1. Living Under the Reign of God: Gospel, Church & Culture in a Postmodern Context Baptist Bible College December 2004

2. The London Eye

3. Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster

4. The Enlightenment: 17 th to the Middle of the 20 th Century 1.Immanence takes precedence over transcendence... 2.Light of reason dethroned the church as the source of authority… 3.Revolution in philosophy - Bacon, Descartes, Kant… 4.Revolution in science - Aristotle overturned, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton...

5. Modernity/Enlightenment 1. Era of conquest and control 2. Age of the machine 3. Age of reason/analysis 4. Age of secular science – process and progress 5.Aspired for absolute of objectivity

6. Modernity/Enlightenment 6. Age of critical evaluation 7. Modern nation-state organization 8.Age of individualism/autonomy 9.Age of Protestantism institutional religion 10. Age of capitalism/consumerism

7. Postmodernity Early Nineteen Sixties to the Present 1. Universe Not Self-Contained * 2. No Basis for Morality and Values 3. Progress Not Inevitable * 4. No Basis for Truth * 5. Language of Public Debate Lost * 6. Meaning of Written Texts Lost 7. Limited Autonomy/Process

8. Multiculturalism - Pluralism 1. Diversity - Tower of Babel to the final rebellion under the lawless man... 2. Tolerance - aspect of common grace that renders community/society possible… 3. Postmodern - rejection of standards to make truth judgments about culture, religion, values...

9. Crisis in America’s Worldview 1.The Death of Modernity – the death of the positive dynamic of the Enlightenment has been in process since the mid 1960ies 2.The Rise of Postmodernity – the impact of the new worldview taking over the soul of America 3.The Present Crisis of Terrorism & Moral Disintegration

12. Impact of Terrorism & Multiculturalism 1.September 11 – optimism lost 2.War in Iraq – circa 1,271 dead 3.San Francisco – circa 4,000 same sex marriages 4.Debate in Massachusetts, New York, Oregon –same sex marriage 5.Mayor Daily of Chicago, Mayor Bloomberg of New York 6.Gay Episcopal Bishop

13. Postmodernity 1.Multiculturalism - new agenda, social pragmatism... 2.Globalization - every culture has its story…no overarching story to bind all the cultural stories together… 3.Mass Media - agenda of the media elites… 4.University - ensconced at all levels... 5.Political Arena - agenda for education...

14. Living Under the Reign of God: Gospel, Church & Culture in a Postmodern Context The End Session One