About Me
- Suzy
- I am a United Methodist minister. I was diagnosed with a recurrence of ovarian cancer in March 2013. I'm writing about my thoughts of navigating all of life in the midst of this recurrence.
Friday, July 16, 2010
“The Modern Quest” by Karyn Ratcliffe
In Chapter One, Grenz introduces the term “The Enlightenment project” to refer to “the human intellectual quest to unlock the secrets of the universe in order to master nature for human benefit and create a better world.”4 I find the term “Enlightenment project” to be misleading because it makes it sound as if the modern worldview was an invention of the Enlightenment era. This is the same chicken-or-the-egg question I raised above. If, in fact, people like Isaac Newton were examining the universe for the secrets about “how it works,” then by definition they had already shifted to a modern worldview whether or not they were aware of it. The term “Enlightenment project” seems like an anachronism that ought to be replaced with a more meaningful term such as the “Modern Quest.”
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Response from Emery Ailes Grenz’s
ReplyDelete“Enlightenment Project” or “Modern Quest” can be traced all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Was it not Eve’s quest to know that got us into this mess in the first place? From the very beginning of time, man’s intellect is to “know.” And rightly so!
After forming man from the clay of the ground and breathing the breath of life into his nostrils, God told man to name the animals, possess and subdue the land, and have dominion over all. Hence, the modern quest to know, to explore and to boldly go where no one has gone before.
Response from Suzanne Cox Reedstrom
ReplyDeleteI cannot remain silent on Emery’s comment that “Eve’s quest to know…got us into this mess in the first place.” The 2nd story of creation is a meta-narrative that gave a framework for pre-scientific humanity to understand the world. It should not be used to demonize women nor blame women for the current state of the world. However, I would agree with Emery and Karyn that the biblical text affirms that humanity has, from the beginning, had a thirst for understanding the world in which we live. The quest for knowledge certainly did not begin with the Enlightenment Period.