A Critique of the Urban Mission of the Church in Light of an Emerging Postmodern Condition

Abstract

"The world is becoming an urban society. The urban expansion witnessed during the twentieth century and continuing into the twenty-first century is unprecedented in the history of the human civilization. Simultaneously, the Western world faces the paradigm shift from the modern era to a postmodern condition. Both movements have remarkable implications for the mission of the church in urbanized, postmodernizing societies. Shaped by the modern worldview, the church is now further ostracized by the postmodern condition. While the literature of urban mission has grown in the past few years, little consideration has been given to the particular issues and implications of urban mission in the context of postmodernity. Thus this study addresses the relationship between the urban mission of the church and the emergence of the postmodern condition"