Afterwords
Subtitle: Hellenism, modernism, and the myth of decadence
By: Louis A. Ruprecht, Jr.
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Albany
Language: eng
Number of pages: 260
Subjects: Nostalgia.; Degeneration.; Hellenism.; Philosophy, Modern -- 20th century.; Civilization, Modern -- 20th century.; Christianity -- 20th century.
Description: This 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 "postmodernity" (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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-250) and index.