My Postmodernism And Christianity

I recently received a puzzled look from a Christian as I explained to her that I am both a postmodernist and a Christian.  Confusing postmodernism for relativism, she could not understand how I could adhere to both ideologies simultaneously.  I will repeat the major points of my explanation here, for I truly hold to both postmodernism and Christianity and grasp both because of my commitment to reason.

I am a postmodernist because I can prove that humans have insurmountable epistemic limitations and that, left to themselves, humans perceive everything outside of pure logic on a wholly subjective level.  The truth claims about values and metaphysics made by different cultures and individuals cannot all be correct at once and many of these truth claims rest on fallacies, assumptions, and subjective perceptions instead of on reason, which inescapably affirms the postmodernist doctrine that human endeavors and perspectives are drenched in a subjectivity that keeps truth largely in obscurity, beyond our ability to know or understand.

But I am also a Christian.

I am a Christian because I have committed myself to living in accordance with what all the evidence I have examined points to.  Only some parts of Christianity can be proven, but as a worldview it boasts more evidential support than any other competitor.  I am not a Christian because I was born in America, raised in a Christian household, or had an emotional experience in church; I am a committed Christian because I have surveyed the available evidence and noticed that Christianity stands tall.

Nothing about these two philosophies negates or contradicts the other!  Postmodernism is almost purely an epistemological treatise, certainly not a denial of objective truth (otherwise postmodernism could not itself be true) or of reason (otherwise we could not know postmodernism is true), and Christianity is an ontological treatise, a system that makes claims about how reality is, not about how we perceive it.  No contradiction exists between my postmodernism and my Christianity!  And anyone who thinks my postmodernism dilutes my dedication to Christianity needs only to read my blog extensively to see that such a notion is false.  I realize that my points here may offend some, but seekers of truth do not turn aside when others object on illicit grounds, as they instead continue onward towards reason and truth without regard for the shock of those around them.