The contemporary Christian must address issues of his or her culture and present the Gospel message in a manner that is culturally relevant.  But to do so, the Christian must also be forewarned and forearmed against the tendency to be  assimilated into that culture--to be impacted by the culture rather than impacting the culture with the true values of  orthodox Christianity.  In his book, Postmodern Times--A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture, Gene Edward Veith, Jr. gives ample warning against the syncretistic tendency of the Postmodern evangelical. 

 Veith describes his book as a "guide to the contemporary landscape--its dominant ideas, its art forms, its social  configurations, and its spiritual assumptions..."  His purpose is to evaluate the trends of Postmodernism from a distinctly  Christian point of view. 

 From the perspective of evangelism, it's important to understand the mindset of the people one is trying to    
evangelize.  In an age when "one thought is as good as another," we must find the common framework of discussion that  will enable us to demonstrate the superiority of faith in Jesus Christ over the other views.  Veith questions traditional  evangelistic methods in this pluralistic culture, where truth is "relative" and where there are "no absolutes." 

 What are some of the characteristics of Postmodernism that the Christian evangelist must be aware of?  Whereas Modernism would plainly argue that Christianity was not true, Postmodernism is critical of Christianity because  Christianity claims to have exclusive truth.  The Postmodernist views truth-claims as fiction and objective systems of  thought as "narratives" or stories.  As a result, when objective truth is swallowed up by subjectivity, then morality  vanishes.  As Veith quotes on page 59, "If nothing [is] true, everything [is] possible!"   

Postmodernism is anti-foundational.  While Modernism sought to destroy the foundations of Christianity and  replace them with different foundations, the Postmodern thinker questions the validity of any foundations, thinking  perhaps society can be built without them.  Postmodernism tries to avoid value judgments altogether (unless, of course,  you claim that your values are the values!  Then you're in trouble!).  To take it a step further, Postmodernism would claim  that both Modernism and Christianity are to be rejected because they even claim there is such a thing as objective truth.   

 Postmodernism's philosophical base is that of existentialism, where there is no inherent order or meaning in life.   This existential base leads to relativism, where each person creates his or her own meaning and every meaning is equally  valid.  While the older existentialism focused on the individual's perception of meaning, Postmodernism more readily  focuses on the meaning set forth by the social group and its language. 

 Postmodernism seeks to dissolve history since, to them, history is not a set of objective facts but a "series of  metaphors" that reflect the values of those institutions that produced it.  Since history is not objective, it can be re-written to suit the needs of the particular group doing the writing.  Hence, the term "historical revisionism." 

 Postmodernism is deconstructionistic in its view of language.  That is, the Postmodernist assumes that language  cannot render truths about the world in an objective way.  The Postmodernist develops therefore a "hermeneutic of  suspicion" and asks "What's really behind these words or this institution?"  Their view is that language doesn't really reveal  meaning, rather, language "constructs" meaning.  A good example of this is found on page 55, where Veith illustrates how  a Postmodern deconstructionist might view the Declaration of Independence:  "Although it speaks of equality, its  language excludes women..." 

 While the Modernist may have put too much value on humanity, Postmodernism exalts nature at the expense of  humanity.  This can be seen in many in the environmentalist movement who go to anti-human extremes.  In the no-absolutes world of Postmodernism, who's to say that man is any better than the animals?  In this anti-human approach to  nature, man becomes the problem and abortion can become the solution. 

 Veith summarizes the differences between Modernism and Postmodernism using Ihab Hassan's description on  page 43: 

  ....Modernists believe in determinacy; postmodernists believe in indeterminacy.  Whereas  modernism emphasizes purpose and design, postmodernism emphasizes play and chance.   Modernism establishes a hierarchy; postmodernism cultivates anarchy.  Modernism  values the type; postmodernism values the mutant.  Modernism seeks the "logos", the   underlying meaning of the universe expressed in language.  Postmodernism, on the other  hand, embraces silence, rejecting both meaning and the Word. 

 Veith takes a number of chapters to deal with how Postmodernism has impacted the worlds of art, architecture, literature, journalism and entertainment, pointing to specific examples of the differences between "modern" and  "postmodern."  He concludes that "modernist art promoted meaning apart from the external world; postmodernist art  promotes the external world apart from meaning." 

 He then covers the impact of Postmodernism on society, focusing on the relativism that occurs from "multi-culturalism" and "segmentation."  On page 158, Veith discusses the political ramification of Postmodernism.  He notes  that the individual is minimized in favor of the group.  He mentions that society is beyond moral law and can construct any  values it wishes to impose.  The result is that power in politics becomes arbitrary.  Although Postmodernists today don't openly advocate totalitarianism, their ideas certainly don't really support a free society.  Veith makes a telling statement about the effects of Postmodernism on politics on page 165: 

  Fascism, like postmodernism, had its origins in romanticism, with its primitivism and  subjectivity, and existentialism, with it rejection of absolutes and its "triumph of the will."   Hitler may have failed because he was ahead of his time. 

 In the final section of the book, entitled Postmodern Religion, Veith discusses the spiritual legacy being  promulgated by the Postmodernists.  Postmodernism assumes there is no objective truth and that shows up in their view  of religion.  Religion is seen merely as another choice among many.  Veith says on p. 194: 

  This completely different way of thinking about religion----that it is a matter not of what  is true but of what one like and what one wants----explains why the cults take in so many   intelligent and well-educated people. 

 For the Postmoderns tolerance in religion becomes one of the cardinal virtues.  Of course, those who would question that tolerance are touted as narrow-minded bigots and as a result they would not be put under the umbrella of  tolerance of the Postmoderns. 

 Another tenet of Postmodernist "morality" is the concept of "collective guilt" or "collective responsibility", where blame for injustices falls on the culture.  Thus, people whose ancestors were slave-traders are made to feel responsible for something they individually never took part in. 

 Veith discusses various views on when the decline of Modernism occurred and when the rise of Postmodernism  occurred.  He indicates a time frame between the late 1960s (with the student demonstrations, the civil rights movement  and the sexual revolution) and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall during the Reagan years. 

 A poignant illustration of the decline of Modernism and the advent of Postmodernism is found on page 39, where Veith uses Charles Jencks account of the destruction of a high-tech, functional, modernistic housing development in St.  Louis.  The development had to be destroyed because it was so impersonal, depressing and crime-ridden.  He uses this as  a metaphor for the destruction of Modernism but goes on to say that Postmodernism leaves nothing of value in its place.   While the explosion that leveled the complex got rid of the "Modernist" problem, Postmodernism, instead of giving a  viable alternative, has left people "homeless." 

 Veith concludes his book by asking "What can the righteous do?" when the foundations (rejected by  Postmodernism) are falling apart.  He seems to indicate that in being aware of the thinking process of the Postmodern  culture, we can use approaches which may more readily reach our audience.  He quotes church growth guru Leith  Anderson as suggesting that since our Postmodern culture now has a difficult time thinking about abstract ideas that we  express the ideas in stories and emphasize practical applications.  He mentions the idea of approaching ideas issue by issue and taking advantage of relationships, taking advantage of the group-orientation of Postmoderns. 

 While acknowledging that it's fine to seek to be culturally relevant to people, we must be careful that we don't conform to the pattern of the world (Romans 12:1-2) while trying to reach this world.  He believes that true church  growth comes through revival and reformation, not through our own human ingenuity.  We must rely on the working of  the Holy Spirit as we hold fast to our Biblical identity. 

 The two foundations the church must stand on are morality and truth.  We must proclaim God's Law to a sinful  society but then go on to point out that salvation comes through Jesus Christ.