Dualism

Chapter 6: The Problem of Dualism

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What is dualism?

A “split-vision world view”: sacred = our spiritual lifeSecular = the rest of life

Where dualism shows up:How we view workHow we view cultureHow we read the Bible

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Christians and work

A vocational hierarchyThe idea of full-time Christian

workers versus “others”Vocation + faith rather than a

faithful vocationDivide work and leisure

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The Ancients and work

Freedom/necessity The contemplative life (vita

contemplativa) versus the active life (vita activa)Contemplation versus actionLeisure versus work

Led to the idea that only monks and priests were pursuing the true Christian calling

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Christians and culture John 17:16-17: How do we live in the world

without being of the world? The issue of Christ and Culture (Richard Neibuhr).

Test case: Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye 1. Christ above culture: read it because culture is

good but holiness is better 2. Christ and culture in paradox: read it to know

about the evil world we live in 3. Christ against culture: don’t read it because it’s

evil Result:

1. the Christian ghetto (#3) 2. Christian dualism (#1 and #2)

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Christians and the scripture

Matt 24:36-41: What’s the issue? Is the future redemption is a restoration of

creation and our creature life?Or is the future about removing us from

creation and placing us in heaven (= taking us out of the world)?

Which view comes from dualism? Romans 12:2: the way of

transformation

Chapter 7: The Development of

Dualism

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Plato: Soul versus Body

Plato (c. 428-348 BCE)Reality is composed of unchanging ideas or

ideals (= forms)Foundational idea: dualism of the world

unchanging ideals = formsunstable, changing matter

Heaven = the true and ultimate reality Earth = a derived reality, of lesser

value

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Neo-Platonism

Plotinus (205-270 CE) Added mysticism to Plato’s rationalismEmphasized the mystical

transcendence of our creatureliness (including our reason) to a union with the Supreme Being

Christian perception: Plotinus left room for revelation

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Christians and Philosophy

By 3rd and 4th centuries CE:Church leaders saw Greek

philosophy as necessary preparation for Christian theology

So, you read the ancients and then do biblical exegesis and Christian theology

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Augustine: Eternal versus Temporal Augustine (354-430 BCE) Influenced by Plotinus Solidified the theological justification of dualism

Example: rejected sex and the body as shameful Taught:

Faith has priority over reason Reason is suppose to prepare us for faith and help us

understand our faith Stress: the fallenness of humanity and nature

Result: church dominates society (dualistic hierarchy of lower and higher institutions)

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The re-emergence of Aristotle

Aristotle (384-22 BCE)Emphasized the study of reality as we

experience it empirically In the late Middle Ages, Aristotle

replaced Plato as “the philosopher” in many Christian writings Islamic scholars preserved and translated

AristotleChristians re-discovered him

The appeal: his focus on empiricism

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Aquinas: Nature and Grace Late Middle Ages Still within dualistic framework Aristotelian: placed more emphasis on nature,

its goodness, and empiricism Taught

The created goodness of humanity and nature Grace functioned as an “extra gift” on top of nature

(donum superadditum) = grace complements nature

Biblical view of grace? Grace restores nature Fall = the loss of the gift of grace; human rationality

was only weakened, not lost Redemption = the regaining of the donum

superadditum

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From dualism to secularism Biblical view:

All of life can be characterized by obedience or disobedience

Nature/grace dualism: Disobedience belongs to nature Obedience belongs to grace Good and evil are structurally fixed into 2 separate

realms Result: Gospel is irrelevant to life as a whole

Gospel either repudiates creation or just adds to it Gospel is only tangentially related to creation and life

Secularism God has nothing essential to say to us about the world

we live in or how we should live Secularism questions the authority and relevance of

God for the saeculum, the world

Chapter 8: The Rise of the

Secular World View

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The birth of the “modern” world Time line:

1470: the origin of the Italian Renaissance 1700: the beginning of the age of Enlightenment In between – the birth of the modern world

Secularism = a world view Pico della Mirandola (1487)

Oration on the Dignity of Man (1487) Human autonomy Dichotomy: the rational subject (= free, autonomous

human) vs the object (= determined, law-bound nature)

Nature = the nonhuman world, the realm of externality, of objects (= the world to be exploited)

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The Scientific Revolution Greek science = contemplative Middle Ages – empiricism comes to the fore

Nature points to God and the realm of grace Natural theology– evidence of God based on the

order and harmony of the world Humanistic idea:

Science as a means to dominion over nature Starts with Francis Bacon, early 17th c.

Scientism: The absolutization of science “In science we trust”

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The Scientific Revolution

Mathematic RationalismRene Descartes (early 17th c.)Dualism:

Res cogitans = the mindRes extensa

= matter = a system of physico-spatial, law-

determined relationships theoretical science, not (for that time)

observable science

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A Humanistic Utopia

Observable Science/Deductive ReasoningFrancis Bacon (early 17th c.)Divorced from speculative philosophy

Science must be harnessed for utilitarian ends

Idea of creating a secular paradiseUsed some Cartesian models

Became a faith Explain and master the natural world

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Science, Modernity, and Christianity Is Science inherently Anti-God?

Rational UniverseGood Creation (Machine) that can be

manipulatedGood Creation

Secular-no external authorityChristian-God is the sole authority

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Stewards or Gods?

Secularism vs. ChristianitySecularism

Humans are godsWe take care of creation as gods

ChristianityHumans are stewards of God’s creationHumans are a part of God’s creation

Chapter 9: The Gods of our Age

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The 3 primary gods of our age

Scientism Technicism Economism

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Scientism

Belief that human reason – especially the scientific method – can provide exhaustive knowledge of the world of nature and of mankind

Science = the source of revelation Original sin = ignorance, irrationality,

misinformation Praxis (= activity)

Francis Bacon: knowledge is power Utilitarian manipulation of the world for human

benefit The promise: omniscience

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Technicism

Builds on the achievements of scientism Translates scientific discovery into human

power End of the 18th century:

Switch from possibility of progress to the inevitability of progress

The new world is the world of the machine The promise: omnipotence Philosophy:

If it can be known, it must be If it can be made, it must be

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Technicism

The Motive: profit and economic growth The underlying principal:

The basic law governing human existence is self-preservation or self-interest Adam Smith

The idea that self-interested activity of individuals will ultimately benefit all society (the “invisible hand”)

Problems with the invisible hand: Exploitation Pollution Etc.

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Economism

Economism: the absolutization of humanity’s good ability to max

economical choices The promise: material prosperity This is the primary god today in the West Its failure:

It didn’t make us happy It brings us pain It has negative ramifications

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Undermining the unholy trinity Currently:

we are in a culture of decline We are losing faith in our world view

Results of scientism, technicism, and economism are Quantification of life Loss of personal involvement and meaningful

commitment in scholarship The denigration of anything that is not scientifically

verifiable The shutting off of access to all non-scientific knowledge

Utopian hope: material prosperity will bring human fulfillment and happiness

Reality: there are limits Result: a spiritual crisis that needs a spiritual

answer

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Next Week

EXAM 1

W&M, Chapters 10-12