The Sensus Communis, Synesthesia, and the Soul: An Odyssey Paperback – September 30, 2015

This is the "distilled" essence of the work of Eric and his father Marshall McLuhan. It is a brilliant essay on the *effects* of electric media -- telegraph, radio, film, television -- on our lives. His father called it "Angelism" and he correctly identifies it as "discarnation" -- pointing to the resulting problems we have in grasping the fundamental importance of the Incarnation. These electric technologies have *caused* the chaotic world in which we live and this book goes a long way towards presenting the theological basis of a Catholic understanding of media . . . !!

When it first came out, I was glad to see another book by Eric McLuhan since I have usually found all he and his father’s books on media related topics quite useful (see my reviews such as of their  Theories of Communication ). However, due to its religious overtones, I originally had misgivings and shied away from getting this recent McLuhan book and reading it right away as was my custom.For some reason, I looked at the book again (thank goodness for the ability to sample books in Amazon), I saw McLuhan’s reference to de Lubac’s work on the 4 levels of exegesis. Since I had recently read Ong’s  Language as Hermeneutic: A Primer on the Word and Digitization  as his work on interpretation pertains to big data and databases as well as D. W. Robertson’s  Essays in Medieval Culture (Princeton Legacy Library)  which also refers to exegetic interpretation (see my reviews) I was ready to give it a chance.Getting into the book, I found my misgivings were allayed and I found the text more useful than I had expected as an aid in interpreting new media.More specifically, McLuhan begins in his “Foreword is Forewarned” observing the similarities between the first “media war” waged by Plato and our times affected by new media emanating from information technologies. He indicates that this situation has implications for the Catholic Church and its sacraments. The author seeks to address these matters through exploring how to counteract the destabilizing effect of the new media on the “sensus communis” (or common sense) by incorporating all the senses in uniting “body, mind, and spirit” (or so summarized by me in an oversimplified manner).McLuhan proceeds in his exploration (or ‘odyssey’ as he calls it) through four chapters, eight appendices, footnotes, and a bibliography. Namely, in the chapters: (1) Faith, (2) Synesthesia, (3) Becoming Discarnate, and (4) Religion, he treats of the need for more than just reasoning to apprehend the human condition, the balance of the senses upset through the disembodiment of the new media, and the role arts (or the Church) can play in righting this balance. The appendices: (1) Aristotle’s Media War, (2) Communication Arts in the Ancient World, (3) Paradoxes of the Mass Audience, (4) Literacies, (5) Effects of the Discarnate, (6) The Blindfold Exercise, (7) A Catholic Theory of Communication, (8) The Future of Humanity, Etc. provide additional detail on topics that are addressed in the chapters.Following from my interests, my favorite parts included McLuhan’s explanation of the four levels of exegesis and their application as we seek to interpret or ‘read the book’ of our current environment. His observations on new media effects are most insightful (here he build's on his work in  The Role of Thunder in Finnegans Wake ).As someone more secular, I was uncomfortable with McLuhan’s mind/body duality including his handling of the “soul” and his extensive references to papal encyclicals and writings such as those by then Cardinal Ratzinger (now “retired” Pope Benedict). Substituting “mind” for the “soul” (e.g. see my review of Lisa Feldman Barrett’s  How Emotions Are Made  and glossing over some of the quoted materials helped me read through in a way more palatable for my sensibilities.In any case, I found “Sensus Communis” well worth the effort and a valuable resource in bringing together, integrating and updating the McLuhans’ “understanding media” efforts. One we are fortunate to have as one of the last in this series given Eric McLuhan’s death earlier this year (2018).

Very disappointing, full of academic jargon on a topic of high general interest and importance. Marshall McLuhan was such an effective communicator and so far ahead of his time, that I hoped to learn more about what the medium is doing to people and to society today but this one won't go much further than the halls of academia.