What Is Modernism?: Examples
May 18th, 2009 by Micah Tillman | Start the Discussion |
[ What Is Modernism? | Examples | What Is Postmodernism? | Examples ]
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Friedrich Nietzsche
The modernist “wheel” in Untimely Meditations — On the Use and Abuse of History for Life:
(1) Order of Priority:
Temporal and Moral
(2) Current Oppressive Authority (or Priority):
Modern, unhealthy culture (with its rationalistic celebration of science, at the expense of life).
(3) Prior Authority (or Priority):
Ancient, healthy Greek culture (with its celebration of life, and use of knowledge for the sake of life).
(4) Goal:
A new age of healthy living and culture.
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Martin Luther
The modernist “wheel” in his call for reformation:
(1) Order of Priority
Temporal, Logical, and Moral
(2) Current Oppressive Authority (or Priority):
The Catholic Church in its corrupt state (at the time)
(3) Prior Authority (or Priority):
Scripture. (Which was written before the Church got to be the way it became, and therefore was a purer representation of God’s will/authority.)
(4) Goal:
A new church and religious life, reformed in the way God had always intended.
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John Locke
The modernist “wheel” in Second Treatise of Civil Government:
(1) Order of Priority
Temporal — as metaphor for the Logical — and Moral
(2) Current Oppressive Authority (or Priority):
Absolute (totalitarian) monarchy and its proponents (specifically, Hobbes).
(3) Prior Authority (or Priority):
The State of Nature. (Which, pictured as “the way things were before there was any government,” functions as a useful tool for analyzing given forms of governments, to see if they could logically follow from what is natural).
(4) Goal:
A new democratic system of government, free of coercion.
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Constitutional Originalists
The modernist wheel in their (our) theory of the Constitution:
(1) Order of Priority
Temporal, Logical, and Moral
(2) Current Oppressive Authority (or Priority):
The US Government, in all its branches.
(3) Prior Authority (or Priority):
The writers of the Constitution’s various articles and amendments. (Which came before the government went wrong, and created that from which the government logically derives its authority.)
(4) Goal:
A new age of freedom from tyranny.
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Anti-”Empire Religion” Christians
The modernist wheel in their theory of the Christianity and ecclesiology:
(1) Order of Priority
Temporal, Logical, and Moral
(2) Current Oppressive Authority (or Priority):
Christianity, turned into a support structure for the powerful by Constantine.
(3) Prior Authority (or Priority):
The First Century Church (which is not only prior in time to the Constantinian Disaster, but, prior in logical purity — it is closer to what the church truly is and was intended by God to be).
(4) Goal:
A more authentic, just, and righteous faith and practice.
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René Descartes
The modernist wheel in his Discourse on Method:
(1) Order of Priority
Temporal, Logical, and Moral
(2) Current Oppressive Authority (or Priority):
The Scholastic and Religious Authorities of his day.
(3) Prior Authority (or Priority):
The unprejudiced state we all enjoyed at some point in childhood, coupled with the ability to reason that makes us all (first and foremost) human (rather than French, German, English, etc.).
(4) Goal:
A new science and philosophy, free to discover the truths we need to improve our lives.
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Feel free to add your own examples.
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