Postmoderns are Pre-Modern

In the middle of the last chapter of the Confessions, Book V, I came across this line as Augustine (354-430 AD) is describing his struggle committing to or leaving the Manicheans: "the method of the Academics—doubting everything and fluctuating between all the options" (V.14:25). [If you want to read the quote in context, click the title above.]

The intelligencia of his day both doubted everything and were a shifting shadow "between all options." Hmm.... Doubting everything...? Waffling among all points of view...? These pre-moderns sound awfully, um, post-modern. Maybe postmodernism isn't all that "post" after all.

What do you think? Leave a comment.