Scholarly Minds

“Great scholarly minds come in two types. There are system-builders whose minds encompass huge amounts of seemingly disparate information and then pull them into a coherent whole. Then there are those who we will call puzzlers. These men take great systems, break them into scattered sections, and start pointing out the problems with every single part, often from a perspective that few people have thought of and fewer yet can follow.”

F. A. Hayek
Two Types Of Mind
Encounter — September 1975

The Post-modern age is an age of “puzzlers.” I am a puzzler to the puzzlers.

Really though, Hakey’s puzzlers have a great deal in common with his system builders. It really is the case that there is no way the puzzler can take great systems and break them into scattered sections, and point out the problems with every single part unless they are standing on some great system that allows them to critique other great systems. The puzzler can’t be a puzzler from nowhere. Before he can break up the furniture in other worldviews he has to have a superior worldview that he can puzzle from.

This observation is true about post-modernism. Post-modernism fancies itself as puzzlers on steroids and further they insist that all they are doing is puzzling. They insist that there is no such thing as a great system. But this is a clever lie. They couldn’t be the puzzlers they are if they didn’t have a great system they were using as a wrecking ball to destroy other systems. The dirty little secret for the post-modern puzzlers is that their great system is in the affirmation of negation. By insisting that there is no such thing as meta narratives the post-modern puzzlers build a meta-narrative around and dependent upon the meta-narrative that there are no meta-narratives. Their negation of meta-narrative is the affirmation of their meta-narrative.

So by ripping up great systems the post-modern puzzlers clear the playing field for their own great system.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane