{"id":10761,"date":"2022-04-06T10:03:13","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T16:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicsquaremag.org\/?p=10761"},"modified":"2022-04-06T10:03:13","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T16:03:13","slug":"our-worship-of-the-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publicsquaremag.org\/dialogue\/history\/our-worship-of-the-new\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Worship of the New"},"content":{"rendered":"

In modern culture, we worship the new, the young, and the future. We seek out a new theory, the next fashion, or a fresh perspective. This \u201ccult of progress\u201d reaches deep into academia. I was a research assistant for several social science professors at a university where the pressure to publish weighed heavily upon them. To be published, you must come up with something \u201cnew\u201d and eye-catching in your research. If your work included a paradigm-shifting idea, your chances of publication dramatically increased. Research is now conducted with the goal of being original. Interview questions are composed, phenomena described, and statistics analyzed in the hope of catching the eye of a prominent research journal.<\/span><\/p>\n

This modern emphasis on over-valuing the original and distinctive features bothers me. I find it hard to believe things presented as \u201cnew.\u201d If, in the thousands of years of human thought, no one else \u201cmade the connection,\u201d is it worth making now? <\/span>There is often a deep arrogance in supposing that what is new is better. This is how we end up with Reese\u2019s peanut butter cups with potato chips in them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of my disillusionment with modern thought started in high school. My mother encouraged me to read <\/span>The Brothers Karamazov<\/span><\/i> by Dostoyevsky. That book changed my life and my perspective. How could an author from 19th Century Russia speak so deeply to my 1990s heart? I continue to be amazed by the wisdom found in even more ancient writings. From Aristotle to Chesterton, the long-dead still speak to my soul. When I compare much of our modern culture to antiquity, it seems clear that standards are lower. Old Town Road was a #1 song after all, and in 1750, even Bach wasn’t good enough. He only became popular after his death.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Progress on Wise Backs<\/b><\/h3>\n

We certainly have made progress. We live in the age of novocaine and indoor plumbing. Much of our most tangible progress has been made in the hard sciences\u2014technology, engineering, science, and medicine. The advances made in these fields are truly staggering. Yet, when we compare rockets going to Mars with recently <\/span>published research in sociology<\/span><\/a>, the difference in quality is quite stark. So why have the hard sciences advanced while the arts and social sciences haven\u2019t as convincingly? Hard sciences are humble. They know that progress is only made on the back of previously gained knowledge. But in the \u201csofter sciences\u201d and even in our own lives, we frequently presume the opposite\u2014think we can leave behind and ditch the \u201cold.\u201d<\/span> We take for granted they were \u201cbackward\u201d in earlier eras; that the world has changed fundamentally since then and that we have evolved and advanced beyond their morality. Really?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We are the descendants of generation upon generation of deep-thinking human beings\u2014generally more deep-thinking than ourselves. If you doubt it, <\/span>read a letter<\/span><\/a> written by the average uneducated soldier in the Civil War. The eloquence and depth found there will leave us ashamed of our emoji-laden texts.

We take for granted they were \u201cbackward\u201d in earlier eras; that the world has changed fundamentally since then and that we have evolved and advanced beyond their morality.<\/p><\/blockquote><\/div><\/span>The minds of the past had advantages we don\u2019t. Their ideas often came out of necessity or love of knowledge, not a need to publish in a prestigious journal. They sat for hours, months, decades, and centuries and pondered the deeper things of life without the modern distractions of cell phones or Netflix. Their thoughts were not warped by the promise of worldwide attention for discovering that Abraham Lincoln was gay<\/a> or Jesus was a Zealot<\/a>. Their wisdom was gained through hard work, with little chance of fame or recognition.<\/p>\n

That fame and recognition, of course, pull on our ambitions every day online across various social media channels. Who could not be somewhat allured by the pull of what is popular?\u00a0 Yet as C.S. Lewis said in his book <\/span>The Problem of Pain,<\/span><\/i> \u201cI take a very low view of \u2018climates of opinion.\u2019 \u2026 All discoveries are made, and all errors corrected by those who ignore the climate of opinion.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While the climate may change, ultimately<\/span>, there are no \u201cnew\u201d philosophies. Plato, 300 BC, would not be surprised by any arguments for justice and equality made by Marx or in Critical Race Theory. Thrasymachus, a character in the Republic, argued \u201cmight makes right\u201d thousands of years before Nietzsche.<\/span><\/p>\n

A.N. Whitehead said, \u201cThe safest general characterization of European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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School of Athens, Raphael<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There have been hedonists, material determinists, polyamorists, utopians, anarchists, etc. since we started writing down ideas. The human mind has many centuries of experience going deep and shallow, skeptical and faithful, pessimistic and optimistic, far and near. Our ancestors\u2019 moral backwardness is only equaled by our own. Our sins are not unique; our virtues are not \u201cprogress.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The author of <\/span>Ecclesiastes suggests<\/span><\/a>, \u201cWhat has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.\u201d Later, we <\/span>read from Paul<\/span><\/a>, \u201cThere hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, we see that some of these old philosophies become predominant over time. Scientific materialism, while adopted by a small segment of philosophy, such as the Sophists in Greece, now rules our scientific community. And moral relativism is now the hidden tyrant of modern social science. So, while there is nothing new under the sun, some trees have grown so large that they block out the sun of all other philosophies, particularly any that claim objective truth. (I recommend Stephen C. Meyer’s <\/span>The Return of The God Hypothesis<\/span><\/i><\/a>, where he discusses the relatively recent rise of materialism in science.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Classical Education<\/b><\/h3>\n

Previous generations valued \u201cclassical education.\u201d They looked to the wisdom of the past before disdain for the old became the dominant philosophy. The moral progress we can claim, such as the abolition of slavery in the West and equal treatment under the law of women and minorities, was achieved by men and women who respected and utilized the scholarship of the past to make advancements in modern times (Check out <\/span>this clip from Catholic Bishop Roberton<\/span><\/a> detailing the influence of “old” Christian ideas and traditions on the civil rights leaders of the past, including Martin Luther King, in sharp contrast to the modern progressive movements which are often antagonistic to such tradition.)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rather than labeling the imperfect men and women of the past as unworthy of their time and attention, previous generations accumulated wisdom by reading \u201cthe greats.\u201d To be \u201ceducated\u201d meant to have common knowledge of key works of literature, philosophy, art, and music. While there are still many private schools and home-school curriculums that provide a \u201cclassical education,\u201d focusing on teaching great works of logic, art, and literature, the prevailing view of being \u201ceducated\u201d is very different.\u00a0 At university, we are schooled primarily in criticism and how to identify the failings of past scholarship. We are encouraged to read works from earlier eras seeking out biases and agendas far more than truth. We are to be the judges of our predecessors, not their students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We return to C.S. Lewis, this time in his book <\/span>The Screwtape Letters<\/span><\/i>: \u201cThe Historical Point of View, put briefly, means that when a learned man is presented with any statement by an ancient author, the one question he never asks is whether it is true.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Universities are now dropping requirements to study classical literature such as Shakespeare and Homer. A piece in the <\/span>National Review<\/span><\/a> described the reason behind the decline in teaching the classics: \u201cCritics believe that the study of classics \u2018has been instrumental to the invention of \u2018whiteness\u2019 and its continued domination.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is folly. The traditions and philosophies of the past were built on the backs of millions of minds gathered together for the benefit of mankind. Why throw that away? We need not accept every tradition, every past belief\u2014for human vice certainly influenced the development of many. But surely we can learn from our intellectual ancestors. We now have an expanded ability to pull knowledge from various cultures and religions\u2014great thoughts were thought in every land. But let\u2019s not toss out what has proved beneficial and enlightening because it is \u201cwestern\u201d or \u201cold.\u201d We need to read Shakespeare. There will never be another like him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Referring to Christ, George MacDonald once said, \u201cOur Lord never thought of being original. The older the saying the better, if it utters the truth He wants to utter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When I look at our modern world, it is clear we are missing something: we are missing something old. C.S. Lewis describes this old and deep wisdom as the <\/span>Moral Law<\/span><\/a>, written in the heart of every man. Because all men through all ages have had contact with this Moral Law, we can look back in confidence that they were not, in fact, simply morons. Practical morality may differ between cultures, but there are commonalities among all cultures because the idea of right and wrong is innate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

G.K. Chesterton in his book <\/span>Orthodoxy<\/span><\/i> said, \u201cThe soul might seek the strangest and most remote lands and ages and still find essential ethical common sense.\u201d\u00a0 And Aristotle said in <\/span>Rhetoric<\/span><\/i>, \u201cThere really is, as everyone to some extent divines, a natural justice and injustice that is binding on all men, even on those who have no association or covenant with each other.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While Aristotle understood that different cultures have unique laws, social stigmas, and customs, he emphasized that universal law must undergird these \u201cparticular laws,\u201d or we will end in moral chaos.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No Boundaries, No Truth, No Respect for the Old<\/b><\/h3>\n

Henry David Thoreau said, \u201cEvery generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.\u201d Today, as we increasingly and overtly reject the idea of a moral law or transcendent truth, the wisdom of the ancients becomes irrelevant. Progress, to many, means moving beyond any fences, any morality which may stifle us. Our customs and our new traditions need not be \u201cgood\u201d to be acceptable; they simply must be accepted to be acceptable.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Corner of the Paddock, Julian Rossi Ashton<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In <\/span>The Thing<\/span><\/i>, G.K. Chesterton says, \u201c[Consider], a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, \u2018I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.\u2019 To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: \u2018If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.\u2019\u201d Chesterton continues by explaining:<\/span><\/p>\n

If he knows how it arose, and what purposes it was supposed to serve, he may really be able to say that they were bad purposes, that they have since become bad purposes, or that they are purposes which are no longer served. But if he simply stares at the thing as a senseless monstrosity that has somehow sprung up in his path, it is he and not the traditionalist who is suffering from <\/span>an illusion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We are tearing down fences without considering why they were built. We tore down sexual morality; are we better off now? As we tear down the constraints and encouragements of religious dogma, are we more compassionate and happier?<\/span><\/p>\n

The Wickedness of the Past Guides us to Future Righteousness<\/b><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s be clear\u2014the past was certainly not full of virtue. Ghengis Khan and Vlad the Impaler could have benefited from reading Plato, too. The past has been full of wickedness. Morally, we may be no better than them, but they were arguably no better than us either. Vices like envy, greed, and the drive for power have always lived side by side with virtues. As much as we can learn how to be good from our ancestors, we can also learn how they went bad.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We can read from the words of the wise who lived in dark times\u2014\u201csaints\u201d who sought to pull people out of the darkness and back towards the light of morality. These greats of the past were often those most rejected by the people of their time or honored for their bravery in pointing out their society\u2019s excesses. Sound familiar?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Again we read from G.K. Chesterton, in his biography of St. Thomas Aquinas, explaining that the \u201cSaint\u201d is often a \u201cmartyr\u201d because \u201che is mistaken for a poison because he is an antidote\u201d\u2014 adding:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He will generally be found restoring the world to sanity by exaggerating whatever the world neglects \u2026 he is not what the people want, but rather what the people need. Therefore it is the paradox of history that each generation is converted by the saint who contradicts it most.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seek Out the Old to Build a Better Tomorrow<\/b><\/p>\n

We all seek a better future\u2014a Utopia, a Zion. Young people especially believe we can build a better world. I pray they are right. But how do we build it? We have rockets going to Mars because wise scientists still read Einstein and Newton. Can we build a Utopia without Aristotle? Without Jesus Christ?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I believe it is time to revisit the wisdom of the past. We must read old books and point our idealistic youth to them. If we gather wisdom from the ages, we are much less likely to be swayed by the fads of the day\u2014the modern trends that will fade into history like so many before them.<\/span><\/p>\n

C.S. Lewis warned against focusing our study on modern books alone, \u201cWhere they are true they will give us truths which we half knew already. Where they are false they will aggravate the error with which we are already dangerously ill. The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing New for Christians<\/b><\/p>\n

I had an interesting encounter online recently with a young man, a devout atheist. He was protesting one of my pieces, which I am fairly certain he didn\u2019t actually read. His retorts were right out of the atheist scriptures: \u201cIf God were good, why would he let children die painfully?\u201d and \u201cWhy doesn\u2019t God just show himself?\u201d In speaking with this young man, it became obvious that he thought these questions were \u201cnew\u201d ideas that Sam Harris or one of his other idols had originated and which now “debunked” religion. He was surprised when I pointed him to old philosophy that answered his \u201cnew\u201d doubts.

Our customs and our new traditions need not be \u201cgood\u201d to be acceptable; they simply must be accepted to be acceptable. <\/p><\/blockquote><\/div><\/span>As Christians, we should feel confident that any doubts we may hold have been had by others and great minds have attempted to answer them. Yet today, as a combination of materialism and relativism becomes the dominant worldview, we see that religion is often transformed as well. In the past, people went to church to escape the toils and struggles of life and to praise their delivering God while they experience the joy found in a community of believers. Today, rather than focus on worship and praise, we often expect the \u201ccertainty\u201d demanded of scientific materialism or the \u201cacceptance\u201d demanded of moral relativism. Are we allowing modern philosophy to alter our perception of the gospel and steal away the joy found in worship?<\/p>\n

God doesn’t conform to the \u201cclimate of opinions;\u201d He deals in ancient laws and truth. He has seen all vice, all trends, all doubts, all the tactics of the adversary, and He gave us their remedy 2022 years ago. While we certainly have modern challenges, divine solutions to them are unquestionably old\u2014even while they continue to be continually relevant, even \u201cnew and everlasting.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even in our faith communities, the worship of the \u201cnew\u201d thrives\u2014manifested in the vaunting of a different interpretation of scripture, a modern understanding of doctrine, or a new movement we should adopt into the gospel. Each idea is accompanied by hundreds of voices backing or refuting it on social media. While there is value in this wealth of information, we must not lean too much on others\u2019 interpretations or trust excessively in those who must keep audiences entertained (I include my own writing in this criticism). Our wealth of resources, even in ancient wisdom, can quickly turn to excess, to noise. It becomes more difficult to remember which principles are \u201cfirst\u201d as we become preoccupied with peripheral doctrines. We may need to return occasionally to the pure word of God to praise\u2014to the ancient gospel of joy and simplicity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In <\/span>The Screwtape Letters<\/span><\/i>, a demon explains with disdain the stillness of a \u201cbeliever\u2019s\u201d home as a \u201csickening resemblance\u201d to how one writer described heaven, namely \u201cthe regions where there is only life and therefore all that is not music is silence.\u201d The demon continued, \u201cMusic and silence\u2014how I detest them both! \u2026[Hell] has been occupied by Noise. We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. \u2026 The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We have collected so much wisdom at an ever-increasing rate, it has become noisy\u2014endless Christian podcasts, articles, and Facebook groups. Our abundance can be stressful and unsteadying. Our ancestors treasured their copy of the Bible and, if they were lucky, <\/span>The Pilgrim\u2019s Progress<\/span><\/i> or Book of Common Prayer. They were no less righteous for the lack.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If we find ourselves overwhelmed or overly influenced by the new, by the excess, we should retreat to the melodies and silences of Heaven.<\/span> When it is time to dig more deeply into wisdom, let us not forget to reach for the words of our ancestral teachers. As we stop valuing originality, but rather value truth, we may discover that what we truly seek is very old indeed.<\/span><\/p>\n

_______________________________<\/p>\n

Further Quotes on the Value of Modern Arrogance and Ancient Wisdom<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cIn place of the old beliefs of a civilization based on godliness, judgment and historical loyalty, young people are given the new beliefs of a society based on equality and inclusion, and are told that the judgment of other lifestyles is a crime. … The \u2019non-judgmental\u2019 attitude towards other cultures goes hand-in-hand with a fierce denunciation of the culture that might have been one’s own.\u201d ~Roger Scruton<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe two most potent post-war orthodoxies\u2014socialist politics and modernist art\u2014have at least one feature in common: they are both forms of snobbery, the anti-bourgeois snobbery of people convinced of their right to dictate to the common man in the name of the common man.\u201d ~Roger Scruton<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy attitude toward progress has passed from antagonism to boredom. I have long ceased to argue with people who prefer Thursday to Wednesday because it is Thursday.\u201d ~G.K. Chesterton, <\/span>New York Times Magazine<\/span><\/i>, 11 Feb. 1923\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMen invent new ideals because they dare not attempt old ideals. They look forward with enthusiasm because they are afraid to look back.\u201d ~G.K. Chesterton \u201cThe Unfinished Temple,\u201d <\/span>What\u2019s Wrong With the World<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cTradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking about.\u201d ~G.K. Chesterton,<\/span> Orthodoxy<\/span><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOnly the learned read old books and \u2026 they are of all men the least likely to acquire wisdom by doing so.\u201d ~C.S. Lewis, <\/span>The Screwtape Letters\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is always easy to let the age have its head; the difficult thing is to keep one\u2019s own. It is always easy to be a modernist; as it is easy to be a snob.\u201d ~G.K. Chesterton, <\/span>Orthodoxy<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the first place [Barfield] made short work of what I have called my \u2018chronological snobbery,\u2019 the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate common to our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that account discredited. You must find out why it went out of date. Was it ever refuted (and if so by whom, where, and how conclusively), or did it merely die away as fashions do? If the latter, this tells us nothing about its truth or falsehood. From seeing this, one passes to the realization that our own age is also a \u2018period,\u2019 and certainly has, like all periods, its own characteristic illusions. They are likeliest to lurk in those widespread assumptions which are so ingrained in the age that no one dares to attack or feels it necessary to defend them.\u201d ~C.S. Lewis, <\/span>Surprised by Joy<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

(Advice from one demon to another) \u201cThe use of Fashions in thought is to distract the attention of men from their real dangers. We direct the fashionable outcry of each generation against those vices of which it is least in danger and fix its approval on the virtue nearest to that vice which we are trying to make endemic. The game is to have them all running about with fire extinguishers whenever there is a flood, and all crowding to that side of the boat which is already nearly gunwale under.\u201d ~C.S. Lewis, <\/span>The Screwtape Letters<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo regard the ancient writer as a possible source of knowledge\u2014to anticipate that what he said could possibly modify your thoughts or your behavior\u2014this would be rejected as unutterably simple-minded. And since we cannot deceive the whole human race all the time, it is most important thus to cut every generation off from all others; for where learning makes a free commerce between the ages there is always the danger that the characteristic errors of one may be corrected by the characteristic truths of another.\u201d ~C.S. Lewis, <\/span>The Screwtape Letters<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is obvious that tradition is only democracy extended Through Time. It is trusting to a consensus of common human voice rather to some isolated or arbitrary record.\u201d ~G.K. Chesterton, <\/span>Orthodoxy<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happened to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death.\u201d ~G.K Chesterton, <\/span>Orthodoxy <\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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