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Leonard
Sweet
1) How would you define the "postmodern
movement" as it relates to the church. When Thomas Kuhn introduced the language of "paradigm change" in The
Structures of Scientific Revolutions, I wish he had used another phrase for
"paradigm:" metaphor change.
They mean the same thing. Paradigm is another word for "root
metaphors." When the root metaphors change, so does everything else. The
imaginative architecture of the modern world has collapsed, is in ruins, and a
new imaginative architecture is emerging.
The root metaphors of the modern world have burned out. The emergence of new
metaphors on which to build life and prepare for eternity are what I call the
"postmodern movement." Claude Levi-Strauss, in his masterpiece The Raw
and the Cooked, put it like this: "metaphors are based on an intuitive sense of
the logical relations between one realm and other realms . . . Metaphor, far
from being a decoration that is added to language, purifies it and restores it
to its original nature" (I, 339). This is what a true reformation does:
purifies and restores, as Peter Matheson's wonderful The Imaginative World of
the Reformation (2000) points out.
The "postmodern movement" is an extended, multiplicitous metaphor for
the quest for connectedness with the divine.
2) When you speak of a postmodern generation as being a "de" as
opposed to a "re" generation, what do you mean?
Before there can be a new synthesis around images that connect and produce,
first there needs to be a clearing away and cleaning up of the rubble. Go back
to the Protestant Reformation, which was enormously deconstructive.
Deconstruction precedes reconstruction. The "de" words are either the
front end of the process by which the mind changes as it acquires new
information/metaphors, or the back end of what issues from the process called
disintermediation.
Another way of talking about the "de" words is as Mike Slaughter does
in The Unlearning Church (Group, 2001). I used to be a "learned"
professor. Up until 1987 I functioned as an academic in a
"learned" profession. Then God knocked me off my high Gutenberg horse,
roughed me up a bit, halted my "learnedness" and made me into a
perpetual "learner."
3) How do you see the "old line" denominations changing to reach a new
generation? I don't, at least very much. That's why the emergence of something totally
unique in USAmerican religious history: church "consultants" that are
doing for churches what denominational staff should have been doing. It's
amusing (and amazing) to me that every major "oldline" has a protest
movement within it that wants to start a new "denomination" precisely
at a time and in a world where denominational structures are proving unusable or
unstable. In the mid-90s, we passed a Rubicon: more Christians in USAmerica were
affiliated with non-denominational churches (ndc's) than with denominations.
By the way, I am not a big fan of generational cultures analysis ala Strauss and
Howe. It may have had some usefulness for discussing two generations - "boosters
and boomers" - but something more profound is going on out there than the
rise of "new generations." Besides, divisions by age group, as someone
has said, is the most debased form of solidarity. The French have a term for it:
soixante-huitard.
4) How do you feel higher education can help develop leaders for a postmodern
community of faith? By adjusting to a postmodern epistemology, and by refocusing education from
consumerism--"how to make a living" to citizenship--"how to make
a life." A postmodern epistemology is not based on "accessing
information" or pouring information into mental containers (information
which is soon outdated anyway). Instead of "access," education needs
to facilitate how to process and assess knowledge.
5) What would you say were the five most important features of a postmodern
community of faith? I have four. It's called "EPIC," an acronym for
Experiential/Relational, Participatory, Image-rich, Connective.
6) Denominations will change, we know this, how do you believe they will change
to meet the needs of the people they serve? I'm not sure they will change, at least willingly. Many are quite content being
Williamsburg colonies for 1950s middle-class culture. There are some not many,
but some - (have you walked the streets of Williamsburg?) people who like living
in museums. But if denominations are to have a vital future, it will be because
they stopped focusing on regulating their churches and started resourcing them.
After Nine-Eleven, the war going on in the world right now is between open
systems and closed systems. It's the same war
that is going on in every denomination.
7) Do you believe it is possible for a church to move from the modern to the
pomo, and what are some of the problems you envision?
Not only possible, but impossible NOT to. Don't the Scriptures say, "Even
the gates of hell shall not prevail" against the church? God's church will
be in this future. Whether my church or your church will is another matter. But
God will be there.
some books by leonard:
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Church
in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives
Leonard Sweet; Paperback; Buy New: $13.99 |
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Summoned
to Lead
Leonard Sweet; Hardcover; Buy New: $10.49 |
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SoulTsunami
Leonard Sweet; Paperback; Buy New:
$11.89 |
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Jesus
Drives Me Crazy!
Leonard Sweet; Paperback; Buy New:
$10.39 |
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Post-Modern
Pilgrims: First Century Passion for
the 21st Century Church
Leonard Sweet; Hardcover; Buy New:
$13. |
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AquaChurch:
Essential Leadership Arts for
Piloting Your Church in Today's
Fluid Culture
Leonard I. Sweet; Hardcover; Buy
New: $19.99 |
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Out
of the Question...Into the
Mystery : Getting Lost in the
GodLife Relationship
Leonard Sweet; Hardcover; Buy
New: $13.99 |
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SoulSalsa
Leonard Sweet; Paperback; Buy
New: $10.39 |
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A
Cup of Coffee at the Soul
Cafe
Leonard I. Sweet; Hardcover;
Buy New: $10.49 |
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Carpe
MaNana
Leonard Sweet; Paperback;
Buy New: $10.39
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