The Wisdom Pattern: Order, Disorder, Reorder

by Richard Rohr

For postmodernism, on the other hand, everything is relative. (That, of course, is ultimately indefensible, because if everything is relative then that principle is relative too.) Because the contemporary mind has decided that everything is relative instead of relational (a theistic or personalized universe), it forces the individual to manufacture (“make by hand”) his or her own greatness. Perhaps we have confused relative with relational. Relative thinking allows us to dismiss or decrease the energy in everything; relational thinking allows us to increase the energy and kneel in awe before God-in-all-things. I call the first depre-ciators and the second appreciators.