LESSONS FROM HISTORY (INTRO): Christian Belief and the Consequences of Ideas

By Lee Dise

Introduction of a seven-part series.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Lee Dise is an accomplished trombonist and computer programmer, who also happens to know a great deal about things like philosophy, theology, history and related disciplines. He’s also a born-again Christian and in this multi-installment series appearing each day, starting today on HillFaith, Lee will offer an insightful and provocative analysis of how we got from where we were to where we are today. 

“Whoever argues for a restoration of values is sooner or later met with the objection that one cannot return, or as the phrase is likely to be, ‘you can’t turn the clock back.’  By thus assuming that we are prisoners of the moment, the objection well reveals the philosophic position of modernism.  The believer in truth, on the other hand, is bound to maintain that the things of highest value are not affected by the passage of time; otherwise, the very concept of truth becomes impossible.” — Richard M. Weaver, “Ideas Have Consequences” (1948)

We enter this world in humble fashion from the womb, and find ourselves thrust onstage in the middle of Act Three of an ongoing drama, having missed a lot of important stuff.  That’s why studying history is important — particularly intellectual history.

The ideas of long-dead theologians and philosophers helped shape this world, and helped determine whether millions were born into prosperity and faith, or oppression and despair.

What’s more, we seem to come equipped with an innate sense of disappointment with our little planet.  As babies, we cry when we’re hungry.  As small children, we resent being told ‘no.’  When we’re old enough, we become disappointed in our appearance and physical limitations, or upset that we aren’t getting what we think we deserve.

By adulthood, we have already questioned pretty much everything that has caused us even a moment of irritation.  We boiled with outrage as we watched a news report about suffering children.  We chafed at the arrogant magistrates who arbitrarily restrict our lives.  We suffered when caught up in the indifferent machinery of administrative systems that were bolted into place long ago.

That disappointment had a historical beginning.  Scientists have discovered a background radiation permeating the universe that is thought to be the leftover radiation from the “Big Bang.”

There was an analogous event in early human history — namely, the first time that man shook his fist at God.  Let’s call this event the “Big Fall.”  Its fallout even today irradiates and inflames fallen man.

We sense the loss of Heaven but resist doing what would regain it for us.  The fallout whispers to us, something is rotten.  Someone is holding out on you.  The disappointment inspires many to enter politics and fight corruption, or exploit it for their own purposes.  Either way, we all know something is wrong but still disagree, sometimes quite violently, about how, or whether, to fix it.

In this series of articles, we will explore Western intellectual history as it relates to Christian belief.  If we don’t like where we are, it might help to know how we got here.  Keep in mind that Christianity was originally not so much a product of Western civilization as a grafting onto it.  There have been times when the two did not easily coexist.

Consider for example the zeal with which Christianized Jews of the early Church insisted that Gentile believers be circumcised, or the reluctance of the gnostic Greeks to accept that Jesus was born in body as well as spirit, or the episodes wherein the Romans enthusiastically slaughtered Christians.

Finally, as believers, we must always place the Lord first in our hearts and minds — for, much as we may appreciate Western civilization, it does not offer us eternal life.  The West may eventually decide to cease its flirtatious dancing with the consuming flame and simply fly straight into it.  The Lord’s church needs not follow.

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Next: Western Civilization as Cultural Synthesis