A "Post-Modern" World?

Even though we still refer to ourselves as living "in the modern world," the fact is that the epoch that defined itself as modernity is gradually but inexorably coming to an end. This is not to say that much of what characterized modernity has ceased to exercise substantial formative influence. A simple analysis might convince us that our age is the age of the triumph of modernity throughout the world.

In order to look at this issue, however, we must analyze the defining characteristics of the modern epoch. The attitudes of the "modern world" were rooted in the experience of the Renaissance, the scientific and industrial revolutions, the Enlightenment, and the rise of international political and social ideologies in the twentieth century. This experience, which formed the identity of the modern, progressive man of Western culture and gave security and confidence to his understanding of himself and his place in the world, is disintegrating as a basis for individual and social definition. 

Human persons and societies are in the process of developing new presuppositions and modes of experiencing and defining themselves that have never appeared in the history of the human race. The basis of our reflections, therefore, is the observation that a New Epoch is coming into being. It raises new challenges for humanity, while also preserving and encompassing many elements of what has gone before (and what still remains even in its decline). 

Western culture, for the first time in history, is spread throughout the world, as is so evident by global modes of commerce, communication, and political and social cooperation. At the same time, Western culture must for the first time engage, without condescension, in a serious dialogue with the experiences, histories, and presuppositions of other peoples and cultures. 

At present, this is a source of crisis for the identity of Western culture, which is experiencing an anxiety over its own contribution to history even as much of the rest of the world seeks to discover and to incorporate the genuine aspects of that contribution into its own development. Our discussion is an effort to understand the many features of the time of transition in which we live.