New Directions in the Pomo Matrix

A lot of folks have been blogging ab Phil DePedal's new pomoChristian tome. I first heard DePedal at one of the New Mexico breakouts a couple of years ago (the one where Brian McLaren and Todd Hunter did the plenaries).

Though emerging folks don't invoke postmodernism as much as they did, say, 3 years ago, DePedal is nevertheless a genius at teasing out the implications of how the modern, tepid, two-dimensional, hyperstructuralized - even Cartesian - approach to service prolegomena is wholly inadequate in the emerging context. Though his words border at times - at least to the sensitive reader - on the bitter as he explores how "the lineguards" impose a nearly Foucaultesque oppression on those who enter their sphere (and DePedal's extended metaphor must be followed carefully to understand his real meaning), the diligent (and - at times - thick-skinned) reader will find her spade work well worth the effort.

The final chapter borders on the poetic as DePedal paints a compelling and beautiful picture of Rortian unity as "seekers of space" team and partner in ever emerging interdependencies to determine what he calls "randomly optimal configurations."

James Doyle's wide reading in this thoughtspace and his obvious intimate knowledge of DePedal's entire corpus distinquish him as an enthusiastic aficionado and incisive commentator. His latest thoughts on DePedal's latest work are well worth careful consideration.