Die dans van die Christen: Die genealogie van tyd en ruimte in ’n postmoderne samelewing

Abstract

The Christian dance: The genealogy of time and space in a postmodern society

The point of departure of this article is the thesis that the understanding of reality is based on the concepts of time and space. In order to communicate the quintessence of postmodernism the concepts of time and space need to be deconstructed. After a brief intermezzo with physics, the article emphasises that the perspectival dimension is not fixed but in flux. Dancing, which expresses movement, is an apt metaphor for conveying the multifaceted character of postmodernism. The Genesis 1 account of creation is read from this perspective and inversely, society is looked at from this Biblical viewpoint in terms of the relationships between God, man and nature. The article concludes with an insight from Jean Baudrillard that simulations are not imitations of reality, but a widespread cultural condition and not an “event” restricted to particular technology.