The new postmodern world is more like the ancient world of the first century than the fading modern world of the last two centuries. Thus, postmodernity is more accommodating than modernity to Christian faith and practice. In the book, Postmodern Pilgrims: First Century Passion for the 21st Century World, Leonard Sweet describes postmodernity as an EPIC culture: Experiential, Participatory, Image-driven, and Connected. Sweet calls us to an "ancient-future" faith that is both firmly rooted in the past and yet culturally engaged in the present. By refusing to put both feet in either the past or the future, we protect ourselves from stale traditionalism and cultural widowhood. He who marries the spirit of the age will soon become a widower. Sweet seeks to protect us from widowhood while encouraging us to lovingly engage with our present postmodern culture.

I agree with the spirit of Sweet's book even though, at times, I think he simplifies or overstates his case. For example, in regard to the "E" of EPIC: Experiential. Our experiences must be real and not simply mediated, manufactured, or commercialized. In order for experiences to be authentically human they must not be forced or manufactured. Unlike Sweet, I don't consider participation on EBay to be experiential, per se. If anything, it is a big garage sale -- consumerism and capitalism at its most intense and personal. It is about a fiscal transaction more than a relationship. I favor the word "holistic" over "experiential" as a word to describe postmodern culture -- a word that embraces experience without completely abandoning the intellect. However, this would ruin the acronym: HPIC is not nearly as catchy as EPIC.

In regard to the "P" of Epic: Participatory: Are the people on the streets during the filming of The Today Show really participating in the show? Or would it be better to say they are spectating? (Or perhaps even worse -- they may be attempting to validate their existence by having their image transmitted over the single most shared reality in human history -- television.) Sure, we can design and customize our personal possessions, but is this truly participation, or hyper-consumerism at its peak? Yes, it may be fun to compose our own music or design our own fashions, but is everyone really gifted to do this? Is postmodernity so egalitarian it can't admit the superior giftedness of others in respective fields?

I believe that church should be participatory rather than simply a spectator sport, but Sweet -- like other postmodern advocates -- undervalues the participatory nature of listening. True listening involves faithful participation. It is no small task to carefully listen to another person. And if we can't listen to one another, can we really expect to listen to God? For this reason, I reject Sweet's call to succumb to the short attention span of postmoderns (74). Certainly, listening is not all that is involved in church, but it is a component -- and an important one at that. Case in point: Could any of us truly benefit from the wisdom in Sweet's book if we only possessed a 7-8 minute attention span?

In a high-tech world which opens possibilities for new kinds of connection, we must never lose sight of the fact that these so-called connections are tenuous at best. They are mediated; they are not fully real. If we assume that "real life" is high-tech, high-energy, infinitely creative, consisting of mind-blowing graphics, catchy slogans, and ecstatic experiences, we may lose sight of the fact that "real life" is the life we experience that is not mediated. In other words, "real life" consists primarily of normal, common, mundane, routine events and activities. If we cannot find love, life, God, and relationships in this context, a video-screen, flashing lights, pounding music, and high-speed internet access will not provide these things either.

All the EPICtivities Sweet proposes can be experienced apart from the high-tech glitz and glamour that Sweet focuses upon in his book. Experience, Participation, Imagination, and Connectivity find their full expression in the context of silence and stillness -- in a space that provides space. God's presence and authentic reality (rather than deceptions and illusions) can be discovered when we slow down enough to truly take notice. Perhaps one of the most countercultural things we can do as a church would be to slow down the pace, allow for silence, discipline ourselves to listen to God and others, and seek to find God in the simple context of a loving community united around faith in Christ.

I am postmodern. I make no bones about it. I believe that the reductionistic tendencies of modernity need to be exposed. The church should stop pretending that modernity is a dying friend who should be resuscitated at all costs; otherwise, the church will be even more irrelevant in the future than it already is. And yet, I fear that a postmodern expression of faith in the church may lose sight of its intended goal if faith in technology, hyper-consumerism, and hyper-individualism are given free reign and not challenged as further distortions and compromises of the gospel.

Three Insights Gained from the Book:

1. I love Sweet's emphasis that knowledge comes by dance (participation) and not simply dissection (analysis). "Knowledge by dissection analytically takes apart; knowledge by dance (gestures, smell, taste, touch, etc.) synthetically puts together" (146).

2. Sweet convincingly argues that objective knowledge is based in subjective knowledge rather than the vice versa. At the very least, there is an interplay that forbids exalting one over the other. (148)

3. Finally, I was struck anew with the limitations of technology to provide what Sweet ultimately seeks. Again, I am with him in spirit; in practice, I'm a little more cautious. And yet, I thank God for people like Leonard Sweet. We need people like him to rock the boat! And, if nothing else, he makes me look conservative -- and that's a good thing to some who think I'm rocking the boat as well.

© Richard J. Vincent, 2004