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Missiology in late modernity

By Peter Sellick - posted Tuesday, 25 March 2014


Nothing happens because we have missed the mark. We think we are still targeting people formed by modernity who understand that god is universal, that there exists absolute truth, that religion can be used to gratify the self or control a population, that free will and choice are at the center of human freedom. The arguments about the existence of god that go on forever without resolution tell us that what is at stake here is the a god that can only be described in terms of Monarchical monotheism, the construction of modernity.

We have yet to learn that modernity had distorted Christian theology to such an extent that it has no traction in our present society. The god produced by modernity is not the God that Christians worship but an abstraction and it is now almost universally recognized that this god does not exist. Either that or supported by lip service theism.

The church has yet to learn that we now live in the final working out of the modern project and the result is comfortable nihilism. Sure, on the surface it looks good, but it is really an ideology balanced on the edge of the abyss. There is increasing unease and dissatisfaction with the result.

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Liberal democracy seems to work even though its foundation is nihilism. It is certainly better than totalitarian forms of government. Surely it is the end of history, the final culmination of humanism in which all are free to act out their choices. Linked with capitalism it has produced peace and prosperity for millions, a feat unparalleled in our history.

However, not all is well in paradise. While there are certainly problems at home, every time I watch television or movies like Breaking Bad, or No Country for Old Men, or The Councelor, or Fargo I have the feeling that something new and awful is on the horizon the likes of which have never been seen before. There is unpitying violence that is beyond the bounds of what we can imagine. And this violence is driven by the drug trade that responds to the desire for a better feeling or oblivion. This is the dark side of liberal democracy. Such developments can only occur in a people for whom nihilism is the only reality. Our much vaunted freedom and prosperity has led to the emptiness of staled desire.

So what does the church do to be at mission in late modernity? Firstly it must examine its understanding of God that is contaminated by the modern project. This should be worked out in terms of abandoning an understanding of god as "existing" and turning to the doctrine of the Trinity that alone can explicate the gospel. Indeed "existence" is too flimsy a description and brings with it no qualities. On the other hand, as my friend Bruce Barber has written in his book "Lanterns at Dusk?" "Rather, today we want to say that God is the conclusion of "what happens" between Jesus and his Father in their Spirit."

The recovery of a fully functional doctrine of the Trinity is the only way Christianity will be able to speak into the void of nihilism, firstly because it is not beholden to the view from nature and secondly it functions as the key to Scriptural interpretation and of how God reveals Himself to us.

The missionary activity of the church must be an activity of retrieval of orthodoxy and a cleansing of the ruins of modernity and the false piety that it inspired. We must remember that the gospel is still potent in the world; it still has the capacity to topple the death dealing idols that we have all built to comfort ourselves. It is just that these idols are more sophisticated and subtle than ever before and have infiltrated our political life to its depths, not to mention the almost total dominance of our educational institutions.

The contest is one of David and Goliath proportions. The church now exists on the fringe of our society. Where it does have influence it is often so conformed to the spirit of the times as to be unrecognizable. The church will get smaller before it recovers and perhaps that is a good thing. The great danger in this happening is that we will find it increasingly difficult to keep an authentic church culture alive. But the gospel remains!

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About the Author

Peter Sellick an Anglican deacon working in Perth with a background in the biological sciences.

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