The crisis of meaning : a Chestertonian response

dc.contributor.authorReyburn, Duncan
dc.contributor.emailduncan.reyburn@up.ac.za
dc.date.accessioned2025-07-02T09:48:13Z
dc.date.available2025-07-02T09:48:13Z
dc.date.issued2025-02
dc.descriptionDATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : No new data were created or analyzed in this study. Data sharing is not applicable to this article.
dc.description.abstractOne of the main cultural achievements of modernity, according to Hartmut Rosa, is that it has nearly perfected “human beings’ ability to establish a certain distance from the world while at the same time bringing it within our manipulative reach”. Although this ‘achievement’ has ensured many remarkable scientific and technological developments, the consequences for culture have been more negative, often taking the form of what is often referred to as the malaise of modernity. Over time, this malaise has intensified to make way for what is now commonly known as the crisis of meaning, which pivots around the erosion of three orders of meaning, named and discussed by John Vervaeke: the nomological order, the narrative order, and the normative order. The work of G. K. Chesterton is consulted, in this article, to grapple with the deeper theological meaning of the modern malaise and the present crisis of meaning. In Chesterton’s work, it is better to interpret any cultural crisis, like the Edwardian cultural crisis he saw first-hand, as well as the current meaning crisis, through theology, and especially in relation to the doctrines of God’s goodness, the goodness of created order, and the doctrine of original sin, narrated as the fall of man. Through this, it becomes possible to better understand and articulate Chesterton’s theological mediation of culture as a more specific aspect of his larger hermeneutical awareness.
dc.description.departmentVisual Arts
dc.description.librarianhj2025
dc.description.sdgSDG-03: Good health and well-being
dc.description.urihttps://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions
dc.identifier.citationReyburn, Duncan. 2025. The Crisis of Meaning: A Chestertonian Response. Religions 16: 280. https://doi.org/10.3390/ rel16030280.
dc.identifier.issn2077-1444 (online)
dc.identifier.other10.3390/ rel16030280
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/103109
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherMDPI
dc.rights© 2025 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
dc.subjectGilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936)
dc.subjectJohn Vervaeke
dc.subjectHermeneutics
dc.subjectModernity
dc.subjectModern culture
dc.subjectAnti-culture
dc.subjectMeaning crisis
dc.titleThe crisis of meaning : a Chestertonian response
dc.typeArticle

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