Tagged: what comes next

A Relational Model of Truth

I was reading Parker Palmer’s book The Courage to Teach recently.  In it, he presents what he calls a relational model of truth, which he contrasts with an “objectivist” and a relativist view of truth.  I thought it worth repeating here, because I think it is a good example of how modernity, postmodernity, and what-comes-next […]

On Seeking Perfection

In many of my posts, I try to examine social problems and suggest aspects of their solutions.  It’s possible that some of my posts may give the impression that if we can just find the right solution, we can solve all of the problems plaguing our current world in the world of what-comes-next.  If we […]

Playing house vs. playing Legos

I would like to suggest two metaphors describing how societal unity has functioned in the past and how societal unity might function in the future.  In the past, societal unity has been like playing house.  In the world of what comes next, I think societal unity needs to be like playing Legos. Playing house is […]

Unity without sameness?

In my past several blog posts, I’ve been examining various possible sources of unity for The United Methodist Church.  One assumption behind these posts so far has been that it may be possible to find something(s) that ties together all United Methodists and that unity in the denomination depends upon finding such thing(s).  I’ve certainly […]

Periodizing the History of Christianity and Methodological Pluralism

I’m a historian of Christianity.  One of the things historians like to do is divide history into periods.  If you’ve been reading this blog, you’ve probably gotten a sense of the periodization of history I’ve been using, but I thought I’d summarize it here and then share some reflections on the process of periodizing church […]

Christendom, Modernity, Postmodernity, and What Comes Next, Part 2

On Tuesday, I posted the first half of a description of how I would characterize a periodization of history broken into Christendom, modernity, postmodernity, and what comes next.  This post completes that description. Let me reiterate my three caveats: 1. All of my answers for “what comes next” are just guesses.  Since it comes next, […]

Christendom, Modernity, Postmodernity, and What Comes Next, Part 1

I’ve promised you loyal readers some elaboration on what I think are the characteristics of postmodernity.  I’m going to structure part of this answer by comparing Christendom, modernity, postmodernity, and what comes next (one possible periodization of the last 1000 years of Christian history; I’ll write a post on periodizing church history later).  I’ve structured […]

Education in the world that’s coming next

A friend recently sent me this video: http://edupln.com/video/tedxnyed-will-richardson It’s 15 minutes, but well worth a view.  The presenter, Will Richardson, argues that the American educational system is set up around an old (I might say modernist) model of doing things: the point of our current educational system is to impart a large body of knowledge […]

Defining Postmodernity

If you’ve read past blog posts or continue to read future blog posts, I think you’ll quickly notice that contrasting modernity and postmodernity (as exemplified in the new title for the blog!) is a big thing for me.  Yet, as I’ve realized from reading comments, my understanding of these terms is not always the same […]