In a recent response to my question, Andrew Sandlin was kind enough to write the following. “By ‘factuality’ in redemptive-historical creedal affirmations I mean that Jesus really lived, died, rose again, and will come again in the air for His own.” In doing this, he has let me know that he not only affirms the basic tenets of the historic Christian faith, he also affirms what it means to affirm. Glad to hear it, and I am happy to take that at face value. In the historic Christian faith, not only must the direct objects be orthodox, so must the verbs be.
The reason why the unfortunate question was necessary in the first place is that when someone calls himself a postmodernist (of any stripe), the most natural thing in the world is for those who are acquainted with what postmodernism stands for (e.g. Lyotard’s “incredulity toward all metanarratives”) to try to reconcile that understanding with the rest of the alleged “postmodernist’s” worldview. But of course, if someone means something strikingly different from the standard uses of the term, the substantive problem disappears, although confusions are likely to remain. And hence my question.
What do I mean by confusions? For example, if I were to describe myself as a leftist Democrat, and then, when pressed, go on to explain that this means I believe in limited government, a strong defense, repeal of Roe v. Wade, and keeping a decal of Old Glory on my pick-up truck at all times, I can expect questions and funny looks. But once I convince people of my actual position, my odd choice of a phrase to describe it becomes nothing more than quirky. But quirky is not heretical, which is, I guess, fortunate for me.
And this is why I would say Andrew’s affirmation above means that he is an orthodox Christian. I wouldn’t want to call that a description of postmodernism of any kind, but for some reason Andrew does, and I am happy to wait for his book so I can find out why. But in the meantime, he can continue to expect questions and catcalls from other folks in the nickel seats. But not from me. As an amillennial Lutheran, I understand the need for patience.