Relativity & Reconstruction: Seeking the Real in Postmodernity’s Heap of Broken Images

For nearly three centuries, Modernity teased humanity with hopes of a comprehensible universe, epistemological certainty, and political utopia, but the 20th century brought those hopes crashing down. Between two world wars, industrialized slaughter and destruction of the natural world, crippling economic depressions, rampant social unrest, and ideological revolutions leading to genocide, the idea that technological progress leads inexorably to human flourishing was revealed as hopelessly naïve. Attempts to explain why the tidy formulas of Modernism had failed were worked out in the context of postcolonialism and global multiculturalism, generating deep suspicion toward certainty claims. If cultural supremacy leads to imperialism, war, mass extinctions, and the brink of nuclear winter, might not peace and flourishing require abolishing absolutism, relinquishing institutional possession of truth, and submitting ourselves to the myriad perspectives and lived experiences of others?

The Postmodern era has brought us valuable lessons, including a recognition of the difficulties inherent in accessing objective truth, the role of subjectivity in our reasoning, and the crucial necessity of full representation in building just societies. Yet as with most pendulum swings, Postmodernity goes too far. Among other shortcomings, it denies ultimate truth, reduces justice and flourishing to personal preferences, and idolizes individual choice. This issue will examine both the positives and negatives of this era as a foundation for engaging our postmodern neighbors, along with re-catechizing our postmodern selves.