How should the church respond to the decline of modernity and the rise of postmodernism? Some are trying to hold on to the last vestiges of modern thinking, hoping through perseverance to affect a world that is, to a large extent, unable to even respond to modern conceptions. Others are eager to accept postmodern ideas and concepts, thus forcing Christian thought and doctrine to change for a new era. And still others, including Robert Webber, feel that the future of the church lies in its past. Webber argues, in Ancient-Future Faith, that the best answer to postmodernism is the ancient, orthodox Christian faith developed in the first centuries of Christianty.
He looks at what he calls the six paradigms of Christian history. In each paradigm, the church faced specific cultural and social challenges. It was the response to these challenges which formed the basis of how the church presented itself to that particular culture and time. The six paradigms are: the formation of the church out of the Jewish culture and religious context; the ancient or classical (100-600 AD); the Medieval (600-1500); the Reformation (1500-1750); the modern (1750-1980); the postmodern (1980-the present).
