Truth and the New Kind of Christian

What is truth and how has it been affected by postmodernism? In his book Truth & the New Kind of Christian, R. Scott Smith addresses this as well as the emerging effects of postmodernism in the church. He evaluates and confronts postmodernism both in secular society and within Christianity.

I appreciated his diligence in defining terms that we often use loosely in our everyday conversation (no pun intended)  such as “emerging,” “emergent,” “relativism,”  “epistemology,” “pluralism” and “postmodernism.” He reviews these subjects and other related content from a historical, relational and academic perspective presenting the material in a scholarly manner.

In chapter six he does a critique of the Emerging Church which includes an evaluation of both Brian McLaren and Tony Jones, two names you should recognize if you are familiar with the Emergent Church. Interestingly enough, Tony Jones, in true emergent genre, wrote one of the endorsements for the book. Scott Smith lists some contributions of both men to Christianity but then thoroughly examines the differences in their philosophy and belief.

Just a few of the noteworthy quotes from the book are:

• “Ethical relativists think that there are no objective moral truths…” Pg. 15
• “Since, according to these postmodernists, there is no way we can get ‘outside’ of language and its pervasive influence and know the real world, we ‘make’ our worlds by how we talk.” Pgs. 40-41
• “I scrutinized and found wanting two main philosophical positions held by postmoderns; that (1) we are inside language and cannot escape its influences to know an objective reality; and that (2) meaning is primarily a behavioral matter in a linguistically formed community.” Pg. 107
• “Christians construct God by how they talk. We make God into what He is – for us. This conclusion, however, results in the absurd condition that Christians must be idolaters.” Pg. 145

I highly recommend this book if you are interested in gaining a greater insight into the postmodern philosophy and its emerging effects in the church.