(Tim, w/thanks to Jake) Day after tomorrow, my former prof, David Wells, will give a chapel lecture at TEDS titled, “How, Then, Should We Preach to Postmodern Persons?”
As a teaser question to get people interested, Dr. Wells was asked, "What is a postmodern person?"
He responded:
“Postmodern is how we are speaking about our current cultural mood.
While in some ways we become more and more modern—more technological
advances, more information, more medical breakthroughs, and more
things—in terms of a world-and-life view, we are adrift. The old Enlightenment paradigm with its belief in unaided,
naturalistic reason, human potential, and the prospect of progress have
all collapsed. In the way we think about our lives, we are not modern
but postmodern because we think about ourselves differently from what
was true up though the 1960’s.”
Leaving everything else aside, did you notice the one absolutely glaring thing about Wells' lecture?
"Persons."
Like the rest of us, Wells has uncriticially succumbed to that one-thing-necessary without which a man will be excoriated by all reasonable men today. His language no longer is formed by the Word of God with regard to naming our race.
God Himself named us "adam" or "man," but to David Wells we're now "persons."
You think I'm nitpicking?
Trust me--I'm not.
