Editor’s Note: The following excerpt comes from the preface of the new book The Postmodern Predicament (Sophia Institute Press).

This is a book for people who find themselves supremely confused by the state of the culture in the West today and want a simple answer to “How did we get here?” And the important follow-up to that question, “What do we do about it?” For those answers, we’ll have to turn to philosophy. ...

Philosophy is literally the “love of wisdom,” and Plato affirmed that it is “wonder” that is the starting point of all philosophy. To the person closed off to the world, arms crossed and mind shut in his or her own echo chamber, wonder has died and jaded cynicism reigns. “Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,” Christ asserted to His followers (Matthew 18:3, NRSVCE), and this gestures not only toward the spiritual gift of faith (trust) but also to a mind open to adventure.

Children, naturally curious, are not afraid to ask questions and wonder at the world, always ready to ask that incessantly wonderful question, Why? It’s a shame that we in the Western world have become so cocooned by comfort that we have ceased to wonder. The urge to explore, experiment, and explode with creativity is so often missing from our youth today. ... Suffice to say that philosophy only makes sense, and will only find importance in your life, if you are able to ask questions with curiosity once again. ...

The ideas we hold have consequences. If we think life has value and truth can be known, we will live as such and our behaviors (and our laws) will reflect that. If we have been told that God doesn’t exist, then we start to live like practical atheists and morality is simply what I make of it. If we are authors of our own reality, then mere biology is a limitation and we will attempt to overrule Mother Nature at every turn. If we believe that we are known and loved by God and have been called to spread the good news of Jesus’ redemptive act of dying in our place for our sins so that we might have new life, we eagerly send missionaries to every continent possible in order to proclaim Christ.

... We are now in this strange wasteland of great material and technological wealth but spiritual impoverishment and philosophical turmoil. We have amassed great comfort but have lost the point of living. To the extent that we continue to deny objective reality and live incoherently with everyone’s “own truth,” we are further running our civilizational ship aground. Unmoored from a deeper sense of meaning and direction, it’s no coincidence that this current generation is suffering from such widespread anxiety and depression.

We are back at the beginning, indeed.

But we are never beyond hope. While many feel rudderless and the temptation to despair is real, the truth can be known and has revealed itself within the person of Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and continues to be at work in the world throughout the ages.We certainly can’t put the postmodern genie back in the bottle. Much as people might want to try to return to the worldviews of the past — of the Founding Fathers’ rationalism or Thomas Aquinas’s scholasticism — sadly, it can’t be done. Others delight in the brave new world that is being constructed by demolishing the old in real time before our eyes — yet many I’ve met can’t articulate what the goal is we’re “progressing” toward.

What is for certain is that we have been called to live in the age where God has placed us, with all its challenges and blessings.

If we are going to proclaim truth to the world, we first have to get to the truth.

Even if the truth seems lost, even if truth has been trampled underfoot, even if it seems truth has been shelled and left for dead in a pile of rubble, truth is still there. And the truth will have the final say. It’s not that there is a new or different truth to be unearthed, but rather that we have been tasked with rediscovering the truth (or learning it for the first time) and allowing it to convict us. When truth takes over, we will be its defenders and proclaimers, even unto death.

This is why Pope St. John Paul II said, “All men and women ... are in some sense philosophers and have their own philosophical conceptions with which they direct their lives.” We have a duty as Christians — as human beings — to philosophize. Really, we’re going to philosophize whether we like it or not. So, why not philosophize well?

We might be philosophically starting “back at the beginning” in many ways, but we’re not starting from scratch. It is the prophetic voices up and down history, who call us to be set apart and remember what is true, who can inspire us to live well today. They call us to love what is true and fight for the people who are caught up in disordered ideas and the wages of sin (which includes all of us).

This book is the fruit of my own philosophical journey and education, my time spent teaching in the classroom and accompanying young people in varied ministerial settings, and my continued desire to understand the ideas that drive the politics and culture of our day. I’ll be drawing from the lives and teachings of various philosophers, giving the “short and sweet” takeaways from some of these very complicated thinkers. I also have an appendix in the back to point to some great books for those who want to go deeper.

Beyond naming the problem and understanding the lay of our land, I’m also concerned with how we navigate a path forward. Not everything that postmodernity has brought us is necessarily to be discarded. Throughout these chapters, I’ll sketch out the ideas that undergird our contemporary situation, note the positives that have emerged alongside the confusion, and in the third section of the book suggest some ideas and solutions for moving forward.

Believe it or not, wheat still grows among the tares. Take heart and know that the God who has allowed us to arrive here is still guiding all things and will bring our work to His desired completion.

Above all, remember to wonder, and be not afraid to ask that delightful question, Why?

Bobby Angel is a Catholic author and speaker. He has more than 20 years of experience in ministry. He and his wife Jackie have co-written numerous books on marriage and the spiritual life and co-host a podcast together.