The Urbanization of Society – a Complex Postmodern Phenomenon with Ample Implications in the ...

45 Pages·2014·0.42 MB·English

“The Urbanization of Society – a Complex Postmodern Phenomenon with Ample
Implications in the Life of the Contemporary Christian”

Contents: .............................................................................................................................. iii
Introduction: ......................................................................................................................... vi
I. Modernity and Postmodernity – the Premises of a Social Metamorphosis ..................... 17
I.1. The Genesis of Postmodernity – the Beginning of a New Mentality ............... 21
I.1.1. The Association between Ephemeral/Transient and Eternal/Immutable
..................................................................................................................... 21
I.1.2. The Project of Modernity and Its Critique ......................................... 27
I.2. The Relation between Modernity and Christianity, from the Perspective of
Contemporary Thinking .......................................................................................... 38
I.3. Postmodernity and Its Implications in Contemporary Thinking ...................... 42
I.4. The Correlation between Globalization, Universality and Orthodox Mission . 50
I.4.1. Globalization – the Manifestation of World Anthropocentricity ....... 51
I.4.2. The Christian Universality – World Christo-centricity ..................... 62
I.4.3. The Missionary Vocation of the Church – Calling Man to the
Resemblance with Christ. ............................................................................ 66
I.5. European Christianity and Romanian Theology in the Postmodern Context ... 80
II. The Influence of Urbanization upon the Humane. ......................................................... 90
II.1. Urbanization – a Complex Social Phenomenon .............................................. 90
II.2. The Urban Way of Life – Characteristics and Influences upon Society ....... 102
II.3. The Causes and the Identification of the Urban Crisis .................................. 119
II.3.1. General Aspects of Contemporary Crisis. ...................................... 119
II.3.2. The Spiritual – Moral Crisis of Contemporary Society .................. 131
III. Theological Hermeneutics – a Missionary Priority .................................................... 138
III.1. The Fundamental Principles of Theological Hermeneutics ......................... 140
III.2. Postmodernity and the “Return of the Religious” from a Hermeneutic
Perspective. ........................................................................................................... 143
III.3. Spirituality, Tradition and Orthodoxy from the Perspective of Theological
Hermeneutics......................................................................................................... 151
III.4. The Hermeneutics of Cohesion between Gospel and Culture in the Missionary
Context .................................................................................................................. 156
III.4.1 The Necessity for “Culture Evangelism” ....................................... 156
III.4.2 The Process of Tradition Reception – Inculturation and Acculturation of
the Gospel Message ................................................................................... 162
III.5. The Mission of the Church in the Urban Area ............................................. 169
III.5.1. General Aspects of the Urbane Mission within the Ecumenical
Movement. ................................................................................................. 169
III.5.2. Mutations in the Practical Religious Life in the Urban Environment.
................................................................................................................... 177
III.5.3. Possible Missionary Solutions for the Urban Communities. ........ 182
IV. Missionary Diagnosis “The Socio-Cultural and Religious-Moral Problems of
Contemporary Society” ..................................................................................................... 190
IV.1. The Structure and Content of Feed-Back..................................................... 190
IV.2. The Relevance of Feed-Back Obtained by Questionnaires Compared to the
Present Research ................................................................................................... 210
Conclusions ....................................................................................................................... 217
Annexes............................................................................................................................. 222
Annex 1: The Structure of Questionnaire ............................................................. 222
Annex 2: The Graphs of Questionnaire Respondents ........................................... 226
Annex 3: Problems / Situations Respondents Are Directly Confronted with and the
Answer of the Church: .......................................................................................... 255
Annex 4: Children’s Problems .............................................................................. 280
Annex 5: Teenagers’ and Youngsters’ Problems .................................................. 294
Annex 6: Adults’ Problems ................................................................................... 307
Annex 7: Problems of the Elderly ......................................................................... 322
Annex 8: General Problems of the Present Society .............................................. 331
CV ..................................................................................................................................... 344
General Bibliography. ....................................................................................................... 352

Key words: The Urbanization of Society, Postmodern Phenomenon, Theological
Hermeneutics, Globalization, Urban Mission, Missionary Diagnosis, Contemporan Crisis,
Gospel and Culture.
Summary of the PhD Paper:

1. The religious life of the members of contemporary society has radically changed.
Mutations occurring at all levels of everyday existence require not only structural or
organizational changes in the life of the Church, but also the implementation of new pastoral-
missionary strategies to respond to the perspectives and needs of contemporary man.
One of the most confusing and controversial philosophical, ethical, literary and
aesthetic debate of the late twentieth century emerged around the theme of modernity /
postmodernity. The term postmodernity is a generic term that expresses the identity crisis that
has led to a paradigm shift in traditional thinking and morality, a crisis that has also affected
Theology.
On the one hand, we are witnessing the logo-centrism challenge, of rationality, the
modern rationalist conception decomposition, on the other hand, within in postmodernity, we
are witnessing "a return of the religious", religion being seen as a crucial element in the
emergence of the public sphere and in the organization of the tolerant civil society, but it has
no place in defining personal identity.
From a philosophical point of view, the concept of postmodernity is characterized
primarily by the demarcation of the modern, of the epoch defined by a type of Cartesian
rationalism, by the Enlightenment and materialism.
Around this concept, the real philosophical debate plan is launched in the early 80s,
especially by identifying certain developments in the present Western society, which no
longer subject altogether to the rules of "modernity".
The starting point of postmodern criticism lies, according to Rev. Ion Bria between
the years 1960 - 1970, but is crystallized in the geo-political changes that occurred between
the years 1989 - 1990, caused by the fall of the Soviet Communist regime, by the failure of
totalitarianism and atheism, by the end of the "cold war", the globalization of the economy
and of the means of communication, by the "end of history", and religious pluralism.
At the beginning of the third millennium, human civilization and Christianity itself
are facing a challenge of unprecedented proportions both in size and in implications, such as
globalization or, more accurately, the globalization of all existence, now in progress. "A total
social phenomenon, globalization has no analogy to anything in the past and is a reality that
defies all social and mental paradigms known until now, a giant civilization mutation that
traumatizes companies and intimidates intelligences, manifesting itself through an
increasingly obvious rift, both with hierarchies of values of traditional cultures and with
traditional values of Western modernity, appearing as an unsettling and unclassifiable post-
modernity "( Ioan Ică Jr., „Globalizarea – mutații și provocări”, in Gândirea socială a
Bisericii. Fundamente – documente – analize – perspective, Sibiu: Deisis, 2002, p.481)
This new reality has led to a number of fractures and dislocations considered
irrefutable and irreversible: the alteration of the traditional paradigms, the disassembly of
dogmas, the deconstruction of philosophical systems imposed by logical arguments, the
rejection of metaphysical analogies and of the transcendence of divine authority. This new
state, new condition, postmodernity cannot be analyzed and interpreted with the tools and
research methods used in the past. Postmodernity seeks to suggest new paradigms, but does
not intend to retain a final typology. It cannot be described, therefore, as philosophically and
culturally structured. Postmodern critique would thus fall – Father Ion Bria says – to an
internal questioning of modernity itself, postmodernism being seen more and more as a
powerful configuration of new feelings and thoughts. (according to Bria Ion, Hermeneutica
Teologică. Dinamica ei în interpretarea și înnoirea Tradiției, Sibiu: 1999 pp. 3-13).
Like many contemporaries, David Harvey also interrogates this contemporary
"current". Regarding the significance of this concept, he says, it has only been agreed on the
fact that "postmodernism" is a reaction to, or is the next evolutionary stage of "modernism".
Immediately accepted, and most widespread, the notion of modern derives from its
chronological essence. Adrian Marino claims that everything falling under actuality,
immediate recent, present should be called modern (...). All these approximate meanings
become clear only through their opposition to the idea of antique, classic, old, improper to
the current state. Therefore, hasty assimilation of the idea of modern with the contemporary
cannot be accepted without some essential distinctions: the modern phenomenon is
contemporary, but not any modern phenomenon must be contemporary. Therefore we can be
contemporary with different manifestations: delayed, retrograde, classicizing, with
anachronistic appearances and conservative movements, etc., with a whole range of issues
that can be called anything but "modern". (Adrian Marino, Modern, modernism, modernitate.
București: Editura pentru Literatură Universală, 1969. p. 40).
Morally speaking, the disappearance of the concept of "norm" provides place for the
installation of confusion and disorder, immorality and cynicism, a deep and incurable
anxiety. These are strong decisive reasons for the modern man to consider himself frustrated,
alienated, victim, without the certainty and the possibility of salvation. Thereby the negative
impulse towards revolt, with a very modern term: "challenging". Modern man indulges in
opposition, refusal and contesting.
The idea of "modernity" is treated naturally with the "spirit of time" due to the
dynamic nature of the concept of "modern". This notion evolves based on the history
coordinates. "Every age comes with its own “modern” formula, to be located in time and
space, without any superficial generalizations (...). These steadily becoming realities (...)
make the modern idea to regularly specify its content, not to stiffen, always remaining active,
alive."
In postmodernism there appears the unconditional acceptance of transience,
fragmentation, discontinuity and chaos, which made up half of Baudelaire's conception of
modernity. This acceptance of fragmentation, together with the acceptance of pluralism and
authenticity of "other voices and other worlds," raise the acute problem of communication
and the means for exercising power.
In postmodernism the theory concerning the significance of language and
communication also tends to modify. If modernism assumed the premise that there was a
strong and demonstrable link between what is said – the message / meaning – and the manner
of expression – core / signifier, in postmodernism, all these appear "as destroying it and
reassembling themselves constantly as new constructions". This way, "deconstructionism"
enters the scene "as a powerful stimulus of postmodern manner of thinking." In this sense,
Derrida considers the collage / montage as the primary form of postmodern discourse. Both
consumers and producers of "texts" and "cultural artifacts," as they are called by David
Harvey, get involved in the production of significances and meanings.
Given the existence of these concepts, in postmodernism we cannot define the
individual alienation in the classic sense of the concept, as being alienated requires a
consciousness of the self that is coherent rather than fragmented, to be alienated from.
This reduction of experience to a "series of pure and independent presents" implies
that this experience is overwhelming for postmodern man. The news event, sensationalism of
any kind (political, cultural, scientific) becomes the "matter that conscience is created from."
By using media and multimedia, by cultural producers, there emerged the highlighting and
celebrating of the ephemeral aspects of modern life. (see David Harvey, Condiția
postmodernității pp.59-69.)
Father Professor Ion Bria, spiritually summarizes the effects of cultural evolution that
occurring after the years 1960 - 1970, stressing that "postmodernism is within the process of
modernization, as a transition to a new social and cultural order with different organizing
principles, caused by the recent geopolitical changes, and their consequences: economic
globalization, modernization of communication (internet), ideological chaos and confusion of
moral values. It appears to be the critic / evolution of conventional certainties and paradigms
opf a universalist nature, which means disorder of the philosophical systems and religious
foundations, deployment and destructuralization of traditional institutions, converting
theological concepts (e.g. feminist theology), language and the philosophical and cultural
symbol. "(Ion Bria, Hermeneutica Teologică. pp. 8-12)
In this new cultural context must be considered the present condition of Christianity, a
condition which is – according to Father Ion Bria – defined by some critics as "post-
Christian". Postmodernism attempts to achieve the fragmentation of reasonable consensus,
"the disappearance of constraints implicitly allowed", as well as the denial of institutions,
regardless of their modern or traditional character. Postmodernity is "the crisis of the public
place and of everything that can organize a space of recognition and arbitrations. The
religious is caught in this confusion (diverse decompositions: from religious pluralism to the
return of the esoteric) with their effects on traditional Christian churches: the retreat to self-
centered confessions, a lack of credibility of the central statements, risks of internal sect
appearance. "(Ibidem)
Postmodernity refuses philosophical systems with universalist claims, it refuses
totalitarian ideologies and, on a theological level, it denies the doctrines with universal value,
unique paradigms, ready-made beliefs, language and symbol imposed by a unique core.
Postmodernity "rejects transcendence and the absoluteness of God, as well as the contingency
the neutrality of the world." There is a discontinuity in the divine-human relationship, which
causes "religious pluralism, contextuality, diversity, subjectivity of individual experiences,
individualistic spirituality, popular religiosity, meaning – personal sensibility of faith,
transcendence, ecclesial and social context”, and finally privatization of religion. All these
phenomena question the belief in absolute moral and religious values.
Another feature of postmodernity is "highlighting the various forms of pluralism:
religious, political, cultural; there is even talk about moral pluralism, about a civic religion,
civil society, etc. Some experts in the field of sociology of religion even talk about a new
religiosity, which is characterized as: post-colonial, post-Enlightenment, post-Christian, post-
religious and post-secular. This new religiosity, which corresponds to the individualism of
Western society and is no longer reconciled with the traditional type of religiosity, especially
advantages sects and new religious movements. "( Nicolae Preot Conferențiar Doctor
Moșoiu, Hermeneutica Ortodoxă ca dezvoltare teologică în Tradiție, Sibiu: ASTRA
Museum, 2013, p. 87)
Both the revival of Christian traditions and the reinterpretation of metaphysics are
imposed by postmodernity. Theology's role is to identify religion and the religious, within the
environment where they occur, to recognize the testimony and position of the religious under
its cultural, imaginary, social and symbolic form.
The starting point of contemporary theology must be the social and cultural context in
which religion manifests itself as a historical reality, where can be discerned diverse personal
identities and cultural fragmentations. The mission of the Christian Church, the affirmation of
religion and the religious in various cultures raises the question of the relationship between
religious faith and public ethics, between religion and politics.
In contemporary society, more and more voices are insistently asking the Church to
modernize, keeping up with contemporary culture and science departments, in order to
become more active and to respond to the expectations of secular society. Enlightenment
contributed significantly to the scientific progress, giving rise to modern and prosperous
civilizations, representing targets for many peoples. Culture itself has both positive and
negative aspects, but "from this point to the point in which the Church is asked to modernize,
there is a distance as from earth to heaven, because modernity brought about by the
Enlightenment involves issues that fundamentally contradict God's will, discovered in Christ
and recorded in the Holy Scripture."
Modernity is the one that causes the anthropocentrism. The focus is shifted from God
to man, the latter considering himself independent of God, and the divine will is perceived as
an attack on their freedom. In this anthropocentric design, man has to become accomplished
in an individualist way, without God's help. Contemporary man comes to feel that "the sacred
is the main obstacle to his freedom, and he feels free only to the extent to which he eliminates
the sacred in nature. He will not obey God’s will and the laws that God laid at the foundation
of creation, thinking that all reality may be governed by the laws developed by man. And,
although these laws cause disaster in the spiritual and moral lives of individuals and their
families, as sins against nature, it is important for man to feel free and to forge life,
individually and socially, according to his own of discernment and law. The conscience of sin
is lost and moral conscience is weakened to such an extent that it does not distinguish
between right and wrong, sensuality, aggression, hatred and violence making increasingly
more space in the life of contemporary man.
Modernity is responsible for implementing an unnatural separation between the public
and private sectors, manifested in "the tendency to eliminate religion from social life and
transform society into an area reserved especially to economic concerns. These concerns lead
man to forget about the spiritual values, which rose him to the likeness of God, forcing him to
embark on a desperate search for material goods of this world that will never be plentiful for
human lust after eternity. "(Dumitru Popescu, „Omul fără rădăcini.”, in Știință și teologie:
preliminarii pentru dialog., București: XXI: Eonul Dogmatic, 2001 p.291).
In every age, the new generations of theologians have the duty to reassume the living
sources of faith within the ecclesial tradition, contributing – through the process of reception
and then the inculturation of the Gospel message – to the dynamic manifestation of the
Christian Tradition.
Globalization is a complex phenomenon, defining and characteristic of
postmodernism, a phenomenon that manifests itself in different areas of life. Although it is
often associated with the economy, globalization is not a purely economic phenomenon, but
extends to all levels of human life. Globalization has most diverse social consequences, such
as the violence internationalization, the increasing discrepancy between the "multibillionaire"
and the "bankrupt", the exploitation of the weakest and the extermination of the undesirable.
On the environment level, the bad use of the environment is abusive, consistent with "the
strong" following their personal interest, of any nature this may be, detrimental to the interest
for the world.
As a complex phenomenon, globalization can have multiple definitions consistent
with the aspects that illustrate this paradigm. It is noted, however, that the dominant theme of
this paradigm is the "dynamics as the spirit of the world." This dynamics is perceptible in its
very contradiction between the irrefutable effects of globalization. Thus, the dynamics
individualizes and centralizes simultaneously, crucially undermining the sense of belonging
to the "national communities" and "state sovereignty" and centralizes power in 'transnational
economic organizations ". (according to Ioan Ică Jr., „Globalizarea – mutații și provocări”, p.
482)
The postmodern phenomenon of urbanization is seen increasingly as a consequence of
globalization. "The adventures of comprehensive city planning", along with the trend of
fragmentation of contemporary architecture and "exclusive design" are analyzed by Zigmunt
Bauman in terms of stages "of modern warfare to conquer the right to define and apply the
space the sense of common space." As a consequence of these globalization-related
phenomena, there appears the "bifurcation and polarization of human experience, in which
the common cultural signs facilitate two distinct interpretations." All these interpretations are
put in relation to mobility. Thus, the phrase "being in motion" has different meanings
depending on how it is applied to those at the top or at the bottom of the new global
hierarchy. In these circumstances, the new middle class is leading "the brunt of the uprising"
which suffers from anxiety, fear and existential uncertainty. (Zygmunt Bauman,
Globarizarea și efectele ei sociale, Prahova: Antet. pp.33-100.)
The "total social phenomenon" – globalization is an unprecedented reality that "defies
all social and mental paradigms known to date, a giant civilization mutation that traumatizes
societies and intimidates intelligences, manifesting itself through an increasingly obvious rift
in hierarchies of values of traditional cultures and in the values of "classical" Western
modernity compared to which it appears as disturbing and inaccessible post-modernity."
Globalization thus tends to become the agent of the "end of history "and the "tilting human
civilization by creating the "last man: the “global man" pure homo economicus – the
atomized man who lives just for production and consumption – devoid of culture, politics,
sense, conscience, religion and any transcendence."
The post-communist period is increasingly revealed as "post-Christian" or even "post-
humanism". During this period, "there emerges a ‘recreated’ man, perfectly secular, while
also devoid of any transcendence ("heaven") and uprooted from his natural and cultural
identity ("earth"), reduced to the production and consumption flows, caught between
instincts, techno-economic manipulation and mass-media and virtual universes hypnosis."
The concerns of man recreated as such are entirely metamorphosed compared to
traditional human concerns. Thus, in contemporary human life, consumerism replaces
thought and prayer. The fate of traditions and religions in the modern globalized world is
significant. Today we are witnessing a new reality of the religious, where "popular traditions
become subject for ethnocentric essayist speculation or folklore, or object of ethnographic
science, or commodity and spectacle, degrading in the form of handicrafts, folk tourism or
folk shows destined for private consumption or a community that sees in them a guarantee of
its ethno-historical consensus."
Globalized world religions collapse, becoming more or less collective cults or
feelings, dissolve into "integrated collectivist-fundamentalist folding or individual nebulae,
esoteric mystical, magical or therapeutic." Under the effect of globalization, Western
societies go through a “nihilistic mutation of the religious characterized by the emergence of
the "religions without God.” (Ioan Ică Jr. art.cit., p.489)
In this context, the place of the Orthodox Church is again uncertain. The Church
cannot save its members expelling them from the world, but together with the world, which
Christians are called to populate and enlighten with the breath of faith and the light of
Revelation of God’s Love manifested in Jesus Christ and in the Tradition of the Church.
Starting from the assumption that man was created in the Image of God and called to
likeness with God, which is carried out fully in the divine-human person of Jesus, we can say
that in the Christian view, man is called to communion. In this way, one can understand the
human desire for closeness and communion worldwide, with his peers.
Religious syncretism, proposed by New Age, often promoted by Christians, questions
the truth of the human person on a theological level. Through the dissolution, relativization of
Christianity, and by trying to mix it with other religions in contemporary society, all these
religions are perceived and addressed as " means for human psychological adjustment," as
stated by G. Mantzaridis. Simultaneously with this relativism of the person on a religious –
theological level, globalization threatens the truth of the person on the anthropological level,
through this current, in terms of which the world is seen as a " homogenizing material",
where the peculiarities, principles and values are overlooked and replaced with non-value,
while only the "rule of money" matters. The reality of the contemporary world is all about
money; all that is needed by man or even man himself is appreciated and bought with money.
The "financial spirit" has the power to paralyze moral man, making man the "passive
recipient of external developments".
In the reality of the contemporary world, man is in a deadlock which can be overcome
by reference to the Church, within which the truth of the person can be rediscovered and
asserted. The challenge of globalization can be for the church "the strongest motivation for
self-criticism and relocation of the conscience of believers." By its very being, the Church
calls every believer to experience universality. The "universality" proposed by the Church is
founded on the truth of the human person, and "is deeply human, authentic, ecumenical and
perpetual." The Universality of the Church is not limited to the human person but extends to
the whole of creation, and the Person of Jesus Christ – the "Universal person "- extends
beyond creation "towards what is inaccessible and eternal."( Georgios Mantzaridis,
Globalizare și Universalitate: Himeră și Adevăr, București: Bizantină, 2002, pp.9-13)
Approaching in a positive way the aspect of facilitating inter-human relations
achieved by the phenomenon of globalization , to the extent that this process manages to
eliminate ethnic divisions, social, political, national or other arrangements, globalization is
not only accepted but is also entirely necessary. In the Christian view, says G. Mantzaridis,
the division or separation, are characteristic to the condition of the "fallen" man, states that
need to be overcome in order to restore the natural state of mankind.