Christianity in the Western Tradition (original) (raw)

2002, Universality and History: Foundations of Core

This paper examines the place of Christianity in the Western tradition. It is a dissent from the idea—found in a wide variety of mid-century works—of a great tradition of political and moral thought that begins in Athens and Jerusalem and is rejected by the founders of modernity. On this view, Ancient Greek and Biblical thought share the aspiration to ennoble human beings. Modernity, on the other, builds on low but presumably more solid foundations. In this paper I wish to put forward a different story. My claim is that, though modernity fundamentally rejects the tenets of Christianity, it borrows much from Christian thought and, especially, from Augustine to whose thought I will devote the greatest attention. I suggest in particular that the modern rejection of Plato and Aristotle is, in some important respects, derived from Christianity. In defense of this thesis I advance four claims. (1) The modern reliance on fear as one primary source of political unity has origins in the centrality of the fear of God in Biblical thought. (2) The egalitarianism of modern thought—the distinctively modern concern for the well-being of the common man—reflects the egalitarianism of Biblical religion, an egalitarianism that originally flourishes in the Hebrew Bible and that becomes more powerful once freed from the hierarchical tendencies Christianity learned from Ancient Greek thought. (3) The modern picture of human nature as motivated by unending desire is derived from the Christian notion of fallen man. (4) The ideological character of modern thought—the distinctively modern attempt to make philosophy practical in part by teaching the people certain truths of philosophy—is prefigured by the Christian emphasis on faith. My claim, then, is that the great tradition is a fable. Modernity can be seen, in part, as the derivative of Christian thought once the Christian focus on the next world is given up. But that, of course, is also to say that Christianity and modernity are decisively different. Christianity stands by itself and apart from both the Ancients and the Moderns. To understand the Western tradition as a whole, then, we must grasp the distinctive features of Christianity.