Since I first started blogging at Postmodern Conservative several years ago, I have been picking away, in extremely unsystematic style, at answering this question — largely because I’ve been thinking it through as I’ve been going along. I think that’s a feature, not a bug — of blogging and of pomocon — but I do recognize how unsatisfying that kind of non-answer can be to the average reasonable person . . . or even the unusual wandering person who happens upon Postmodern Conservative! So here’s one man’s answer — Michael Wittmer , Associate Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary.
I would call myself a postmodern conservative. I am postmodern in that I believe that every worldview begins with specific presuppositions (Cornelius Van Til) or basic beliefs (Alvin Plantinga), is best understood as a distinct narrative (e.g., the biblical worldview is creation, fall, and redemption), and is unable to objectively prove itself to someone who refuses to be convinced. I am postmodern because I concede that everything we know is filtered through our unique perspective. And yet I am conservative because I believe that our finite and often flawed thinking is able to know the truth about God, ourselves, and the world.
I am also conservative because I believe that right doctrine matters as much as good behavior, and in fact the latter only truly proceeds from the former. I also believe that this right doctrine is the historic beliefs of the church found in Scripture, the Apostles and Nicene Creed, and most faithfully expounded in the Reformed branch of Protestant Christianity.
