Summarized from John O’Malley, S. J. Four Cultures of the West (Cambridge, MA:
Belknap P, 2004)
“By [cultures] I mean four large, self-validating configurations of symbols, values,
temperaments, patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving, and patterns of discourse. I
mean especially configurations of patterns of discourse and thus expressions of style in
the profoundest sense of the word. Le style, c’est l’homme même.” (pg. 5)
Four ways of thinking and being (non-exclusive, individually combinable and variable)
1. Prophetic culture, the culture of religious reformers.
Figureheads: Old Testament prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah
Medieval and Renaissance examples: Gregory VII, Boniface VIII, Luther
Characteristic mode of discourse: imperative/commandment; stark, often
reductive, binaries: good vs. evil; spiritual vs. temporal; etc.
2. Academic/Professional culture, the culture of universities.
Figureheads: Plato and (especially) Aristotle
Medieval and Renaissance examples: Aquinas and Scholasticism in general;
Medicine, Law, Natural Philosophy (science)
Characteristic mode of discourse: analysis and codification; reasonable standards
of evidence and argument
3. Humanistic culture, the culture of poets, orators, and statesmen (e.g., nobles,
merchants, and especially their “secretaries,” trained in newly established humanistic
secondary schools (e.g., lycée, gymnasium, English public school)
Figureheads: Homer, Virgil, Cicero
Medieval and Renaissance examples: Augustine, Petrarch, Erasmus
Characteristic mode of discourse: rhetorical eloquence and affective force;
discursive and accommodating
4. Artistic culture, the culture of painters, architects, artisans, musicians, actors, etc.,
commonly expressed and experienced in a wide variety of social, political, and religious
structures (cathedrals, city towers and walls, etc.) and ceremonies (e.g., mass, festal and
political parades, funerals, marriages, etc.)
Figureheads: Phidias and Praxiteles (i.e., Greco-Roman canons)
Medieval and Renaissance examples: Giotto, Michelangelo, the performed drama
Characteristic mode of discourse: image and action; symbol and ritual
Again, these are non-exclusive but also non-identical categories, and clearly certain
phenomena (most?), such as Christianity, take place across all four cultures.