Overcoming Cynicism

Scholars, public figures, and prominent theologians alike clamor to diagnose our age as cynical. Combating the notion of a "healthy" cynicism, A Crisis of Relations demonstrates that the cynic engages not in genuine critique, but rather in a denial of the possibility of fruitful change. Mustain first uses two historical versions of cynicism - ancient Greek and Victorian - to describe competing currents within the cynical attitude. She brings this historical discussion to bear upon two contemporary sources of cynicism: Christian fundamentalism and scientism. Christian fundamentalism, with its location of possibilities in an otherworldly realm, pronounces worldly amelioration impossible, and scientism's reduction of all phenomena to their most basic material components renders worldly change at once inevitable and meaningless. Mustain offers an alternative path which seeks to confront the real problems we encounter in our experiences of relations without either explaining those problems away or making them fundamental. In so doing, she suggests ways of possible amelioration whereby we might unseat the cynicism that dominates our age, supplanting it instead with genuine relational engagement.