Words of Wisdom - No 1

Os Guinness writes:

Unquestionably the central impact of postmodernism on popular thinking is its philosophical reinforcement of the devouring, cannibalistic character of modern consumer culture.

Two metaphors are widely used in speaking of postmodernism — hopping and shopping. On the one hand, life in the postmodern world is television-channel hopping, with hand-held remote controls allowing us to graze at will in the flickering pastures of one greener channel after another. On the other hand, life in the postmodern world is shopping-mall or catalogue consumerism, allowing us to buy our way to a connoisseurship of surface and style. We pick out the bits and pieces of our consumer choice and assemble them into our own versions of who we are and how we live.

... perhaps postmodernism’s main challenge to the church is to our central mission as Christians: following Christ and making him Lord in all of life. The church cannot become simply another customer center that offers designer religion and catalogue spirituality to the hoppers and shoppers of the modern world. Followers of Christ are custodians of the faith passed on down the running centuries. Never must we allow anyone outside or inside the church to become cannibals who devour the truth and meaning of this priceless heritage of faith. Letting the church be the church and the gospel be the gospel is integral to letting God be God.

FROM: Os Guinness, Fit Bodies Fat Minds (Baker Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1994), pp 107-8, 110.