Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Gadamer 1

Had a really fun lunch today with about ten youth workers from the Princeton area. We talked about postmodern thought, youth ministry, and emergent. The dude from Young Life took a few hits, but he was a great sport. Really, we just used YL as the straw man that stood in for modern ministry in general -- fact is, it could have been almost any ministry/church. Anyway, it was a great time.

I've spent the rest of the day climbing the 575-page Everest that is Hans-Georg Gadamer's Truth and Method (1960). I've got to read it by Friday morning and I'm on page 300 right now. Here's a little taste of my current agony:

"Under the rubric of a 'hermeneutics of facticity,' Heidegger confronted Husserl's eidetic phenomonolgy, and well as the distinction between fact and essence on which it depended, with a paradoxical demand. Phenomenology should be ontologically based on the facticity of Dasein, existence, which cannot be based on or derived from anything else, and not on the pure cogito as the essential constitution of typical universality -- a bold idea, but difficult to carry through." (254)

I can hear you all ripping up you PhD applications...

3 Comments:

Blogger tony said...

Listen, I really appreciate YL, but one of the guys there said something to the effect of, "So, how would you critique Young Life?" That's like showing a Bengal Tiger Roy's neck au jus.

We talked about the *point* of contact work (to get to know students, or to get them to camp?), the use of "Brown-Eyed Girl" as the first song at every club, and the exclusive use of the New Testament...actually, Jesus...actually, stories about Jesus from the Gospels in talks at club and camp. I just suggested that YL might need a little more of the Old Testament.

3:08 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"a bold idea, but difficult to carry through"

I couldn't have said it better myself!

--Steve K.

6:30 AM  
Blogger Jay Voorhees said...

Yes, I am happy to continue on as a little, country preacher!!

jv

7:47 AM  

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