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57 Chapter Four JOHN DUNS SCOTUS IN THE POSTMODERN, SCIENTIFIC WORLD Kenan B. Osborne, O.F.M. Introduction For many of us living in today’s new-millennium world, the so-called real world of our day-to-day existence has several key characteristics. This world is pervasively technological. We can hardly exist without the technological benefits the Western world has gained. Internet, cell phones, automobiles, and airplanes are only a few items that an average person today not only uses but also needs. This world is also pervasively scientific. Health care is highly dependent on science. Agriculture and education are scientifically structured. This world is also called the “postmodern world.” Although this phrase has no clear meaning and although it is used much like an umbrella to cover a wide variety of issues, not all compatible with one another, I am using it here to indicate that philosophically, not just technologically and scientifically, there is a definite epistemé in the way in which contemporary Western people think. 1 The Western world has become increasingly secular. Although religion remains an integral part of many Westerners, it is by and large excluded in a deliberate way from politics, education, and almost all forms of the media, business, and social action. Religion has been more and more confined to the private sphere of a person’s life. There are, of course, individuals and communal groups who continue to bring religion into public life, but they do so against an anti-religion bias. Although many Western people will agree that they live in a basically technological, scientific, and secular world, “this world” is far from the total world of contemporary society. The area in which “this world” is a 1 The term epistemé is taken from Michel Foucault, Les mots et les choses (Éditions Gallimard: Paris, 1966). I have explained this in my own book, Christian Sacraments in a Postmodern World, 57 (Paulist Press: NY, 1999). 58 Kenan B. Osborne reality involves Europe, England, Ireland, Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. To some degree “this world” is found in Mexico and in some countries of South America, as well as in the cosmopolitan parts of Russia. Outside of “this world” lie Central America and Asia in its totality, including Sri Lanka and India. Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea might be seen as exceptions. Most of the countries in Africa and the islands off the African shore do not live in “this world.” By far, the vast majority of people do not live in the scientific, technological, and secular world. The so-called Western world of science, technology, and secularism is the “real world” for only a small percentage of the human race. Nor can it be said that this form of “real world” is accepted as the benchmark for all other worldviews. This Western “real world” involves only a minor percent of the earth’s population. Nonetheless, this so-called “real world” presents a major issue, namely, the relationship of science and technology in all their forms with religion. The question that continually arises is this—is religion even meaningful in today’s scientific and technological world? The majority of those involved in science and technology are not anti-religion. They are, rather, indifferent and at times neutral. Religion, for them, is not an integral part of their scientific and technological endeavors. Here again one encounters a privatization of religion. In the public spheres of science and technology, just as in the public spheres of politics, economics, and education, religion is not an operative factor. This has led some Western people to ask whether religion and science are even compatible. Among postmodern philosophers, novelists, poets, and artists, there are indeed some who are belligerently against any and all forms of religious thinking. Gabriel Vahanian, some years ago, wrote a book, Wait Without Idols. 2 In a fascinating way he analyzes contemporary novels from North America to Sweden. In this analysis he describes the obsolescence of God. From the first period of these novels to the last period, one can see a movement towards an increasing disregard of religion. He begins with Nathaniel Hawtorne’s The Scarlet Letter, in which religion is evident but already under criticism. He moves through William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, and ends with Par Lagerkvist’s 2 Gabriel Vahanian, World Without Idols (George Brasiller: New York, 1964). [3.17.128.129] Project MUSE (2024-04-18 01:50...

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