Comments on: Zeitgeitsts http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2008/01/30/zeitgeitsts/ let's activate something Sun, 20 May 2012 22:26:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: sagely http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2008/01/30/zeitgeitsts/#comment-9173 sagely Thu, 07 Feb 2008 04:52:56 +0000 http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2008/01/30/zeitgeitsts/#comment-9173 This is a really insightful post. The contingency of our own ethical and moral vision is a troubling reality, and I'm sure we can glean a lot from looking at the patterns of vision-shifts from epochs past. And God help us to change in the areas we're already aware--materialism, nationalism, classism, etc. But I wonder if trying to "clear away the fog" that is the spirit of our own times is as easy as it sounds. I think this might parallel the "pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps" myth. We need help to learn where we have logs clouding our vision. Community and conversation are essential to all of our attempts to see with clarity amid our cultural haze. Looking back on history is a great place to begin, but we have to acknowledge that most of our history books are written by people with strong ties of loyalty to the spirit of our times. We need to seek out perspectives, voices, belonging to individuals outside of our culture. To find the anawim where they live. Poverty has a way of breaking corporate ties. So dig into history and reach out to the margins. And pray that the Spirit will give us eyes to see the zeitgeist of today. This is a really insightful post. The contingency of our own ethical and moral vision is a troubling reality, and I’m sure we can glean a lot from looking at the patterns of vision-shifts from epochs past. And God help us to change in the areas we’re already aware–materialism, nationalism, classism, etc.

But I wonder if trying to “clear away the fog” that is the spirit of our own times is as easy as it sounds. I think this might parallel the “pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps” myth. We need help to learn where we have logs clouding our vision.

Community and conversation are essential to all of our attempts to see with clarity amid our cultural haze. Looking back on history is a great place to begin, but we have to acknowledge that most of our history books are written by people with strong ties of loyalty to the spirit of our times.

We need to seek out perspectives, voices, belonging to individuals outside of our culture. To find the anawim where they live. Poverty has a way of breaking corporate ties.

So dig into history and reach out to the margins. And pray that the Spirit will give us eyes to see the zeitgeist of today.

]]> By: TimN http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2008/01/30/zeitgeitsts/#comment-8752 TimN Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:43:47 +0000 http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2008/01/30/zeitgeitsts/#comment-8752 Steve, I think this paradigm is a very useful way to think about our own moral oversight. Slavery being bad now seems obvious, but what isn't obvious to us? One of the great myths of this way of thinking is that things inevitable gets better. But of course, this ignores the huge amount of struggle that went into these zeitgeist changes. It's also remarkable how many of these zeitgeist changes Jesus has been calling us to all along if only we were listening. And of course materialism and lifestyle are prime examples. Unfortunately, given the pace of "progress", one wonders whether we will manage to change our zeitgeist before we outgrow our planet completely. <a href="http://www.themennonite.org/bloggers/timjn/posts/Review_of_What_a_Way_to_Go_Life_at_the_End_of_Empire_Part_1" rel="nofollow">Some people</a> are suggesting we've already outgrown ourselves and are just running on fumes. Steve, I think this paradigm is a very useful way to think about our own moral oversight. Slavery being bad now seems obvious, but what isn’t obvious to us? One of the great myths of this way of thinking is that things inevitable gets better. But of course, this ignores the huge amount of struggle that went into these zeitgeist changes.

It’s also remarkable how many of these zeitgeist changes Jesus has been calling us to all along if only we were listening. And of course materialism and lifestyle are prime examples.

Unfortunately, given the pace of “progress”, one wonders whether we will manage to change our zeitgeist before we outgrow our planet completely. Some people are suggesting we’ve already outgrown ourselves and are just running on fumes.

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