Postmodernism arose as a reaction to the modernist claims that absolute truth was found only through science and that the spiritual realm didn’t exist. Postmodernism responded by establishing personal experience as the yardstick of reality and adopting the new spirituality as the way to reclaim the transcendent. Our youth have embraced this worldview because they know life is more than natural laws and religious legalisms, randomized controlled experiments and canon law. They have become what Pew refers to as the, “nones,” a group of young people who tend to remain spiritual but practice it in unorthodox ways. While a small atheist minority continues to believe that spirituality is just the inevitable drug high caused by years of mainlining the opiate of the masses, polls consistently show that the majority of us believe in a God of some sort or another. [ii][iii] Spirituality, therefore, is not a demographic outlier, but rather the statistically significant air we breathe. It is not a hobby for the scientifically illiterate, but one of the basic elements of the periodic table of human experience.

Why are we spiritual? The atheist contingent would argue that if you get enough neurochemicals together they will perform a séance and conjure up ghosts. The problem is that a plethora of proteins does not a pantheon make, and just because you bring a congregation of chemicals together in the human brain doesn’t mean they will have a religious revival. The majority of us consider spirituality to be an integral part of our lives and spend most of our time formulating religions to allow us to do what we were hardwired to do; pray, meditate, and worship. While the dizzying array of world religions can create an obstacle to proclaiming the gospel, it also opens up an apologetic opportunity by raising the very basic human question of why we are spiritual in the first place. I believe the answer is found in the simple Biblical truth that the physical world speaks to us in spiritual ways.

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Romans 1: 19-20)

When we step into nature we feel like we have stumbled into a monastery and not a museum. When we encounter a babbling brook, we get caught up in a stream of thought. When we listen to the heavens declare, we are moved by a very good word.

The Heavens declare the glory of God,

      and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech,

      and night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words,

      whose voice is not heard.

Their measuring line goes out through all the earth,

      and their words to the end of the world. (Psalm 19:1-4)

If this is true then what is it about the physical world that speaks to us in spiritual ways? The simple answer is, And God Said… The opening chapter of the Bible explains the verbal connection between a spirit God and His physical creation. The world is comprehensible because God spoke His mind; His immaterial thought became a physical reality through creational speech. Not wanting His words to fall on deaf ears, He also created image-bearing beings capable of hearing what He said so they could rethink His thoughts after Him.

“The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible.” (Albert Einstein)

The awe we experience when we contemplate the universe is not the static electricity of a celestial power source, but rather the poetic nuance of divine discourse. The Bible is the only Holy book that adequately explains this common spiritual experience and invites us into a dialogue with the Divine. Since our youth experience the world more as Narnia than nature, we have an amazing opportunity to convince them to leave their postmodern pride behind and engage in a conversation with the talking Lion.

While the world is full of genetic information and natural laws, our youth aren’t impressed with the scientific nouns, but rather the artistic adjectives. They hear the poetry of a spoken word artist and not the droning of a chemistry professor. Sadly, as they graze their way through life, they are unable to recognize the voice of the Shepherd because they are in love with the sound of their own baa-antering.

The idea of a world created by divine speech feeds into the postmodern obsession with language because they also see power in words. They know that when they control the meaning of words they can also control the cultural narrative. The good apologetic news is that the creative power of language has a surprisingly Biblical ring to it. So when we enter into dialogue with our postmodern youth, we need to first congratulate them on recognizing the power of words, but then show them that the still small voice they hear when they take a nature hike is in fact the inaugural address of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;

      the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;

 or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you;

      and the fish of the sea will declare to you.

Who among all these does not know

      that the hand of the Lord has done this?

In his hand is the life of every living thing

      and the breath of all mankind. (Job 12: 7-10)

We share a universal spiritual intuition because we have all heard God’s voice. Our collective fascination with religion is merely our attempt to identify this Grand Orator. The problem with most religious movements is that instead of allowing God to speak, they put words in His mouth and then fell in love with the sound of their own voices. Sadly, in their zeal to be ghostwriters for the Divine, they missed His incarnational book signing.

When our postmodern youth try to deconstruct the language of God, they will inevitably end up wallowing in a pile of narrative rubble. It is there that we must meet them and show them that despite their repeated attempts at fracturing God’s storyline they will always be left with the indivisible WORD. Our job is to help them take that grammatical Cornerstone and reconstruct the Greatest Story Ever Told.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/01/21/americans-spirituality/

[ii] https://www.gallup.com/poll/193271/americans-believe-god.aspx

[iii] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/04/07/is-god-dead-no-but-belief-has-declined-slightly/