Chapter Two: Hidden Springs

Wright begins this chapter with a penetrating parable. The parable clearly can be adapted to any era of humanity. I see it, however, as a critique of Modernism and its inadequacies: "The water that people needed would be brought to them by a complex system of pipes" (p.17). It eventually failed us. And now we are dealing with the angry mood of Postmodernism, as evidenced by deconstructionism and liberationist theology.

The springs that so freely expressed themselves, even making life uncomfortable at times, were paved over with concrete so thick, they were "silenced" (Ibid.). This was to mark a better life for the inhabitants, for "the water people needed would be brought to them by a complex system of pipes" (Ibid.).

Then he interprets this parable: We in the Western world are the citizens of that country, the dictator is the philosophy that has shaped our world for the last two or three centuries, and the water is our spirituality, the hidden spring that bubbles with our heart (p.18).

There has always been that hidden spring. Man has always tried to satisfy that groping for spirituality. And every system he has designed has failed.

Life in the premodern world created dissatisfaction. The modern world endeavored to meet the needs of the premodern, but it too faltered even though we have benefited greatly. Then along came the postmodern mindset, attempting to satisfy that groping for spirituality by its relativism.

So spirituality seeks to find escape and comfort from the concrete-thick world of modernism in postmodernism. Wright goes on to point out that globally, man everywhere has had to deal with the stifling of the hidden spring of spirituality by some form of concrete pavement.

But what makes us so thirsty is that voice that we hear. A voice that keeps beckoning us to a life of justice and love. Wright observes, "People who have been starved of water for a long time will drink anything, even if it is polluted" (p.25).

And because we have somehow been starved of water by the modern world, we plunge head first into the upset ocean of postmodernism, attempting to quench our thirst. But I think what we have discovered is not so pleasant. What we have discovered is now the bitter taste of skepticism in one form or the other (pp. 26, 27). By the way, I think the Emergent Community is a fitting example of this skepticism.
TC