We ate at Rumors in Hudson last night and celebrated the publication of our friend Pete Blum’s book, For a Church to Come: Experiments in Postmodern Theory and Anabaptist Thought. Pete teaches sociology at Hillsdale College.
In the book’s second essay, he comments on marriage:
The reality of marriage is built–or better, rebuilt–on the give and take of everyday conversation of husband and wife, with the constructors usually having little or no sense that they are quite literally remaking themselves so that their reality is a shared reality. It is never simply a matter of two individuals realigning their own perspectives to the reality of a new situation. Two distinct biographies–two distinct histories, we might say–must be rewritten. The writing of a present narrative necessitates the rewriting of past narrative.
I can’t imagine how exciting that must be to have a book published.I wish him all the best with it.
I particularly liked this description of the book: “the essays in this book put forth experiments in thought rather than arguments for fixed conclusions”. ..too many of us are in bondage and afraid to ponder and explore other possibilities when it comes to our own personal Theology.
His use of experiments reminds me of the original sense of the word essay as it was coined by Montaigne: an essay is an attempt.
Actually, the postmodern emphasis on difference and otherness, mentioned in Pete’s book, also reminds me of Montaigne.