This is part of the Postmodern sessions

1. Post Modern Contexts
Session 2
Rev Dr Joshva Raja
17 Jan 2007

2. Resources
 Stuart Hall et al Modernity and Its
Futures….
 Steven Best and Douglas Kellner, Science,
Technology and Culture Studies at the
Third Millenium, Guilford Press, 2001.
 J Richard Middleton and Brian J Walsh.
Truth is stranger than is used to be.
Biblical Faith in a PostModern Age. SPCK,
1995. pp. 9-45

3. Resources contd…
 Peter Mclaren, Revolutionary
Multiculturalism: Pedagogies of
Dissent for the New Millenium: The
Edge, Critical Studies in Educational
Theory. 1996.
 Lawrence F Cahoone. From
Modernism to Postmodernism: An
Anthology (Blackwell Philosophy
Anthologies. Blackwell, 2003.

4. Modernity and Progress
 a. secular, natural and this worldly
 b. power of individual minds, no more
submission
 c. belief in Progress
 d. experimental study of nature,
inventions to control nature and subdue
for social use

5. Dewey’s Modern Man
 Self Assured
 In control of his own destiny
 Knows what he knows and knows with certainty
 Needs no authority outside of himself as he is
autonomous, a law or authority unto himself
 Needs no salvation outside of himself
 Liberated from past authorities and
superstitions and follow reason
 Enjoy the fruit of human progress

6. Faith in the progress
 The spirit of modernity is a spirit of progress
 Progress is what the Columbus story is about
– dominant motif in Western Society – the
working faith of our civilisation
 The progress ideal functions as an article of
faith, the unifying commitment or civil religion
of Western Civilisation
 It tells a story – similar to Myths – Myths
history begins with Egypt and Greece not with
China or Africa

7. Myth of Progress and Tower of
Babel
 Grand dream or vision or cultural
aspiration symbolised by the Columbus’
vision
 Dreams of cities, buildings and towers –
bringing the world together and rule over
them all
 Genesis 11:1-9 Building a city with a
tower reaching to the heavens – Western
dreams of progress – towering civilization,
a social and cultural accomplishment of
immense and achievement - Eiffel tower,

9. Genesis 11:1f
 The Tower of Babel
 1 Now the whole world had one language and a common
speech. 2 As men moved eastward, [a] they found a plain
in Shinar [b] and settled there. 3 They said to each other,
"Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly."
They used brick instead of stone, and tar
for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let
us build ourselves a city, with a tower that
reaches to the heavens, so that we may
make a name for ourselves and not be
scattered over the face of the whole
earth."

10. Babel Tower
 Vision of a new modern society
 These builders desired fame, distinction
and glory – making names for
themselves, reaching heights no one has
reached…
 Cultural and social cohesion – Uniformity
of all race – social harmony, freedom
from disease and prosperity for all!

12. Floors in the Babel
 Ground floor of modernity was
science
 first floor is enlightenment and
Scientific rationality -Age of
industrial revolutions –age of
machines
 Second floor is technology – gives
power over environment..
 Third floor Economic growth -
Market forces – entrepreneurial spirit
and the profit motive

13. Ideal world
 Imagine a society where no
ignorance, no disease, no poverty
and no war
 Civilization in which people be
genuinely happy and truly free.
 In Modern era we are our own
saviours – homo autonomous –
means autonomous subjects can
devise our own remedy for the
problems
 Human betterment and progress to
be achieved solely by human beings.

14. Idols of Modernity
 The idea of progress was based on
idolatrous faith – on science,
technology and economic growth.
 Science as authoritative knowledge,
technism as power and control over
the creation, standard of living
economic growth raises the standard
of life and route to personal
happiness and social harmony…

15. Biblical references
 Isaiah 46:1-5 become like them
 Psalm 115 instability of idols
 Jeremiah 10:3-5 like Scare crows

16. Isaiah 46:1-5
 Isaiah 46
 Gods of Babylon
 1 Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low;
their idols are borne by beasts of burden. [a]
The images that are carried about are burdensome,
a burden for the weary. 2 They stoop and bow down
together;
unable to rescue the burden,
they themselves go off into captivity.
 3 "Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
all you who remain of the house of Israel,
you whom I have upheld since you were conceived,
and have carried since your birth.
 4 Even to your old age and gray hairs
I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
 5 "To whom will you compare me or count me equal?
To whom will you liken me that we may be compared?

17. Psalm 115
 Psalm 115
 1 Not to us, O LORD, not to us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness.
 2 Why do the nations say,
"Where is their God?"
 3 Our God is in heaven;
he does whatever pleases him.
 4 But their idols are silver and gold,
made by the hands of men.
 5 They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but they cannot see;
 6 they have ears, but cannot hear,
noses, but they cannot smell;
 7 they have hands, but cannot feel,
feet, but they cannot walk;
nor can they utter a sound with their throats.
 8 Those who make them will be like them,
and so will all who trust in them.

18. Jeremiah 10
 3 For the customs of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
 4 They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so it will not totter.
 5 Like a scarecrow in a melon patch,
their idols cannot speak;
they must be carried
because they cannot walk.
Do not fear them;
they can do no harm
nor can they do any good."

19. Genesis 11 contd…
 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and
the tower that the men were building. 6 The
LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same
language they have begun to do this, then
nothing they plan to do will be impossible for
them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their
language so they will not understand each other."
 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over
all the earth, and they stopped building the city.
9 That is why it was called Babel [c] —because
there the LORD confused the language of the
whole world. From there the LORD scattered
them over the face of the whole earth

21. Modernity in trouble
 When finished our street will be
platinum, never mind gold. Too good to
be true! Progress myth is losing its
power!
 The foundation of Babel tower is
founded on Human autonomoy
(Gen 2:17 and Gen 3)
 Independence from the Creator by
eating the fruit of the tree
 Auto – self; nomos – law – self
determining freedom

22. Anxiety
 War and Bombs? Hiroshima and
Nagasagi – economic Progress? –
WW1 as war to end all wars –
Vietnam war
 Loss of hope and sense of anxiety
 Catch-22 film in 1986 – US being
destroyed?
 Fear of new world order – economic
security, sexual morality different
and odd ideas that emerge

23. The Changing realities
 Realisation - Centre of Universe is no
more centre
 Suspicion that modern West inflicted
violence on others and non-Western too
but claims of higher moral status
 Questioning everything – responsibility of
US to lead the world, the ability to solve
all environmental problems by Western
Technology, the strength and durability of
market system, the superiority of Western
intellectual tradition

24. Everything slips
 Landscape
 Institutions
 Values
 Way of life
 Security
 Meanings
 Sense of being at home with the
world

25. For healing
 We need understanding
 Listen sensitively and empathetically
to the cry of our age
 Particularly the cry within ourselves
 Discernment of the context