<i>Veritas est Immortalis</i>: Postmoderns are really Pre-Modern

Veritas est Immortalis

"If the Church is not in possession of truth, truth as an understanding that corresponds exactly to what is in reality, and...exactly to what is in the will and character of God, then it has been left speechless. It has nothing to say" (David Wells). But never forget: "Divine Truth is immortal, and though it may long be bound, scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified and laid in a grave, yet on the third day it will rise again victoriously and will reign and triumph eternally" (Hubmaier).

Friday, October 27, 2006

Postmoderns are really Pre-Modern

In the middle of the last chapter of the Confessions, Book V, I came across this line as Augustine (354-430 AD) is describing his struggle committing to or leaving the Manicheans: "the method of the Academics—doubting everything and fluctuating between all the options" (V.14:25). [If you want to read the quote in context, click the title above.]

The intelligencia of his day both doubted everything and were a shifting shadow "between all options." Hmm.... Doubting everything...? Waffling among all points of view...? These pre-moderns sound awfully, um, post-modern. Maybe postmodernism isn't all that "post" after all.

What do you think? Leave a comment.

Labels: Augustine, Culture