A Postmodern Faith?

A church with all the answers?

From what a number of people have said, it seems that one of the things people dislike so much about the church is the way it presents itself as having all the answers. The thought that the church can say God is like this, does this, and thinks this, and this is the way you should respond, what you should do, how you should live. And this negative opinion comes from both Christians and non-Christians. While I do think it’s important that the church make a stand on certain issues, be they moral or theological, at the same time I think there are so many areas where we just don’t understand, and the church fails when it tries to give a simple answer.

When someone presents you with a question, it’s natural to respond with a solid, absolute answer, to say ‘this is how it is, end of story’, even if that only addresses part of it. Sometimes they’re almost “because I said so” sort of answers that don’t address the question at all. This is something the church can do too, trying to give solid theological and moral direction when the answers aren’t always as clear cut. I’m not saying here that the church is wrong in what it says, but that sometimes the way it presents things is very absolute, insisting that it has all the answers when it’s not necessarily that simple. I think sometimes the church is a bit like a parent, trying to give a straightforward solution or direction to ‘children’ of faith, not realising that people have moved beyond this and want a solid and honest understanding of Christianity as it is. What the church has to say is valuable, if not always perfect (just as with parents), but it can be out of touch with the contemporary world, like telling a teenage child they can’t go out “because I said so”.

When you really get into the depths of Christianity, and trying to understand the nature of God, the reality is that we simply don’t know enough to really measure up God. Here I really want to emphasise the mystery of God. I know many people are discouraged in faith, or turned away when the church fails to meet their needs. But the way I see my faith is as a mystery, something I always puzzle over, something that will never be at rest. I know not everything makes sense, that God seems illogical or flawed at times, but when I take a step back and think about it, everything is so much more illogical, more flawed without God. It’s easy to get caught up in the technicalities of religion, and forget the simple nature of faith in God. No, we may not know exactly how heaven and hell work, or what parts of the Bible might be metaphorical or literal, or why other religions have developed. But I wonder how much these little things really matter. When the church (or for that matter individual Christians) try to give simple, straightforward answers it may cause resentment. But for me the central thing that doesn’t change is faith in God. No matter how these things are explained, God remains God.

At its heart, I think ‘religion’ (as opposed to faith) is a way that people of faith try to explain God. Everyone wants clear, simple answers, and the church has developed in trying to provide these answers. Sometimes it succeeds, sometimes it fails. The core of faith for me is understanding that God is God, and forgetting about the theology and all the stuff that goes with it where it’s a problem. This won’t be a popular idea with some, but I hold that the most important thing is quite simply understanding that God is. Full stop. The rest is important for sure, but that core point, the “I AM” of God, is the core of my faith, and the rest settles in around that one absolute truth.

If a child has only ever seen birds flying in the air, and then sees and aeroplane, they will try to explain it as a type of bird, somehow different, but likening it to what they understand from their experiences. Obviously they will be wrong in the way they interpret the plane, but despite this, the plane remains a plane. When we try to understand God, we are trying to interpret something so different to what we’ve ever seen before, and we’ll get it wrong in many ways, but God still remains God.

Much as I dislike a lot of what Postmodernism has to offer, this is one thing I like about it. Many have moved on from trying to describe God in black and white terms, instead focusing on a more spiritual, personal relationship with a God who is beyond their comprehension. Theology is important, but to me God Himself is more important.

Some Bible verses to check out on this topic: Exodus 3:14; John 8:58; Acts 15:5-11, especially verse 9.