That Post-Modern problem...

I don't want to spend a long time writing about differing philospophical viewpoints that have helped to shape current thought, because doing so would be a distraction from the truth I glean for myself from my Bible study, but I would like to point out one influential writer, and quickly describe his works. I will be referring generally to this thought process during my writings, using his name as a general descriptor of this post modern thought process.

Jacques Derrida remains a controversial philosopher today, and to my mind, is emblematic of post-modern critical thinking. He is the philosopher most associated with deconstruction, which is a term he used to describe a pursuit of meaning of a text to the point at which, due to the inability to find a commonly agreed upon starting point, all text has no underlying definable "meaning."

"Deconstruction generally attempts to demonstrate that any text is not a discrete whole but contains several irreconcilable and contradictory meanings; that any text has therefore more than one interpretation; that the text itself links these interpretations inextricably; that the incomparability of these interpretations is irreducible; and thus an interpretative reading cannot go beyond a certain point." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconstruction

As you can imagine, if this thought process is applied to the Bible as a work of "literature," then meaning is removed from the Bible.

This process is fundamentally "relativisim," or the idea that everything is relative to some other "thing" without any concrete starting point, or fundamental truth upon which we can build all other references. By pursuing relativism to its end, one might wonder where God exists or if He could in this thought process.

The interplay between this thought process, which many people will find absurd in its final expression, and the contradictory concept of legalism and accountability in the Bible and in Bible study, and finally the application of that interplay to real world problems is what spurs me to journal, and to write this blog. If anyone reads this, I hope I can share my enthusiasm with him or her, especially when certain passages ring so true. Why do they ring true? Is it legalism to say "This is the truth?" Are we acting in love if we see another who does not believe in that "truth" and then reject him, saying "he is not one of us."

And what does all of this mean to someone who is hurting and who goes to the Bible in quiet reflection and prayer to find solace from a damaged and hurtful world? Where do we stop, and just quietly hold this person?