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On Reason and Experience

© Blake Atwood

“It is one thing to talk about God. It is quite another thing to experience God (Sweet Postmodern Pilgrims ).”

One of the most massive shifts in postmodernity concerns the way in which we view and experience the world. In fact, that’s a definition of postmodernity right there. Postmoderns view the world subjectively. They play the music of life with feeling.

I had a friend recently hand me a book written about other religions and other viewpoints and how they contrast to Christianity. I was only slightly shocked to see “Postmodernism” as one of the conflicting viewpoints. In the short chapter on postmodernism, the author essentially stated what I am stating here. That we view the world subjectively. The author put this in contrast with Christianity because a subjective world is a world without absolutes, and a world without absolutes (except that absolute that there are no absolutes) is a world without absolute truth, a world without a Christ, and that would deny any belief in this thing we call Christianity.

I believe absolutes exist, and I know absolute truth exists. You may ask, “How do you know? Prove it.”

I couldn’t answer by saying “Well, I know that there has to be some foundational truth for all other truths to stand upon, because if nothing is true then why are we even here?”

My answer would simply be “I feel it to be true.” I’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good.

I think far too often (again, at least in my denominational upbringing) that too much emphasis has been placed on the sermon (the “reason” aspect of a common church service). Of course, now the other half of the pendulum has become a marketing phenomenon. Here I’m talking about praise and worship (the “experience” aspect of a church service).

Postmoderns want to experience “life abundantly.” That’s why they hang-glide, bungee-jump, skydive, snowboard, or Everest-climb. That’s why they make movies a billion-dollar industry. (Have you noticed how much going to the movies has become an experience rather than just a show?) Is that why the Jimi Hendrix Band was actually the Jimi Hendrix Experience?

Postmoderns want to experience life abundantly, but they just don’t know where the real (the absolutely real) abundant life is.

That’s why the church needs to learn a new language. One that incorporates reason and experience. One that doesn’t shy away from feelings or thoughts.

One that both tastes and sees.

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