Francis Schaeffer in his book The God Who Is There proposed what is called the "line of despair." He suggests that cultural paradigms shift in an orderly manner. They begin with philosophy, continue with art and music, saturate the culture, and then gradually seep into theology. It is a repetitious cycle. A philosopher comes up with a new spin on reality, an artist then puts his interpretation down on canvas, the culture soaks it up like a dry sponge in water, and then culture infects the church. This cycle repeats itself over and over again.
I wish that we were on the verge of a cultural shift - that we were at a crossroads and if we turned the wheel hard enough we could circumvent what lies before us as a Church. However, this shift is upon us. It has been going on for centuries - since the beginning of the second millennium. This repetitive cycle where one period's philosophy becomes the next period's theology, was not born out of the modern period, but more rightly the medieval period.
Let us look at this line of despair, which begins with philosophy and ends with theology.
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Postmodernism: The Death of God and the Rise of the Community
by Michael D. Makidon
Director of Publications
Grace Evangelical Society
Irving, Texas