Our Very Good Friend's Diagnosis with Cancer and learning about Postmodernity

Our good friend sent us this email from the States today:

"The surgeon reported to me this morning that the cancer operated on my hand and supposedly not to have spread unfortunately has indeed spread to the lymph system (10 of 33 nodes removed found diseased). At this point in time I am now classified as having Stage III Melanoma cancer.

I will be getting an MRI (head/brain scan) tomorrow. Other than confirming the previously known condition of 'emptyheaditis', (his reputation for good humour is well-earned!) -  it will determine if anything has spread to that extremity."

You may, or may not wonder how on earth do a few notes on Postmodernity and our friend's biopsy results  link...   First the basic notes, then briefly back to our friend.

You may know the 2 basic summary notes on Postmodernity as the palm of your hand,  including much extra knowledge.  You may never have considered this thinking by name, but you will recognise and should have  the "feel" of our own era, ie postmodernity.

In green:  "Two Notes from "Humble Apologetics" by Stackhouse.

In blue:    Personal impressions.

In red:     A Definition of postmodernity as given by Os Guinness in "Fit Bodies, Fat Minds"

From "Humble Apologetics" by John G. Stackhouse, Jr.

A Few Notes on Postmodernity:


BASIC NOTE #1    Postmodernity  is a matter of point of view.  Human perception and thought are profoundly and only subjective.
Human knowledge is restricted by, for example,
*  a particular viewpoint
*  a certain place
*  a certain time
* a certain light, etc etc etc.
There is no absolute viewpoint.  There are only particular vantage places that give angles of vision on only particular thing.  Our views vary because our points of views vary.


BASIC NOTE #2.  Human knowledge is characterised by the quality of the particular knower - or community of knowers.
In other words, human knowledge is characterised by, for example:
gender, race, age, education, physical and mental health, emotional state, prejudices, beliefs, appetites, preferences and previous knowledge - etc - these all affect the process of human perception and interpretation.
There are simply angles of visions.
Postmodernity has no confidence in the "right way" of doing things.  There is no reliable access to reality.  It is up to each individual to select the values by which he or she would live.  There is no standard of goodness.

Jesus is Lord. 
There is One Name given under heaven by which people can be saved. 
Jesus said "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life". 
Three of a myriad quotes from Scriptures in  direct contrast to postmodernity thinking. 
Personally, we are just so deeply thankful that God did not leave it up to us to create our own realities.  Jesus is Lord - full of truth and full of grace!  Logically, do I want to choose my combinations of moral values in cafeteria style, or do I want my Perfect God to show me what truth is?

A common observation of our times: "Tolerance is one of the key-words for the post-modernist -except for those who believe truth is important!"   Suddenly tolerance morphs into rock-hard intolerance.  (Yesterday the UK Parliament voted on the Equality Law - for example).

A good summary of postmodern thinking is given by Os Guinness in Fit Bodies, Fat Minds:


Where modernism was a manifesto of human self-confidence and self-congratulation, postmodernism is a confession of modesty, if not despair.

• There is no truth, only truths. There are no principles, only preferences.
• There is no grand reason, only reasons.
• There is no grand narrative of human progress, only countless stories of where people and their cultures are now.




• There is no simple reality or any grand objectivity of universal, detached knowledge, only a ceaseless representation of everything in terms of everything else.

In sum, postmodernism...is an extreme form of relativism - and deadly.

Does our dear Christian friend want to hear that Jesus may or may not leave or forsake him?

Of course not!

Postmodernity shrugs with a "whatever" God gives His firm Word.

Our friend is unwavering in his faith:

"God is sovereign and this and any future events, including cures, are ALL in His Hands and Plan.
I do not intend to cancel my golf membership in hopes of actually some day learning the game"

Imagine Postmodernity-thinking at work in a driver approaching this roundabout in the UK,

or anywhere else, for that matter.