “I think, therefore I am,” has been reduced to an even more primal postmodern “I feel, therefore I am.” It’s easy to see how this epistemological shift has transformed truth from universal and objective to particular and subjective. Thinking follows universal laws of logic and reason available to all people, but emotions are intensely individual, private, and subjective. Sadly, technology has contributed to this shift by encouraging our young people to upload their intellect to the cloud, where knowledge is a Google click away. The problem is that when knowledge is moved to digital storage centers, our minds become empty libraries haunted by emotional ghosts. 

Emotions cannot be reduced to a syllogism or evaluated by the laws of logic; they can only be felt. In a culture obsessed with authenticity, nothing shouts authenticity more than our feelings. Postmodernism, therefore, suggests that if we want to be true to ourselves, we must forge truth, morality, and identity in the furnace of our feelings. 

Truth is a powerful word, and when it is defined emotionally, it must be defended emotionally. Sadly, postmodernism has reduced truth to personal preference, and our feelings have bestowed on it a metaphysical gravitas it has not earned. I believe this explains the rise in violent protests. Feelings cannot be negotiated, but they can be hurt, so when emotions define truth, questioning them amounts to a verbal assault on our personhood. The only appropriate response to that kind of assault is to stamp our feet and yell. We need to show our young people that successfully navigating the world requires reading the room intellectually before popping off emotionally. We can acknowledge that feelings seem to be the most intimate reflection of who we are, but point out that unvetted, they often expose the worst version of ourselves.

We need to thank our young people for reminding us that our obsession with debating modernists on the intellectual battlefield has turned faith into a cold calculation rather than a personal relationship with the divine. We need to take their advice, abandon the idea that faith is most solid when we are the frozen chosen, and permit ourselves to thaw emotionally, even if it spills onto the sanctuary carpet.

We need to introduce them to a Jesus who calls us to a unity of knowing that engages our hearts, souls, minds, and strength. A Jesus who isn’t just concerned with jots and tittles but also wants to make our joy complete.

Truth is subjective – Tolerance

Postmodernists face a problem as they wield the wrecking ball of deconstruction: how do they hold the crumbling cultural structure together while trying to destroy it? Their answer is the flimsy duct tape of tolerance, a concept that seems friendly and inviting on the surface but is fraught with difficulties. Sadly, tolerance has become the air our young people breathe, so when we raise concerns about the atmospheric conditions, their only response is to cry, “I can’t breathe.” 

Universal, objective truth draws us closer together, but “My truth,” “My morality,” “My identity,” “My rules,” “My meaning,” and “My purpose” only drive us further apart. Working together to discover universal truth fosters dialogue, whereas encouraging everyone to create their own truth results in a shouting match. If we want to bring society together, truth must be centripetal, not centrifugal.

While many people believe tolerance is a kinder, gentler way to behave, they rarely consider the inconsistency of that approach. Its own rules make it incapable of policing its adherents. It must turn to the government—which it dislikes—to make laws—which it finds oppressive—to control behavior—which it ironically finds intolerant. The very things that postmodernists abhor—authority, rules, and intolerance—are the tactics they must employ to advance their agenda. 

Jesus said He is the truth. Therefore, finding our identity in Him, rather than creating our own, is the best way to bring us all together.

Truth is subjective – Rewriting Reality

When truth is subjective, one must undertake the monumental task of making the world conform to one’s way of thinking, a demand reality finds unacceptable. As writer Philip K. Dick astutely notes:

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”

It’s hard work making the world conform to your thoughts because not only must you restructure reality, but you must also get everyone else to accept your vision of the world. You must not only build and maintain a Hollywood set that looks emotionally stunning from the outside but also prevent your fellow man from peeking around the back and discovering your vacant intellectual lot. I think postmodernity’s failure to reshape reality explains why we have seen such dramatic increases in anxiety, depression, and suicide. When the world refuses to yield to your demands, you are left to mourn at the grave site of your failed faux reality. I believe we can offer our young people a better option by introducing them to a Carpenter with a far more impressive resume. A Jesus who not only built reality but also encourages others to inspect His work.

Postmodernism places a tremendous metaphysical burden on our young people by telling them they must create their own truth, meaning, and purpose. It is a weight no mortal can bear, which helps explain the worsening mental health crisis. It is the perfect opportunity to introduce them to a Jesus who sees them struggling with that metaphysical ball and chain and offers them rest for their souls. 

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

Authority is oppressive.

Humans have always had a problem with authority, ever since a certain Serpent questioned God’s motives and convinced Adam and Eve that they would be better off if they took the reins of power themselves. Sadly, while postmodernism has appropriately warned us about the dangers of trusting authority figures and helped us root out ecclesial, political, and scientific abuses of power, it has abandoned the concept altogether by redefining the word to mean tyrant rather than teacher, bully rather than boss, and oppressor rather than liberator. We need to remind them that the problem isn’t in the concept of authority but in those who claim its mantle.

An authority is a person or group with the power to teach, govern, or organize because of their expertise, trustworthiness, and skill. I think it can be argued that a person achieves authority once they demonstrate the ability to align their thoughts with the reality of their situation and, with that knowledge, successfully navigate their area of expertise. Authorities, therefore, have the perilous task of safeguarding truth. It is a status never perfectly achieved, which justifies postmodern suspicion of authority, yet it is a title everyone claims once they believe they can create their own “truth.”

Interestingly, Jesus was viewed as One with authority even though He lacked an influential family pedigree, had no formal academic training, and was a political and religious outsider. The very criteria that postmodernists regard with suspicion had nothing to do with Jesus’ authority.

And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. (Mark 1:22)

Jesus certainly demonstrated His power by curing diseases, expelling demons, and calming storms, but it seems the people were more impressed by His ability to navigate a world plagued by disease, oppression, hunger, and poverty. 

Jesus is the one authority we can trust because He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He is the truth because in Him, God’s thought is perfectly expressed in the Word made flesh. He is the way because He shows us how to navigate the world. And He is the life because by walking in His footsteps, we can have life to the full.  

Faith is activism

We are seeing a resurgence of interest in spirituality among our youth. This newfound faith often takes the form of social justice or climate activism. For them, spirituality isn’t a thought experiment but an action item. It isn’t head in the clouds but feet on the ground. For them, faith is activism, not abstraction. 

We can tap into their activism by pointing out that caring for God’s creation and loving our neighbors is biblical. In the Old Testament, God spells out the need to care for widows, orphans, strangers, and prisoners. He then incarnates, unrolls the Isaiah scroll, and gives us His to-do list. 

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Our atheist friends will try to convince them that the world’s imperfections are simply how evolution does business, but that doesn’t explain why they feel the need to report it to the Better Business Bureau. Intuitively, they know the world doesn’t operate as it should because an idyllic standard has been violated. While they may not be able to articulate it, deep down they recognize that the world is a garden with a thorn-and-thistle problem.

We need to show them that the Bible offers the common good they so desperately seek. God gave a spoken-word performance—a six-day lecture series filled with “good” content, delivered in a rhetorically “very good” way. Goodness springs from the soil, swarms in the seas, creeps along the ground, and grazes in the fields. Even when it is frayed and worn, our young people still find a Made-in-Heaven label tucked inside its collar.

Our young people are remarkably attuned to this goodness, yet amid all the poetic nuance, they also hear an unmistakable cry for help. Their sensitivity to nature’s lament fuels their environmental passion. They hear the planet groan and know humans are the problem, but, lacking biblical literacy, they blame others instead of looking in the mirror and acknowledging their own complicity.

We need to show them that their perception of the world as blessed yet broken is biblical. We need to praise their instincts for tending a wilderness of thorns and thistles, then ask why they pine for Eden. We need to help them see that the God of the Bible authored the Book of Nature and that their environmentalism is an act of divine textual preservation. We need to congratulate them on their efforts to save rainforests, rescue beached whales, and prevent the extinction of endangered species, then show them that their ecological instincts arise from a desire to preserve every “good” word that comes from the mouth of God.

The common good that God displays in the rising sun and the falling rain is also the common grace He extends to the just and the unjust, and it provides our young people with common ground for their social activism.

Hope

Apologetics has, for far too long, focused on an intellectual defense of the Christian faith to counter the modernist critique. Sadly, our postmodern youth haven’t found it very compelling. But there is good news. Postmodernism, for all its faults, has once again made spirituality fashionable. We must, however, shift our apologetic strategy from proving that a spiritual door exists to introducing them to the One who stands at the door and knocks. 

One of our problems may be that we have misunderstood the go-to apologetic verse in 1 Peter. But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, (1 Peter 3:15, my emphasis).

A closer reading of this verse suggests that apologetics isn’t about offering philosophical, scientific, or theological reasons for God’s existence but about explaining why we have hope in a hopeless world. St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, portrayed this hope as an unexpected grin amid a sea of groans. 

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us… For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.  And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. (Romans 8:18,22-24, my emphasis)

Postmodernism failed to deliver on its promise of peace, happiness, and meaning, instead triggering an epidemic of anxiety, depression, and suicide. The groans are getting louder, and our youth are tired of being told to create their own hope after they’ve already failed to manufacture their own truth, meaning, and purpose. It would therefore seem an opportune moment to set our hope in Christ against the backdrop of postmodern nihilism. It may be the perfect cultural storm to introduce our young people to the One who declares “Peace! Be still!” 

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13)

Erik Strandness is a physician and Christian apologist who practiced neonatal medicine for more than 20 years and has written three apologetic books. Information about his books can be found at godsscreenplay.com