Postmodernism and Monism

Mark Lauterbach has an interesting essay on the similarities between "new" postmodernism and the philosophical idea of "monism" that has been around for hundreds of years. In his post he says:

Postmodernism is really nothing new historically. I am also not an expert in this – but it seems to be that postmodernism in the west is a new form of monism. For the uninitiated, monism is the heart of Hinduism. Monism teaches that “all is one” – good and evil are not really different, truth and error are not different. One illustration that has been helpful to me is that monism teaches that life and history is really much like watching a play, where actors don various alter egos and play out their anger, love, violence, disagreements – and then go back stage, take off their costumes and go out for dinner. There is no truth. There is no error. There is no evil or good – it is all an illusion.

And what does all this have to do with the Gospel? The Gospel has edges – it is rooted in a Christian world view. The character of God, his role as creator and judge, the clear definition of sin, the nature of judgment and punishment, the absolute necessity of the atonement as a susbtitutionary act, and the centrality of imputation – these cannot be defined in any clear way by a monist. Monists want relationship but they do not want definition. And if we are not careful, we will accommodate the Gospel to them and actually alter its meaning. A Gospel without edges is no Gospel. Truth must be communicated in a context of a Biblical worldview as only then does it transform by the power of the Spirit. Truth converts and truth offends. The Gospel is the power of God to save.

We do not want people converted by adding Jesus to their monistic post modern wordlview. We want people converted to the truth of God and the order of his creation and this requires careful thought. I am not advocating harsh harangues against pomos -- I am arguing careful apologetic communication without one trace of compromise in the biblical worldview. And let's do this with confidence, not intimidated by yet another iteration of old error.