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Postmodernism presents a challenge to the Christian view of epistemology. What are some practical ways you, as a Christian educator, can respond to this challenge?
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Always bring them back to the scripture. There are things that we know for sure can or cannot happen. However, with God, all things are possible. We can’t solely rely upon our senses and feelings, but we can use them in conjunction with the things that we know are sure. I like the story of Peter that the professor used to make this point clearer. Peter only failed to walk on the water when he used what he knew to be true instead of also considering who God is, and what he can do.
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“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” My job is to proclaim, share, read God’s Word and to teach. God will convict, reveal, seal, etc. As an educator, I must be faithful to my job, pointing students to Jesus, sharing God’s Word, loving them, showing them my faith when I am faced by trials, and sharing how God has faithfully revealed himself, loved and provided for me.
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I would keep it as simple as always referring back to God’s Word and expanding upon faith, telling my students that all truths are found here. We should be able to recognize evil, and as long as we trust in the Lord, we can know that His word is true. If we go back to the meaning of philosophy (Love of Wisdom), and recognize that wisdom comes from God, then we can trust in His Word as a believer. As an educator, I would refer to the Bible and discuss the heart, the mind, and foolishness of this world. I would give examples of how our feelings can deceive us. Sometimes just because something feels good, doesn’t mean it is good for us. Sometimes what we want isn’t what is right and can lead to more destruction down the road. I would share with my students that if we want to acknowledge, serve, and trust God, we can’t let the things of this world distract us from His truth. They need to know that they will face many “giants” in this world that will try to tell them “this or that” is okay, but they must always refer back to God’s truth and test their feelings against the Word. If it is a situation where a student is struggling with a worldly belief, I would also pray with them after discussing these things & sharing scripture.
I might refer to verses such as:
Proverbs 28:26: “Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.”
Proverbs 13:20: “Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”
Romans 1:28: “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.”
Proverbs 1:7: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
1 Corinthians 2:14: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”
2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” -
Postmodernism has unknowingly polluted the minds of many students and teachers in the education system. Whenever possible we ALWAYS use the Biblical reference to determine universal right and wrong. We also engage in discussions about how the God versus the World changes our perceptions.
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The Post Modern World is challenging the youth of today to ignore what they experience as real and develop an idea of what is real for themselves. I believe this process of thought is causing people to create their own reality out of misconceptions and lies. God’s word tells us that the heart is deceitful and wicked, but the Word of God is truth. In order to combat lies, in my classroom we recite truth. We memorize and recite scripture, we sing scripture, we apply scripture in our weekly assignments, fictional stories, science experiments, history lessons, and math assignments. We express our God given creativity in our art projects and illustrations. Always giving God the praise and thanksgiving for what He has given to us to learn and enjoy.
We look at the difference between absolute truth and wavering ideals of what individual “truth” actually means. We experiment with perception of situations, characters in stories, or even the sprouting of beans. Collecting data, taking polls, and valuing everyone’s unique input and observations, but always, always the litmus test is “how does this line up with the Word”? What does God have to say about the outcome of this experiment? What does God have to say about the way that character behaved or the decision they made in the story? Just because your bean got moldy and didn’t sprout, doesn’t mean that beans can’t sprout……. look at the 17 beans that did sprout, look at all of the data, all of the information and make a sound decision based on the facts, not taking one human opinion as absolute truth.
The Bible was written over many many years by many different people, some that never even saw each other or talked to each other. Some died many years before others were born, yet, Gods message is the same. The truth was revealed to many different people in many different places at many different times and yet, they say the same things. Christians are not taking one humans word as absolute truth. Christians take the collective inspired Word of God as absolute Truth. This is where the Post Modern World agenda of creating “little gods” that create their own reality is so dangerous.