the western story: the growth of modernity living at the crossroads chapter 6
TRANSCRIPT
The Western Story:The Growth of Modernity
Living at the Crossroads
Chapter 6
Historical DevelopmentWho named these anyway?
Middle Ages
Renaissance
Enlightenment
What is the hero of the story?
All histories are telling a story according to some ‘hero’
Invitation to participate in the story and place faith in the ‘hero’
Renaissanceso m e th in gb o rn a g a in
E n lig h te n m e n tso m e th in g
b e c o m e s l ig h to f th e w o r ld
Middle Agesso m e th in gsu p p r e s s e d
1400 1750
W h a t? C o n fe s s io n a l h u m a n ism
Development of Modern Worldview
Classical/Pagan
E a r ly M e d ie v a l /S yn th e s is
L a te M e d ie v a l /S y n th e s is
RenaissanceAntithesis
2 0 thc e n tu r y
R e fo rm a t io n S c i e n t if icR e v o lu t io n
E n l ig h te n m e n t In d u s tr ia lR e v o lu t io n
400 1200 1400 1500
1517 1550 1750 1850 1900
A n tith esis
Renaissance: Humanism Born Again (14th-15th c.)
Re-emergence of humanism
Renewed interest in this world
First, [in the modern period] there is a transfer of interest from the eternal and universal to what is changing and specific, concrete--a movement that showed itself practically in carrying over of attention and thought from another world to this, from the supernaturalism characteristic of the Middle Ages to delight in natural science, natural activity, and natural intercourse.
- John Dewey
Renaissance (14th-15th c.)
Re-emergence of humanism
Renewed interest in this world
Human beings are autonomous
Autonomy of humankindThe nature of other creatures, which has been determined, is confined within the bounds prescribed by Us. You, who are confined by no limits, shall determine for yourself your own nature, in accordance with your own free will, in whose hand I have placed you. I have set you at the center of the world, so that from there you may more easily survey whatever is in the world. We have made you neither heavenly nor earthly, neither mortal nor immortal, so that, more freely and more honourably the molder and maker of yourself, you may fashion yourself in whatever form you prefer (Pico della Mirandolla, 1468).
Renaissance (14th-15th c.)
Re-emergence of humanism
Renewed interest in this world
Human beings are autonomous
Non-human world is autonomous
From creation to nature
The world lost its character of ‘creation’ and became ‘nature.’. . . In seeing the world as nature, [the humanist] takes it out of God’s hand and makes it independent (Romano Guardini).
Creation not nature!
The Bible rejects the notion of Greek thought and modern humanistic science that reality is nature, that is, something that has the cause of its own existence in itself, can exist by itself, and exists for itself (Bernard Zylstra).
Renaissance (14th-15th c.)
Re-emergence of humanism
Renewed interest in this world
Human beings are autonomous
Non-human world is autonomous
Human beings orient lives toward mastery of nature
Life oriented toward nature
This ‘clearly entails a spiritual choice as to cultural direction, namely, that man’s destiny is realized primarily in his relation to the natural things of this world and not in relation to his fellowmen. . . . The centrality of the relationship of man with nature, however, is one of the most characteristic features of western culture since the Renaissance. . . . We distinguish ourselves as human beings primarily by the shape we give to this world through human thought and creative ability rather than by the meaning of our lives to other persons’ (Bob Goudzwaard).
Reformation: Salting and Secularizing (16th c.)
Salting: Recovery of Biblical worldview
New emphasis on goodness of creation
New emphasis on goodness of all cultural callings
New emphasis on scope and power of sin
New emphasis on salvation as restoration of all creation
Benefits to West from salting effect of gospel
Christian ethical values, high estimation of reason, a sense of the intelligibility of the world, of the human calling to exercise dominion, of humanity’s intrinsic dignity and inalienable rights, of the moral responsibility of the individual, and of the imperative to care for the helpless and less fortunate, an orientation toward the future and belief in historical progress (Tarnas).
Reformation: Salting and Secularizing (16th c.)
Salting: Recovery of Biblical worldview
Secularizing: Accelerated aspects of modern humanist worldview
Scientific Revolution (16th-17th c)
Christian and humanist vision
Humanist vision to dominate nature
Descartes and Bacon craft modern visionKnowledge is power: Scientific knowledge of world enables humankind to build better worldScientific knowledge of nature’s laws enables humanity to predict how nature would respondThis would give power to controlNature manipulated in a quest for a secular paradiseBasis for knowledge: autonomous rational person and law-governed natureNeed for a new method to get scientific knowledge
Second [aspect of modernity], there is the gradual decay of authority...and a growing belief in the power of individual minds, guided by methods of observation, experiment and reflection, to attain the truths needed for the guidance of life. The operations and results of natural inquiry gained in prestige and power at the expense of principles dictated from high authority.
- John Dewey
Methodological Reason
DescartesMathematical Method
BaconEmpirical Method
NewtonScientific
Method
“Nature and nature’s laws lay hid in night; Godsaid ‘Let Newton be!’ and all was light.” -Alexander Pope
Scientific Revolution (16th-17th c)
Christian and humanist vision
Humanist vision to dominate nature
Triumph of humanist vision—why?Conflict with church
He sets the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved (Ps. 104:5).
O sun, stand still... so the sun stood still (Josh. 10:12f.).
The earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises (Eccl. 1:4f.).
“So it goes now. Whoever wants to be clever must agree with nothing that others esteem. He must do something of his own. This is what that fellow does who wishes to turn the whole of astronomy upside down. . . . I believe the Holy Scriptures, for Joshua commanded the sun to stand still and not the earth.”
-Martin Luther
The Copernican theory undoubtedly contained a challenge for the Catholic theology. But instead of accepting the challenge and reflecting on faith in a new perspective, the Church opted for an easy conservatism, keeping the enemy at bay by means of its anathemas. This failure to accept the challenge of a new world picture was a great loss to the Church and to Christianity.
-Max Wildiers
Scientific Revolution (16th-17th c)
Christian and humanist vision
Humanist vision to dominate nature
Triumph of humanist vision—why?Conflict with church
Religious wars
Triumph of humanist vision
Conversion ofEurope
Success in Newtonian Paradigm ofPhysics
Religious Wars
‘Science unites’
‘Gospel divides’
Paradigm shift in wake of scientific revolution
C h u rc h
E u ro p ea n
S o c ie ty
R ea so n
E u ro p ea n
S o c ie ty
Enlightenment: The Conversion of the West to a New Faith (18th c.)
Modern worldview comes to maturity
Confessional humanism becomes dominant religious vision or culturally formative worldview
Enlightenment faith
Enlightenment faith
Faith in progress
Enlightenment writers “demolished the Heavenly City of Augustine, only to rebuild it with up-to-date materials” (Carl Becker).
Progress is . . .
. . . the dominant motif in Western society (Bob Goudzwaard).
. . . the working faith of our civilization (Christopher Dawson).
In the third place, great store is set upon the idea of progress. The future rather than the past dominates the imagination. The Golden Age lies ahead of us not behind us. Everywhere new possibilities beckon and arouse courage and effort... Man is capable, if he will but exercise the required courage, intelligence and effort, of shaping his own fate. Physical conditions offer no insurmountable barriers.
- John Dewey
Enlightenment faith
Faith in progressParadise images: Secularized vision of biblical story
Augustine’s story recast in humanist terms...
Movement to...
HumanBetter World-freedom-truth-harmony-justice
Effort and Ability
Growing confidence in science and technology
Augustine’s heavenly city becomes humanist paradise of Enlightenment
Enlightenment writers “demolished the Heavenly City of Augustine, only to rebuild it with up-to-date materials” (Carl Becker).
Paradise Images“. . . whatever was the beginning of this world, the end will be glorious and paradisiacal, beyond what our imaginations can now conceive” (Joseph Priestly).
“There will be no more war, no crimes, no administration of justice, as it is called, and no government. Besides this, there will be neither disease, anguish, melancholy, nor resentment. Every man will seek, with ineffable ardour, the good of all” (William Goodwin).
Enlightenment faith
Faith in progressParadise images: Secularized vision of biblical storyProgress identified with economic growth“. . . the greatest happiness possible for us consists in the greatest possible abundance of objects suitable for our enjoyment and in the greatest liberty to profit by them” (Mercier de la Riviere, 1767).
Enlightenment faith
Faith in progress
Propelled by reason and science
“. . . man is capable, guided solely by the light of reason and experience, of perfecting the good life of earth.” (Becker)
...the conviction that man was steadily and inevitably approaching entrance into a better world, that man himself was being progressively improved and perfected through his own efforts, constituted one of the most characteristic, deep- seated, and consequential principles of the modern sensibility. Christianity no longer seemed to be the driving force of the human enterprise. For the robust civilization of the West at the high noon of modernity, it was science and reason, not religion and belief, which propelled that progress. Man’s will, not God’s, was the acknowledged source of the world’s betterment and humanity’s advancing liberation.
-Richard Tarnas
Enlightenment view of reason:
Autonomous: Independent of divine revelation
Instrumental: Employed to predict, control, shape world
Universal: Transcends culture, same for all people
Enlightenment faith
Faith in progress
Propelled by reason and science
Scientific reason translated into technology
Scientific reason translated into societal organization
Progress comes “by the application of reason” to both “technical and social” issues (Plumb).
Rational society
Locke: PoliticsSmith: EconomicsGrotius: LawEducation: “. . . more treatises were written on education during the 18th century than in all the previous centuries combined.” (Perry)
Concept of natural law
Natural laws in economics, politics, society that can be grasped by reason alone
Rooted in Christian idea of creation order
Law divorced from God as law-giver
Enlightenment faith
Faith in progressPropelled by reason and scienceScientific reason translated into technology
“Where can the perfectibility of man stop, armed with geometry and the mechanical arts and chemistry?” (Sébastien Mercier, 1770)
“Technology had indeed become a saving guide . . . It was the dawn of a new world” (Goudzwaard).
From creation order to natural law
There is no longer a divine law-giver whose commands are to be obeyed because they are God’s. Laws are necessary relationships which spring from the nature of things [Montesquieu]. As such they are available for discovery by human reason (Lesslie Newbigin).
EurocentricGlobalizing
AutonomousReason Science Technology
(Non-human)
Rational organization ofsociety (Human)
New world
! Politics! Economics! Education! Society
! Freedom! Material
prosperity! Justice! Truth
Humanism
Diagram of Enlightenment Faith
Enlightenment (18th c.)
Modern worldview comes to maturity
Rationalistic humanism: dominant religious vision or culturally formative worldview
Enlightenment faith
Clash with the Christian faith
Narrowing of gospel
“The early Christian belief that the Fall and Redemption pertained not just to man but to the entire cosmos, a doctrine already fading after the Reformation, now disappeared altogether; the process of salvation, if it had any meaning at all, pertained solely to the personal relation between God and man” (Tarnas).
Fact-Value Dichotomy
TruthClaims
OpinionsValuesPrivateBelieve
TruthFactsPublicKnow
Age of Revolution: Bringing Society into Conformity with Enlightenment Faith (19th – 20th c.)
A new faith: “The West had lost its faith in God— and found a new one, in science and in man.” (Tarnas).A new society: If the Enlightenment faith is true then “the establishment of new social institutions is not a tedious, incidental task, but a dire necessity and a high ethical imperative. In that case, the narrow way to the lost paradise can only be the way of social revolution.” (Goudzwaard)
Revolutions in wake of Enlightenment
French revolution
Industrial revolution
American revolution
Democratic revolutions
Marxist revolution
Industrial Revolution (19th c.)
Age of revolution: Bringing society into conformity with Enlightenment faith
Union of science and Technology: Demonstrates science’s practical value
In the fourth place, the patient and experimental study of nature, bearing fruit in inventions which control nature and subdue her forces to social uses, is the method by which progress is made. Knowledge is power...
- John Dewey
The marriage between science and technology ...may mark the greatest event in human history since the invention of agriculture, and perhaps in nonhuman terrestrial history as well..Somewhat over a century ago science and technology--hitherto quite separate activities--joined to give mankind powers which, to judge by many of the ecologic effects, are out of control.
- Lynn White
Industrial Revolution (19th c.)
Demonstrates science’s practical value
Technology spawns economic growth
Dramatic Rise in Productivity
Productivity
Mechanization
Specialization“Scientific and rational methods altered production.Economic activity became increasingly specialized. . . .Machines . . . replaced or supplemented manual labour.”
Dramatic Economic Growth
In the period from 1840 to 1900:
Britain industrialized and Gross National Product per capita increased from $300 to over $900.
Portugal did not industrialize and the GNP per capita moved from $250 to $260.
Industrial Revolution (19th c.)
Demonstrates science’s practical value
Technology spawns economic growth
Reshapes all aspects of social life
Suffering and ideology: Confidence in progress
French RevolutionLiberty, equality, fraternity
Abolish remnants of antiquated Christendom: divine right of kings, privilege of nobility, and authority of church
Replace with inalienable rights of the individual citizen, the subordination of church to state, a constitutional government, administrative and judicial reforms, business legislation, and universal public education.
Modern State
Transformed into modern state
Founded on confessional humanism
Living off the capital of the gospel
“In the modern world, the state is the single most powerful institutional force in the international community, and probably the most successful institutional carrier of the modernization process.” (Andrew Walker)
Suffering and Ideology
Suffering as result of revolutions
Progress doctrine threatened
Ideology shores up confidence in progress
19th Century Ideologies
Marxism Progress by revolutionCentered in Soviet Union
-Communist-Command economy
Liberalism Progress by evolutionCentered in United States
-Democracy-Free enterprise
Legacy of Enlightenment
Egalite Fraternite Liberte
Communism Capitalism
EurocentricGlobalizing
AutonomousReason Science Technology
(Non-human)
Rational organization ofsociety (Human)
New world
! Democracy/ Communism! Free enterprise/ Command economy/
! Materialprosperity
! Justice! Truth! Happiness! Freedom
OR! Equality
Humanism
Western Confession of Faith
I believe in Science Almighty. I believe in the power of human reason disciplined by the scientific method to understand, control, and change our world.
I believe in Technology and a Rational Society, its only begotten Sons which have the power to renew our world.
I believe in the spirit of Progress. I believe that a science based technology and a rationally organized society will enable me to realize my ultimate human goal-- freedom, happiness, and the comforts of material abundance.
I believe in economic growth. I believe that the abundance of consumer goods and the leisure time to consume them will make me happy. To this I commit myself with all my money, time, energy, and resources. Amen.
Romantic Reaction
Emergence of new subsidiary cultural stream
Reaction to Enlightenment modernity
Share common roots and beliefs
Complex interplay shapes western culture from 19th c.
Elements shared by Enlightenment and Romanticism
Humanistic
Secular
Individualistic
Differences: Enlightenment and RomanticismEnlightenment Romanticism
Life
Truth
Human
Knowledge
Centre
Complex,many-sided
Rational order,predictable
Univocal,objective
Plural,perspectival
Emotion, creativity,imagination
Reason
Distance, method Empathy, unity
ArtsScience
Development in 19th and 20th Centuries
TechnologicalOptimism
Progress
LiteraryDespair
Breakdown
We are the first . . . to have enough of that power actually at hand to create new possibilities almost at will. By massive physical changes deliberately induced, we can literally pry new alternatives from nature. The ancient tyranny of matter has been broken, and we know it. . . We can change it (the physical world) and shape it to suit our purposes. . . By creating new possibilities, we give ourselves more choices. With more choices, we have more opportunities. With more opportunities, we can have more freedom, and with more freedom we can be more human. That, I think, is what is new about our age. . . We are recognizing that our technical prowess literally bursts with promise of new freedom, enhanced human dignity, and unfettered aspiration.
-Emmanuel Mesthene
Technological Optimism
Counterculture of the 1960s: Growing Despair
Rock music, drug culture, hippie movement, student uprisings, etc.
Challenge to ‘light’ of science and technology
“The youthful counter-culture have, in a variety of ways, called into question the validity of the conventional scientific worldview, and in so doing have set about the undermining the foundations of the technocracy” (Theodore Roszak in Making of a Counterculture).
Growing DespairI believe I am not exaggerating when I say that modern man has suffered an almost fatal shock, psychologically speaking, and as a result has fallen into profound uncertainty. . . . The revolution in our conscious outlook, brought about by catastrophic results of the World War, shows itself in our inner life by the shattering of our faith in ourselves and our own worth. . . . I realize only too well that I am losing my faith in the possibility of a rational organization of the world, the old dream of the millennium, in which peace and harmony should rule, has grown pale (Carl Jüng).
Confidence in modernity: Differences
In the United States, and similarly in Canada, there was a discernibly different spirit, born of different experiences. In America after 1945 there was a sense of confidence and optimism that was a reaffirmation of historic Western ideas about progress. In the postwar era, America became the new proving ground for the Enlightenment and its faith. (Ronald Wells)
Breakdown of ModernityCritical Factors in Dillusionment
Environmental destruction
If the whole world lived at the level of North Americans…
… the world’s resources would last about ten years
Breakdown of ModernityCritical Factors in Dillusionment
Environmental destruction
Growing poverty
At the beginning of the development decades (1960) the world’s richest 1 billion were 30 x richer than the world’s poorest 1 billion.
At the end of the development decades (1990) the world’s richest 1 billion were 150 x richer than the poorest 1 billion
Breakdown of ModernityCritical Factors in Dillusionment
Environmental degradation
Growing poverty
Nuclear threat
Economic problems
Psychological, social disorder
What is true of each item in the following list?
Psychological problems
All have come into usage in the latter part of 20th c.
Low self-esteemDepressedStressObsessive compulsionSado masochisticIdentity crisisSeasonal affective disorderPost-traumatic stress disorder
Burned outParanoidBulimicMidlife crisisAnorexicPsychopathic deviateRepressed
Breakdown of ModernityContrasting Attitudes
Early Modernity Postmodernity
-Confidence in ownpowers
-Debilitating sense ofcosmic insignificance
-Capacity for certainknowledge
-Uncertainty inknowledge
-Mastery over nature - M u tu a l ly d e s t ru c tiv er e la ti o n sh ip w ith n a tu re
-Confidence inprogress
- In s e c u r it y o v e r h u m a nfu tu re
Urgent questions at the beginning of the 21st century
Does humanity have the power to renew the world?
Can scientific reason give us certain knowledge?
Certain, objective, neutral knowledge?
Subjective factors affecting knowledge:
Social-Tradition-Community-Language-Culture-History-Faith
Personal-Feelings-Imagination-Subconscious-Gender-Class-Race
Urgent questions at the beginning of the 21st century
Does humanity have the power to renew the world?Can scientific reason give us certain knowledge?Are we capable of mastering nature to give a better world?Will the non-human creation be able to sustain human life?Is there a future?Will economic growth and material prosperity bring happiness?
The urgent question!
The real question is: What is God doing in these tremendous events of our time? How are we to understand them and interpret them to others, so that we and they may play our part in them as co-workers with God? Nostalgia for the past and fear for the future are equally out of place for the Christian. He is required, in the situation in which God places him, to understand the signs of the times in the light of the reality of God’s present and coming kingdom, and to give witness faithfully about the purpose of God for all men. (Lesslie Newbigin)
What is God doing?
Levelling the idols of modernity
“I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols” (Isa. 42:8)
Who turned out the lights in Enlightenment culture?
In a sense they turned themselves out. . . . But on an even more ultimate level, who turned out the lights? God did! God is historically turning out the lights of this culture as God always turns out the lights of idolatrous cultures. (Brian Walsh)
We are beginning to notice the modern world, as we have known it, disappear in our rear-view mirror as we move on into the unknown (Andrew Walker).