Culture of Possibilities
[Director’s Class]
(a lunchtime class especially for undergraduates)
Wednesdays, starting Sept. 10, period 5 (11:45 - 12:35)
Instructor: Richard Horner, Exec. Director, Christian Study Center
Audio files of sessions below.
Description
We live in a culture of overwhelming possibilities. Universities now offer several hundred majors; Home Depot offers more options on light switches and counter tops than anyone can process; and not only does Burger King continue to let you have it your way, so do the other twenty-six fast-food shops in the food court. There are seemingly endless possibilities for fashion, for tattoos and piercings, for extreme sports, for spending money, for cable channels, for YouTube videos, for media devices, for spiritual exploration and for sex.
How shall we understand such a culture and how shall we live in it?
This class will attempt to answer this question, first, by looking at both the cultural logic of modernity and the theo-logic of the image of God that frame the culture of possibilities in which we live; second, by looking at the ways that the cultural logic and the image of God literally intersect in our bodies; and third, by considering the place of sacred texts in a culture of possibilities. Finally, we will celebrate the exploration of possibilities within the framework of Christian theology.
Schedule
I. Introduction
9.10 - What Frames What?
II. The Cultural Logic of Modernity
9.17 – “The Proliferation of Meanings as Meaning Recedes: from Descartes to Rorty”
9.24 – “The Proliferation of Meanings as Meaning Recedes: from the Assembly Line and Credit Cards to Food Courts and I-phones”
10.1 – “Instrumental Reason and the Triumph of Taste”
10.8 – “The Theo-logic of the Image of God”
III. Cultural logic, the Image of God, and the Body
10.15 – “Eating, Drinking, Sleeping, and Playing in a 24/7 World…. Oh! Did I Mention Studying?”
10.22 – “The Co-modification of the Body: Tattoos, Piercings, and Beyond”
10.29 – “Identity, Community, Power, and the Body”
11.5 – “Longing, Limit, and the Joy of Sex”
IV. Concluding Thoughts
11.12 – “Sacred Texts and the Cultural Logic of Modernity”
11.19 – “Celebrating Possibilities in a Theo-logical Framework”
This class requires no outside reading but if participants wish to do advance reading, a brief bibliography follows. For more information, contact Richard Horner at the Center.
Walter Truett Anderson, The Truth about the Truth (pick essays that look interesting)
Blaise Pascal, Pensées (start with Book one, sections vi - xv)
Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols (the place to begin for understanding contemporary culture)
Jean Paul Sartre, “Existentialism and Humanism” (agonizing, fascinating)
Richard Rorty, “Trotsky and the Wild Orchids” in Philosophy and Social Hope (personal, profound)
_______, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity (is the voice of your time in thought)
Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue and Whose Justice? Which Rationality? (heavy duty, great reading)
Philip Rieff, The Triumph of the Therapeutic (mid-20th-century classic)
Flannery O’Connor, Spiritual Writings (thoughtful Christian reflection)
Audio files from this series:
Horner - Proliferation of Meanings as Meaning Recedes [43:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Horner - Proliferation of Meanings...pt 2 [47:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Horner - Instrumental Reason and the Triumph of Taste [46:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Horner - Proliferation of Meanings as Meaning Recedes [43:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Horner - Proliferation of Meanings...pt 2 [47:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Horner - Instrumental Reason and the Triumph of Taste [46:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download