Metamodernism and the Church
I’m not really a philosophy nut, but I think it’s important to know the prevailing paradigms of the age we live in and Christians and local churches. So this first article is more of an initial consideration of what it means to be the church in a new era. Hint: We should absolutely not give up strong, Christ-centered theology.
I’ll cover three things related to metamodernism:
1. A brief history of metamodernism
2. A brief place of wondering about the place of the church in meta-modernism.
3. I’ll suggest some further reading.
A brief history of Metamodernism
Meta-modernism descends from three previous periodizations (aka eras, time periods, etc):
Traditionalism - A historic tradition of knowledge, history, and science through time. Just the basic facts and nothing more.
Modernism - A period of time when there was a lot of classification and organization of knowledge to synthesize truth and arrive at absolute truth. This truth was sort of like a particular endpoint. Things could be known through empirical study and the rigid organization of that study and its results. The result was hope for humanity to transcend its current condition. It was a time of technological development and social change.
Postmodernism rejected modernism by arguing that reason and truth are childish forms of faith and that nothing could be truly known. Meaning was essentially meaningless. One grand truth that united reality and explained it was not just dumb and simplistic. It killed off a sense of wonder and philosophically sneered at expressions of sentimentality and hope. Post-modernism is deconstructed, emotionless, or hopeless, arguments against absolute truth.
Meta-modernism: Meta-modernism seeks to unite and resolve the conflicts of modernism and post-modernism. it means the following things:
1. We can acknowledge personal, felt experience and embrace the hope of modernism's search for truth as well as the deconstructive, dismissive, and emotionless deconstruction of absolute truth.
2. Metamodernism lives in tension with these in a liminal space that embraces both hopeful pursuits of truth alongside the doubt and pessimism of postmodernism. Some people call this oscillation or toggling. I tend to think of it as living in tension between two things, trying to work together to bring out new ways of being and thinking. The gospel, spread through the faithful work of churches and their people, meets people in their current moment, with the timeless truth that Jesus is the great hope for every human soul. No matter what side of the tension a person is on, the Gospel speaks to them in that moment.
3. Gen Z is the first generation to be born and raised in Meta-modernism.
Metamodernism and the Church
What does this mean for the church as it begins to reach a new generation?
It means that as we begin to engage Gen Z, we need to meet them where they’re at, build credibility, and lean into new gospel relationships. Credibility begins online these days, and we can move into the liminal space where the digital meets the in-person and the relational. Digital Strategy builds credibility and creates and extends an invitation to the redemptive community. In person gospel relationships show newcomers to faith and church what it means to live in redemptive community. Each person meets the other where they’re at.
So what does that look like practically? Answers will vary, and that’s the beauty of the pursuit with God to bring the gospel to a new generation.
1. The strong Theology we love and meta-modernism can work together in a new context. newcomers to faith want to know what it means to cultivate faith in relationship with God and others. We should live out our beloved confessional positions and systematic persuasions fully.
2. Consider how felt experience, doubt, and hope plays a role in faith. What does it mean for a gospel relationship and redemptive community to consider the role of doubt in faith formation and community life? how can it live in concert with our strong confessional positions? How might it change us to engage and think more fully about how God meets us in these new spaces?
3. How do we as people of God occupy the liminal space between optimism and hope and cynicism and despair? How might this help us connect relationally with Gen Z?
Further Reading about Metamodernism
What is metamodernism?
https://medium.com/what-is-metamodern/after-postmodernism-eleven-metamodern-methods-in-the-arts-767f7b646cae
Say Hello to Metamodernism
https://www.amazon.com/Say-Hello-Metamodernism-Understanding-Reflexivity/dp/B0DHGFKZ8W
A great academic intro into metamodernism
https://www.amazon.com/Metamodernism-Jason-Ananda-Josephson-Storm/dp/022678665X