The Sensus Communis, Synesthesia, and the Soul
An Odyssey
Eric McLuhan, new introduction by Luke Burgis
McLuhan takes up his father Marshall's mantle by marrying communications and religion in this journey through the senses.
In this essay of extraordinary scope and depth, Eric McLuhan explores faith as a form of knowing. He does so against the backdrop of preliterate man’s concrete, bodily submersion in the putting on of poetry and drama (the practice of mimesis) and post-literate man’s bodiless submersion in electronic communication, in which sender and receiver are everywhere and nowhere at once. In traversing the Aristotelian and Medieval concept of sensus communis, he examines synesthesia as, in effect, its operating system and charts the modern and contemporary mandate to embrace the discarnate. He washes up on the shore of religion as he uncovers a trinity of knowledge, that is, three kinds of sensus communis—the five physical senses, the four intellectual senses of Scripture (historical, allegorical, tropological, and anagogical), and the three theological senses (faith, hope, and charity)—each of the three complete in itself yet interacting with one another. A fascinating odyssey that will dazzle the senses.
An Odyssey
Eric McLuhan, new introduction by Luke Burgis
McLuhan takes up his father Marshall's mantle by marrying communications and religion in this journey through the senses.
In this essay of extraordinary scope and depth, Eric McLuhan explores faith as a form of knowing. He does so against the backdrop of preliterate man’s concrete, bodily submersion in the putting on of poetry and drama (the practice of mimesis) and post-literate man’s bodiless submersion in electronic communication, in which sender and receiver are everywhere and nowhere at once. In traversing the Aristotelian and Medieval concept of sensus communis, he examines synesthesia as, in effect, its operating system and charts the modern and contemporary mandate to embrace the discarnate. He washes up on the shore of religion as he uncovers a trinity of knowledge, that is, three kinds of sensus communis—the five physical senses, the four intellectual senses of Scripture (historical, allegorical, tropological, and anagogical), and the three theological senses (faith, hope, and charity)—each of the three complete in itself yet interacting with one another. A fascinating odyssey that will dazzle the senses.
An Odyssey
Eric McLuhan, new introduction by Luke Burgis
McLuhan takes up his father Marshall's mantle by marrying communications and religion in this journey through the senses.
In this essay of extraordinary scope and depth, Eric McLuhan explores faith as a form of knowing. He does so against the backdrop of preliterate man’s concrete, bodily submersion in the putting on of poetry and drama (the practice of mimesis) and post-literate man’s bodiless submersion in electronic communication, in which sender and receiver are everywhere and nowhere at once. In traversing the Aristotelian and Medieval concept of sensus communis, he examines synesthesia as, in effect, its operating system and charts the modern and contemporary mandate to embrace the discarnate. He washes up on the shore of religion as he uncovers a trinity of knowledge, that is, three kinds of sensus communis—the five physical senses, the four intellectual senses of Scripture (historical, allegorical, tropological, and anagogical), and the three theological senses (faith, hope, and charity)—each of the three complete in itself yet interacting with one another. A fascinating odyssey that will dazzle the senses.
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Praise for Eric McLuhan's Previous Work
"FIlled with interesting, charming, bewildering, and challenging McLuhanisms."―Choice
"Eric McLuhan's collaborations with his father gives a rich treatment of the tetrads, and one true to the elder's written and cognitive style."―Journal of Communication
"A surprising posthumous gift from Canada's greatest cultural theorist. The collaboration with his son Eric has produced not only the most stimulating intellectual formulations but also the most welcome concessions to the norms of scholarship and argument since The Gutenberg Galaxy and Understanding Media."―Letters in Canada
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Eric McLuhan (1942-2018) was a renowned literary and communications theorist. He is the author of 18 books, including Cynic Satire, The Human Equation series (written with mime artist Wayne Constantineau), and Theories of Communication. He also co-authored essays and books with Marshall McLuhan, including Media and Formal Cause and Laws of Media: The New Science.
Luke Burgis has founded and led multiple companies. He’s currently entrepreneur-in-residence and director of programs at the Ciocca Center for Principled Entrepreneurship at the Catholic University of America, where he also teaches business and develops new education initiatives. He's also the founder and director of Fourth Wall Ventures, an incubator for people and companies that contribute to the formation of a healthy human ecology. He graduated from NYU Stern School of Business and later from a pontifical university in Rome, where he studied theology. He is the author of Wanting and he lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, Claire.
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Publication date: June 17, 2025
ISBN: 9781998336050
eISBN: 9781998336067
Paperback: 160 pages
