The Western Story: The Growth of Modernity Living at the Crossroads Chapter 6

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.)



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).





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).





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




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




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


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.


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


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


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).

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The Western Story: The Growth of Modernity Living at the Crossroads Chapter 6