'Why?': Contested Concepts of Ultimacy In

Generation ‘Why?’: Contested Concepts of Ultimacy in Contemporary Western European Culture Pieter Cammeraat, BA (Hons.) Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for an MA in Religious Studies at the Department of Humanities and Languages, College of Tourism and Arts, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology Supervisor of Research Barry McMillan, STL Supervision Mentor Dr Pauline Logue Collins I, hereby, declare that this is my own work. …………………………………………………………….. Submitted to the Higher Education and Training Awards Council 2012 Table of Contents Acknowledgements i Abstract ii Introduction 3 0.1 Introduction 4 0.2 Background of Author 5 0.3 Culture 5 0.4 Contemporary Western European Culture 6 0.5 Image, Imagination, and Ultimacy 8 0.6 Contrasting ‘Languages’ 10 0.7 The Foundations of the Christian Weltanschauung: Grace and Revelation 11 Chapter One: Critiquing Contemporary Western European Culture 13 1.1 Introduction 14 1.2 Culture 14 1.3 Communicated Meanings 18 1.4 Contemporary Western European Culture 22 1.5 The Generation Title 24 1.6 The Connected World 26 1.7 Tools for Communication 30 1.7.1 Television 30 1.7.2 Constructionism and Television 33 1.7.3 The Internet 36 1.8 Advertising Transcendence 41 1.9 Conclusion 50 Chapter Two: Questions of Meaning and Ultimacy 53 2.1 Introduction 54 2.2 ‘Language’ and the Cultural Universe 55 2.3 ‘Language’ and Consciousness 56 2.4 The Potency of Imagery 60 2.5 ‘Language’ and Concepts of Reality 64 2.6 Reality and Ideology 67 2.7 Lived Experience and the Formation of Imagination 73 2.8 Imagination, Faith, and Ultimacy 76 2.8.1 Ultimacy in Contemporary Western European Culture 81 2.9 Conclusion 85 Chapter Three: Image, Imagination, and the Imaginable 89 3.1 Introduction 90 3.2 Lived Experience in the World 92 1 3.3 Transcendent Being 94 3.4 Questioning and Transcendence 95 3.5 Existentialism and Responsibility 97 3.6 Grace 100 3.6.1 Revelation: The Disclosure of Mystery 103 3.6.2 The Religious Imagination 108 3.7 Logos and Mythos ‘Language’ 110 3.7.1 Mythos and the Christian Counter-Narrative 112 3.7.2 The Unknown 114 3.7.3 Myth and Meaning 115 3.7.4 Master-Metaphors and Grand Narrative 119 3.7.5 Myth as Model for Lived Experience 120 3.8 Critiquing Contemporary Western European Culture and logos 124 3.8.1 Christian Counter-Narrative 124 3.8.2 The Need for Balance 125 3.9 Conclusion 127 Conclusion 129 4.1 Concepts of Ultimacy and the Quest for Meaning 130 4.2 Ultimacy and Existential Responsibility 133 Bibliography 135 2 Introduction 3 0.1 Introduction The thesis has two aims: the first is to provide the reader with an understanding of the prevailing ‘horizons of meaning’ within contemporary Western European culture, and the second is to determine the contribution of the Christian Weltanschauung1 in this context. The thesis seeks to achieve these aims, through identifying, exploring and critiquing those aspects, such as mass-media, which shape perceptions, influence values, and form ‘horizons of meaning.’ The driving impetus of the thesis stems from the contention, that contemporary, mass-media-infused, image-saturated, contemporary Western European culture is undergoing a debilitating contraction of its ‘horizon of meaning.’ This truncation is particularly perceptible in the proliferation of consumerism, whereby commodities are made to carry significant meanings for a culture. The term ‘horizon’ comes from Hans-Georg Gadamer, who proposes that, “[T]he horizon is the range of vision that includes everything that can be seen from a particular vantage point.”2 When applied to the thinking mind, he continues, “we speak of narrowness of horizon, of the possible expansion of horizon, of the opening up of new horizons.”3 The thesis seeks to provide a basis on which to achieve such expansion of ‘horizons,’ by presenting access to, and comprehension of, a transcendent counter- narrative. The Christian Weltanschauung is part of a theo-cultural response which draws on philosophies of language and theologies of grace, revelation and incarnation in order to advance a basis for a (re-)expansion of available ‘horizons of meaning’ and an articulation of transcendent counter-narrative. For the thesis to achieve such aims, multiple disciplines, including psychology, philosophy, theology, anthropology, cultural analysis, semiology, linguistics, epistemology, and ontology will be explored. The following chapters will identify, develop and employ a classic dialectical approach, forged from positions and counter-positions found in a diverse range of theorists centring on themes such as, narrative and counter-narrative, true transcendence and quasi- transcendence, the Christian Weltanschauung and the prevailing trends of predominantly secular, media-saturated, contemporary Western European culture. The thesis seeks to contribute to a larger discussion circulating around questions of mass-media, culture, and (ultimate) meaning. The treatment of significant ideas are ‘nested’ through the thesis, thus, key ideas introduced in chapter 1 Weltanschauung, literally, means worldview. The thesis uses this German term since it communicates a richer, deeper meaning than its English-language equivalent. A Weltanschauung encompasses an entire way of being in the world - all ideas, values, and knowledge that shape the human perspective of lived experience in the world. 2 Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, trans. Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall (London: Continuum, 2004), 301. 3 Gadamer, Truth and Method, 301. 4 one are expanded upon in chapter two, as corollary ideas are introduced and discussed, with further nuances, similarly being drawn out and developed in chapter three. 0.2 Background of Author It is in personal experience that initial basic questioning of culture, language, and religion began. This provided a foundation which led to the form of the thesis, and sets in place a basis for understanding its motivation. The sensitivity to culture and shifting cultural influences, and the interest in its themes, derives from my own inter-cultural and inter-denominational experiences. I am of Dutch nationality, but have lived in New Zealand, Austria and Ireland. My religious heritage is rooted in shared Calvinist/Roman Catholic perspectives which, in the thesis, at times generates a creative friction. My worldview has further been shaped through education, such as attending a boarding school, which had a significant proportion of international students. The interaction with various languages and worldviews raised questions of communication, and different understandings of the world. The relationship between language and worldview becomes a focal point, explored and critiqued in the following chapters. The thesis specifically focuses on the cultural environment of ‘Generation Y.’4 By virtue of the year of my birth, I am also a member of this generation, having experienced coming to adulthood in the era of mass-media influence and high technologisation. The basic premise of the thesis stems from the experience of contrasting messages communicated by the mass-media, and countered by a Christian worldview. In pursuing an undergraduate course in theology, these early experiences were given context within broader theoretical frameworks, which the thesis seeks to advance. The Weltanschauung instilled by my religious upbringing has, to some extent, provided a model by which to approach the world portrayed by the mass-media. Interesting questions arise, with regard to the dominating cultural narratives, and the form and content that a counter-narrative might have. 0.3 Culture The key concept, which underpins and informs the interpretative functioning of the research is the ambiguous omnipresence of culture, which is pivotal in influencing and forming human being. Thus, culture offers an entry-point for analytic exploration, since culture – as potentially radically enabling or debilitating, and expansive or restrictive of human perceptions of meaning, purpose and 4 ‘Generation Y’ designates those born from the 1980s onwards. 5 transcendence – is fundamentally pliant and malleable. Identifying the shapers of culture and critiquing the shaping are significant aspects of the overall task of the thesis. The thesis explores and critiques contemporary Western European culture in relation to the significant cultural shifts ushered in by technological developments, and the preoccupation with the acquisition of consumer goods, which hold and convey significance. In forming its understanding the thesis will draw on key authors such as Clifford Geertz, Raymond Williams, and Stuart Hall, amongst others. These authors will provide a framework on which the thesis can develop an understanding of contemporary Western European culture. Clifford Geertz, describes culture as being, “webs of significance.”5 This proposition is expanded by Stuart Hall, who states, “culture is concerned with the production and exchange of meanings - the giving and taking of meaning - between members of a society or group.”6 Additionally, Michael Paul Gallagher describes culture as being a, “set of meanings and values informing a common way of life.”7 These meaning-structures have a significant impact on the human, in particular for shaping lived experience in the world. The thesis, therefore, raises questions relating to the effects of cultural shifts, such as the development of an image-suffused, technologised, media-ised, consumer culture. The cultural meaning-structures are communicated through language, since it is, “the privileged medium in

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