More Than a Generation Gap: Cultural Trends and Changing

Worldviews

Dr. Jolene ErlacherAGME Team Weekend

Friday, July 31st

Overview of the History of Western Civilization

European Renaissance (1300s-

1500s)Protestant

Reformation(1500s)

Age of Enlightenment or Reason (1700s)

Industrial Revolution (1750-early 1800s)

Post-Modernism (1900s)

*Deconstruction, relativism, post-

structuralism

Overview of the History of Western Civilization

European Renaissance (1300s-

1500s)Protestant

Reformation(1500s)

Age of Enlightenment or Reason (1700s)

Industrial Revolution (1750-early 1800s)

Post-Modernism (1900s)

*Deconstruction, relativism, post-

structuralism

David Harvey explained the modern era centered on the enlightenment project of

the mid-18th century. “The idea was to use the accumulation of knowledge

generated by many individuals working freely and creatively for the pursuit of

human emancipation and the enrichment of daily life.” The promise of scientific domination of nature included freedom

from scarcity and want.

Overview of the History of Western Civilization

European Renaissance (1300s-

1500s)Protestant

Reformation(1500s)

Age of Enlightenment or Reason (1700s)

Industrial Revolution (1750-early 1800s)

Post-Modernism (1900s)

*Deconstruction, relativism, post-

structuralism

Postmodern philosophers applied theories of deconstruction to the world as a whole,

attacking the concepts of universal meaning that existed under modernism. The beliefs in a timeless, absolute truth collapsed under postmodern thought.

Significant changes emerging from postmodernism are the values of all truth

as absolute or valid, community over individualism, and truth being

determined in the contexts of specific communities.

Peter Drucker indicated this period we are now experiencing is but a transition, and will not be permanent. “What will emerge next, we cannot know: we can only hope and pray. Perhaps nothing beyond stoic resignation? Perhaps a

rebirth of traditional religion, addressing itself to the needs and challenges of the

person in the knowledge society?”

Cultural Trends:

Tolerance and Truth

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the

only way, it does not exist.”

--Friedrich Nietzsche

Tolerancea :  sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one's ownb :  the act of allowing something Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Cultural tolerance in our society today is promoted as respect and

understanding, but it also demands acceptance and

affirmation

“[This postmodern view] is that every individual’s beliefs, values, lifestyle and

perception of truth……claims are equal…there is no hierarchy of truth. Your beliefs and my beliefs are

equal and all truth is relative.” -Thomas A. Helmbock

“Truth is produced, not found.”

-Hayden White Professor at the University of

California at Santa Cruz

“No right or wrong answer exists when values are at stake.”

Economics Today and Tomorrow High School text book

Emerging worldview of young adults: • No absolute truth• Tolerance of all beliefs• Respect for everyone’s experience

(collective)• Entitled to do things our way

(individual)

“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.”

--G. K. Chesterton

“Truth has ceased to be a relationship between a statement and reality and has become a judgment” –Josh McDowell

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and

with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.“ Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in

your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother,

‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You

hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck

from your brother’s eye.

Matthew 7:1-5

An Intolerant Gospel?

“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through

me.”

--Jesus in John 14:6 (ESV)

“At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, ‘Yet once more I will

shake not only the earth but also the heavens.’ This phrase, ‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is,

things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a

kingdom that cannot be shaken.” --Hebrews 12:26-28

Cultural Shift: A Season of Shaking

Questions/Comments