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Reality Isn't What It Used To Be: Theatrical Politics, Ready-to-Wear Religion, Global Myths, Primitive Chic, and Other Wonders of the Postmodern WorldIf there is anything we have plenty of in the postmodern world, it is belief systems. But we also have something else: a growing suspicion that all belief systems -- all ideas about human reality -- are social constructions. This is a story about stories, a belief about belief, and in time -- probably a very short time -- it will become a central part of the worldview of most people.
--James MacGregor Burns "Anderson's lucid, accessible and often very funny book is the first to demystify the postmodern idea of socially constructed reality. It enters like a breath of fresh air into ordinarily tedious territory." --Maureen O'Hara "Refreshing insight, wisdom, and grace. . . . Startling implications." --Utne Reader "I know of no contemporary writer who has such a penetrating view of the new world into which we are moving. This book proposes the guidelines we most assuredly need." --Rollo May "Few people write incisively about profound issues with with that sparkles like Walt Anderson's." --Huston Smith |
Contents Part One: The Collapse of Belief 1. Welcome to the Postmodern World 2. To See the Wizard Part Two: Postmodern Visions 3. Science and the Creative Brain 4. The Meanings of Literature Part Three: The Theater of Reality 5. Making Beliefs and Making Believe 6. Being Someone: The Construction of Personal Reality 7. Democracy's Dilemma Part Four: Faith and Freedom 8. The Magic Bazaar 9. The Two Faces of God Part Five: Worldview 10. All the World's a Stage 11. The Emergent Fiction |
