Church Matters: Retrieving the Great Tradition

Chur ch Mat ter s : Ret r i ev i ng the Great Trad i t i on

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F. Postmodernity and the future of the Church

1. A rejection of modernity and its enslavement to rationalistic ideas: a new desire for the spiritual, the existential, the experiential, the unknown

2. The explosion of interactive technologies

3. Perspectivalism as a replacement of absolutes, universals, “know-for-sures”

4. The emergence of a culture of connectedness

5. Rise of terrorism and the new demonism of society

6. Spirituality as the alternative to formal religious commitment and participation

7. Awareness of diverse religious opinion and viewpoints

8. Fundamental doubt in any “elemental” ground, whether philosophical, religious, moral or cultural

G. What will the Church and postmodernity become?

IV. Summary of This Period

The postmodern challenge is simply stated: every attempt to describe ‘what it meant’ is in fact only an assertion of what it means to me, or worse, what we will it to mean. Stated in these terms, the real issue comes to light: the question of authority and the locus of the word of God. If all words are historically conditioned, and if all readings are ideologically conditioned, it is difficult, if not impossible, to believe in