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Modernity and Post-modernity
CIC unit 6
47
History
Undergraduate 1
04/23/2012

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Cards

Term
Changes involved in the shift from antiquity to modernity/postmodernity worldview
Definition
Challenge to concept of 'Truth'

Challenge to concept of 'Self'

Shift from otherworldly objective truth to worldly Metanarrative to postmodern myth.

Creation of simulacra and replacement of the authentic/real

Change/challenge to traditional operations of knowledge (movement away from similitude)
Term
Nietzsche: the shift from antiquity to modernity in Christianity
Definition
The History of an Error

Gradual diminishing of Truth into the distance

1. the True World

2. Christianity/deferral of the Truth

3. Modernity

4. Postmodernity
Term
The True World worldview
Definition
Really a 'Myth'

Platonic

Forms/Ultimate reality vs. the world of becoming

Special knowledge required to access the True World
Term
Christianity worldview
Definition
The deferral of Truth

True world unattainable now, but promised for the sage/pious/virtuous

Not about special knowledge as much as action.

More egalitarian

Subtle, insidious
Term
Modernity 1 worldview
Definition
The True World is unattainable, indemonstrable.

'Truth' as consolation

Kant - we can never have empirical knowledge about the Truth (God), or even from reason. We must presuppose Him to account for moral obligation
Term
Modernity 2 worldview
Definition
True world as unattainable, unknowable, unknown. Essentially nonexistent

Dawn of positivism - empiricism alone. Death of metaphysics/theorising

Only the Sensible Realm

Removal of doubt - if it is not a given, it is not real. Scientistic

Melancholic
Term
Modernity 3 worldview
Definition
the Death of the True World

Rejection of the very idea of the True World

Bacchanalian celebration of life - pure materiality/"pandemonium of life"

Joyful
Term
Postmodernity worldview
Definition
The rejection of the very distinction between 'Real' and 'Sensible', 'conceptual' and 'material'.

This is a rejection of meaning as a whole - the True World anchors meaning (like in Plato)

Re-evaluation of all values

Christianity as myth - assumed, providing meaning to the world. A conceptual framework.

Myth as the only guide to meaning - narratives

Removal of values -> degeneration of 'truth'
Term
Modernity vs. postmodernity
Definition
Modernity: a newfound faith in reason/science - single mode of meaning

Worldview informed by science - Exegesis of Parable of the mustard seed as about growth is Darwinian, developmental.

Restyling of religion as private

Postmodernity - the re-interpretation/deconstruction of meaning
Term
Modernity and the privatisation of religion
Definition
Separation from state leads to marginalisation - an 'add - on'

Following a conflicting metanarrative - a weapon in the war of ideologies (Christian vs. capitalist, Marxist etc)
Term
Freud and modernity
Definition
Madness and irrationality corrodes the enlightenment vision of man as rational creature - violates metanarrative
Term
4 aspects to modernity
Definition
rationality

Analysis of world through Meta-narratives

individuality in morality

Truth as obtainable
Term
The Nietzschean metanarrative and the meaning of Christianity
Definition
Corrosion of claims to Religious truth - must find another reason to exist
Term
The Corrosion of Truth in our worldview, and how it affects Christianity
Definition
Erosion of the Myth of the Self - a parody of the Cogito - the self as 'grammatical habit' - the self comprehended through reason

Nietzsche's psychoanalysis - the self as conflicting Wills (not a single, objective unit/ rational/ part angel) - reflects/reflected by 'truth' as a product of Will/desire. CORROSION OF CHRISTIAN VIEW OF MAN

Truth as a function of Linguistics: 'Knowledge' becomes a construction - subjective - corrosive to religious truth claims

destruction of claims to objective Truth leads to the creation of new mythologies/metanarratives by which we can form our conception of the world.

Selection of myth based on Will to Power - no commonality/ethical framework to choose (Sartrean!) Pro weakness, or strength?

Christianity revitalised as postmodern 'Myth' - we elect to identify as Christians and adhere to Myth
Term
Does the portrayal of faith as Myth leave it empty?
Definition
Kierkegaard/Schleiermacher - religion as experiential, subjective doesn't mean it isn't real. The (experienced - not Cartesian 'rational')self is real. Incarnation can be portrayed as an affirmation of the apparent world.

God's first command to man to name the animals - acknowledging creative power of mankind - God goes to find out their names - he doesn't know! ACTUAL CREATION OF TRUTH IN IDENTITY. It is meaningful.
Term
The Enlightenment/capitalism and monoculture/heard mentality
Definition
Claims about reason leading us to Truth, happiness and individualism is just another Myth. Capitalism is essentially one-party - the ruling class (Marxist). Leads to MONOCULTURE, and HEARD MENTALITY

This power structure is maintained through transvaluation (positive to evil, negative to good.)-> privileging weakness prevents deviation/resistance. DECADENT
Term
Catholic context for modernity
Definition
Amalgamation of multiple threatening intellectual currents - 1907 expulsion of religion from France, loss of Papal state
Term
Catholic response to modernity
Definition
Assertion of Papal infallibility

Rise of neo-scholasticism
Term
Neo-scholasticism
Definition
A return to Thomist systematic theology - reconciling disparate viewpoints. Synthesising religion in the face of relativism, science, trade etc
Term
Attitudes towards Aquinas
Definition
16C Cardinal Cagitan and Suarez: Systematic and solid.
Adoption of concept of Grace perfecting nature - giving of Grace is part of its goodness, hence it is not automatically present

Picked up in response to modernity. Priests who initially did this were cast out, but let back in to initiate reforms (Vatican II)
Term
Modernism for Catholicism
Definition
Truth as subjective - epistemological/ethical individualism. Rationalism as individual reason, Romanticism as individual feeling.

Attack on reason - e.g. Kantian scepticism - the grounds of reason are merely mental categories (fallible, reason as founded on faith)

Scripture - historical criticism and contextual analysis erodes image of a monolithic Christianity

Denial of meaning in Metaphysics (positivism)

An enemy against which Catholicism came to define itself. A reactive identity. Priests required to renounce modernism up until 1967!

A systematisation of multiple threats reacted against by a systematisation of doctrine (adoption of Thomism)

Rise of manualism - priest training becomes rote learning. Divorcing theology from the world.
Term
The relationship between Christianity and Liberalism is
Definition
based in conflicting ideologies/narratives, with a gradual shift from overt public religion to covert public 'social' religion and private spirituality
Term
The Liberal narrative
Definition
Whiggish

Response to reformation-era religious war in europe

Religion is a source of conflict

Religion must be banished to the private sphere

Liberalism as provider of peace

Pluralism

Personal independence (rooted in the enlightenment, reason) and negative FREEDOM FROM RELIGIOUS IMPOSITION
Term
Christianity's retreat from the public sphere
Definition
Rationality replaces Christianity as the guiding force

No more exclusive claims (pluralism)

No more imposition of religious ideologies upon the political and wider social sphere

Christianity becomes more personal/'feely'. Institutions eroding. William James: distilling the core of spirituality to create non-denominational religion.

Religion becomes a declaration of personal choice, as opposed to an expression of cultural history/identity
Term
Post-liberal analysis of the wars of religion
Definition
ALL ABOUT POWER. RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY IS ANALOGOUS WITH SOCIAL AUTHORITY. RELIGION AS A SOCIAL ORDER/SOCIAL ORDER AS RELIGION.

The liberal ideology gave rise to the wars

Middle ages POWER conflict

Catholic Church ('universal', transnational power) is challenged for its authority. Luther transferring power to the Princes.

A change in power base, not the overall model. Nationalism/liberalism as the new religion. The Prince as Pope. Hidden religion elements in Liberal Capitalist worldview (the 'Invisible Hand' of 'Market Forces' etc)
Term
The Liberal Narrative
Definition
People as inherently selfish

Without regulation, we would degenerate into total war

Removal of right to total freedom (legislation) suppresses this war. Replaced by a placatory domain of personal power, uninfluenced by outside wills.
Term
Liberalism and Capitalism
Definition
Economic Liberalism as the creation/imposition of liberal social/political freedom in the economic sphere.

Democratic liberalism ironically has been historically imposed by force - South Korea, Taiwan, Afghanistan
Term
Weber, Protestantism and the rise of capitalism
Definition
Calvinism: no-one really knows what God wants

Stimulates search for certainty, with an aesthetic underpinning

Manifests in pursuit of wealth as a symbol of God's favour - prosperity = saved

Money is invested again, not spent (ascetic, creation of more certainty)

Money as the vanishing mediator - no real substance, but a link between the two 'realities' of the world and God.

Protestantism as a vanishing mediator in the translation from Catholic narrative to Liberal one - power to secular/non-catholic authorities/the self. Vanishes after this transfer is complete.
Term
The Catholic advantage over protestantism in globalisation
Definition
'Ethereal' take on the divine - it is never fully objectified/manifestation never fully determined, so can appropriate the symbols of cultures it encounters.

Meaning without manifestation - there are set concepts, but different symbols can be applied to them
Term
Economic Globalism
Definition
Free trade as an ideal

The transformation of everything into capitol

Dissolution of national identity/end of nationalism
Term
The transformation of everything into capitol
Definition
leads to the dissolution of meaning of objects - the loss of objects as symbols for national identity
Term
The end of nationalism
Definition
Loss of symbols of national identity plus breaking down of barriers/borders leads to loss of the nation state as an entity

Corporations as the new global powers - Murdoch scandal: corporations dictating national policy, Berlusconi treated Italy like a company.
Term
IMF: four markers of globalisation
Definition
Trade and transactions

Capitol and investment movement

Travel and migration

Dissemination of knowledge
Term
Trade and transactions
Definition
Developing countries will increase their share of the global economy
Term
Capitol and investment movement
Definition
Transfer of private wealth from developing countries
Term
Travel and Migration
Definition
Migrant workers will work in MEDC for greater money, sending it back home. Raises wages at home as disposable income increases to converge with that in MEDCs (global wage convergence)

1965-90 proportion of labour forces migrating doubles

Transnationals invest in LEDCs (for manufacturing etc)
Term
Dissemination of Knowledge
Definition
Information and technology exchange benefits LEDCs. Also, information = freedom ('Arab Spring' and Youtube/blogs)
Term
Issues with globalisation
Definition
Coercive nature of the Globalised worldview

Division of labour and exploitation

Free market liberalism as tenable only in the face of homogeny
Term
Coercive nature of globalised worldview
Definition
Assumption that this is the only way to economically manage the entire world. Expected conformity

Nations simply told to adapt to this new global economic order - India and mega-power projects, CTBT.

Coercive introduction of economic liberalism via warfare
Term
Division of labour and exploitation
Definition
Diffusion of industrial techniques shifts manufacturing to the 2nd and 3rd worlds.

'Cheap' labour creates a new global proletariat - alienation of labour (cannot afford to buy what they produce)

No way for developing countries to protest because of reliance on multinationals
Term
Free market liberalism as tenable only in the face of homogeneity
Definition
Economic homogeny: erosion of concepts such as 'national identity' - prevents democratic dissent on part of small nations/development of political systems which reflect the needs of individual nations/areas

Cultural homogeneity: erosion of national identity, imposition of 'consumer culture'.

Friedman - "you cannot build an emerging society... if you are simultaneously destroying the cultural foundations that cement your society and give it the self confidence and cohesion to interact properly with the world"

Culture -> society/community -> development
Term
Religion in the face of Globalism
Definition
Pope Benedict II at World Youth Day

Rowan Williams
Term
Pope Benedict at World Youth Day on Religion and Globalism
Definition
Globalisation alone cannot build peace - develops division and conflict (e.g. Neoliberal intervention)

A need for a goal of PROFOUND SOLIDARITY (implying a spiritual dimension)

Globalisation should be employed as a tool against poverty
Term
Rowan Williams of Religion and globalism
Definition
The Church as calling and responsibility

Responsibility to perform Public Theology (Engaging with/interpreting contemporary issues)

Economic globalism as descriptive, but not prescriptive - religion needs to provide the moral guidance absent in the Globalist ideal.

Globalism based in 'Realpolitik' - A Hobbesian 'reality' (worldview) of selfishness, total war.
Term
Religion as product
Definition
Churches starting in South America - now based around airtime - televised religion

Religion becomes visual - a spectacle. More suited to Pentecostal style dynamism ("Testify!" *shakes tambourine*)

Encourages development of spectacle - managing the spirit. The church becomes a stage.

exclusion of non-spectacular bits (poor speakers etc). Time restraints mean further exclusion - selecting testimonies.

Creates expectations of spectacle - hyperrealism (loss of distinction between image/the staged, and reality) in religion. Pentacostals can still be quietly religious, but not on TV.
Term
Religion as a brand
Definition
World Youth Day - a festival held every three years for Catholic youth in a globalised city - the de-territorialisation of Catholic Youth.

Sacred spiritual arrangements alongside nonspiritual celebration (pop concerts etc).

Commercialised event with merchandise

Advertised as a'Pope event' - the Pope is a brand. Unites sacred and secular under his brand. Gives identity to the event.
Term
Religious Identity
Definition
No room for preferential treatment/otherisation in global environment (Salman Rushdie)

There are commonalities between religions and societies, but also differences. No underlying global culture.

Repeated reminder of complexity of human experience (in relating to/distinguishing from others).
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