Preface

In the preface to the Spring 2011 issue of Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, I noted with sadness the passing of Archbishop Józef M. Życiński, and provided a brief commentary on his important contributions to the dialogue between religion and science. In this issue, we offer a special section under the heading, “Essays in Memory of Józef M. Życiński,” with an introduction by Kenneth W. Kemp, who acted as a special editor for this section. The essays in that section focus especially (but not exclusively) on an extended examination of the relationship between science and religion in the work of Życiński. Here I will turn to the important contribution made by Życiński to establishing a dialogue between postmodern thought and religion. Just as the dialogue between science and religion is especially important to contemporary academic life because it seeks to open philosophy and theology on the one hand and the sciences on the other to an improved mutual understanding of their disciplines, so also the dialogue between postmodern thought and religion is especially important to improving the prospects for mutual enrichment flowing among the humanities, the social sciences, and theology. Życiński, in the various aspects of his scholarly work, positioned himself on the fault lines of contemporary intellectual life and has provided opportunities to mend the cohesiveness of that life and to enrich theological understanding by enabling it to address contemporary concerns all the more fully. He sets out a comprehensive approach to various aspects of postmodernism in God & Post-Modern Thought: Philosophical Issues in the Contemporary Critique of Modernity.¹

Just as there have been zealous proponents and popularizers of postmodern thought in contemporary culture, so also have there been zealous opponents who have ridiculed the language and style of postmodernism. The first crucial step taken by Życiński to open a dialogue with such thought is to reject the zealotry of each camp. While granting that postmodern thinkers have often challenged many of the conventions of language and logic, Życiński recognizes in such tactics an understandable rejection of positivistic modes of thought and an acknowledgement of the inadequacies of many schools of modern thought to accommodate the changing conditions of postcolonial forms of culture. He points to Fides et ratio as a model of a thoughtful though critical openness to postmodern thought especially in the effort “to distinguish between the ideological version of postmodernism and the variant caused by deep cultural transformations” (4). It is especially the effort to establish a renewed encounter with Christian faith in the context of a profound acknowledgement of human suffering in the contemporary world that guides Życiński in his reflections.

One tendency of postmodern thought, reflected in the embrace of irrationality as an important element of human experience, stems from the Nietzschean celebration of the Dionysian aspects of life. In opposition to the flat picture of human life constructed by positivistic thinkers who believed themselves to have been on the verge of establishing a new model of social perfection based on calculations of rational self-interest (a view mocked successfully by Dostoyevsky’s underground man who railed against those who saw themselves as constructing a new “crystal palace” in their utopian plans), Nietzsche called for a courageous encounter with despair and the absurd through an embrace of human self-creation in the spirit of the dance of Dionysius. Twentieth-century acts of genocide and war eventually gave an ample basis for a stunned encounter with the apparent meaninglessness of modern life. But Życiński argues that to identify Christ with Apollo, that is, with the forces of rationality and order in opposition to the dancing whirl of Dionysian experience, is to misconstrue Christianity: “One must see the maturity of the early Church not in the Apostles’ power of rational speculation, but in their openness to the influence of the Holy Spirit which leads to a radically new view of life” (30). The Christian tradition is rich in the resources required to respond with understanding and love to the experience of meaninglessness and despair, and it is important to...