By: Dr. Michael O'Neill on October 27, 2023
Traffic is probable on a commute that I make each week, both ways. My two ridiculous-looking dogs (see below) and I leave consistently on Tuesdays in the evening, just as rush hour is in full throttle. I add to the congestion the next morning right on cue with thousands of other metro-Detroit, Ann Arbor, and…
By: Jana Dluehosh on October 27, 2023
Strange title huh. I want to start by saying, as I have heard by some of you say and I quote “this is hard”. Yep, it is! I have to be honest, I am struggling trying to find interest in the topics this semester. I’m struggling hard, and I am also struggling with my NPO…
By: Alana Hayes on October 27, 2023
Explaining Postmodernism: What is he talking about anyway? In his book “Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault,” author Stephen R. C. Hicks explores the philosophy of postmodernism and its effects on politics, cultural practices, and individual lives. His book takes a dive into the history, major figures, and contemporary ramifications of postmodernism.…
By: Chad McSwain on October 27, 2023
It is the moment that I can’t stop thinking about. It occurred during my ordination interviews in the dreaded Theology Room. I had written about the temptations of Jesus and offered an interpretation of Jesus struggling with self-reliance, power, and self-preservation. The critique came: “Being middle-class, would you read this story differently if you were…
By: Caleb Lu on October 27, 2023
There was a general hush over the room as our ultrasound technician took measurements for our first “growth scan”. The chipper answering of questions became a more muted “we’ll have to wait for the doctor to answer that”. We would discover in the following hour that the baby’s abdominal circumference was measuring small, an indicator…
By: Dinka Utomo on October 27, 2023
“Poverty was nature surviving in society; that the limitedness of food and the unlimitedness of men had come to an issue just when the promise of boundless increase of wealth burst in upon us made the irony only the more bitter.” -Karl Polanyi- On every occasion when I contemplate international travel, my preparations include…
By: Shonell Dillon on October 26, 2023
French lawyer, politician, and famous gastronome, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin became famous for the words‘‘Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es’’. These words were equivalent to what we now mimic when we say “you are what you eat” (‘Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are’).…
By: Jenny Dooley on October 26, 2023
The books assigned in recent weeks are difficult. I am not understanding every concept, nor reading them in their entirety. However, I am being challenged and hopefully changed by authors I never would have discovered on my own. I am noticing connections and pondering many questions with little time to answer them. My questions currently…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on October 26, 2023
My Mom’s eightieth birthday is this weekend. It will be the first time our extended family has been together since Christmas 2019, due to significant rifts that developed over Covid and political and cultural tensions. My family “derailed.”[1] Our postmodern climate, under pressure, created the perfect storm for a family clash between experience, reason, and…
By: Todd E Henley on October 26, 2023
All societies face the economic task of producing and providing for all members of society. Modern market societies are unique in assigning this responsibility to the marketplace, thereby creating entitlements to production for those with wealth, and depriving the poor of entitlement to food. All traditional societies have used non-market mechanisms based on cooperation and…
By: Esther Edwards on October 26, 2023
The Great Transformation, written by Karl Polanyi, “concentrated on the development of the market economy in the 19th century, with Polanyi presenting his belief that this form of economy was so socially divisive that it had no long-term future.”[1] His opening statement affirms this as he states “Nineteenth-century civilization has collapsed.”[2] This declaration of doom…
By: Russell Chun on October 26, 2023
Kapitalizmus – vadló futás, Capitalism – wild horse running – Hungarian Part 1 – What Polanyi says… Part 2 – What Clarks says…and a current Capitalist Part 3 – What my peers say… Part 4 – What Russ learned.. Part 1 – What Polanyi says… Apparently, I have become an audio learner. Perhaps because…
By: Adam Harris on October 26, 2023
I’ve been in full time ministry most of my vocational life, but while getting my master’s degree I took a detour into the business world for a few years. While working as a fitness trainer, a sales manager position opened that sold fitness training packages for a national gym chain. I was hesitant at first,…
By: Tonette Kellett on October 26, 2023
Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault by Stephen Hicks, to be honest, was a difficult book for me to read this week. It was long, and the print was tiny, and the topic was not one of my favorites to read about, to be perfectly frank. [1] To help me along the…
By: Mathieu Yuill on October 26, 2023
I live near Lake Ontario, about 350 metres (or 400 yards). Almost 30 kilometres north (or 19 miles), my colleague lives in Stouffville and her backyard borders the southern side of what is called The Greenbelt[1], a vast expanse of protected land around Lake Ontario. When visiting her one day and looking over the fence…
By: David Beavis on October 26, 2023
When you are in the boarding line behind your new transgender Icelandic witch friend waiting to board the plane, the conversation is far from boring. My wife and I were leaving Iceland after a vacation. As we were in line, we struck up a conversation with the person in front of us. Conversation with them[1]…
By: Sara Taylor Lattimore on October 26, 2023
Postmodernism and the history of thought could seem like a distant discussion from leadership, a more critical look is a reminder that our history and our development of identity and thought play a role in many parts of society including leadership. Questions As I picked up this book by Hicks, Explaining Postmodernism, I thought to…
By: Pam Lau on October 26, 2023
“The Gospel itself is a disembedding from social and collective memberships into a new social reality.”[1] Before identifying the central theme from Karl Polanyi’s paradigm of exchange, The Great Transformation, I found it helpful to remember and recall the story of Ruth from the Old Testament to offer a framework for how I understand Weber’s,[2] Polanyi’s[3] and…
By: Kally Elliott on October 26, 2023
Next Friday the Presbytery of the Cascades will vote to give one of our church properties to the Future Generations Collaborative, a coalition of non-profits representing many Native American communities. As I understand it, they will turn the church property into a village of sorts for single native American mothers and their children. It will…
By: Kristy Newport on October 25, 2023
Steven Hicks in Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault, takes his readers on a philosophical journey. The following is a conclusion the author makes about postmodernism: In postmodernism we find metaphysical antirealism, epistemological subjectivity, the placing of feeling at the root of all value issues, the consequent relativism of both knowledge and…
