Fragmentation, Modernity, and the Search for Something Else

The modern era is characterized by progress, science, will, direction, and efficiency. The post-modern era can be described using terms like hopelessness, which is no specific hope, anti-science, indeterminacy, and diversity. Is it really possible that society can fragment from top to bottom and within? Is it possible that the center will not hold and race will go against race, right against left, and heathen against believer? Some classify our current times as a post modern era, yet nobody knows exactly what post modern is. It can probably be agreed upon that modern time is fragmented, which leads people to search for something else. Many writers have documented their beliefs on this and identified what they see as the human problem. Of course, with a problem there is ultimately a solution. The question is what will it take to bring a fragmented society back together?

Robert W. Jenson wrote about this post modern world in "How the World Lost its Story." In this writing, Jenson explains that the Western world is post modern because modernity is dying all around us and nothing has risen to take its place. Jenson says that in the post modern world we have lost hold of story and promise. He says that "The modern world's typical way of knowing human life was what Hans Frei has taught theologians to all 'realistic narrative.'" Of the realistic narrative, Jenson says that is "is a particular way of telling a sequence of events." One example of a realistic narrative is the Bible, of which Jenson says, "The archetypical body of realistic narrative is precisely the Bible." Another example comes from St. Augustine who, in order to refute the Pagans, wrote a story about everything from creation to the end times. In the post modern world we have lost the realistic narrative. We have no story to go back on; we just make it up as we go along. Jenson explains this loss:

Postmodernism is characterized by the loss of this supposition in all of its aspects. We can see this most vividly in literature. The paradigmatic fictional works of the twentieth century either present accounts that make dramatic sense in themselves, but tell of events or sequences that could not occur in the world outside of the storytelling; or they meticulously describe events that could occur or perhaps actually have occurred in "the real world," but in such fashion as to display precisely their lack of dramatic coherence.

He goes on to say that in order to have a narrative you must have a narrator. The idea of a story without a story teller is a ridiculous notion. That is like having faith without God. In the post modern world we tend to look at ourselves as the narrator and tend to have more of a bohemian outlook on life.
Jenson says, "Promises, in the postmodern world, are inauthentic simply because they are promises, because they commit to a future that is not ours to commit." An example of this is marriage, which is probably the most at risk institution in the postmodern society. We have an inability to commit, partly because we feel as though we might change. Terms like marriage and bride are very frequent things in the Bible. In the scripture, God marries humanity. God also references the church as His bride. If that is falling apart the church must be falling apart. Jenson says that "Modernity cannot hope in the biblical God." If church is just people filing their spiritual tanks, it will undoubtedly fail. Jenson says, "The mere negation of faith in progress is sheer lack of hope; and hopelessness is the very definition of postmodernism." It is important for faith and church to flourish because without it we will lose all hope.

In "The Homeless Modern," Mark T. Mitchell identifies the modern problem as a lack of roots. That is, people have lost their roots, both physical and spiritual. Physical roots create a community. Unfortunately, Mitchell points out that, "Over the course of a lifetime, the average American will have thirteen different addresses." This causes us to be physically rootless, and of this Mitchell says, "We have traded a commitment to a particular place for the promise of a better job, a better standard of living, a better climate, or perhaps the variety that relocating affords." Apparently we have become proficient movers, yet with this increased moving and loss of physical roots, we have destroyed the idea of a community and replaced it with individualism. This individualism "places tights ahead of responsibilities and economic gain ahead of meaningful relationships." The individual wants have been placed before the common good. This idea of individual rights has brought an interesting dynamic to this era. It has brought about the idea that if we can define more and more rights we can reach happiness. Yet, it is necessary for other conditions to be met. So, what is the content of happiness?

Just like we have lost our physical roots, Mitchell says we have lost our spiritual roots as well. Spiritual roots ground us in religion and provide a moral framework that is important to our communities. It creates a common good, which allows a community to succeed. Mitchell uses Francis Bacon and Rene Descartes to further develop this theme of rootlessness. Both of these early philosophers relied on the empirical method. The empirical method can help with a lot of things; however, not with life or the meaning of existence. Because of this we must depend on somebody, which is where religion steps in. religion is not going to be washed out of modernity. It keeps coming back because it answers something that reason cannot. We as humans cannot do everything. We cannot create a true utopia. We cannot cure every disease or even define all of them. This is a difficult thing for modern man to come to terms with. In the past we have been trying to succeed by using rationalism, which is the narrowing of the focus of reason to the demonstrable and those things that can be tested. We now know that rationalism has its limits. People are yearning for something else. People crave the truth, especially God.

Walker Percy's satirical novel Love in the Ruins follows the adventures of Dr. Tom More, an alcoholic, lustful psychiatrist/ psychiatric patient. The novel never specifically identifies the year that the story takes place, however it seems as though it could take place today. Dr. More says of these current times, "These are bad times." People of this time have lost faith and have turned to science with their trust. It is definitely a fragmented world. The world is so fragmented that people have begun to suffer physical ailments.

Conservatives have begun to fall victim to unseasonable rages, delusions of conspiracies, high blood pressure, and large-bowel complaints. Liberals are more apt to contract serial impotence, morning terror, and a feeling of abstraction of the self from itself.

The world is made up of blind forces that run the world. Everything is controlled by nameless, faceless forces. In order to solve the problems of the world, Dr. More invented the lapsometer, an instrument designed to measure a person's mental and spiritual well being. With the lapsometer, Dr. More plans to "probe the very secrets of the soul" and restore hope to the fragmented world.

I agree with Mitchell that we have become rootless because we have a lack of commitment geographically and we lack the idea of a transcendent reality. We have become self-sufficient. We don't necessarily need community, places, people, etc. This of course leads to individualism. This post-modern world celebrates diversity. I too desire and enjoy diversity to a certain extent. However, this has led to the belief that it is intrinsically good to not have a pattern to fit into. While the idea of a lapsometer sounds good, I agree most with Mitchell's writing. We have lost our roots and have given up on communities. "For Descartes, the ideal place is precisely no-place. The modern Cartesian, it seems, is a homeless man trying desperately to pitch his tent in a place that cannot exist." Mitchell also says that he wants to see democracy renewed for our time. He wants to see it flourish and thrive. In order to do this we must reclaim our roots. "It is only when we commit to rootedness, both physically and spiritually, that we aquire the resources necessary to break out of the dark forest of rootless skepticism. A healthy democracy begins at home."

How the World Lost Its Story
Robert W. Jenson
Copyright © 1993 First Things 36 (October 1993): 19-24.

The Homeless Modern
Mark T. Mitchell
The Intercollegiate Review - Spring 2006

Love in the Ruins
Walker Percy
Picador; 1 edition (September 4, 1999)