The Western Story: The Development of Modernity

Michael Goheen

IDIS 102, TWU

Overview of lectures Last time: Examine modern humanism

Dewey’s ‘confession’Two diagramsWay we label historical erasBrief definition

Today: Look at western story and development of modern humanism 3rd lecture: Examine postmodern humanist challenge and global spread of modern humanism

Origins of Modern Humanism

Roots in pagan-classical period (up to 5th c.)

Preserved and Christianized in medieval-synthesis period (5th-14th c.)

Renaissance (14th-15th c.)

Humanism begins to dissociate itself from Christian connection

Change from otherworldly to this-worldly orientation

Human beings orient lives toward mastery of nature

Life oriented toward natureThis ‘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).

Scientific Revolution (16th-17th c)

Christian and humanist vision Humanist vision to dominate nature: Scientific method gave Western society means Humanist vision expressed by René Descartes (1596-1650) and Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Descartes and Bacon express modern vision

Knowledge is power: Scientific knowledge of world enables humankind to build better worldScientific knowledge of nature’s laws enables humanity to predict how nature will respondThis gives power to controlNature can be manipulated in a quest for a secular paradiseNeed for a new method to get scientific knowledge

Methodological Reason

DescartesMathematical Method

BaconEmpirical Method

Newton (1642-1727)

ScientificMethod

“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.).

People give ear to an upstart astrologer who strove to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun and the moon. Whosoever wishes to appear clever must devise some new system which of all systems, of course, is the best. This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but Sacred Scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, and not the earth.

-Martin Luther

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’

Conversion of West 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 (18th c.)

Scientific humanism becomes dominant religious vision (faith)

Enlightenment faith

Enlightenment faith

Faith in progressParadise images: Secularized vision of biblical storyProgress identified primarily 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

...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 faith

Faith in progress

Propelled by reason and science

Scientific reason translated into technology

Scientific reason translated into societal organisation

Progress comes “by the application of reason” to both “technical and social” issues (Plumb).

Enlightenment (18th c.)

Scientific humanism: dominant religious vision (faith)

Enlightenment faith

Conflict 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).

Age of Revolution (19th-20th c.)

Bringing society into conformity with Enlightenment faithFrench, Industrial, Democratic, Marxist, American revolutions

If the Enlightenment vision is true then “the establishment of new social institutions is not a tedious incidental task, but a dire necessity and a highly ethical imperative. In that case, the narrow way to the lost paradise can only be the way of social revolution” (Goudzwaard).

Danger of humanist social structuresThe problem of leading a Christian life in a non-Christian society is now very present to us. It is not merely the problem of a minority in a society of individuals holding an alien belief. It is the problem constituted by our implication in a network of institutions from which we cannot dissociate ourselves; institutions the operation of which appears no longer neutral, but non-Christian; and as for the Christian who is not conscious of his dilemma—and he is in the majority—he is becoming more and more de-Christianized by all sorts of unconscious pressures; paganism now holding all the most valuable advertising space (T.S. Eliot, The Idea of a Christian Society, 1946)

Two dominant forms of scientific humanism in 20th century

Communist: Throughout Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

Liberal: Throughout North America and Western Europe

Development in 19th and 20th Centuries

TechnologicalOptimism

Progress

LiteraryDespair

Breakdown

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).

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.

Western Confession of Faith (cont…)

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 economism. 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.