Reflections on 10/8 Class

Last Thursday’s class underscored the importance of moving beyond a deconstructionist viewpoint in order to begin to reconstruct and renew the church for postmodern times. It is not merely sufficient to recognize that modern culture established a sacred/secular divide or that it privileged individualism over community, for example. While understanding—and even, at times, tearing down—these constructs of modernity is vitally important, the work does not end there. We instead be mindful of the ways in which we can continue to walk forward, renewing the tradition of the past while also replacing it with more culturally relevant ways of doing church in a postmodern context.