The Western Story: Roots of
Modernity
Living at the Crossroads
Chapter 5
Incomparably the most urgent
missionary task for the next few
decades is the mission to
‘modernity’... It calls for the use
of sharp intellectual tools, to
probe behind the unquestioned
assumptions of modernity and
uncover the hidden credo which
supports them...
- Lesslie Newbigin
Telling the Story

Roots of Modernity: Classical
culture, gospel, medieval era

Development of Modernity:
Renaissance to present

Currents of Today:
Postmodernity, Globalization,
and Consumerism
Spiritual Direction of Western
Culture

Confessional humanism

Illustrated by Friedrich
Nietzsche (1844-1900) in ‘The
Madman’
“We have killed God--you
and I! We are his murderers!
. . . “How shall we comfort
ourselves, the murderers of
all murderers?” the
madman asks. “Must we
ourselves not become gods
simply to appear worthy of
it?”
Western Faith:
Rationalistic Humanism
Autonomous man is capable of
defining the world (Creator)
and solving problems of world
to bring about a new world of
freedom, prosperity, justice, and
truth (Savior) with his own
rational resources.
Death of God and
Confessional Humanism

If God is dead, we must replace
him as Creator

If God is dead, we must replace
him as ruler of history

If God is dead, we must replace
him as savior and redeemer
“Man . . . alone is responsible for
the realization of the world of
his dreams, [and] has within
himself the power for its
achievement” (Humanist
Manifesto)
Humanism “assigns to us
nothing less than the task of
being our own savior and
redeemer” (Corliss Lamont).
Humanism . . .

Secular

Naturalistic

Rationalistic

Scientific
Also called . . .

Enlightenment worldview

The modern worldview

Modernity
Deadly foe?
Western modernity may be “a
much deadlier foe than any
previous counter-religious forces
in human history.”
Modernity . . .

Formed by long history of
interaction between classical
humanism and gospel

Polanyi: Explosion of modernity
result of ignition of flame of
classical humanism in the
oxygen of the gospel
Historical Development of
Rationalistic Humanism

Roots in pagan/classical period (to 5th c.)

Preserved in medieval synthesis (5th-14th c.)

Re-emerged at Renaissance (14th-15th c.)

Salted by gospel at Reformation (15th c.)

Given tremendous thrust forward in Scientific
Revolution (16th-17th c.)

Came to mature expression in Enlightenment
(18th c.)

Given social embodiment in social, industrial,
and political revolutions (19th, 20th c.)

Under attack today (late 20th, 21st c.)
Until lions have their
historians, hunters
will always be the hero
of the story.
-African proverb
Eras:
Classical
Medieval
Modern
Postmodern
Classic: of the highest class; most
representative of the excellence of its
kind; having recognized worth.
(Websters)
Modern: up-to-date; not oldfashioned, antiquated or obsolete.
(Websters)
Medieval: middle (medius) age
(aevum); outdated
Another way to designate
eras:
Pagan
Synthesis Antithesis Neo-pagan
Classical Medieval
Modern
Postmodern
Historical Origins of Confessional
Humanism in Greece




Emerged in pre-Socratic
philosophers over against pagan
religion of Greek culture
Culminated in Plato and
Aristotle
Spread throughout ancient
culture by Alexander the Great
Embraced by Roman empire
Seeds of Western Worldview

Rationalism: human reason
alone is capable of
understanding world

Naturalism: world can be
explained by natural causes

Humanism: autonomy of
human beings from any
transcendent authority
Plato (427-348 B.C.)
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
Platonic Worldview
Spiritual
Forms/Ideas
Eternal
rational soul
Reason Unchanging Universal
Material
body
Senses
Things
Truth
Temporal
Change Particular Opinion
Plotinus
(205-270 A.D.)
& Neoplatonism

basic division between good spiritual
world and evil material world;

human beings made up of inferior
material body and superior rational
soul;

bodily life in this material world is
inferior to spiritual life;

human life has an otherworldly,
spiritual orientation.
Roots of Western Worldview in
Gospel

Gospel enters Roman culture as
an alternative, comprehensive
way of life
 Confessed Jesus as Lord over
against Caesar
 Declared itself to be public
community, new humankind
and not private religion
Roots of Western Worldview in
Gospel




Gospel enters Roman culture as
an alternative, comprehensive
way of life
Two comprehensive visions of
life: Clash inevitable
Gospel also translatable
Danger of contamination and
unfaithful contextualization
Changing Relation to Culture

In Roman empire church lived in
antithetical relation to culture

With Constantine (311 A.D.) Rome
became “Christian”

Church established as part of empire

Vulnerability to idolatry of empire
Medieval Synthesis
Classical/pagan
Gospel
Medieval Synthesis
4th c.
Early
13th c.
Late
-Plato + Gospel -Aristotle + Platonic gospel
-Augustine
(354-430 AD)
-Aquinas
(1225-1275 AD)
Plato and Augustine (354-430)





Plato’s philosophy: New expression in
Plotinus
Plotinus pivotal in Augustine’s
conversion
Merges Platonic philosophy and
gospel
Both Scriptural and Greek strands in
thinking
Synthesis influential in Western
culture
. . . it was Augustine’s
formulation of Christian
Platonism that was to permeate
virtually all of medieval
Christian thought in the West
(Tarnas).
Escape from this world to the
next, from self to God, from flesh
to spirit, constituted the deepest
purpose and direction of human
life. . . . In Augustine’s vision
[carried on in medieval period]
. . . the transcendent spiritual
realm was the only realm that
genuinely mattered (Tarnas).
Biblical Story
Movement to...
God’s rule by
gospel and Spirit
Horizontal
Creational
Kingdom of
God
Resurrected
bodies on
renewed earth
Platonic Vision
Spiritual realm (destiny of soul)
Vertical
Ethereal
Biblical Story Recast by Augustine
Movement to...
God’s rule
Gospel
Spirit
Heavenly city
Spiritual bodies
Post-Augustine Otherworldliness
...especially after Augustine,
salvation was seen less in such
dramatic historical and collective
terms, and...could be fulfilled only
when the soul left behind the
physical world and entered the
celestial state...
Escape from this world to the next,
from self to God, from flesh to spirit,
constituted the deepest purpose and
direction of human life (Tarnas).
Neoplatonic Christianity
The early Judaeo-Christian belief in
redemption of the whole man and the
natural world shifted in emphasis, especially
under the influence of Neoplatonist
Christian theologians, to a belief in a purely
spiritual redemption in which man’s highest
faculties alone--the spiritual intellect, the
divine essence of the human soul--would be
reunited with God... the devout Christian
perceived himself as a citizen of the spiritual
world, and his relation to the transitory
physical realm was that of a stranger and
pilgrim (Tarnas).
Sense of Universal History
The Hellenic sense of history was generally
cyclical, the Judaic was decisively linear
and progressive, the gradual fulfillment in
time of God’s plan for man . . . Augustine’s
strong sense of God’s government of history-as in his dramatic scenario of the two
invisible societies of the elect and the
damned, the city of God and the city of the
world, battling through creation’s history
until the Last Judgment--still reflected the
Judaic ethical vision of God’s
purposefulness in history (Tarnas).
Late Medieval Synthesis
(13th-14th c.)
Aristotle
Platonic Christianity
Interest in
this world
Otherworldy
Plato (427-348 B.C.)
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
Aquinas’ Two Realm Theory
Spiritual
Eternal
God/Angels
Faith
Material
Creation
Reason
Superior
Grace
Theology
Revelation
Temporal Inferior
Nature
Philosophy/Science
Natural law
Fits in
Aristotle
Tension of Thomas’ Two Storeys
The Christian mediaeval synthesis
presented by Thomas is one of
extreme tension, and in the dynamic
of historical development had effects
which were to prove self-destructive:
there was to be an unprecedented
and all-embracing movement of
secularization and emancipation
‘at the lower level.’ (Hans Küng)
Limited Autonomy to Total
Autonomy
While scholastic theologians [had]
granted a limited degree of
autonomy to the realm of our
natural life (and natural reason),
the Renaissance humanists so greatly
expanded the autonomy of nature
that there was no longer any need for
the realm of grace. If God and
Christianity were already basically
irrelevant to most of life, why not
make their irrelevance complete?
Salting Effect of Gospel
The medieval period was “the first
great attempt to translate the
universal claims of Christ into
political [and cultural] terms.”
As a result of the one-thousand-year
synthesis, “the Gospel was wrought into
the very stuff of [Western Europe’s]
social and personal life.”
“We still live largely on the spiritual
capital which it generated”
(Newbigin)