Dr Paul Allen

In every generation, every culture there is a dominant prevailing spirit. The Germans coined a word for it, Zeitgeist, a term that joins two common ideas together. Zeit is the German word for "time," Geist is the German word for "spirit." So Zeitgeist means "spirit of the time" or "spirit of the age." The contemporary Zeitgeist in which the Christian lives is one of secularism. The emphasis is on this world, on this time. Little attention is given to things that are above and beyond this world. Eternity is rarely considered, save for brief moments at a graveside. What counts is the here and now. To live for the moment, for the gusto of the present, is the spirit of this world. The secular spirit of this world has its own modern trends and emphases, but in its essence, it is not new. Every generation has its own form of secularism. We are earthbound creatures. Our focus is on this world. The same was true in Jesus' day. He repeat...

It is becoming increasingly popular for people to speak in terms of their version of truth. They use phrases such as “my truth” and “your truth,” as if there are different versions of truth. I have heard people speak of “my truth” in reference to all sorts of things, including history, ethics, science, and religion. While we are certainly entitled to hold our own opinions, we are not entitled to hold to our own versions of truth, for it is impossible for more than one version of the truth to exist. This way of thinking is not merely the relativism of the past or postmodern pluralism or religious syncretism. This new way of thinking embodies conceptualism. The philosophical mindset of conceptualism has emerged as a necessary consequence of the post-postmodern zeitgeist (the spirit of the age) as a way for us to engage with other people with whom we disagree and yet get along. Conceptualism provides people with a way to create their own personally conceived realities of truth so ...