Contextualizing the Gospel in 21st Century Western Culture

Fundamentally (an interesting choice of opening word given its vexed history in Protestantism; here I mean by it “essentially” but in the sense of “foundationally,” what is at base rather than merely what is at the core or essence of a thing), the church in Western culture is facing a trilogy of overlapping contexts. Much of our inter-mural arguments, and much of the parallel effectiveness or lack thereof of our missiology, is rooted in a lack of understanding which of these elements we are facing at any one time, or to what degree they may intertwine. For shorthand, and totemically, I call these trilogy of contemporary adversaries: Pharisaism, Paganism, and Barbarism.

Up until, as a rough estimate, the middle of the Seventeenth century the church in the West’s main ideological opponent were forms of Pharisaism. This can, and did, take on secular as well as religious forms. The eighteenth century Enlightenment birthed a new wave of Paganism, capturing the return to pagan ways of thinking that characterized the earlier Renaissance, combining it with the new science of Newton et al, and the anti-clerical cynicism of the European philosophes like Rousseau and Voltaire. Until very recently that  Enlightenment opponent (and sometimes partner: science after all is friend of the truth, not adversary, and many of the early scientists were, as they still are, devout) was the main opponent in view, as it applied now outdated epistemology to study of the Biblical text to create the still-taught historical critical method in liberal seminaries to this day.

Then emerged the much-discussed “postmodernism” that vexed the apologists of the early twenty first century, and rightly so, with its tendency to view all truth claims as authoritative power moves in the mode of Foucault and Derrida and their assorted harpies. You can perhaps already sense the confusion, and infighting, that could (and did and does) emerge as the church, in one place or at one time, attempts to deal with legalistic Pharisaism, and another tackles the cultural modernistic and then post-modernistic Paganism. The resulting rhetoric can feel very different, so distinct as to be almost as if we are partaking in different movements. One is seeker sensitive, another is apologetic-focused, another is traditional, and on it goes. But latterly I detect a third stream to add to this witch’s brew of opponents facing the Western church: Barbarism. Long ago, CS Lewis detected this, but his thinking on it (to my knowledge) has been underplayed. He knew, as someone versed in the classics, that elements of what was facing the church in the West was nothing like ancient Paganism. The best of ancient Paganism, with its high regard for the manly (literally) virtues, was not at all the same as the free sex and social destructiveness of the so-called sexual revolution and its aftermath. He rightly called it Barbarism. But now again, perhaps we can sense the confusion, and infighting, that will emerge if one group is focused on tackling the social decay of Barbarism, and another the sophisticated apologetical challenge of postmodern Paganism. One will be trying to build a new society, a Noah’s ark if you will, to save civilization for when the storm of chaos passes. Another will be seeking common ground and building bridges. They will feel like, these two approaches, as if they are at war with each other, for they are certainly focused in different directions.

The key then is to acknowledge and notice this trilogy of enemies facing the Western church – Pharisaism, Paganism, and Barbarism – tackle them to appropriate degrees depending on the context, not assume that one or the other is the only enemy at play, but acknowledge this triumvirate of axis of evil that must be defeated. With the weapons of Christ, and the Sword of the Spirit.

Dr. Josh Moody is Senior Pastor or College Church in Wheaton and President or God Centered Life Ministries.