Later Century Secular and Christian thought
Where has balance gone?
Truth paused, then liberated?
It's not what you think? Or is It?
The modern era have seen the current age of vast prosperity with the advances in medicine,technology,science,war,agricultural,material science,literacy and numeracy for all, home/office work, libraries, cheaper- travel, rise of feminism,relative ageism, cancel culture, right and left- wing buffoonery, euthanasia,transactional -love, auto and alternative-sexuality, neo- politics and rise in longevity and uplift of rationalism,return of nationalism and alternative theories such as critical race theory, toxic and anti - traditional masculinity,female re-valuation and gender theory spread
The pervasive spread of basic and essential knowledge and reform of Order-Law protocols and traditional customs within some kinds of opposing world views have released the masses from relative slavery. With the democratisation of knowledge and virtually instant communication anywhere and anytime achieved. This has ushered in a new Cultural and Political Age. Of course the Hi- Tech Age accompanied the overall dominance of the West. But such prosperity though fairly common was not fully long-term and not trickled down everywhere. ( as is slower developing Asian nations,African countries and Latin world nations )
Overall the rise of western Feminism has achieved the aim of liberation of the second sex globally. Some say the pendulum has swung way too far to the other extreme. Given the rise of double income families, whole societies rose boldly with nations accruing global significance and a kind of first-among-equals status.
Individualism ousted community core- values, but the pendulum swung back after some decades in seemingly,open desperation. That resulted in a truce of sorts. Leading to the prominence of the far-left culture and political movements known today.
Hi- Technologies became popular and strident almost overnight. A new kind of power emerged, the power of the bit,satellite and fibroid-optic cable. Previously when new technology broke through elites kept the advantage for decades, even centuries. However more recently, when the next-best -thing occurred, mass production swung into action instead. The masses obtained the advantage quickly. Elites seeking to re-establish their ascendancy, fought back with the culture wars as they became known. But undeterred, forces for good, were not far behind.
While creating a vast pool of skilled and highly advanced workforce with the globalisation of resources and highly- skilled nomadic workforce World wide prosperity ensured the success of the ordinary citizen. Again forces of darkness fought to topple the neo- economic structure. New voices,podcasts and the coffee set social media found reception among the Gen Z population and Gen Y. The surge in the popularity of ancient philosophy and the rise of Western pro-Christianity movements are well documented in recent surveys.
But is it too late?
The rise of Western pro- democratic civilization broadening and distributing richer urban life -styles and with unfortunately its attendant ills. While uplifting humanity as a whole it has created the precise opposite effect simultaneously.
With some very interesting, intellectual complexities and nuances of philosophical thought widely available to the connected citizen. This situation has given rise towards wider chaos with the nature similar to the opposite circumstances where most people in the distant past had little or no knowledge causing a chain of events whereby only a few mortals and their families ruled the ignorant masses. Too much knowledge isn't a good thing.either. In post- modern times there is such diversity of thought most people's world-views clash without even meaning to.
The 20th and 21st centuries saw the world rise from significant overall poverty into a burgeoning vast sector of middle income earners whose lives,attitudes and aims directed Governments and populations into trying other political persuasions like Techno-Fascism and Islamic- Communism.With competing and sometimes opposing economic pressures and forces the developed world turned into enclaves of separate economic and geopolitical regions.
Some Western governments sought prosperity for all mankind like the US Marshall plan after the second W.War, while others sought consolidation of elitist ruling classes intolerantly resetting the world into a potential one world government rule. The ruling classes have tried to control the narrative whereby competing voices which are censored and are labelled as misinformation and disinformation to quash the alternative views and practices.
These modern concepts are exposed by secular books such as 1984, Brave New World ,Animal Farm and the like!
With the advent of techno- utopianism and the installation of robotic manufacturing with augmented artificial intelligence, the Hi- tech sector has become a new kind of defacto Overlord,or King -maker and with the growth of a surveillance society making possible mass control of national populations.
They enable a new kind of economic and political control not attainable until the advent of the computer, digital economy with the ubiquitous internet and artificial intelligence ,bio metric and facial recognition CCTV.
This growth of science, technology and hyper-rational atheism as a result. religion or spirituality has at times seemed to be under threat from relativism,atheism and nihilism.. So it is not surprising that some of the most interesting twentieth-century writings on Christianity are those that consider the underpinning of religion in the modern world The first book in this section: The Way of the Pilgrim something of a return to a simpler age. The pilgrim's faith in God is inspiring and a reminder of simpler times. However, it is a book that examines some of the most basic aspects of faith, and tries to establish an understanding of what it means to live a life devoted to God.
The other books mentioned here are all from the twentieth and twenty-first century, and all address the basic problems of faith in the modern world. Ortbodoxy by G.K. Chesterton is an interesting book because it makes an argument that you don't see too often, which is that we should defer to the authority of the Catholic Church.
Writers, even spiritual writers tend to be individualists.So they are perhaps less likely than other people to wish to make the argument that we show conformity to orthodoxy, but Chesterton makes an engaging argument for this point of view.
The Screwtape Letters is an original yet modern satirical view of the world of Hell and its demons. Its uniquely designer world of a major demon guiding a neophyte demon is both humorous and startling. Since it's unlikely that demons carry pitchforks and have horns, Lewis' visualisation of demons like Madison Avenue masculine- types is both charming and devilish. Mad men into mad demons. Mad fiction into Mad fact?
This book and others address the problems of faith and temptation, . The works of Francis Schaeffer and Henry Nouwen each take a look at the essential roots of Christian faith, Meanwhile Timothy Keller's 2008 book The Reason for God returns to the true tradition of Christian apologetics. Keller looks at the arguments for scepticism and for rejecting Christianity and calmly debunks the certainty of the non-Christian position.
These titles are all ones that have their inestimable value in an age when doubt,loneliness and scepticism reign. It could perhaps be said that the two great dangers of the post-modern world are ignoring religious movements altogether and the atheistic forces of nihilism, pop-psychology,pop-culture, pragmatism, determinism, existentialism and faithlessness. The task facing the modern believer is how to steer a reasonable but intuitive path between these extremes.
( Opinion and research by Digital Anvil)
