Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth for the Colson Center on Johnstone Street. In the film, Master and Commander Russell Crowe's character Captain Aubrey, describing a new piece of technology, says, What a fascinating modern age we live in. The joke works, given the film's setting in 1803, which is at the beginning of the modern age. This time of technological advances, which seem to come quickly and often, pave the way for our current cultural moment. and its struggle with the very concept of truth.
Most historians identify 1789 as the beginning of modernism, with the storming of the Bastille and the French Revolution. And the end of modernism 200 years later, with the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the end of communism. The era in between featured a great and growing faith in human ingenuity. Confidence was high that given enough time, effort, and advances in technology, science, and productivity, most of the problems that plagued humanity could be solved. In short, the modern age was defined by utopianism and hubris.
Though the solutions offered varied greatly, there was a shared certainty that the solution would be found. But that confidence collapsed in the face of ongoing wars that were fueled by industrialization and destructive ideologies such as nationalism, scientific racism, and communism. the combined bloodshed unleashed in the 20th century alone. was on a scale unprecedented in human history. In the end, the Soviet gulags, the Nazi concentration camps, and the threat of global nuclear destruction turned modern optimism into despair.
And few explained this whole turn of events as well as the late Christian thinker Francis Schaefer. In the How Should We Then Live film series, Schaefer showed how art and literature had abandoned the pursuit of beauty and transcendence for what he called fragmentation. Modern optimism was devolving into a postmodern hopelessness, and confidence in the truth waned. Postmodern philosophers suggested that the very notion of truth, in fact, was a myth at best and a lie designed to privilege the powerful at worst. And all that remained was your truth and my truth, which, we were told, could be preserved through calls for tolerance.
But as it turned out, postmodernism was far less liberating than was advertised. To borrow a phrase from George Orwell, all truths were equal, but some were more equal than others. If the motto of modernism was Descartes' I Think, Therefore I Am, The motto of postmodernism became, I feel, and therefore you must affirm me. Throughout it all, there was still that central feature of humanity, because we're made in the image and likeness of God. The drive to seek truth.
Even those who believe truth doesn't exist seem somehow compelled to treat the ideas they imagine and create as if they're true. and then to force those ideas on the masses. And like all ideas, these two have had their consequences. And like all bad ideas, their victims. Just as the hubris of modernism collapsed into relativism, The promises of postmodern tolerance.
have also collapsed into despair. Back in 2001, Richard John Newhouse reacted to the emerging cultural crisis that now defines our age. Here's what he wrote, quote, the darkness of the culture of death encroaches on us, but it is our confidence, our strength, and our indomitable hope that the light of the culture of life will never be put out because the light came into the darkness in Jesus Christ. as the Gospel of John tells us, and the darkness has not overcome it. and the darkness will not overcome it.
Never, never, never. Never. For all the chaos of this cultural moment, God has called us to this time and this place. The theoretical predictions of Francis Schaefer, Chuck Coulson, and many others have now become existential reality.
So we must again. Ask the question that they asked. How shall we then? Live as followers of Christ in this moment. to which God has called us.
Chuck believed that the Coulson Fellows program was a way to answer that question. This nine month deep dive into Christian worldview within a community of like minded Christians who are studying, learning, discussing, praying and strategizing together prepares Christians to know their calling in this cultural moment. You can learn more and learn how to apply at Colsonfellows.org. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr.
Timothy Padgett. And I want to say thank you to Lee of Portage, Michigan for being a Cornerstone Monthly partner of the Colson Center. You help make this episode of Breakpoint possible. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, please leave us a review wherever you download your podcast, and you can always find more resources like this one at breakpoint.org. The church is called to restore what's broken, and the Colson Center equips believers to do just that.
Through the Colson Fellows Program, Gregory gained the tools to help him teach scripture and the truth of the Christian worldview to men who are battling addiction in his community.
Now he's leading others toward healing and hope. That's what restoration looks like. This is what it looks like for the church to be the church. But these kinds of stories only happen with your support. As we approach our fiscal year end, you can help launch more Christians like Gregory into kingdom work.
Give by June 30th at ColsonCenter.org slash June. Be part of Restoring What's Broken.
