Here you will find lots of wrong answers. And the only correct one.
This is an impressive way of showing how modern governments have entered into the vacuum left by the widespread loss of faith in society.
Category Archives: Culture
Why Christianity in the West is Wilting
And why "progressivism" is currently so strong
Christian theologian, historian and economist Dr. Gary North (b. 1942) has something to say on this subject.
In a written introduction to a lecture he gave in 2010 on the history of American conservatism, he says:
“A movement without optimism regarding the earthly future of its adherents suffers from a disadvantage in recruiting, training, and financing evangelists who will sacrifice time and money in order to bring its message to the public.”
In this instance he meant, specifically, conservatism. But he might just as well have referred to Christianity – certainly in western countries.
That North in fact does think this also with regard to most of Christianity today becomes clear when reading these words from the introduction to his book “Christian Economics, Vol. 3: Activist’s Edition“:
“The vast majority of Christians have adopted an eschatology—the doctrine of last things—that insists that the world cannot be reformed. Yes, an individual can use the Bible to reform himself with God’s help. Of course, Christian families can be reformed by biblical principles. Even churches can be reformed or else replaced by better ones. But society cannot be successfully reformed. Neither can the state. In contrast, another group of Christians, few in number in the past, insist that Christ’s redemption is comprehensive. Wherever sin reigns, Christ’s kingdom can reform it. Therefore, the Bible offers answers to every question, including this one: “How should this area of life be reformed?” This is the issue of healing. The concept of healing is related to salvation. A salve heals.”
North continues:
“I am in the second group. I am inviting you to join.”
His books on Christian economics are his “program of reform”.
I agree with North. When I advocate “progress with God”, I am thinking of North’s ideas for “reforming” or “healing” society.
Today’s “progressives” also talk a lot about “reforming” or “healing” society. Their intentions in that respect are what make their movement so attractive — and powerful. Their particular intentions may be laudable. But without God, they will not heal society. On the contrary, their attempts at healing society without listening to God are very likely to make things worse for society and its individuals.
Against Apocalyptic Environmentalism
A discussion between Jordan Peterson and upbeat environmentalist Michael Shellenberger
Jordan Peterson, the celebrated psychologist and campaigner against restricted speech and other forms of censorship, has been back for quite a few months now after a long bout of mental and physical illness. His new, preferred format is long (1 to 2 hours) discussions with people who, like him, have done their homework and have something to say.
His latest discussion is with Michael Shellenberger, author of the book titled “Apocalypse Never”. I’ve watched the whole 1 hour 50 minutes of the conversation, and here are my notes and impressions of it. (I don’t claim my rendition is exhaustive. However, I think it provides a good idea of what was said.)
First of all: What a blessing it is, and how refreshing, in this age of quick memes, talking points and “cancellations”, to be able to follow two highly intelligent human beings involved in an exchange of ideas, ranging far, wide, and above all, deep, on some highly topical, contentious and relevant issues.
Continue readingFrom the conclusion of “The Relation Between Religion and Culture”
Great religions are the foundations on which the great civilizations rest
This is part 10, the last part, of my notes on the thoughts and ideas of Christopher Dawson. (In brackets the page numbers of each quote from TRBRAC, unless another book mentioned. “PwG” refers to my own thoughts.)
Dawson: “The great civilizations of the world do not produce the great religions as a kind of cultural by-product; in a very real sense the great religions are the foundations on which the great civilizations rest. A society which has lost its religion becomes sooner or later a society which has lost its culture.” (271, my emphasis) (Progress and Religion, 1937)
Continue readingOn Christianity and International Order
Religion is the only power that can meet the forces of destruction on equal terms
This is part 9 of my notes on the thoughts and ideas of Christopher Dawson. (In brackets the page numbers of each quote from TRBRAC, unless another book mentioned. “PwG” refers to my own thoughts.)
Dawson proposes not a League of Nations but a Confederation, a league of federations, that would unite the nations of the world. (p. 245)
Dawson states that such a federation would work only if it were based on some spiritual force, and he believes that we should look to Christianity to supply this spiritual force. Just as Christianity, in the past, was the basis of unity in Europe, so too, can it bring about world unity. (p. 245)
(PwG:) This is of course the total counter-vision to secular world government.
Continue readingOn the return to Christian unity and the predicament Christianity is in now
It has been replaced by "State-inspired public opinion and by the mass organisation of society on a purely secular basis"
This is part 8 of my notes on the thoughts and ideas of Christopher Dawson. (In brackets the page numbers of each quote from TRBRAC, unless another book mentioned. “PwG” refers to my own thoughts.)
Dawson: “Either Europe must abandon the Christian tradition and with it the faith in progress and humanity, or it must return consciously to the religious foundation on which these ideas were based.” (p. 225)
Dawson: “true foundation of European unity is to be found not in political or economic agreements, but in the restoration of the spiritual tradition on which that unity was originally based.” (p. 227, my emphasis)
Totalitarianism and the totalitarian state [are] a force that impedes the restauration of the Christian tradition in Western Culture. (p. 227)
Continue readingOn natural science
Does it inevitably lead to secularization?
This is part 7 of my notes on the thoughts and ideas of Christopher Dawson. (In brackets the page numbers of each quote from TRBRAC, unless another book mentioned. “PwG” refers to my own thoughts.)
Since the time of the Renaissance, natural science . . . was based on a mechanistic view of nature that destroyed the old spiritual unity of medieval Europe, and it failed to establish a real basis for unity in European culture. (p. 215)
Dawson: “Thus as I have suggested, the progress of Western civilisation by science and power seems to lead to a state of total secularization in which both religion and freedom simultaneously disappear.” (p. 218)
Continue readingOn the industrial revolution
It was built on the foundation of Christian revivals
This is part 6 of my notes on the thoughts and ideas of Christopher Dawson. (In brackets the page numbers of each quote from TRBRAC, unless another book mentioned. “PwG” refers to my own thoughts.)
[I]n England, they attempted to steer a middle course between traditional Christianity and the new ideas, and simultaneously devoted themselves to practical utilitarian activity. They put the new science into practical use, and at the same time developed a new social type, the hard-working, conscientious, abstemious man of business, who considered his work a kind of religious vocation. The “narrow and intense spirit of Puritanism,” remarks Dawson, “permeated the whole movement, and gave English middle-class society the moral force to carry out the vast material labour of the Industrial Revolution.” (p. 212)
(PwG:) Vishal Mangalwadi, in his magnificent book “The Book That Made Your World – How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization”, published 2011, argues that, without the Christian revivals in the UK and the American colonies (later the US), these regions would have been much more strongly influenced by the French Revolution than they were. That is why the Industrial Revolution started in Britain and the US, and not in continental Europe.
On the Enlightenment as a “Religion of Progress”
The French Revolution is still ongoing
This is part 5 of my notes on the thoughts and ideas of Christopher Dawson. (In brackets the page numbers of each quote from TRBRAC, unless another book mentioned. “PwG” refers to my own thoughts.)
Out of this rationalistic current of ideas [the Enlightenment in France and Deism in England] developed the idea of Progress or human perfectibility that became the religion of many of the intellectuals of Europe during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. (p. 208)
Dawson: “while the God of the Deists was but a pale abstraction, a mere deus ex machina, the belief in Progress was an ideal capable of stirring men’s emotions and arousing a genuine religious enthusiasm. Nor was it limited to the followers of the French philosophic rationalism. It played an equally important part in the formation of German Idealism and English Utilitarian Liberalism.” (p. 209)
Dawson: “the French Revolution was not so much a revolt against misgovernment and oppression, as an attempt to restore the unity of European society on the foundation of new ideas.” (p. 210)
(PwG:) That last comment is interesting in the modern context, for this attempt is still ongoing.
Orwell foresaw our cultural chaos
Due to "the break-up of laissez-faire capitalism and of the liberal-Christian culture"
Long before he wrote his famous dystopian and prophetic novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, George Orwell knew exactly which way the wind was blowing. In his essay “Inside the Whale” (published 11th March 1940), which is mainly a review of Henry Miller’s “Tropic of Cancer”, he writes, among many other clever observations:
“What is quite obviously happening, war or no war, is the break-up of laissez-faire capitalism and of the liberal-Christian culture.”
Interestingly, in the same year, the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, one of the most clear-sighted thinkers of the 20th century, and one of the most staunch defenders of laissez-faire capitalism, wrote in his autobiography (quote found here):
“Occasionally I entertained the hope that my writings would bear practical fruit and show the way for policy. Constantly I have been looking for evidence of a change in ideology. But…I have come to realize that my theories explain the degeneration of a great civilization; they do not prevent it. I set out to be a reformer, but only became the historian of decline.”
Both, of course, were right. It remains to us, the people living through the horrors they saw coming, to change course.
Von Mises’ writings didn’t bear fruit politically in his lifetime. And, although his ideas now have a strong and dedicated following, still don’t bear any fruit. Despite the fact that his followers predicted the financial crisis of 2008/9, while other economists laughed at them.
Maybe the reason for this fruitlessness can be found in Orwell’s above quote. Maybe laissez-faire capitalism and the “liberal-Christian” culture stand and fall together. Maybe they are two sides of the same coin. Maybe the one cannot be revived without the other. Maybe, as long as they don’t realise that they need each other, they are both doomed to live in the shadows. And, until a sufficient amount of people realise this connection, and act upon it, the whole world is destined to live through a new dark age.