11/5/14. GOD’S NEW HUMANITY AND CULTURAL DIASTROPHISMS

BLOG 11/5/14. GOD’S NEW HUMANITY AND CULTURAL DIASTROPHISMS

Those of us who identify ourselves a being colonies of God’s New Humanity, and therefore aliens and exiles in our present cultural scene, do need to step back occasionally and take a prophetic look at the very neighborhoods where we live—both locally and globally—and discern the psyche of our cultural context. To assume that what may have been valid a generation ago, is still valid in not to be very realistic.

Our particular passage is a very exciting missionary context for us because a vast majority of the cultural assumptions of even the recent past simply do not exist. The word: diastrophism comes to mind. A diastrophism is that phenomenon that occurs when the subterranean tectonic plates shift and so cause earthquakes that obliterate or disrupt nearly everything that is on the surface. Cultural diastrophisms are often difficult to identify when one is living in the middle of them. But there are two that we need to remind ourselves of once again (and again, and again).

The first is that we have now essentially passed out of the era of Christendom, which began somewhere near the fourth or fifth century, when the church and ‘the empire’ became linked and somewhat interacted on one another. One could say (without too much hyperbole) that the ‘empire’ co-opted the church to its own advantage, which has come right down to us in the “God bless America” mantra invoked by politicians, and even ostensible church leaders. Christendom is no longer a serious factor in our culture. The vast church institutions that were once dominant are more and more ignorable. Those who are called ‘reverend’ and wear their clerical collars are no longer taken seriously—they are more of a curiosity and a ‘turn-off’ than respected voices in the community and its culture. To “go into the ministry” may be the surest route to irrelevance.

This cultural diastrophism has taken place primarily since World War II, and the post-Christendom and post-Christian culture is now solidly in place. It will become more obvious as we move into the immediate decades before us.

The other diastrophism is related, and has to do with the generational cultures. There are, speaking in broad terms, three major (and overlapping) cultures: the Boomers, which is that culture that was produced after World War II by the ‘Greatest Generation,’ and which, after their Woodstock moment, became those seeking to recapture the security of their parents’ world, and becoming even more conservative. They are the last generation significantly influenced by Christendom.

They were followed by Generation X, which as a generational culture was and is defined by a quiet cynicism, and who were able to look at Christendom with a bit of unabashed critical evaluation. Yes, it produced some mega-churches, but mostly it produced pioneers in the digital culture, that have been such a huge factor. They could take the Christendom church, or leave it. It was a commodity, not a formative influence.

Finally, we have the Millennial Generation, which may be the first generation that deals realistically with this post-Christendom and post-Christian culture. They are the innovators. They are the ones who can say: “Yes, the whole scene is screwed-up, so let’s find a way to fix it.” They are those, who when discovering Christ, become the innovators, and the spontaneous practitioners of the New Humanity. They are not at all wedded to the institutions of Christendom, but are finding ways to be the incarnation of their New Humanity in their geographical, social, professional ‘neighborhood’ in all kinds of forms. They become priests to each other. They become salt and light to their neighbors walking still in darkness. In this cultural diastrophism, this generation has emerged with refreshing creativity, and missional sensitivity to all those still captive to the dominion of darkness. They understand the incarnational dimension of the church’s calling. They are, to be sure, something of an underground movement, but a huge phenomenon. I find them most hopeful.

About rthenderson

Sixty years a pastor-teacher within the Presbyterian Church. Author of several books, the latest of which are a trilogy on missional ecclesiology: ENCHANTED COMMUNITY: JOURNEY INTO THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH, then, REFOUNDING THE CHURCH FROM THE UNDERSIDE, then THE CHURCH AND THE RELENTLESS DARKNESS. Previous to this trilogy was A DOOR OF HOPE: SPIRITUAL CONFLICT IN PASTORAL MINISTRY, and SUBVERSIVE JESUS, RADICAL FAITH. I am a native of West Palm Beach, Florida, a graduate of Davidson College, then of Columbia and Westminster Theological Seminaries.
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