Post-Modernism….is….dead?
Some thinkers state that when we can classify and name it; that means we moved past it. So are we past Post-Modernism? If so, where are we and what do you call it?
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I would also suggest that we are still in the emergence of post-modernism. It is too young for us to know what it really is yet. Unless, of course, time is speeding up so fast that we jump from thing to thing each generation.
We also live in a very self-assessing society. The result is that we assess even that in which we live.
Henry, I loved your thoughts. I would subjetively consider myself a neo-modern too, even though objectively as a culture we are definitely in postmodernism. Neo-modern, awesome term…maybe you are more conservative than you think:)
Of course in my line of study, I am trying to find ways to help people understand that postmodernism is a cultural reality and one that can’t be embraced completely by Evangelicalism. Especially radical postmodernism.
I listened to a round of interviews done by the president of Dallas Theological Seminary with some professors about the emerging church and its ‘emergence’ during the time of postmodernism. Good stuff.
The podcasts are called DTS Dialogue - Issues of God in Culture.
Brad,
Do you think that there are elements from PM that we should keep? If so, what do you think we should keep and what should we reject?
Everyone else - what do you think? I really want to hear from the various authors and commenters here, even if they think I am dead wrong.
Am I more conservative than I think? More than likely. I just think the conservatives won’t have me… and neither would the “liberals.”
Casey,
Another great question! The whole Modernism/Pre-modern/Post modernism 1 topic is very important to understanding not only literature and the times, but also in realizing how one is approaching life’s questions.
I think that there is necessarily a move in academics past post modernism, for, as you allude to in the post, once a movement is named, it is realized mentally by the people using the name and it is then critiqued, modified and the resulting new state of mind is no longer the same as the one named.
So, in that sense, because we are able to name and critique post modernism, we have moved past it. However, at the same time, we are still living with the consequences of post modernism. Our collective American culture is still still operating with both a modernist and post modernist mindset. To effectively speak to those in the culture, we need to be able to speak their language(s).
I like to think of myself as a neo-modern, a new modern. I like some of the critiques that PM has on M, such as complete and whole systemizations of knowledge, etc…, but I don’t want to let go of all of modernism. I try, in my feeble mind, to construct some new worldview that better explains all the phenomena that I encounter.
There are useful things that one can glisten from PM. I’ll let JR handle that if he so chooses, he states is more eloquently that I can. I think there are also huge problems that we run into if we get into a all viewpoints are valid approach, best illustrated in the closing lyrics of Do by The White Stripes:
But there is some good in listening to multiple voices and interpretations. I don’t take then as all completely valid, but I do listen for the parts people get right. So, I assume that there is some right some system out there. I just don’t know if it is completely knowable or can be systematized by us limited humans. 2 Maybe this is the Kantian in me, always thinking that the Numinous is beyond human reach. This is why I am uneasy with hard and fast systemized theologies - they all seem to have their verses and their problems. I like the idea of truth in part.
1 - and pre-enlightenment, post enlightenment, etc….
2 - Travis was telling me this morning that the Reformers denied any type of wholistic system of theology, no matter how their theological descendants viewed this issue.