Postmodernism for Sunday

Dancing in the LouvreJeff gave part one of a lecture on postmodernism last night which I really appreciated. His use of power point allowed him to show examples from art and architecture instead of simply reducing everything to philosophy and words.

In my more general exposure, I’m not real happy with pomo discussions because I think the term itself maximizes the difficulty in figuring out what you are trying to describe. I covered much of the same ground in the eighties in discussions of “the sociology of knowledge,” and then later when I read Theology After Wittgenstein in a philosophical miliue. In fact Jeff summary of the “postmodern turn” in regard to language sounded like a summary statement regarding the difference between W’s Tractaetus and Philosophical Investigations.

Reading Kerr was, in the words of a friend, “following the white rabbit our of the matrix.” Last night reminded me that I am due for another reading. I think one of the problems with the interest in post-modernism is that people expect to discover it from reading about books and articles that use the term “post-modernism.” But Kerr’s book is every bit as much an expose of how the Church has been in the grip of Cartesian delusions and also a pointer to a more accurate understanding of how language works.

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