For years, Christian thinkers have lamented the pervasiveness of postmodernism, a worldview that rejects grand narratives and objective, big-T Truth and holds that only pluralistic, subjective, little-t truths exist. Followers of Christ may recognize how troublesome this view is, as Jesus championed objective truth (John 1:17, 8:32, 18:37) and claimed to be the Truth (John 14:6). While there are signs that postmodernism has run its course, Christian philosophers and apologists should not celebrate too soon, as there is a new cultural mood that has risen to take its place: post-postmodernism, also known as metamodernism.
Before discussing metamodernism, let’s briefly reflect on the beliefs that came before it. Premodernism, also known as traditionalism, was defined by religion and tradition, with truth, meaning, and morality believed to come from a divine source. Following traditionalism came modernism, which elevated human reason over divine revelation, with a firm belief in innovation and progress through science and technology. World wars, totalitarian regimes, and general skepticism of all-encompassing metanarratives led to disillusionment with modernism and its hopeful optimism, leading the way to postmodernism. Yet, skepticism can easily devolve into cynicism, and eventually lead to hopelessness and despair. The realization of the bankruptcy of postmodernism has led to the new cultural mood of metamodernism.
Metamodernism attempts to acknowledge the problems that postmodernists see in the world around them while also recognizing humanity’s need for meaning and purpose, which is representative of modernism.
As the defining activity of postmodernism is deconstruction, the never-ending search for bias and hidden assumptions, metamodernism is marked by oscillation.
In their seminal essay, “Notes on Metamodernism,” Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker explain that “metamodernism oscillates between the modern and the postmodern. It oscillates between a modern enthusiasm and a postmodern irony, between hope and melancholy, between naïveté and knowingness, empathy and apathy, unity and plurality, totality and fragmentation, purity and ambiguity.” Thus, a metamodern work is likely to bounce around between themes, moods, or even genres. A recent example of this is the award-winning 2022 film, Everything Everywhere All at Once, a multiverse-traversing film that explores parallel universes and philosophical ideas through various film genres and styles, whose scenes range from the poignant and sincere to the outright bizarre.
The Christian Response
How should Christians respond to this current metamodern trend? As with any worldview, belief system, or cultural mood, we can acknowledge some common ground or valid truth claims while recognizing that they ultimately fall short of the total Truth of Christianity. Postmodernists were right to be skeptical of the modernist’s hope in human reason, scientific progress, and technological innovation to solve all of our problems. Yet, postmodernism takes its skepticism too far, rejecting all narratives and objective truth claims as acts of oppression, which includes Christianity. Metamodernism seeks to avoid postmodernism’s complete cynicism and despair, yet it cannot completely break from it, oscillating from the hopelessness of postmodernism to the optimism of modernism and back.
Metamodernism should remind the Christian of the “double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” discussed in James (James 1:8). It is a constant juggling act between often contradictory ideas and moods with no ultimate coherence. No wonder the psalmist said, “I hate the double-minded, but I love your law” (Psalm 119:113). Jesus says that those who follow his teachings are like the man who built his house upon the rock. Rocks are solid, strong, and have a definite form. Those who reject Jesus’ teachings build their houses on sand, which is easily shifted by the wind and waves and cannot serve as a foundation to build anything lasting upon (Matthew 7:24–27).
The act of oscillation also serves as a good illustration of the human condition apart from God. We all seek to be our own masters, to pick and choose what we think will satisfy us, but nothing in this world ultimately does. Why? We are created in God’s image and have a “God-shaped hole” in our hearts.1
Nothing other than God can ever satisfy us. Our flesh pulls us away from God, yet our heart longs for meaning and purpose.
Metamodernism wants to have its cake and eat it too, reveling in nihilism and purposelessness, then swinging to meaning and sincerity when convenient to do so, and back again in a never-ending cycle.
Engaging Metamodernism
Writer Brett McCracken offers two reflections for Christians engaging a metamodern culture. On one hand, we face the challenge of people who have “adjusted to incoherence.” The metamodernist wavers between extremes—even contradictions—so he or she may be ambivalent about the logical inconsistencies in his or her worldview. Thus, traditional apologetic reasoning may not be as successful with someone of this mindset. On the other hand, the metamodern mood is a reminder that there is no ultimate satisfaction in cynicism and irony; we crave optimism and certainty. We can’t deconstruct forever, we need to eventually build something that lasts. Yet, our ultimate hope cannot be found through the promises of human progress. This gives us the opportunity to point our friends to the true source of love, purpose, and meaning: Jesus Christ. The unending oscillation of metamodernism can only be broken by the truth of the gospel.
Paul warned us not to be taken captive by human philosophies that are contrary to Christ (Colossians 2:8). Our culture is full of worldviews and -isms that seek to make sense of reality. Metamodernism is just the current example of it, and it probably won’t be the last. Fallen humanity will always try to find ways to cope with our broken world apart from Christ—and they will continue to find them ultimately bankrupt. We must always be mindful of the cultural trends and moods to recognize their strengths and shortcomings, and to ultimately guide the culture to Christianity as the only True hope.