Postmodernism.

Here is a snippet I came across this afternoon that I thought I'd share:

"Postmodernism has been used by so many people to describe diferent things that we may be excused for wondering if anyone can really define it at all. My own working definition of it is that the modern age is over - the age in which we believed in the power of the state, or the academy, or the church to bring out the best in us. In the age just past, nationalism has brought us Hitler, science has brought us the atom bomb, and religion has brought us some really awful television programming, not to mention apartheid or the civil war in Northern Ireland. Humanity has turned out to be hard to perfect, and the old structures we relied on to do so have let us down.

The postmodern age is an age of disillusionment with once revered authorities, which is not an entirely bad thing. Does anyone want to live life under illusion? No, not really. It is best for illusions to be revealed for what they are. Meanwhile, disillusioned people respond in all sorts of ways. Some abandon the search for meaning altogether, while others hunt for deeper and more reliable sources of it. Some campaign for a return to the values of the past, while others invest themselves in new visions of the future." - Barbara Brown Taylor

Well said. And how simply it heads from here to the church - many of the people I am in contact with from day to day share these sentiments. The church is an institution that has hurt them. The church is a place speaking a dead language. The church is missing the point. Hopefully, we have an opportunity at Evergreen to catch people before they abandon the search for meaning - I am sure there is something deep, beautiful, and meaningful for us postmoderns in the person of Jesus. If God can redeem the tragedy of an innocent man on a cross, He can redeem our disillusionment.

-Andrew