Adventures in Missing the Point and Chimps

I've just finished reading Brian McLaren's and Tony Campolo's Adventures in Missing the Point. It is an interesting and quick read through a range of topics. Some of which were more interesting than others. But overall worth the read. In particular it was interesting to read the way in which one of them would write a chapter and the other would offer response to it at the end. It is really good to see these different counterpoints etc. What was most interesting for me though was finding out other stuff to read! McLaren's chapter on Truth used examples from Primatologist, Jane Goodall's book, Reason for Hope. She is pretty well known, but what i found most interesting, which McLaren drew out was that from her objective, rationalist model of scientific observation of primates she made a subjective connection based on love. It wasn't a rejection of modernist objectivism which science is founded upon, but it was an extension of it, there was a breaking of the object/subject divide which McLaren then used to push boundaries of what we understand as Truth (with a capital 'T'). As Goodall says in her interaction and physical contact with David, the chimp, 'We had communicated in a langauge far more ancient than words, a language that we shared with our prehistoric ancestor, a language bridging our two worlds'. After David is killed by poachers, Goodall dedicates her life and work to activism on their behalf, as McLaren discusses, she moves beyond pure scientific objectivism (which never existed anyway) and into a 'story', a 'journey', an 'adventure', a 'passion'. This is something 'postscientific, postobjective. This is love'.

Can't wait to read Goodall's book!