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Louis A. Ruprecht, Jr.
Afterwords
Hellenism, Modernism, and the Myth of Decadence
State University of New York Press 1996
Stron xiii+260, format: 15x23 cm
Książka bez śladów używania
is book about nostalgia raises the question of why it has become such a dominant and influential posture in contemporary philosophical and theological writing. The author notes the presence of the word "after" in a great many contemporary academic titles, and notes a spiritual sort of alienation that many feel in the "modern age." Out of this scholarly discontent emerges one of two related attempts: the attempt to return to a premodern manner of thinking and being (nostalgia); and the playful flight into some vaguely defined "postmodcrnity" (utopia). In either case, the common perception is that modernity is a problem, a problem to be avoided or escaped.
Bringing philosophical and theological texts into conversation with one another, the book discovers a startling similarity in the accounts of modernness offered in these disparate idioms. Both are telling a story—a story which, the author argues, is as seductive as it is misguided.
"The fundamental argument is a badly needed correction to the uncritical use of periodization in contemporary critical, philosophical, ethical, theological, and general cultural discourse. The specific periodization in question is the set of distinctions between 'modern,' 'premodern,' 'postmodern,' 'classical,' and 'Biblical' moments in the history of thought and ideas. The book represents a frontal assault upon the positions generated by several key contemporary writers (Maclntyre, Stout, Taylor in philosophy and ethics; Hauerwas in theology) who allegedly rely upon these distinctions. There is an extraordinarily effective analysis of Nietzsche in this connection, using Wir Philologen, a previously untranslated manuscript. This part is one of the high moments in the book. The author also has an unimpeachable command of Homer, Plato, Aristotle, Pauline theology, and the Greek tragedians. He's one of that endangered species, the Christian classicist. The book is written with wit, passion, a great wealth of allusion and learning. Outstanding."
— Ralph V. Norman, Jr.
"The topic is at the heart of much contemporary debate about the relation of philosophy to religion
and the role of religious faith not only in the academy but in Euro-American society at large.
No one has gotten a clearer bead on these issues than the author. I emphatically recommend
this book." — Bruce Lawrence, Duke University
CONTENTS
Preface: On Living After Greece 1
A PREMONITION
After Nietzsche? When Un-modern Turned Anti-modern 23
PHILOSOPHICAL TEXTS
After the Polis? On the Use and Abuse of Aristotle's Political Animal 67
After Virtue? On Distorted Philosophical Narratives 91
THEOLOGICAL TEXTS
After Christendom? On Distorted Theological Narratives 127
After Belief? Fundamentalism, Secularization, and the Tragic Posture 163
PREMONITION FULFILLED
Aftermath? On Modernist Prejudices and the Past 201
Afterword: A Post-Mortem on Post-Modernity 233
Select Bibliography 244
Index 251
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