The Next Generation..

By Author: Terry Dashner
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The Next Generation

Terry DashnerFaith Fellowship Church PO Box 1586 Broken Arrow, OK 74013

Consider this. Star Trek: The Next Generation wrapped up its final season in May 1994. Although The Next Generation was an updated version of the 1960s Star Trek series, its producers went beyond Star Trek's: Space—the final frontier theme and exploited a new philosophy of the emerging generation: postmodernism. What is postmodernism, anyway?

In his book entitled, A Primer on Postmodernism (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1996), Stanley J. Grenz states: Like modern fiction in general, the original Star Trek series reflected many aspects of the Enlightenment project and of late modernity. The crew of the Enterprise included persons of various nationalities working together for the common benefit of humankind. They were the epitome of the modern universalist anthropology. The message was obvious: we are all human, and we must overcome our differences and join forces in order to complete our mandate, the quest for certain, objective knowledge of the entire universe of which space looms as ‘the ...
... final frontier.'

Interesting. As you might recall from world history class 101, the birth of the modern era is usually placed at the dawn of the Enlightenment (18th century). Building on the Renaissance, the Enlightenment elevated man to the center of the world. During this time the French philosopher, Rene Descartes, turned western philosophy upside-down, literally. He focused on doubt, which led him to conclude that the existence of the thinking self is the first truth that doubt cannot deny (Grenz, page 3). Isaac Newton later provided the scientific framework for modernity, picturing the physical world as a machine the laws and regularity of which could be discerned by the human mind.

Moreover, it became the goal of the human intellectual quest to unlock the secrets of the universe in order to master nature for human benefit and create a better world. This quest led to the modernity characteristic of the twentieth century, which has sought to bring rational management to life in order to improve human existence through technology (Grenz, page 3). In other words, the universe is ruled by laws, perceived by the human intellect; therefore, educate humankind and knowledge will usher in a new age of enlightened men. Knowledge is power.

Then again, postmodernism represents a rejection of the Enlightenment project and the foundational assumptions upon which it was built. Modernity has been under attack since the German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), told us that God was dead. In eschewing the Enlightenment myth of inevitable progress, postmodernism replaces the optimism of the last century with a gnawing pessimism. Gone is the belief that every day, in every way, we are getting better and better. To the postmodernist, knowledge is not objective. There are many paths to knowledge besides reason, including the emotions and the intuition. The world is not simply an objective given that is ‘out there,' waiting to be discovered and known; reality is relative, indeterminate, and participatory (Grenz, page 7). Wow. That's heavy stuff.

Continuing the Star Trek analogy, the postmodern perspective is reflected in the second Star Trek series, The Next Generation. The crew of the later Enterprise is more diverse than that of the original, including species from other parts of the universe. This change represents the broader universality of postmodernity: humankind is no longer the only advanced intelligence, for evolution has been operative throughout the cosmos. More importantly, the understanding of the quest for knowledge has changed. Humankind is not capable of completing the mandate alone; nor does the burden of the quest fall to humans alone. The crew of the Enterprise symbolizes the ‘new ecology' of humankind in partnership with the universe. Their mission is no longer to boldly go ‘where no man has gone before' but ‘where no one has gone before.' (Grenz page 9).

Although Data often provides valuable assistance in dealing with problems, he is only one of several who contribute to finding solutions. In addition to the ‘master of rationality,' the Enterprise crew includes persons skilled in the affective and intuitive dimensions of human life. Especially prominent is Counselor Troi, a woman gifted with ability to perceive the hidden feelings of others. In this new world, time is no longer simply linear, appearance is not necessarily reality, and the rational is not always to be trusted (Grenz, page 9). Things are upside-down.

As George Marsden correctly concludes, in some sense evangelicalism—with its focus on scientific thinking, the empirical approach, and common sense—is a child of early modernity. But our society is in the throes of a monumental transition, moving from modernity to postmodernity. The emerging generation has been nurtured in a context shaped less by commitment to the Enlightenment project embodied in Star Trek than by the postmodern vision of Rorty and Star Trek: The Next Generation (Grenz page 10). So where do we go from here?

We—evangelicals—go boldly where many men before us have failed to go: back to the Word of God. We don't need to change the message to relate to the postmodernists. We need to proclaim, even louder, that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, period. He has always been the Way. He has always been the Truth. And He has always been and forever will be the Life. If any man will hear his voice and call on Him, Jesus will save him from his sins. This, my friend, is the Gospel Truth that need not change to accommodate the modernists and postmodernists, but the modernists and postmodernists can be changed by the power of the Gospel if we commoners will boldly proclaim it.

Keep the faith. Stay the course. Jesus is coming soon! Men will one day discover that Jesus is Truth, absolutely.

Pastor T. dash.


About the Author Pastors a small church in Broken Arrow, OK.