Background

DISCLAIMER: On this web site we are taking a BRIEF look at major cultural changes and how they impact the church. Volumes have been written on this topic so we can't cover every detail here. There are also many exceptions to the picture we are painting; HOWEVER, what we are saying is generally true for the vast majority of the communities and churches in the United States. As time goes by it will become even truer, and more universal.

For most of us who have grown up in the U.S. and are over 40, the "modern worldview" is what we know. Where did it come from and what's happening now?

We have created the above analogy in an attempt to help explain how cultural changes happen... let's start there and then we can apply it to both the "modern" and "post-modern" views. A "worldview" is simply how people see the world. It encompasses how they think and process what they see around them. It is the glasses through which they see everything in their lives. A particular worldview can exist for hundreds of years until certain factors of change exert their influence. In our analogy, note the yellow bar on the timeline. Influencing factors began to splash on the scene (the blue eyedroppers). At first those ideas were seen as radical, even heretical. As time passed and the points of influence increased, society as a whole began to change (note a green cast to the timeline). Ideas were seen as less radical and were more generally excepted. After enough of input over a long enough time, the change became complete (the entire timeline is now blue). That same process began happening again in the mid 1900's. Thanks to improvements in the technology of communication, this time the change happened in a much shorter time frame. If an individual in the 1500's wrote about radical ideas, it could take decades for those written words to be widely distributed. In the last 50 years with radio, TV, cable TV, satellite TV, and now the Internet, ideas can be communicated around the globe... instantly! The last change happened so gradually that no one person lived long enough to see the big picture of what was happening. This time we have people of both worldviews living side by side wondering why the other person thinks the way they do!

The birth of "modernism"

In the "pre-modern" time (yellow), the Catholic Church called the shots in pretty much every aspect of peoples lives. Change (blue eyedropper) came through the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment. Artists pushed the envelope as to what was allowed. Human freedoms were explored as the view of the universe shifted from God-centered to human-centered. Scientific discoveries challenged previously held views. It could now be proven that the earth was not the center of the universe. Scientific explanations also emerged for many things that were once believed to be mystical. Human reason replaced medieval superstition. The Reformation challenged the Biblical basis of the Catholic Church itself. What we know as "modernism" grew out of these influences and reigned for two hundred years.

The birth of "post-modernism"

In the mid 1900's change began again, but most people didn't recognize it for what it was. Sure they noticed some crazy radical groups and weird activities. Some changes were described by such terms as "the generation gap," but most of us were unaware that something much more significant was happening. There were a few "voices crying in the wilderness" talking about major cultural change, but very few people paid attention to them. In retrospect it is easy to see that some of these elements really were the beginnings of the change to a new worldview that has become known as "post-modern." Let's look at a couple specific examples. Remember in the late 60's when The Beatles made a highly publicized visit to India to explore Transcendental Meditation? How about the George Harrison song "My Sweet Lord?" The chorus started with "Hallelujah, Hallelujah" then shifted to "Hara Krishna, Hara Krishna." Looking back we can see this as sign of an openness to other gods, and embracing other religions. Another topic is environmental. People started considering such things as nuclear accidents and toxic waste dumps, and questioning (for the first time) if scientific advances were always a good thing.