THE POLITICALLY CORRECT

'A great many of those who "debunk" traditional or (they say) "sentimental" values have in the background values of their own which they believe to be immune from the debunking process.' 

CS Lewis, The Abolition of Man, p.29. 

POST-MODERNISM

'The hub of postmodern life strategy is not identity building but avoidance of fixation.'
Zygmunt Bauman in Rod Dreher, The Benedict Option, p.66. 

TRUE AUTHENTICITY

'....the modern self seeks authenticity via the shortcut of attempting to make peace with ourselves rather than making peace with God and allowing him to change us.' 

Jonathan Grant, Divine Sex, p.50. 

SECULAR FAITH

'What is unique about late modernity in history's marketplace of worldviews is this. Nonsecular cultures are overt about their faith, and their members acknowledge the faith nature of their beliefs. Many late-modern secular people, however, don't see or grant the faith leaps that they are taking.' 

Timothy Keller, Preaching, p.125.

MODERNITY VS. ORTHODOXY

'Modernity has only lasted less than a dozen generations, while orthodox Christianity has already flourished for more than four hundred generations and shows no sign of fatigue. Yet orthodoxy seems like the newcomer in the university and to the cultural elites, since that is where it has been most forgotten. 

The list of modernities since the patristic period that have been transcended by orthodoxy is too long to describe here. Tribalism, feudalism, nominalism and social utopianism provide examples.'

Thomas C Oden, A Change of Heart, p.164.

CLASSIC CHRISTIANITY

'The gift of classic Christianity will only be received when people are ready to receive it and be comforted by it. In order for that to happen, they must be willing to let modern consciousness collapse of its own weight. This recognition is happening on a person-by-person basis.'

Thomas C Oden, A Change of Heart, p.164.

WHERE THE WORLD IS HEADING

'...contrary to the philosophy of the Enlightenment, which aimed at emancipation and human happiness, technology is well and truly a process without purpose, devoid of any objectives: ultimately, nobody knows any longer the directions in which the world is moving, because it is automatically governed by competition and in no sense directed by the conscious will of men united by a project, at the heart of society...' 

Luc Ferry, A Brief History of Thought, p.215. 

POST-MODERNISM

'The term postmodernism  has become a real trash can for whatever many of us think we do not like or want to face.'

Alice P Mathews, Preaching That Speaks to Women, p.80.

EVANGELISM

'People with a religious upbringing can grasp the idea of sin as the violation of God's moral law. That law can be explained in such a way that they realize they fall short of it. In that context, Christ and his salvation can be presented as the only hope of pardon for guilt. This, the traditional gospel of the last generation, is a "gospel for the circumcised."

However, Manhattan is also filled with postmodern listeners who consider all moral statements to be culturally relative and socially constructed. If you try to convict them of guilt for sexual lust, they will simply say, "You have you standards, and I have mine." If you respond with a diatribe on the dangers of relativism, your listeners will simply feel scolded and distanced. Of course, postmodern people must at some point be challenged about their mushy views of truth, but there is a way to make a credible and convicting gosple presentation to them even before you get into such apologetic issues.

I take a page from Kirkegaard's The Sickness Unto Death and define sin as building your identity - your self-worth and happiness - on anything other than God. That is, I use the biblical definition of sin as idolatry. That puts the emphasis not as much on "doing bad things" but on "making good things into ultimate things."

Instead of telling them they are sinning because they are sleeping with their girlfriends or boyfriends, I tell them they are sinning because they are looking to their romances to give their lives meaning, to justify and save them, to give them what they should be looking for from God. Their idolatry leads to anxiety, obsessiveness, envy, and resentment. I have found that when you describe their lives in terms of idolatry, postmodern people do not give much resistance. Then Christ and his salvation can be presented not (at this point) so much as their only hope for forgiveness, but as their only hope for freedom. This is my "gospel for the uncircumcised."'

Timothy Keller, 'The Gospel in All its Forms'. Available at:

www.christianitytoday.com/le/2008/spring/9.74.html?start=1

RATIONALISM

'We are a puzzled and confused generation embracing any and every kind of non-rationalism that may offer us a spiritual shot in the arm while lapsing back into rationalism (in particular, the old modernist critiques) whenever we want to keep traditional or orthodox Christianity at bay.'

Tom Wright, Surprised by Hope, p.133.