Making Sense of Postmodern Conditions for Christian Living

Abstract

One of the longstanding epistemological questions of the philosophers is: what is truth and how do we know it? Postmodernists are suspicious of the traditional philosophical answers that base reliable knowledge of the world on foundationalist principles or self-evident concepts. Post-truth society is anti-foundationalist at the core. Truth in postmodern times is more of a dominant political and social construction for practical purposes than a concrete objective lying hidden to be discovered by a scientific methodology. The Nietzschean aphorism, “there are no facts, only interpretations,” captures the mood of a postmodern/post-truth society (Nietzsche, 1967: 481). The first part of this essay is aimed at providing the theoretical position of a postmodern/post-truth society in contrast to modernism. The second half of the essay reflects on the conditions the postmodern/post-truth society imposes on Christian theology and the life of the Church.