September 2008 Archives

Philip Jahnke

Maya Angelou writes, "It is possible and imperative that we learn A brave and startling truth." So what is this "brave and startling truth?" I think that this truth that Angelou writes about, in her poem "A Brave and Startling Truth," is the truth that one day all people will have the same rights in the world. I think that she is saying that we can help bring that day into being sooner that it would happen if left alone. I believe that the truth is also that people will share more similar view points, not necessarily seeing eye to eye on all matters, and that people of differing viewpoints and ideas will, instead of fighting and arguing both with words and with arms, try to resolve the issue peacefully through discussion and consideration. I think that this "brave and starling truth" involves the marginalized. This truth, in my opinion, says that the marginalized will no longer be part of that category. The category of marginalized will no longer exists. Instead, the people of this category will be on the same level as the rest of the world. I believe that the most important truth that Angelou infers when she writes "A brave and startling truth" is that one day all people will be perfect. By perfect I mean that there will no longer be any death, sadness, pain, loss, hunger, or anything like those that I have just listed.

                I agree with Angelou that there will be a day when that "brave and startling truth" comes into being.  I agree that the marginalized will no longer be marginalized and that all the evil things that plague this world will be destroyed. I also believe that the human race will be perfected. I know this because of what is written in the bible. The bible says that one day Jesus will return and on that day our bodies will be perfected, and those that do not believe will be cast into hell and those that do believe will return to live with him in heaven. This is how I know that Angelou's "brave and startling truth" is a truth. She may not have the same reasons that I have for believing that this truth will come about. She may be a postmodern thinker, and this thought process may lead her to believe that humanity can perfect itself but that is simply just not the case and postmodernism. Though good for some things, such as questioning truth in some cases but not others, this line of postmodern thinking could be deadly in a spiritual sense and could result in eternal damnation.

Philip Jahnke

Directed Writing Assignment Two

"This sentence serves no logical purpose."

Postmodernism is part of the world we live in. The statement "This sentence serves no logical purpose" is a postmodern thought. The sentence illustrates postmodernism because the statement is illogical, and logical thought has no place in postmodernism. Logical thought is based in modernism and leads to reasoning and therefore science. Not only is this an illogical statement, it questions its own existence and therefore its own truth. The questioning of truth is another characteristic of postmodern thought. In postmodern thought the thinker has the ability to decide what truth is for them. This author thinks that "This sentence serves no purpose" is postmodern because it is only true on an individual basis which goes back to the fact that postmodern truth is based on what an individual thinks is true. Another reason that the sentence fits into postmodern thought is that in modernism, language must be rational. Since this statement has no purpose and is therefore irrational it cannot be part of modernism. The conclusion that the statement is irrational then leads a person to say that the statement must be part of postmodernism.

Jacques Derrida was one of the most well known postmodern thinkers. According to Derrida, postmodernism is about deconstruction. If this is true, which in postmodern thought depends on the individual, then the statement is part of postmodernism because it deconstructs itself. In addition to the reason just presented as well as others, this statement says that it has no reason for being. That is a postmodern thought because reasoning is part of modernism not of postmodernism. An additional reason for "This sentence serves no logical purpose" being an illustration for postmodernism is that it seems to be a random statement, and postmodernism puts an emphasis on the random seeming. Since modernism is based on the ability of science to prove that a statement is true, a person must assume that postmodernism says that a statement does not have to be proved true by science. So a person must eventually come to the conclusion that since science cannot prove this statement true then the statement must be a postmodern statement.

Postmodernism puts emphasis on subjectivity. Subjectivity is when truth applies to each individual person. With this being the case more and more people are questioning the truth of modernism which is based in science. This is a sign of a dying modernistic society. Part of the reason that this modernistic society is dying is its failure to provide a sufficient basis for acting morally in a civilized society.  A more purposeful reason for the statement to be part of postmodernism is that the statement is not functional. Functionality, or purposefulness, is a part of modernism. So since the statement itself denies its own "purposefulness" then the sentence must be a part of postmodern thought and philosophy.

Since the question is whether or not the statement, "This sentence serves no logical purpose," is postmodern or not, this author can simply, because of what postmodernism is, say that the statement is postmodern. Postmodernism puts an emphasis on skepticism of truth, especially of the meta-narrative of a society. Postmodernism also emphasizes attention to the other. This means that postmodernism stresses looking out for other people around the world, especially those people who are the marginalized.

This author believes that the sentence, "This sentence serves no purpose," must be a postmodern thought. He believes this because using modern thought to figure out why the author would write a 750- 1000 word assignment leads to the conclusion that there is no reasoning behind the assignment. A person can and must come to this conclusion because in modern thought reason is the basis for all knowledge. Since this sentence seems to have no reasoning it cannot be part of the modern thought process and must therefore be classified as a postmodern thought. Since this author is writing about a postmodern sentence, it would be illogical to use modern thought to try and rationalize his or her actions. After just saying this one must realize that the author just used postmodern thought, which uses the irrational, to explain why he or she would not try to use a modern thought process. One final reason for not trying to use modern thought, which therefore lends to the fact that the sentence must be postmodern, is the fact that modernism uses science to produce knowledge and truth. Since the author has already discussed the fact that there is no possible way for science to prove the validity of the statement, "This sentence serves no logical purpose," must be considered postmodern. With that final conclusion, one must ultimately conclude that this paper then serves no purpose. So we are back to the ultimate of why did the author write this paper?

                Philip Jahnke

Honors Directed Writing One

"Staring at the Sun"

"Staring at the sun" is a metaphor. It can mean many different things to many different people. When it is referred to a description of doing theology one can say that staring at the sun is like looking for God. When someone is "staring at the sun," that person cannot see the sun but he or she knows that it is there. The same thing applies to God. No person can see God, but all that believe in him know that he is there. There are even those who do not but still feel and know that there is something, some higher being if you will, out there. Concerning God's location, Christians believe that he "lives" in heaven. This is true according to Ecclesiastes 5:2, which says, "God is in heaven..." Since God is in heaven how does a person see glimpses of life after life after death as N.T. Wright puts in his book SIMPLY CHRISTIAN Why Christianity Makes Sense? People see glimpses of this life through the intersection and overlapping of Heaven and Earth because Heaven and Earth are not far apart as some people would have the world believe but are very near each other. Heaven and Earth have not intersected or overlapped just once but have done so on a number of different occasions. For example N.T Wright says that Mount Sinai is one of those places (64). He also says that the Temple in Jerusalem is another of those sites (64). From what N.T. Wright wrote about these sites and what they were used for one can conclude that Jesus Christ and his death on the cross was and is the most important intersection or overlap in Christian theology. Wright writes that, "His death would do what the Temple, with its sacrificial system, had pointed toward but had never actually accomplished. In meeting the fate which was rushing toward him, he would be the place where heaven and earth met, as he hung suspended between the two" (110). From this a person can conclude that God had or still has a plan for bringing his creation back to perfection.

                With that conclusion a person must wonder, what God's plan is and who it involves. N.T. Wright writes, in his section on Israel and their hope for salvation, "There will come a new king, anointed with oil and with God's own Spirit (the Hebrew for "anointed one" is "Messiah"; the Greek is "Christ"), and he will put the world back into proper order. Based on Wright's words one can conclude that God has sent a rescuer and his name is Jesus (110). Wright also states that, "The time had now come when, at last, God would rescue his people, not from mere political enemies, but from evil itself, from the sin which had enslaved them. These evidences help to prove the value of this metaphor.

                This metaphor is valuable for a number of reasons; the primary of which is that it takes something that almost any reader will be familiar with and relates it to something that he or she may or may not understand. That which he or she understands being staring at the sun and that which he or she may not understand being Christianity itself. Another reason that this metaphor is beneficial is that it easily leads into the telling what Christianity is about without making the reader feel like it is being forced on him or her. This being that God sent his son to die on the cross to redeem all people from their sins (86-87). In telling this basic truth of Christianity Wright helps lay the ground work of what could eventually become a firm believer in Christ.

                This metaphor is problematic for a few reasons. The most important reason is that Wright assumes is several places that the reader is familiar with the Bible and in particular the Old Testament. A specific example is when Wright mentions the Passover and Jesus Last Supper without explaining very well what the Passover is and why it is significant to Jesus. Another odd reason that "staring at the sun" is a poor metaphor is that some people may assume that to be a Christian you must go through pain and suffering. This is simply not true though some Christians are made to suffer physically, emotionally, spiritually, and socially because of persecution. Though this author believes that if a reader makes this assumption then that reader should probably not be reading books of this type of depth.

                Wright does invite a person to consider Christian theology more deeply. He causes the reader to think more about what happen during the times that the Bible was written about. He also causes his readers to consider that the words in the Bible may have more meaning that just what the reader takes them for. Wright causes his readers to consider Christian theology more deeply so that they do not just accept his words. Wright wants his readers to question what he has written and then go back to the source, the Bible, and try to find out what God says.