THE DECLINE AND DEMISE OF WESTERN CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION
The survival of any society depends on its maintenance of common language, traditions, values,
interests, goals, and assumptions about human existence. Twenty civilizations have lived and
died; Western Christian Civilization is the twenty-first to rise and decline. Our culture is
crumbling before our very eyes. We are living in an age of crises.1
History has left us with the example of the Roman Empire. Its decadence was marked by the
cruelty of the arena: rampant sexuality leading to the flourishing of the phallus cult; apathy
reflected in non-creative art and bombastic music; and finally, oppressive authoritarian
government control.2
No one would deny that our culture is experiencing some of these same warning signals of a
sickness unto death. (See Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Politics.)
The classical idealism of the Graeco-Roman world could not possibly stand firm and meet with
confidence the opposing ideologies and crises of the times. Their gods were not strong enough to
face reality; they were no better than humans in conduct and offered no hope for man.3
1
Philip P. Wiener, ed., Dictionary of the History of Ideas, 4 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1973), 1:589. The proliferated use of the term can be attributed neither to vogue nor fad; it
indicates, rather an awareness of crisis as a salient feature of contemporary consciousness.
2
Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live? (Old Tappan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1976),
pp. 24-29. The elite abandoned their intellectual pursuits for social life (p. 26). Rome did not fall
because of external forces such as the invasion by the barbarians. Rome had no sufficient inward
base; the barbarians only completed the breakdown—and Rome gradually became a ruin (p. 29).
Chalcedon Report (Dec. 1988) no. 281 "Christians in Pagan Society," 9-10. Thomas Molner, The
Pagan Temptation (Eerdmans,-1987, esp. chp 6 "From Christianity to Paganism," pp. 170-184;
on The Demise of 'The Sacred' - J. J. Wunenburger, Le Sacre (Paris: Presses Universitaires de
France, 1981); Pierre Solie', "Physique et psychanalyse," Contrepoint (Paris), no. 36 (Apr. 1981)
- his thesis is that the universe is indeterminate; humanity supplies it with meaning. Shades of
Feuerbach and Eastern Panentheism. When we read the researches of the mythologies Mircea
Eliade, Claude Levi-Strauss, Rene Girard and Joseph Campbell - we are struck by the fact they
too bypass the postulates of Christian thinking as if they were irrelevant. Eliade writes in his
book The Quest (Chicago, 1969) that the "sacred" is an element in the structure of
consciousness, not a stage in the history of consciousness.
3
Carl F. H. Henry, Remaking the Modern Mind (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Co, 1948), pp. 56-57. There could be no fullness of the Godhead dwelling in a body. Yet the
essential goodness of man's reason is involved in the Greek assumption that, by his rationality,
man has a link with the world of supernature, or the eternal ideas (p. 56). If man is a micro-god
he has no guarantee of a truly personal immortality; at death the eternal ideas find their rest in the
world of supernature whence they came. See further his God, Authority, 4 vols. (Word
Press),and the journal Ultimate Reality.
The Greeks were pantheistic, naturalistic and viewed history as cyclical. The power of the
Gospel shattered this weak base and the organizing assumptions behind it were replaced with
those of the Christian world view.4
Christian theism reigned supreme in the Western world until the paradigm shift in the 17th
century from reality based in the Creator-God (who had revealed His will to men) to naturalistic
science. This shift is irrational and suspect since science got its real strength and impetus from
the Christian viewpoint.5
As our culture is in its death throes today, men do not have a grounding and . absolute authority
by which to understand reality and bring purpose, meaning and hope to everyday existence. This
is the result of the rejection of the Biblical Judaeo-Christian World View. It has been supplanted
by a pantheistic naturalism with science as its dubious hero. It is the purpose of this paper to
show that God (who has revealed Himself through the Bible) is the constant and only hope for
man's regeneration and stewardship of the universe. If this present culture is to survive it must
join Christianity, which has never died with any culture. The Christian World View alone has
absolute truth and the ultimate sustaining power for a rational approach to the universe and all of
reality.
CHRISTIAN WORLD VIEW
God, Creation and Redemption
A world view is a set of presuppositions (or assumptions) which we hold (consciously or
subconsciously) about the basic makeup of our world.6 According to William Dilthey, every
4
Edgar H, Brookes, The City of God and the Politics of Crisis (London: Oxford University
Press, 1960), pp. 11-12. The pax Romana was a gift from heaven. In the midst of that peace and
that one fellowship of government and laws, Christ was born. Still it was of value only insofar as
it was part of that eternal City based on love of God and contempt of self, where power is
replaced by service in charity, and that City could not be, and was not, destroyed by the fall of
Rome (p. 11). The tempora Christiania were the life-giving elements poured into a dying Empire
(p. 12).
5
Robert Oppenheimer , "On Science and Culture," Encounter (October 1962):3-10. Why didn't
the Greeks start the scientific revolution? They had plenty of geniuses. "It took something that
was not present in Chinese civilization, and absent also from Graeco-Roman civilization, and
that was wholly absent in Indian civilization. It needed an idea of progress, not limited to better
understanding, for this idea the Greeks had. It took an idea of progress which has more to do
with the human condition, which is well-expressed by the second half of the Christian
dichotomy—faith and works; the notion that betterment of man's condition, his … civility had
meaning; that we all had a responsibility to it, a duty to it, and to man" (p. 5). See also my
Idolatrous Absolutes; Christian Faith and Development of the Physical Sciences; and God:
Creator/Redeemer; compare T. Kuhn's Copernican Revolution and Cohen's Newtonian
Revolution.
6
James W. Sire, The Universe Next Door (Downer's Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1979), p. 17;
also Harry C. Stafford, Culture and Cosmology (University Press of America, 1981.
2
Weltanschauung has three constituents: factual beliefs, value judgments, and a set of ultimate
goals.7 All Christians have a world view; it is only when we realize fully the implications of
diverse and antithetical world views as evidenced by the decision-makers of our day that we will
be able to understand the real challenge before us: Who can effectively handle all of reality? The
Christian world view is man's only correct answer, his only hope.
As with any world view the decisive and determinative factor in the Christian world view is the
concept of God. Jesus asked the ultimate question, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"8
it is possible to know God only because He has revealed Himself to man. The Hebrew-Christian
view, in fact, traced its very premises regarding deity to revelation, and disclaimed that this
belief was an insight of philosophy.9 Adam talked with God in the garden. God confronted
Moses through the burning bush. God told Sarah she would have a son. God spoke audibly from
heaven and testified concerning Christ and His authority. God speaks through the scriptures. His
power and glory are obvious through the wonder and beauty of His creation. Because God has
revealed Himself to man, man can know much about God and His will for man.10Christians have
a responsibility to know God’s Word.
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Nothing necessitated the creation.
God freely chose to create the universe. Therefore the creature belongs to the Creator and derives
life and meaning from Him. But the crowning glory of creation, man, was created in the image of
God. Thus God distinguished man from the animals and made him capable of being a son of
God. The creative act of God hints at His omnipotence. In Jeremiah 32:27 God says, "Behold, I
7
Wiener, Ideas, 3:208. Dilthey directly relates these constituents not to any special uses of
imagination, but rather to what he takes to be the three more basic attitudes or aspects of
personality: thought, feeling, and will. "In the typical Weltanschauung of philosophy," he writes,
"a powerful philosophical personality makes one of the general attitudes toward the world
dominant over the others, and its categories over theirs" (Dilthey, p. 66).
8
Mt. 16:13. The "God Confession" as it has been called means much more than just repeating
words of the "one and only acceptable creed" to be accepted as a church member. The confession
sets the stage for the Christian lifestyle on the basis of who Christ is. It is interesting to note that
Peter did not grasp the full essence of his declaration in v. 16, for he soon becomes the devil's
advocate in v. 22, and Jesus pointed out that the problem was one of setting one's mind on the
proper interests, i.e.. God's. (See Delwin Brown, "God's Reality and Life's Meaning," Encounter
27 (1967): 256-52.
9
Henry, Mind, p. 197. "Nothing is more certain than that the Hebrew-Christian thinkers deny
that their view of God is a product merely of speculative philosophy. For them a personal God
stands or falls with the idea of revelation." Heb. 1:1-2 tells us that God has spoken to the fathers
by the prophets, and finally to us through His Son. Thomas F. Torrance explains that "It is an
active divine Logos, the transcendent Word of God that strikes into the self-enclosed structures
of human life and thought and opens them out to the infinite range of eternal reality, bearing
upon us in such a way as to deliver us from the futility of ever falling back upon ourselves in the
meaninglessness of man's monologue with himself or in the emptiness of nature in its final lack
of self-explanation" (God and Rationality (London: Oxford University Press, 1971], p. 98).
10
Sire, Universe , pp. 32-34. The main point for us is that theism declares that God can and has
clearly communicated with man (p. 34).
3
am Jehovah, the God of all flesh; is there anything too hard for me?" According to Christianity,
the absolute is known only by creation. Without creation God would not be known.11God's
omnipotence is evidenced by the miracles in the Bible. He has power over nature, sickness, and
death. The resurrection of Christ was the ultimate testimony to God's power.
The Christian God is the God revealed in the Bible. He is transcendent, immanent, eternal,
omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. He is prior to, creator, and sustainer of all existence. He
has given man a rational capacity to perceive both order in the universe and the intention of his
own creation. "The heavens declare the glory of. God … and night to night reveals
knowledge."12
God is eternally loving, just and righteous; He has placed His will in a position of possible
rejection by man. Nowhere else (except in the Christian world view) had deity been clothed with
the attributes of both stern justice and holiness and tender mercy and love; nowhere else had
appeared an absolute God who enters into covenant relation with His creatures and provides
redemption for them, and with whom the soul can commune.13 God valued man in an
inconceivable and unfathomable way.
The Christian God works in history. The whole account of Israel, His chosen people, reveals this
attribute. Prophecy after prophecy is made in the Old Testament and fulfilled either within its
framework and/or in the New Testament times. The greatest prophecy ever announced was the
coming of Messiah.14 The prophecy Christians are expecting today is the return of Christ.
There is nothing which gives meaning, value, and dignity to man like the Christian schema of sin
and salvation. God created man perfectly without sin, but He gave man the freedom of will to
obey or disobey His commands. Man disobeyed and was thrown out of the garden. The whole
creation was marred by the Fall.15 But God would not let man die. He loved, us and sent His Son
to deliver us (See my Sin and Salvation).
11
Claude Tresmontant, Christian Metaphysics (New York: Sheed and Ward"; 1965), p. 43. As a
matter of fact, without this doctrine of creation, there would be nothing to say about the absolute,
according to Christianity (p. 42)."
12
Psalm 19:1-2.
13
Henry, Mind, p. 199. And wherever, since the appearance of this view, other religious
concepts have approximated such gracious attributions, it has always been through contact,
remote or near, with this self-professed revelational view (p. 200). Eph. 2:4 is a commentary on
God’s love.
14
Gen. 3:15: This is taken to be the first promise of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.
Isa. 52:13-53: The Suffering Servant is one of the most beautiful prophecies of the Life and
Death of Christ. Mal. 4: Salvation is promised through the coming of "Elijah the prophet." "The
fact is that God's glorious purpose for the Jews as a nation was fulfilled in Christ's first coming.
(See, for instance. Acts 13:32-33.) The Jewish nation as such no longer has a place in God's
plan" (Jack Cottrell, Being Good Enough Isn't Good Enough [Cincinnati: Standard Publishing,
1976], p. 75).
15
It is a revolt; it is the creature's departure from the attitude which is the only possible attitude
for him; it is the creature's becoming creator; it is the destruction of creatureliness. And in all this
4
This is the crux of the Christian world view: the cross. The incarnation of the Son of God was the
turning point in the drama of history: Jesus Christ, the sinless Lamb of God, entered man's world
to die for his sins. Rivers of blood had been poured out from bulls and goats but could not effect
the cure which was answered at Calvary.16 The cross can only be fully understood in the context
of the wrath of God. This is the consequence of sin: men are guilty before God and incur His
wrath. God's righteousness demands justice, i.e. payment of sin. Christ's death was a propitiation
for sin.17 Just as the Israelites had laid their hands upon the head of the scapegoat, so our sins
were laid upon Christ and He assumed the guilt for the sins of man. The justice and love of God
require Him both to punish sin and to save the sinner.18 The accomplishment of peace between
God and man is another aspect of the atoning work of Christ. It takes into consideration the fact
that as sinners, we were God's enemies.19
The result of Christ's reconciliation of man to God is the Church. It is made up of the body of
believers. The Church is a divine institution with Christ at her head and supreme authority.20
This points to the supernatural destiny of man.21 The eschatological hope is the hallmark of the
Church. The Christian world view derives its hope from the divine promise that Christ will return
for His own. The parousia gives life and meaning to being a Christian. It is one of the major
differences between belonging to a church and a club.22 Christianity offers fellowship and
persecution for all believers.23
it is not simply a moral lapse but the destruction of creation by the creature. Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
Creation and Fall (London: SCM Press, 1959), p. 77. "That the creation itself also will be set free
from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God" (Rom. 8:21).
16
Hebrews 9:12-15; 10:1-14.
17
Rom. 3:24-26 "... being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in
Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was
to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins
previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, that
He might be the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."
18
Cottrell, Being Good, p. 44.
19
Ibid, p. 46. It required the death of His only begotten Son, upon whom as our substitute, the
divine wrath and enmity were poured out.
20
Col. l:18f. "He is also the head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born
from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything (v. 18). And
although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now
reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and
blameless and beyond reproach" (v. 21,22).
21
Tresmontant , Metaphysics, pp. 111-12. What is taught by the whole of the Old Testament, the
New Testament, the Fathers, and the unanimous Christian tradition is that man is called to
supernatural destiny. The deification of humanity is begun in Christ. It is in Christ that we are
created new, born anew; it is in him that we become participators in the divine nature, consortes
divinae naturae. Such is the key to Christianity.
22
Jesus taught that the time and place of the Second Coming are not things for men to know, but
that we should be always prepared for His Coming (Luke 17:20-37). R. C. Foster, Studies in the
Life of Christ (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1938, reprinted 1971), tells us that the
5
The Nature of the Universe
On the basis of the Christian world view the universal, i.e. nature, can not be autonomous
because God created it.24 He also judged it to be good. The place of time, i.e., history, is very
important in relation to the nature of the universe. Christian time measures a creation irreversibly
directed towards a unique and definitive end.25
No dogma more completely undermined the relevance of the Hebrew-Christian tradition for the
modern mind than that of the absolute uniformity of nature, or law of universal causation,
presupposed by experimental science.26 If this were the case, then there would be no room for
miracles and the Bible could be discarded or relegated to the nursery bin. The Christian world
view accepts miracles as valid.27 The supreme blow to nature and the ultimate confusion of
naturalistic scientists was the flood; for it changed and rearranged nature, her laws, and her
sediments, so that a uniform view makes it ultimately impossible to account for the data and
witness of such a world-wide destruction. God is transcendent over His creature, nature.28
The Nature and Destiny of Man
conclusion to the parable of the unjust judge emphasizes the oppression and persecution which
the righteous will experience at the hands of the wicked and the difficulty of maintaining the
faith until the day of glory when Christ shall return (p. 998); see my Consummation of Creation.
23
1 Cor. 12:25. Christianity bonds people together even closer than family ties, because every
Christian has the same purpose and goal.
24
Gen. l:lff. Tresmontant claims the Christianity holds a view of a finite and perishable universe
which approaches an ontology. "Christianity professes the beginning and the end of the world.
That is a properly cosmological affirmation, which in its principal direction at the very least, is
answerable to the positive sciences. (Matter) is not eternal, nor ontologically sufficient. Neither
is it the work of an evil principle, as in the Manichean system. Evil is not an effect of materiality.
It is the work of human freedom" (Tresmontant, Metaphysics, p. 67).
25
Ibid., p. 68. "To say that time is linear is obviously an unfortunate expression, since time is
precisely not spatial. Christian time is vectorial. It measures a ripening which will find an eternal
completion. This vision of things is clearly contrary to any Weltanschauung which propounds an
eternal recommencement of the cosmic cycle."
26
Henry, Remaking, p. 79. Plato and Aristotle stood against the naturalistic tradition. They
viewed the "natural laws" as grounded in superworld, and not in an autonomous nature. This
view gave intelligibility to nature (p. 81). See my Creation/Covenant.
27
Ibid., p. 85. The Judaeo-Christian tradition did not view nature as arbitrary, but saw it as
rationally ordered by God. "That is not to say that miracles and non miracles were not
distinguished, but rather than the background against which they were interpreted made both
intelligible."
28
Torrance, Rationality. "Theology is the science that is unable to halt at the limits that must
satisfy natural science, for it is concerned above all to penetrate into transcendent and fontal
rationality, the ultimate source of all that is intelligible to man and which is presupposed in the
created rationalities of nature explored through natural sciences" (p. 96).
6
God created man as the crowning glory of the universe. He created him into a relationship of
close fellowship.29 He gave him the responsibility of cultivating the garden, and limited
freedom.30 Because man disobeyed God, he came under the state of judgment.31 It is the
Christian analysis that man is sinful, though he was created perfect and good. Therefore he is in
need of regeneration through Jesus Christ to escape the penalty of sin. But even though man is
fallen, he still resembles the Creator.32
Man no longer makes moral decisions in relation to the authority of God, since the relationship
of Creator to creature has been broken. Man will not make the right ethical decisions from
humanistic assumption.33 It is from the revelation of God and the regenerative power of the
Gospel that man can truly make rational moral decisions.34
The true value of man is discernible in Paul's explanation, “But God demonstrates His own love
toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”35 Because God set such a high
29
God walked with man and talked with him in the cool beauty of the evening in the Garden
(Gen. 3:8f).
30
Gen. 2:15-17. "But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the
day that you eat from it, you shall surely die" (v. 17).
31
"For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God" (Romans 14:10c).
32
Henry, Remaking. "The Hebrew-Christian tradition . . . did not hold that man is essentially
evil, for such a view would have made impossible his redemption. . . . With the entrance of sin
the competence of human reason is vitiated, the divine image in man is distorted. Nevertheless it
was Hebrew-Christian thought that contended for man's primal perfection, and at the heart of
Christianity stood its insistence that in Jesus Christ perfection dwelled permanently in the flesh. .
. . The Christian assurance of immortality likewise was a cheerful prospect only in a
soteriological context" (p. 58). Schaeffer discusses the origins of creativity in the great geniuses
of the Reformation. "Even though the image is now contorted, people are made in the image of
God. This is who people are, whether or not they know or acknowledge it" (Schaeffer, Live, p.
97). See also R. Niebuhr's Nature and Destiny of Man.
33
Ibid. "But if man stands higher than the animals yet under divine judgment as a sinner—if he
is an ethical creature whose voluntary moral revolt against God is the occasion of his cultural
disaster—there is but one view which can avoid both an excessive optimism and an excessive
pessimism, and which proclaims the regenerative preconditions for a good man and a good
society" (p. 76). Schaeffer points out that pessimism is the natural conclusion of humanism (p.
78).
34
Torrance, Rationality. "Once for all, the Creator Word has entered into the existence of what
He has made and bound it up with His own eternal Being and Life embodied in Jesus Christ, yet
without violating its creaturely nature. In this union of the Creator with the creature the external
Word of God who is the ground of man's existence from beyond his existence has now become
also the ground of his existence within his existence, under girding and sustaining it from within
its natural processes in such a way as he establishes his reality and meaning as human being and
to realize his distinctive response toward God in the fullness of his creaturely freedom and
integrity" (p. 144).
35
Rom. 5:8.
7
value on man He extended salvation to him.36 The Christian view of man cannot possibly lead to
nihilism or to skepticism. Man's worth is freely proclaimed through the Gospel.
Hope is the possession of man only in the light of the Christian world view. Only the Gospel of
Jesus Christ can give man an optimistic Outlook. Man, if he chooses to follow Christ, is destined
to eternal life. Jesus Christ is the supreme precept, example and savior to direct man in his
destiny.37 The atonement of Christ restored man to a place of dignity before God, but the
resurrection is the basic for man's hope.38 Man is not left to animal meaningless, nor to
homocentric hopelessness. Man is destined to transformation and immortality.39
THE DEMISE OF THE CHRISTIAN PARADIGM:
FAITH IN GOD IS REPLACED BY FAITH IN MAN
Platonic-Aristotelian Influences
As the Church spread from the Jewish community to the Gentiles, Christianity was faced with
the Greek World View. This philosophy held that nature was eternal, therefore uncreated; that
man was unique to be free from nature's determinism, due to the imminence of Logos; and that
god and the superworld of ideas gave rationality to the universe.40 Christianity stood in
opposition to such ideas since God had revealed Himself and His creation of matter and men.
The Christians knew God to be personal, rational, and eternal. Nature as created is not
autonomous and not self-explanatory. Yet the Christians adopted the philosophical language and
style of the Greeks in order to communicate the Gospel to all men.41 This resulted in Platonic
36
Rom. 5:11. "For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of
His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."
37
Torrance, Rationality. "His humanity took our place, acting in our behalf before God, freely
offering in Himself what we could not offer and offering it in our stead the perfect response of
man to God in a holy life of faith and prayer and praise, the self-offering of the Beloved Son with
whom the Father is well pleased" (p. 145).
38
I Cor. 15:22: "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive."
39
"Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be
raised imperishable, and we "shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable,
and the mortal must put on immortality" (I Cor. 15:51-53).
40
Schaeffer, Live. Paul understood the implication of Greek philosophy. When he spoke to the
men of Athens he pointed out that they could not "answer the questions posed either by the
existence of the universe and its form, or by the uniqueness of man" (p. 253).
41
Arnold Toynbee , An Historian's Approach to Religion (London: Oxford University Press,
1956). "The translation of the gospel of Christianity, and after it, the gospel of Islam, into terms
of Hellenic metaphysics was, indeed, unavoidable. We have seen that, in its encounter with the
Roman Imperial Government, Christianity was notably successful so long as it was being
proscribed and persecuted, but was notably unsuccessful in coping with the Roman Empire and
its successors when they adroitly took the Church into partnership with themselves. The story of
8
ideas and traditions cropping up in Christian writings.42 It must be remembered that the Christian
writers were basically concerned with theology and used philosophy in an attempt to express the
truths of God's Word.
The World Machine
Naturalism was one of the first serious enemies of the Church, as it continues to be today. This
was apparent in Augustine's proof of the existence of God. "[Augustine] depicts the human soul
questioning the things of sense and hearing them confess that the beauty of the visible world, of
mutable things, is the creation and reflection of unmutable Beauty, after which the soul proceeds
inwards, discovers itself and realizes the superiority of soul to body."43 He based the order and
unity of Nature and the goodness of creation in God. The only meaningful view of nature is the
Christian world view. Any other view leads to skepticism and nihilism.44 But Aquinas strongly
believed that the only way men can understand the supernatural is by first understanding the
natural.45 The results of his argument are still shaking the life out of the Church today.
The influences of naturalism led to a mechanistic view of the universe.46 God as portrayed by
Deism is the logical conclusion of this system, if it can claim any God at all. The machine may
the Christian Church's encounter with Hellenic philosophy has the same plot. Christianity's
intellectual troubles began when they philosophically educated class reconsidered its attitude and
took Christianity seriously and sympathetically enough to demand a presentation of Christianity
in Hellenic philosophical terminology" (p. 120).
42
Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy (Garden City, NY; Doubleday and Co., 1962),
2.1:29. "As the Christians had no philosophy of their own to start with (i.e. in the academic sense
of philosophy), they were, naturally turned to the prevailing philosophy, which was derived from
Platonism but was strongly impregnated with other elements." It is interesting to note that Justin
thought that Plato had borrowed from Moses and the Prophets; Philo tried to reconcile Greek
philosophy with the Old Testament; and Clement tried to reconcile Greek philosophy with the
Christian religion.
43
Copleston, History, 2.1:86. He quotes from Augustine's two hundred and forty-first sermon:
"Men saw these two things, pondered them, investigated both of them, and found that each is
mutable in man. And thus they arrived at a knowledge of God the Creator by means of the things
which He created."
44
Sires, Universe. The only optimism naturalism can offer is the unfounded hope that the closed
universe is contingent, and therefore man is free to act responsibly (p. 79). But this case is
hopeless without the God who created both nature and man.
45
William A. Wallace, Causality and Scientific Explanation (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan
Press, 1972), p. 72. R. Hooykaas points out that the Biblical view was used in conjunction with,
and did not overrule the Aristotelian conception. "Thomas Aquinas considered one of the useful
functions of natural philosophy to be to enable us to distinguish that which belongs only to God
(for example miracles, or the origin of things) from that which belongs to nature" (R. Hooykaas,
Religion and the Rise of Modern Science [Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1972] , p. 13).
46
"The modern mind needs to be reminded . . . that not by the compulsion of reality but rather by
the sheerest naturalistic dogmatism, it overthrew teleological categories." The Copernican
9
have had a creator, but the creator does not interfere with its function.47 As a conclusion of
naturalism, not only is the world and the universe reduced to machine, but so is man. Astronomy
was historically the first science to threaten the theology of the Church. Astronomy made the
claim that God was not needed to keep the planets in their orbits, or to uphold the laws of
nature.48 Nature was presented as autonomous.
Misuse of Authority
The Church might not have been hurt so much by the claims of the scientists if the hierarchy had
only attacked the theological conclusions of such views. But, in an effort to protect a Greek view
of God, the Roman Catholic Church reprimanded Galileo for his correct usage of mathematics
and experimentation to explain the movements of the planets.49 Galileo did not consider his
scientific investigations out of line with his Catholic theology.50 Denial of scientific claims was
not the only flaw of the Roman Catholic Church. The teachings of early Christianity were shoved
aside for lesser pursuits. The crisis was building which ultimately led to the humanistic elements
of the Renaissance and the Bible-based teaching of the Reformation.51(See my Authority Crisis)
revolution in science "did not necessitate the discarding of a supernaturalistic, purposive view of
reality" (Henry, Remaking, p. 275).
47
Newton was neither a naturalist or a deist. He did not say the world was a machine. "Newton
fully believed that God intervened, and frequently so ... in the cosmos he had created. For he
regarded all history as the progressive unfolding of a divine plan, with successive epochs,
differentiated from each other theologically" (Don Cupitt, The Worlds of Science and Religion
[New York: Hawthorn Books, 1976], p. 35).
48
9Ian G. Barbour, Issues in Science and Religion (New York: Harper and Row, 1966). La Place
carried further the mathematical explanation of Newton's planetary motion. He concluded the
planet could correct the small irregularities in their orbits without needing God's intervention.
"The world was no longer seen as the purposeful divine drama of the Middle Ages or even as the
continuing object of providential supervision, as for Newton, but as a set of interacting natural
forces. Though many scientists continued to believe in the existence of God, no reference to such
beliefs was considered appropriate within scientific treatises" (pp. 58-59).
49
Schaeffer, Live. "Galileo defended the compatibility of Copernicus and the Bible, and this was
one of the factors which brought about his trial. Galileo articulated his findings publicly in his
lifetime and in his native tongue so that all could read what he wrote. Condemned by the Roman
Inquisition in 1632, he was forced to recant; but his writings continued to testify not only that
Copernicus was right, but also that Aristotle was wrong" (pp. 131-32).
50
Barbour, Issues . "He upheld the importance of scripture but claimed that it reveals not
scientific facts but spiritual knowledge for man's salvation, truths that are above reason and could
not-be discovered by observation" (p. 29).
51
Schaeffer, Live , p. 48. Toynbee claims that "The outburst of moral indignation at the iniquity
of the Wars of Religion was the explosion that blew the irreparable breach in the massive
fortifications of the Medieval Western Christian Weltanschauung. One practical expression of
this moral revolt was a deliberate transference of seventeenth century Western Man's spiritual
treasure from an incurably polemical Theology to an apparently non-controversial Natural
Science; and the consequent progressive demolition of the intellectual structure of Medieval
10
Philosophy and Theology of the Renaissance and Reformation
The Renaissance and Reformation were noble attempts to inject life and meaning back into
living. The literature of Greece and Rome did not have the answers to establish a solid
foundation for these seekers any more than they could have preserved ancient civilizations.52
Reason was the subject of the Renaissance philosophers. Rene Descartes asked the question,
"What am I, on the basis of my experience, forced to believe?"53 Nature was once again viewed
as non-intelligent machine and logically, man was seen as a machine.54
The Reformation returned to the source of authority, purpose and meaning: the scriptures; John
Wycliffe produced an English translation. "John Huss returned to the teachings of the Bible and
of the early church and stressed that the Bible is the only source of final authority and that
salvation comes only through Christ and his work."55 The fifteenth century Reformation was the
last big religious power in Europe until the Wesleyan Revival. Luther proclaimed that reason
could not be trusted without being grounded in revelation. And he advocated religious tolerance
in murderous times.56
Western Christianity was thus an after-effect of a previous revolt against its moral pretensions"
(Approach, p. 173).
52
Toynbee, Approach: "The resuscitated ghost of Hellenism was accepted, in a still
authoritarian-minded Early Modern Age of Western history, as an authority independent of and
therefore necessarily in rivalry with, the authority of the Western Christian Church" (p. 172).
Schaeffer, Live: "It was the humanists of that time who, under the enthusiasm for the classics,
spoke of what had immediately proceeded them as a "Dark Age", and talked of a "rebirth" in
their own era. Harkening back to the pre-Christian era, they visualized man as taking a great
forward leap (p. 60). John Herman Randall, Jr., The Making of the Modern Mind (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1926, 1940), p. 112: "It was an incongruous compromise between
elements neither of which was clearly understood, the Christian tradition and the natural, pagan
view of man's life and its scene."
53
Henry, Remaking, p. 234: "But the self that Descartes proves is already a non-Christian self. It
is a self the existence of which is a certainty whether God exists or not, whereas on Christian
premises the existence of God is the prerequisite for any existence. The story of modern" thought
is that of the enthronement of the inductive, empirical approach as " the measure of truth."
Schaeffer, Live, "Thus Renaissance humanism steadily" evolved toward modern humanism—a
value system rooted in the belief that man is his own measure, that man is autonomous, totally
independent" (p. 60).
54
Schaeffer, Live: "[Leonardo] understood that man beginning from himself would never be able
to come to meaning on the basis of mathematics. Leonardo anticipated where humanism would
end" (p. 74).
55
Ibid., p. 80. "Promised safe-conduct to speak at the Council of Constance, he was betrayed and
burned at the stake there on July 6, 1415. Wycliffe's and Huss’ views were the basic views of the
Reformation which came later, and these views continued to exist in parts of the north of Europe
even while the Renaissance was giving its humanist answers in the south."
56
Randall, Mind. He declared that "heresy can never be prevented by force," and "Faith is free.
What could a heresy trial do? No more than make people agree by mouth or in writing; it could
11
The Church of the Reformation remained silent on many issues which needed a "Word of the
Lord". But political, educational and economic reforms were instituted as the result of the
regeneration of the George Whitefield—John Wesley revivals.57
The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment was in total antithesis to the Reformation. The theme of this period was the
perfectibility of man and society.58 The French Revolution was a judgment upon such an idea.
This new strain of humanism developed in theology. "The rationalism of Descartes, Leibniz, and
Spinoza; the empiricism of Locke, Berkeley and Hume; the criticism of Kant; the idealism of
Hegel—all found in their day exponents who felt that the systems combined advantageously with
Christianity.59
Following the destruction of the faith and authority of Biblical Christianity, the humanists were
left with the hollowness and futility of their own human reasoning. Life was reduced to
nonsense, and man needs meaning and a reason to exist.60 An example of the results of such
chaos is a teaching of Karl Marx in his 1848 Manifesto of the Communist Party. Marx
considered the family capitalistic. Later, the state rejected God, the Bible, and the Church,
Western Civilization turned to science for the fulfillment of its religious hope.61
THE RISE OF MODERN SCIENCE
Impetus in the Christian World View
not compel the heart." Yet the Lutherans killed the Anabaptists; Melanchthon murdered
hundreds in a Saxony inquisition; Bucer, Zwingli, and Calvin advocated executing heretics (p.
167).
57
Schaeffer, Live. The Church should have spoken out against slavery and the lack of a
compassionate use of accumulated wealth (pp. 113-19).
58
Ibid., p. 121. "And the French romantically held to this view, even in the midst of the Reign of
Terror." See my Christian-Faith and the Enlightenment.
59
Henry, Remaking, p. 235. "Actually these thinkers resumed the ancient conflict of naturalistic
or rationalistic Greek-Roman philosophy against the Christian religion, which had been broken
off rather than decided in the third century."
60
James M. Connolly, Human History and the Word of God (New York: Macmillan, 1965).
"History was not emptied of meaning, and the emerging generation of idealist philosophers
would feel a necessity to discover in the entire process of history some meaning, some reason
beyond externals, some real pattern and law" (p. 12).
61
Toynbee, Approach. "The moral reason for [the discredit into which the West's Christian
heritage has fallen in the West's own estimation since the seventeenth century] was that the
West's religious dissensions had bred devastating, yet inconclusive, political and military strife in
a spirit of hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness, and this in unavowed pursuit of sordid
worldly objectives that were in scandalous contradictions with Christianity's high spiritual
professions" (p. 172).
12
Many things contributed to the rise of modern science through the centuries such as economic
forces, social phenomena, technological interest, the founding of the Royal Society, and the
circulation of letters and journals. But it was only in Western Civilization that modern science
developed.62
Even science could not have observed and experimented with the "laws of nature" without first
being convicted to the belief that there is a rational order of behavior in nature. Scientific
endeavor, like any intellectual endeavor, depends upon a world view. Modern science is not
different; its catalyst was based upon the presuppositions of the Christian World View, especially
with regard to its conception of the order of nature.63
The Christian world view carried science far beyond the limits of Greek philosophers. The
Greeks saw nature as eternal, the creator of men and gods. They held a pantheistic view
involving historical cycles. Christianity upholds nature as the creation of the eternal, rational
God.64 It is only logical to conclude that it is far more rational to study a creature and its traits
than to attempt to reduce an irrational pantheistic environment to theorems or "laws."
Naturalism Yields to Mechanization
One of the great turning points (paradigm shifts) in medieval science was the rejection of
Aristotelian qualitative physics and the development of the classical or Newtonian physical
science. R. S. Collingwood has suggested that the basic contrast between the Greek view of
nature and what he calls the Renaissance view, springs from the difference between their
respective analogical approaches to nature. The Greek view of nature as an intelligent organism
was based on an analogy between the world of nature and the individual human being, while the
Renaissance view conceived the world analogically as a machine. Instead of being regarded as
62
Barbour, Issues, p. 45: "Many historians contend that one important factor was the tacit
attitude toward nature engendered by the unique combination of Greek and biblical ideas." Rene
Taton, ed.. The Beginnings of Modern Science, trans. A. J. Pomerons (New York: Basic Books,
1964): "The Western contribution was so important during this period (1450 to 1800) that, by
comparison, that of the rest of the world shrinks almost into insignificance" (p. 585).
63
Alfred North Whitehead, Science and the Modern Mind (Cambridge: University Press, 1928),
pp. 4-28. The Greek philosophers were interested in a dramatic view of nature, but it was not the
basis for our modern science. Scientists must believe "that every detailed occurrence can be
correlated with its antecedents in a perfectly definite manner, exemplifying general principles."
This conviction "must come from the medieval insistence on the rationality of God, conceived as
with the personal energy of Jehovah and with the rationality of a Greek philosopher" (p. 15).
"My explanation is that the faith in the possibility of science, generated antecedently to the
development of modern scientific theory, is an unconscious derivative from medieval theology"
(p. 16). See lan Hacking, ed. Scientific Revolutions (Oxford, 1981) and Ludwik Fleck, Genesis
and Development of a Scientific Fact. (Chicago, 1979).
64
Hooykaas, Rise, pp. 1-9. "Thus, in total contradiction to pagan religion, nature is not a deity to
be feared and worshipped, but a work of God to be admired, studied and managed. In the Bible
God and nature are no longer opposed to man, but God and man together confront nature" (p. 9).
13
capable of ordering its own movements in a rational manner and according to its immanent laws
the world is devoid both of intelligence and life,- the movements which it exhibits are imposed
from without, and their motion due to "laws of nature" imposed from without. Collingwood
concludes that this presupposed both the human understanding of the nature of machines, and the
Christian view of the human understanding of the nature of machines, and the Christian view of
a creative and omnipotent God.65
Faith in Scientific Progress Replaces Faith in God
The mechanistic world view of Newtonianism gradually reduced the view of God from
transcendent creator and upholder to deism and finally, due to skepticism, atheism. The new
view of man was optimistic; the age was confident of human perfectibility through reason and of
inevitable social progress through science.66 There was a hope in the rebirth of learning, whereby
men might develop their faculties to overcome all difficulties.67
The growth of science influenced the contemporary views about religion. The claims of
empiricism, i.e. sense impressions, made it impossible to know the existence of God, since we
have never seen Him, nor seen Him create any worlds, and made it impossible to deny God's
existence, since we do not perceive the world as it really is (but only as our senses experience it)
and cannot determine its First Cause. God is only acceptable as an ethical necessity.68 This type
65
Francis Oakley, "Christian Theology and the Newtonian Science: The Rise of the Concept of
the Laws of Nature," Creation: The Impact of an Idea (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons,
1969), pp. 54-55. "The crucial figures in the establishment of this prominence seem to have been
Descartes--perhaps the first of the important scientific thinkers to have been quite explicit on the
matter; Robert Boyle (1627-91), who has been described as 'the most influential publicist of the
mechanical philosophy in England, and Newton, whose writings assured it a prominent place in
the scientific language and, thought of the West" (p. 55). "There is clearly a sharp dichotomy
between Stoic and related views of the natural law as immanent in the world, and "the view,
characteristic of the seventeenth century virtuosi, that the laws of nature were imposed upon the
world from the outside by the decree of the omnipotent God who created it" (p. 60).
66
Harbour, Issues, p. 57. "The eighteenth century saw itself as the Age of Reason in which the
ideal of rationality manifest in science would permeate all human activities. Its most articulate
and extreme spokesmen were the French philosophies of the mid-century, but its spirit permeated
Germany, England, and the American colonies and influenced the subsequent climate of thought
throughout the modern world" (p. 57).
67
Peter Medawar, "On the Effecting of All Things Possible," The Listener, (Oct. 2, 1969): 440.
There is a mood of exultation and glory about this new belief in human capability and the future
in which it might unfold. During the 18th century, of course, everybody sobers up. The idea of
progress is taken for granted—but in some sense it gets out-of hand, for not only will human
inventions improve without limit, but also will human beings."
68
Harbour, Issues, pp. 69-79. "Many thinkers of the Enlightenment wanted to extend to all
problems the methods of science, which they equated somewhat vaguely with the pursuit of the
"natural" and "reasonable"; neither the value of precise data, nor the role of human interpretive
concepts nor the distinctive problems arising in the social sciences were recognized in the initial
enthusiasm for the omnicompetence of scientific methods. Hume dwelt on the empirical side of
14
of reasoning removed all the content from religion and based faith upon feelings, producing
sentimental neurotics. Science was proclaimed as supreme and God was chased away to dwell in
the secret corridors of the heart. (See my Christian Faith and Theories of Knowledge; and
Models of Scientific Knowledge.)
Science turns on Man
Science did not stop with the mechanization of the universe. The very same presuppositions
reduced man to an element in a naturalistic process of progress. The explosion at the British
Association in Oxford on June 30, 1860, over the question of evolution, made overt and abiding
the cleavage between traditional Christianity and progressive science.69 In the nineteenth century
physical cosmology, geology and biology were beginning to produce a scientific, non-religious
cosmogony.70
It is not sufficient to say that Darwinism, as well as evolution by mutation, and many other antirevelational theories are dead horses. It is not enough to say that mankind owes much to the
advances of science and technology. We must realize the sickness of our contemporary culture
which has no moral absolutes, which accepts abortion, the splitting of families, the threat of
nuclear war, euthanasia, suicide, the drug culture and the presence and threat of everyday
immorality and ask, "Science, where are your answers in place of those you deprived us of?" But
science will not answer, because it believes with all of its heart that a new species of man,
animal, or worm will fill the slot which we leave in our passing away into nothingness. Science
believes in progress. (See my God, Man and Nature in Carl Sagan's Universe.)
THE CHRISTIAN HOPE IN AN AGE OF SCIENCE
The different epistemological bases of Christianity and Scientism point to the superiority of the
Christian claim. Science has followed many models throughout history; there have been
numerous paradigm shifts, but Christianity consistently claims the Bible for its only model and
only source of revelation. Due to the stand which Christianity has taken, whenever its
science and significance; for him, as for recent positivists, empirical verification is the criterion
for all knowledge. Kant, on the other hand, maintained that man's mind supplies crucial
categories or interpretation" (p. 79).
69
Henry, Remaking , p. 97. "The Darwinism controversy is the point of reference for the
unobscurable bifurcation in the thinking of the masses who prefer ideological inconsistency to
all-out surrender to either supernaturalism or modern science."
70
Cupitt, Worlds, pp. 16-17. "Cosmogony was thought to be so centrally a religious topic that
the displacement of a religion cosmogony by a historical-scientific cosmogony portended the
replacement of religion by science tout court. And, after all, this is largely what has happened in
the modern West. So it is striking to notice that in India cosmogony is not so important. Few
Indian belief-systems have a prominent creation-story of the sort that we have inherited." It is
also striking to notice that it was the West which inspired the rise of modern science on the basis
of its world view", especially its view of creation and finite nature. And it is striking that India
contributed nothing striking to scientific thought. (See also Stanley Jaki’s works).
15
institutional' hierarchy, the Roman Catholic Church, ran into problems understanding and
disseminating the data, its very claim to God and revelation has been attacked (due to the
Church's misuse and consistent negligence of the scriptures) and the whole Christian system has
fallen into ill repute. But in contrast to that, no one questions science whenever it follows down a
blind alley or when it changes a model or a whole paradigm. This is because even modern man
understands the superiority of a system which bases its truth claims in revelation from God, the
creator and judge of man. Science is allowed to make mistakes, due to its groping nature.
It is my contention that Christianity's mistakes were reflections of misrepresentation, and not
inherent in its Biblical claims. The Scriptures still stand as the only viable rule for faith and
practice today. It is the only basis for a world-view which takes a positive stand for nature and a
unique stand for man in relationship with God. The Bible still offers regeneration and hope to the
men of our crumbling society. Now is the time for the Church to take a stand and speak for God,
who alone can give man meaning in these irrational times. Man can no longer live with the
consequences of humanism or with the consequences of a science that is Lord and master. The
time is right for the Savior to be proclaimed. (See my Word of God: Cross-Cultural
Communications.)
The Church today, if it is going to be heard, needs intelligent, dedicated leadership who believe
the Bible is God's revelation, who believe it has the only hope for man, and who believe it is
relevant for today's problems/and who will preach it with conviction and with power. Our goal is
the Lordship of Christ over every parameter (perimeter) of reality—Colossians 1:17, and
Ephesians 1:10.
Like Israel after David and Solomon, the U.S. has forsaken the faith of her fathers and has
embraced a secular religion that is hostile to Biblical standards. As the late Francis Schaeffer
diagnosed: "The U.S. has entered a post-Christian era," and theologian Carl J. H. Henry as well
as evangelical spokesman, Charles Colson concur, describing this revolutionary descent as the
"neo-paganization of Modern America" (C. F. H. Henry, Twilight of a Great Civilization: The
Drift Towards Neo-Paganism (Westchester, IL; and Charles Colson, Against The Night: Living
in The New Dark Ages (Ann Arbor: Servant Books, 1989). What is the state of Christianity in
the USA today? It is unquestionably dominated by neo-pagan presuppositions. This is the
Church's challenge in the remainder of this and the next millennium.
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1960.
Brown, Delwin. "God's Reality and Life's Meaning." Encounter 28 (1967): 256-62.
Connolly, James M. Human History and the Word of God. New York: Macmillan, 1965.
Copleston, Frederick. A History of Philosophy. 9 vols. Garden City, New York: Doubleday and
Co., 1962.
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Cottrell, Jack. Being Good Enough Isn't Good Enough. Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing,
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Medawar, Peter. "On the Effecting all Things Possible." The Listener (October 2, 1969):43742.
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James D. Strauss
17