released 11/7/2025

In this lecture segment from November 2001, Oliver O’Donovan describes the distinctive character of publicity in modernity. Because we have lost faith in our previously shared images that helped create social unity and cohesion, we are drowning in a flood of representations that keep changing. O’Donovan describes the nature of publicity as the force that mediates our communication with one another, creating common interests and then rapidly subsuming them into newer ones. Publicity homogenizes people and events, making them all into types. It leads, O’Donovan says, to social numbness and a crisis of representation. Believers must encourage one another in alertness, patience, and worship as a response to living in and with the real brokenness of society. O’Donovan concludes by reminding his listeners that the Church itself is and must be a representative image of the kingdom of God.

37 minutes

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