Slogging Through...

Just finished Stephen Toulmin's Cosmopolis and Ervin Laszlo's A System's View Of The World... been a while since I worked my brain out this hard trying to digest what I am reading.

Toulmin's book was an eye-opener in regards to the "hidden agenda" of moderism... the historical setting of the rise of modernism in the early 17th Century and the revival of modernism in the early 20th century that led to an intolerance of ambiguity and the ultimate ideal of certainty. The punch-line? That post-modernism looks a lot like the humanism of the 16th century... a period of time that birthed the Reformation. Perhaps a new Reformation is needed to change the modern institutionalized church into a missional organization that will remain relevant in the western post-modern world???

Laszlo's book was a lot harder to like... a lot of talk about the intricacies of evolutionary theory as it relates to systems theory... the idea that we are interrelated with that which is larger than us. Biblical world-views were regarded as myth that we need to transcend. The end of Laszlo's thinking seems to lead to something other than nihilism, but still doesn't seem very satisfying. Humanism is again the idea of the day... the idea that world systems and governments can be relevant as they help individuals achieve self-actualization. Serving self to promote the collective good? I don't see it happening as neatly as Laszlo suggests.

On to a book called WHO'S AFRAID OF POSTMODERNISM? We'll see how that one reads... hopefully a bit easier than these last to books!