dissertation

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using metaphors and painting word pictures, just as Paul and Jesus himself – “a metaphorical
theologian” – did. 32 Metaphors are well suited for “life in the wormhole,” 33
since they never actually claim to describe reality as it really is, as William Easum explains.
They help us to see things three dimensionally instead of one dimensionally.
“The point of metaphor is to evoke more than one way of perceiving a reality, to see the
both/and instead of the either/or that so plagues the modern world.” 34
Leonard Sweet is even more emphatic: “The modern world was word-based. Its theologians
tried to create an intellectual faith, placing reason and order at the heart of religion.
Mystery and metaphor were banished as too fuzzy, too mystical, too illogical.” 35 In
the twenty-first century, however, the church enters a world where story and metaphor
are at the heart of spirituality. 36 “Propositions are lost on postmodern ears, but metaphor
they will hear, images they will see and understand.” 37 Sweet continues, “The
church’s failure of imagination is directly attributable to its failure to take up the poet’s
tools: image and imagination, metaphor and story, and metaphor stories known as parables.”
38
5.2.1 Metaphors and Epistemology
Aside from these essentially missiological concerns – ‘how can we reach postmoderns?’ 39
– participants in the EMC are also aware of deeper epistemological issues. An important
source on this topic is Beyond Foundationalism, an influential volume by the late Stanley
Grenz, written together with John Franke. 40 In this book, Grenz explains how he sees
foundationalism as rooted in Cartesian (and Spinozan) deductivism, which attempted to
deduce absolute truth from self-evident principles. Grenz is clear about his fundamental
agreement with the postmodern rejection of the modern mind and its underlying En-
32
Roger Helland and Leonard Hjalmarson, Missional Spirituality: Embodying God’s Love from the Inside Out
(Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2011), 149.
33
This pictorial expression denotes the shift from modernity to postmodernity.
34
William M. Easum, Leadership on the Other Side: No Rules, Just Clues (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000),
62.
35
Sweet, Post-Modern Pilgrims, 86.
36
Cf. Tony Jones: “propositional truth is out and mysticism is in.” Tony Jones, Postmodern Youth Ministry:
Exploring Cultural Shift, Creating Holistic Connections, Cultivating Authentic Community (Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan/YS, 2001), 63.
37
Sweet, Post-modern Pilgrims, 86.
38
Leonard Sweet, The Gospel According to Starbucks (Colorado Springs, CO: WaterBrook Press, 2007), 113.
Cf. Alan Hirsch, “Change the metaphor and you change the imagination.” Alan Hirsch and Dave Ferguson,
On the Verge: A Journey Into the Apostolic Future of the Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), 105.
39
Erwin McManus puts it this way: “we as spiritual leaders need to engage our environments as cultural architects.”
Erwin Raphael McManus, An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church GOD had in Mind (Loveland,
CO: Group Publishing, 2001), 113. He urges Christian leaders to make careful but deliberate use
of metaphors, since our cultural environment “rejects the meta-narrative” and “embraces the metaphor.”
(Ibid.)
40
Cf. 4.2.1, above.