A Yearning For The Hearth

Early on, back when I was at the University of Saskatchewan I began to think about the state of the Social Sciences. It seemed as though the Social Sciences were an attempt to organize and study human behaviour using the same rules and philosophy that governed the Natural Sciences…and which had (at least up till that point) provided such stunning success in describing and predicting natural phenomenon. Yet this attempt seems to have failed. Sociology, psychology, political science (and others) do not render meaningful accounts of the human experience. They are adept at describing phenomenon, but lack the power to produce satisfying explanations.

This has had several effects. One is the profusion of Social Sciences that have been invented (check a few big university websites; there is a discipline and a degree for almost every facet of the human experience). Another is a diminishment of the arts. Truth is now found in studies and statistics. Art, like beauty is ‘in the eye of the beholder’ and can’t be relied upon to say anything meaningful. It was not always thus; not that long ago social theory was demonstrated in great novels like those of Tolstoy, Henry James, even Jane Austen. Theology was expressed in a painting. An interesting phenomenon I found while studying literature was the attempt to look at literature in the terms of the social sciences: Hamlet suffered from such and such a neurosis, Lady Macbeth from such and such paranoia. I personally think Hamlet and Macbeth provide a much better account of who those characters were than plugging them into some generalized category.  

I’m  finding that those on what seems to be next wave of theology have strong opinions on these issues. Alasdair MacIntyre has an extraordinary understanding of the Social Sciences but notes their ‘lack of predictive power’ and narrow focus. As I understand them, John Milbank and those in the Radical Orthodoxy movement go much further, believing that the modern Social Sciences in their un-theological, modernist assumptions are floundering hopelessly and that they have bought into the false and violent narrative of modernity and need to replaced by a new understanding firmly rooted in a Trinitarian/Christological theology.

What is the future and proper place of the Social Sciences?  

I’m writing this in my second week in Grand Rapids, MI. My wife and I are here for one semester, and then we’re off to Dublin, Ireland for about two years. She’s a mathematician, and I’m an aspiring theologian, and all our plans are, of course, subject to the fates.

It’s my first time living outside of Canada. So far, the city seems like a great place to live. I’m an alien in a foreign land, but it’s not such a foreign one, really.   There are some differences though. The most obvious seems to be the number and variety of restaurants. I’m only a short distance from Canada, but I’ve never heard of most of the restaurants that are here, and they’re obviously well established chains. Not a lot of independent restaurants/stores here at all actually. I think corporate is the name of the game.

There are other differences I’ve noticed as well. Grand Rapids is super-Christian, and this contrasts sharply with most of Canada. I guess it’s a bit like a huge Steinbach Manitoba, although it’s not nearly as strait-laced, which suits me fine actually. The analogy works for Calvin College as well I suppose, a much larger and less conservative Providence College.

Calvin however is much better integrated into the milieu of greater American culture than any Christian institution in Canada. It offers degrees in Engineering and Nursing and these degrees are recognized by other schools and the governing bodies of these professions. Compare that to the experience of Canadians trying to get credit for their courses from Christian colleges.

On the whole the people of Grand Rapids have been very good to us, and though this stint in Grand Rapids will only be for four months, I think it will serve to endear the place to us, and make leaving Dublin a little easier.