It's decided! I will be teaching the book of Colossians in November. So as part of my class prep I have started reading Colossians Remixed. Man! What an awesome first chapter. I think that the authors have done a great job of setting up the context that we live in today.
On the one hand we have postmodernity that is, "Permeated by a deep sense of betrayal. Someone has told them a story, spun them a line, about the good life, and it has proved to be a lie." Basically postmoderinity is about the rejection of the metanarritive (the larger story) that was give to us by the Modern movement starting with the enlightenment...
But on the other hand we have globalization. It doesn't matter where you go in the world there is Coca-Cola, McDonalds, and Levi's. Despite the celebration of diversity that postmodernism claims, we aren't that different. We listen to music put out by major record companies (and anyone who thinks the Sufjan Stevens or Death Cab For Cutie isn't part of this you're just kidding yourself) and watch the same images on TV.
When you think about it Globalization is essentially the repackaging of the modern mettanaritve of progress. Wired Magazine said this "We are watching the beginnings of a global economic boom on a scale never experienced before. We have entered a period of sustained growth that could eventually double the world's economy every twelve years and bring prosperity for - quite literally - billions of people on the planet. We are riding the early waves of a 25 year run of a greatly expanding economy that will do much to solve seemingly intractable problems like poverty and to ease tensions throughout the world. And we will do it without blowing the lid off the environment.*" So our "progress" in the economics is supposed bring world peace and eradicate poverty.... sound familiar??
I just found it fascinating how our culture has rejected the Modern story and then let it back in through the back door without noticing. Anyway just some thoughts for today....
*Peter Schwartz and Peter Leyden, "The Long Boom," Wired, July 1997, p. 116.
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