In another age - one of the discontents was Giambattista Vico. A man who expressed his methodological opposition to Rene Descartes attempt to find certainty in Logic and monism. Vico was the loser - and that is the interesting question. SHould he have been? How has the rise and fall of Mdernist thought judged Descartes - beyond the truism that the one we remember was the one who was right. Do we reappropriate Vico - dust him off and ask of him - how would you have us live today?
Yet another topic. (Then there are the sophists and the platonists - but that's going way back...)
Marzo 2003 Archives
You may begin to see a theme growing here in my posts. A long standing interest has been the influence of postmodernism on contemporary culture and how the church should react to it. I'm afraid that the usual response is reactionary, and not very productive. That is what I want to work against. Since these are things I have been thinking more and more about (See Writings Link) I will start including them more in my blogging. More coming on that - exposure - issue within my soul.
In Jim Pickett's sermon (Dig here) yesterday he made extensive commentary about the personal, rather than objective nature of our faith. It's about who we believe not what we believe. Of course the church in this century has been all about combating "whats" presented by Logical Positivism and Promisory Materialism - so naturally our typical language patterns would fit into that "what" category.
However the postmodern mind rejects that "what" thinking in favor of communal - even tribal - belief building (when not descending to individualistic skepticism). The power of the christian belief structure is that it is built on a relationship - and on the power of that relation - rather than the power or objective defensability of a set of propositions. So here is a further call here to a theology of relational appologetics - not in the manner of Piperts "salt shaker" book - but in the manner of exploring what committment to relationship does in terms of arguing for the value of faith in a skeptical generation. The starting points are humble admission of my inability to build metanarrative, vision of another's power to do so, deferral to him and acceptance of relationship.
I think these are powerful markers in today's culture and have relevance. But I could be wrong.
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