Title: Afterwords
First published: 1996
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.
Subjects: Christianity, Civilization, Modern, Degeneration, Hellenism, Modern Civilization, Modern Philosophy, Nostalgia, Philosophy, Modern, Modern, Philosophy & Religion, Philosophy, General, HISTORY, Moderne, Nostalgie, Hellenismus, Dekadenz, Epigone, Kultur, Philosophy, modern, 20th century, Christianity, 20th century, Civilization, modern, 20th century, Dégénérescence, Hellénisme, Philosophie, Civilisation, Christianisme
Time periods: 20th century
LC classification: B945.R853 A3 1996