Modernity in the Dock
If the Christian synthesis was so great, why did modernity reject it?
I’ll break the news up-front. I’ve decided to extend my philosophy foray into a third week. I was going to do two and switch gears for a bit, but you know how it is. Desperate times. Desperate measures. The world is facing apocalyptic danger and I haven’t quite had time to save it yet! We’ve got to see this plotline through!
Less dramatically: working on this week’s two major essays, I realized it would make more sense to break them each into two. This week I’ll explore the question: Why, if the Thomistic synthesis was so amazing, did it lose its hold on the world? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to put your best workhorses out to pasture. Why the heck did we do that?
Next week I want to look at the Thomistic and Aristotelian revivals of the 20th century and beyond. They’re coming back. I think they can come back further. But there are also some daunting challenges that need to be taken seriously. That’ll be next week’s topic.
After that, I’ll try to think of some fun, lighthearted topic to do as a palate cleanser. Ferris Wheels and Why We Need Them. How Jean-Luc Picard will restore Christendom.
But first we need to dig into the problems of modernity. Tomorrow I’ll talk about materialism and the allure of mechanistic explanation. Thursday I’ll get into postmodernism and the rejection of truth and rationality. Some big, chasm-like, Western-civilization threatening rapids ahead!
Let’s do this, people.