User:Sherrilledwards/sandbox: Difference between revisions

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=== Modernity and Disenchantment ===

Lewis says the modern novel is “doubly secular,” representing a world vacated by God.{{sfn|Lewis|2004|p=673}} The representation is both thematic and formal. Much has been written about the changing status of religion in the era of Modernity—a period, shall we say, from roughly 1900 to the present day—and many{{pg|333|334}} concepts have been used, such as secularization, loss of faith, ironic cultures, cognitive minorities, the disenchantment of the world, the sacred and the profane, and modernist literature as religion substitute. As one might expect, the literature is considerable.{{efn|Owen Chadwick{{sfn|Chadwick|1975}} is a useful introduction to ''secularization.'' Modernity and Christianity are discussed in Hans Küng.{{sfn|Küng|1980}} Spirituality and modern man are the focus of Carl Jung.{{sfn|Jung|1933}} ''Ironic cultures'' are dealt with by Ernest Gellner,{{sfn|Gellner|1974}} while ''irony'' as a product of the Great War is in Paul Fussell.{{sfn|Fussell|1975}} ''Cognitive minority'' is used by Peter Berger,{{sfn|Berger|1969}} while Berger & Luckmannuse terms such as ''deviance, heresy,'' and ''symbolic universe.'' {{sfn|Berger and Luckmann|1966|p=98-100}} ''Disenchantment of the world'' goes back to Max Weber in the 1940s. Weber, ''sacred'' and ''profane,'' and modernism as ''religion substitute'' are described in Lewis.{{sfn|Lewis|2004}}}} After all, Modernity and the disenchantment of the world is a thing of complexity.{{efn|Secularization in England, for instance, involves Darwin’s ''The Origin of Species'' (1859) and the literary responses: including Tennyson’s ''In Memoriam'' (1850), Arnold’s ''Dover Beach'' (1867), and the novels of George Eliot such ''Silas Marner'' (1861) and ''Middlemarch'' (1871–72). Eliot translated two works of German radical theology, D. F. Strauss’ ''Life of Jesus'' (1835, ET 1846) and Feuerbach’s ''The Essence of Christianity'' (1841, ET 1854). Willey (1964), Brown (1969) and Chadwick (1975) are

Lewis says the modern novel is “doubly secular,” representing a world vacated by God.{{sfn|Lewis|2004|p=673}} The representation is both thematic and formal. Much has been written about the changing status of religion in the era of Modernity—a period, shall we say, from roughly 1900 to the present day—and many{{pg|333|334}} concepts have been used, such as secularization, loss of faith, ironic cultures, cognitive minorities, the disenchantment of the world, the sacred and the profane, and modernist literature as religion substitute. As one might expect, the literature is considerable.{{efn|Owen Chadwick{{sfn|Chadwick|1975}} is a useful introduction to ''secularization.'' Modernity and Christianity are discussed in Hans Küng.{{sfn|Küng|1980}} Spirituality and modern man are the focus of Carl Jung.{{sfn|Jung|1933}} ''Ironic cultures'' are dealt with by Ernest Gellner,{{sfn|Gellner|1974}} while ''irony'' as a product of the Great War is in Paul Fussell.{{sfn|Fussell|1975}} ''Cognitive minority'' is used by Peter Berger,{{sfn|Berger|1969}} while Berger & Luckmannuse terms such as ''deviance, heresy,'' and ''symbolic universe.'' {{sfn|Berger and Luckmann|1966|p=98-100}} ''Disenchantment of the world'' goes back to Max Weber in the 1940s. Weber, ''sacred'' and ''profane,'' and modernism as ''religion substitute'' are described in Lewis.{{sfn|Lewis|2004}}}} After all, Modernity and the disenchantment of the world is a thing of complexity.{{efn|Secularization in England, for instance, involves Darwin’s ''The Origin of Species'' (1859) and the literary responses: including Tennyson’s ''In Memoriam'' (1850), Arnold’s ''Dover Beach'' (1867), and the novels of George Eliot such ''Silas Marner'' (1861) and ''Middlemarch'' (1871–72). Eliot translated two works of German radical theology, D. F. Strauss’ ''Life of Jesus'' (1835, ET 1846) and Feuerbach’s ''The Essence of Christianity'' (1841, ET 1854). Willey (1964), Brown (1969) and Chadwick (1975) are useful guides, as is Kucich (2001).}} But it cannot be undone.

useful guides, as is Kucich (2001).}} But it cannot be undone.

For Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud onwards,“disenchanting” the world spelt the end of religion—the “death” of God—a process thought to be inevitable. The journey begins with Martin Luther in 1517, or earlier in Renaissance humanism. The rise of modern science, symbolized by ''On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres'' by Copernicus in 1543, is crucial: science advanced as it was able to provide mathematical explanations for phenomena attributed to God or magic. That reality is the heart of disenchantment. Skepticism, a rationalistic response to the Wars of Religion, was also significant. No wonder Popkin says, “Luther had indeed opened a Pandora’s box."{{sfn|Lewis|2004|p=15}}

During the Enlightenment, the American and French revolutions attacked the Divine Right of Kings. While their respective revolutionary documents retain a “veneer of religion,"{{sfn|Brown|1969|p=39}} this effectively begins the modern secular state. In 1843, Karl Marx, following Feuerbach in arguing that “Man makes religion,"{{sfn|Marx|1975|p=243}} in memorable phrases described religion as “the heart of a heartless world” and “the opium of the people."{{sfn|Marx|1975|p=244}}{{efn| “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the ''opium'' of the people."{{sfn|Marx|1975|p=243-244, emphasis in original}}}} After 1917, the Soviet Union mandated the “death” of God. A host of epistemological challenges—Descartes, Hume, Kant, Darwin, Einstein, Heisenberg—obviously contributed to this process we call modernity.

But religion persisted. Partly, this was an aggressive counter-revolution, including Pope Pius IX (1792–1878), with his ''Syllabus of Errors'' (1864) and Definition of Papal Infallibility (1871), and Protestant fundamentalism, seen in ''The Fundamentals'' (1910–1915) and proclaiming another form of infallibility—an inerrant text. Within the infallible world of Marxist-Leninism, religion grew, maybe because it was attacked. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989,Marx’s critique of religion has lost much, but not all, of its potency. The secularization thesis requires modification.

An example of such modification is Peter Berger’s book, ''A Rumor of Angels.''{{sfn|Berger|1969}} My title alludes to his book, and to a recent usage by Philip Yancey (1997). Berger suggests that there exist certain “signals of transcendence”—such as the human desire for order—that point beyond a purely naturalistic reality.{{sfn|Berger|1969|p=53}}{{efn| “By signals of transcendence I mean phenomena that are to be found within the domain of our ‘natural’ reality but that appear to point beyond that reality”{{sfn|Berger|1969|p=53}}}} However, as Berger recognizes, for most people the{{pg|334|335}} predominant reality is still that secular mind-set. Thus, religious language is used by a “cognitive minority." {{sfn|Berger|1969|p=6}}{{efn| “By a cognitive minority I mean a group of people whose view of the world differs significantly from the one generally taken for granted in their society. Put differently, a cognitive minority is a group formed around a body of deviant ‘knowledge’”{{sfn|Berger|1969|p=6}}}} This position is uncomfortable, needing to be buttressed socially and epistemologically. But the position exists.

=== Notes ===

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* {{cite journal |last=Whalen-Bridge |first=John and Angela Oon |title=Washed by the Swells of Time: Reading Mailer, 1998-2008 |journal=The Mailer Review |volume=3.1 |date=2009 |pages=212-243 |ref=harv }}

* {{cite book |last=Yancey |first=Philip |date=2002 |title=What's So Amazing About Grace? |location= Grand Rapids|publisher=Zondervan |ref=harv }}

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 === Modernity and Disenchantment ===
-Lewis says the modern novel is “doubly secular,” representing a world vacated by God.{{sfn|Lewis|2004|p=673}} The representation is both thematic and formal. Much has been written about the changing status of religion in the era of Modernity—a period, shall we say, from roughly 1900 to the present day—and many{{pg|333|334}} concepts have been used, such as secularization, loss of faith, ironic cultures, cognitive minorities, the disenchantment of the world, the sacred and the profane, and modernist literature as religion substitute. As one might expect, the literature is considerable.{{efn|Owen Chadwick{{sfn|Chadwick|1975}} is a useful introduction to ''secularization.'' Modernity and Christianity are discussed in Hans Küng.{{sfn|Küng|1980}} Spirituality and modern man are the focus of Carl Jung.{{sfn|Jung|1933}} ''Ironic cultures'' are dealt with by Ernest Gellner,{{sfn|Gellner|1974}} while ''irony'' as a product of the Great War is in Paul Fussell.{{sfn|Fussell|1975}} ''Cognitive minority'' is used by Peter Berger,{{sfn|Berger|1969}} while Berger & Luckmannuse terms such as ''deviance, heresy,'' and ''symbolic universe.'' {{sfn|Berger and Luckmann|1966|p=98-100}} ''Disenchantment of the world'' goes back to Max Weber in the 1940s. Weber, ''sacred'' and ''profane,'' and modernism as ''religion substitute'' are described in Lewis.{{sfn|Lewis|2004}}}} After all, Modernity and the disenchantment of the world is a thing of complexity.{{efn|Secularization in England, for instance, involves Darwin’s ''The Origin of Species'' (1859) and the literary responses: including Tennyson’s ''In Memoriam'' (1850), Arnold’s ''Dover Beach'' (1867), and the novels of George Eliot such ''Silas Marner'' (1861) and ''Middlemarch'' (1871–72). Eliot translated two works of German radical theology, D. F. Strauss’ ''Life of Jesus'' (1835, ET 1846) and Feuerbach’s ''The Essence of Christianity'' (1841, ET 1854). Willey (1964), Brown (1969) and Chadwick (1975) are
+Lewis says the modern novel is “doubly secular,” representing a world vacated by God.{{sfn|Lewis|2004|p=673}} The representation is both thematic and formal. Much has been written about the changing status of religion in the era of Modernity—a period, shall we say, from roughly 1900 to the present day—and many{{pg|333|334}} concepts have been used, such as secularization, loss of faith, ironic cultures, cognitive minorities, the disenchantment of the world, the sacred and the profane, and modernist literature as religion substitute. As one might expect, the literature is considerable.{{efn|Owen Chadwick{{sfn|Chadwick|1975}} is a useful introduction to ''secularization.'' Modernity and Christianity are discussed in Hans Küng.{{sfn|Küng|1980}} Spirituality and modern man are the focus of Carl Jung.{{sfn|Jung|1933}} ''Ironic cultures'' are dealt with by Ernest Gellner,{{sfn|Gellner|1974}} while ''irony'' as a product of the Great War is in Paul Fussell.{{sfn|Fussell|1975}} ''Cognitive minority'' is used by Peter Berger,{{sfn|Berger|1969}} while Berger & Luckmannuse terms such as ''deviance, heresy,'' and ''symbolic universe.'' {{sfn|Berger and Luckmann|1966|p=98-100}} ''Disenchantment of the world'' goes back to Max Weber in the 1940s. Weber, ''sacred'' and ''profane,'' and modernism as ''religion substitute'' are described in Lewis.{{sfn|Lewis|2004}}}} After all, Modernity and the disenchantment of the world is a thing of complexity.{{efn|Secularization in England, for instance, involves Darwin’s ''The Origin of Species'' (1859) and the literary responses: including Tennyson’s ''In Memoriam'' (1850), Arnold’s ''Dover Beach'' (1867), and the novels of George Eliot such ''Silas Marner'' (1861) and ''Middlemarch'' (1871–72). Eliot translated two works of German radical theology, D. F. Strauss’ ''Life of Jesus'' (1835, ET 1846) and Feuerbach’s ''The Essence of Christianity'' (1841, ET 1854). Willey (1964), Brown (1969) and Chadwick (1975) are useful guides, as is Kucich (2001).}} But it cannot be undone.
-useful guides, as is Kucich (2001).}} But it cannot be undone.
 For Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud onwards,“disenchanting” the world spelt the end of religion—the “death” of God—a process thought to be inevitable. The journey begins with Martin Luther in 1517, or earlier in Renaissance humanism. The rise of modern science, symbolized by ''On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres'' by Copernicus in 1543, is crucial: science advanced as it was able to provide mathematical explanations for phenomena attributed to God or magic. That reality is the heart of disenchantment. Skepticism, a rationalistic response to the Wars of Religion, was also significant. No wonder Popkin says, “Luther had indeed opened a Pandora’s box."{{sfn|Lewis|2004|p=15}}
 During the Enlightenment, the American and French revolutions attacked the Divine Right of Kings. While their respective revolutionary documents retain a “veneer of religion,"{{sfn|Brown|1969|p=39}} this effectively begins the modern secular state. In 1843, Karl Marx, following Feuerbach in arguing that “Man makes religion,"{{sfn|Marx|1975|p=243}} in memorable phrases described religion as “the heart of a heartless world” and “the opium of the people."{{sfn|Marx|1975|p=244}}{{efn| “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the ''opium'' of the people."{{sfn|Marx|1975|p=243-244, emphasis in original}}}} After 1917, the Soviet Union mandated the “death” of God. A host of epistemological challenges—Descartes, Hume, Kant, Darwin, Einstein, Heisenberg—obviously contributed to this process we call modernity.
+But religion persisted. Partly, this was an aggressive counter-revolution, including Pope Pius IX (1792–1878), with his ''Syllabus of Errors'' (1864) and Definition of Papal Infallibility (1871), and Protestant fundamentalism, seen in ''The Fundamentals'' (1910–1915) and proclaiming another form of infallibility—an inerrant text. Within the infallible world of Marxist-Leninism, religion grew, maybe because it was attacked. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989,Marx’s critique of religion has lost much, but not all, of its potency. The secularization thesis requires modification.
+An example of such modification is Peter Berger’s book, ''A Rumor of Angels.''{{sfn|Berger|1969}} My title alludes to his book, and to a recent usage by Philip Yancey (1997). Berger suggests that there exist certain “signals of transcendence”—such as the human desire for order—that point beyond a purely naturalistic reality.{{sfn|Berger|1969|p=53}}{{efn| “By signals of transcendence I mean phenomena that are to be found within the domain of our ‘natural’ reality but that appear to point beyond that reality”{{sfn|Berger|1969|p=53}}}} However, as Berger recognizes, for most people the{{pg|334|335}} predominant reality is still that secular mind-set. Thus, religious language is used by a “cognitive minority." {{sfn|Berger|1969|p=6}}{{efn| “By a cognitive minority I mean a group of people whose view of the world differs significantly from the one generally taken for granted in their society. Put differently, a cognitive minority is a group formed around a body of deviant ‘knowledge’”{{sfn|Berger|1969|p=6}}}} This position is uncomfortable, needing to be buttressed socially and epistemologically. But the position exists.
 === Notes ===
@@ Line 100: / Line 103: @@
 * {{cite journal |last=Whalen-Bridge |first=John and Angela Oon |title=Washed by the Swells of Time: Reading Mailer, 1998-2008 |journal=The Mailer Review |volume=3.1 |date=2009 |pages=212-243 |ref=harv }}
+* {{cite book |last=Yancey |first=Philip |date=2002 |title=What's So Amazing About Grace? |location= Grand Rapids|publisher=Zondervan |ref=harv }}