emphasis upon vertical elements). Some notable ballads
and poems ( Nibelungenlied, Parzival, Edda, etc.) were
composed about this time, and music became somewhat
more complex in its written formats.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was a Christian cleric
who ultimately achieved Catholic sainthood by his
success in reacting to the challenge of Islam and the
rediscovery of Classical philosophy, particularly that of
Aristotle, ca. 1140. By 1250 Aristotle's influence had
become so great that he was referred to as “the
philosopher”. Hence it was necessary to refine
Catholicism to an intellectual precision comparable with
that of Aristotle, and also to make Aristotle's more
secular/scientific works tolerable to the church through a
flattering interpretation of them.
Invoking Aristotle's argument for an “unmoved
mover”, Aquinas suggests that the necessity for a “first
cause” logically proves the existence of God. This was
later to be challenged by David Hume (who suggests that
causes and effects can go forward or backward
indefinitely) and Immanuel Kant (who maintains that the
doctrine of causality is applicable only to the realm of
sense experience).
Aquinas observes that Aristotle had advocated the
principle that the “good” to be found on a large scale is
better than the “good” to be found on a purely personal
scale, since the larger good more closely approximates
and reflects the whole of creation.
For non-human animals the “good” consists of
sensual pleasure, but for mankind something more is
sought. However, following the doctrine of his
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predecessor, Augustine of Hippo (354-430), Aquinas
respected a distinction between the exaltation of God
(Augustine’s “City of God”) and the lesser station of
mankind (“City of Man”). Aquinas saw man’s mission as,
while tied to his own City, to ever yearn for that of God. It
was not an achievable telos, or even a visualizable one,
because of mankind’s post-Edenic sinfulness -
redeemable only by the intercession (“Grace”) of Christ.
So mankind’s redemption lies beyond this life: the
vision of God. The aim of incarnate life is thus “not
merely to live in virtue, but rather through virtuous life to
attain to the enjoyment of God”. Since natural human
virtue is insufficient to attain this, it is not the task of
secular rulers but rather that of Christ through his
church, to whose pope “all kings in Christendom should
be subject”.
In addition to the Aristotelian content of Aquinas’
thought, there is the legalistic element: The OU is
obedient to laws. Aquinas defined “law” as “an ordinance
of reason for the common good, made by him who has
the care of the community, and promulgated”.
But as nature is hierarchically organized into forms
and organisms of greater and lesser complexity, so are
the universal laws.
At the top is Eternal Law, which more or less
equates with the mind of God. Accordingly it is
intelligible only to God.
Next is Natural Law, which is Eternal Law to the
extent that human reason can detect consistencies in it.
Here would be found “scientific laws”.
While Natural Law is comprehended through reason,
Divine Law is identified by religious revelation -
through Christ and the Christian church. Divine Law and
Natural Law “rank” more or less side-by-side.
Lowest on the scale is Human Law, a term which
encompasses laws which mankind makes in imitation of
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and towards the “good” perceived in/revealed by Natural
and Divine Law. The “three drives” which tempt man
away from goodness are wealth, carnal pleasure, and
honor/status. Hence the “three virtues” are poverty,
chastity, and obedience.
It is the defining irony of Judæo-Christianity that it
acknowledges “free will” only to condemn it as the
“original [and ultimate] sin”. Mankind unaided cannot
escape its curse; the species’ only course is to obey and
imitate God’s laws, with the hope that this will win the
Grace of Christ.
This same demonization of individual consciousness
and its free will occurs in the other conventional religions
as well. In Buddhism, for instance, it is condemned as
anatta, or “not-self”, which must be annihilated for the
devotee to attain obliteration and absorption into the OU
( nirvana).
7. Reformation:
Crisis of Theological Determinism
By 1500, as a consequence of the invention of the
printing press, Europe possessed an estimated 9 million
books, as opposed to fewer than 100 thousand hand-
wrought manuscripts ca. 1450. The exchange of ideas was
accelerated, and with it criticism of religious, political,
and social norms.
The Reformation, usually dated ca. 1517 to ca. 1648
(end of the Thirty Years' War), was a 16th century
religious movement aimed at correcting real or assumed
abuses in the Roman Catholic Church, and marked
ultimately by rejection of the supremacy of the pope,
rejection or modification of much of Roman Catholic
doctrine, and establishment of the Protestant churches.
The Reformation's key proponents were Martin Luther
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(1483-1546) in Germany and John Calvin (1509-1564) in
Switzerland.
While there were a number of sub-movements
throughout Europe, they generally agreed upon
Fundamental Christianity as characterized by (1) the
finality and ultimate authority of the Bible, (2) denial of
the authority of the church bureaucracy to interpret the
Bible, (3) repudiation of reason and affirmation of faith
instead, (4) condemnation of the use of force for religious
conversion, and (5) “the two realms” [spiritual grace and
political power] concept, which licenses unChristian acts
if commanded by secular authority.
To these essentially Lutheran points Calvin adds a
strong element of church coercion of the individual and
intolerance of alternative religions. “God makes plain that
the false prophet is to be stoned without mercy. We are to
crush beneath our heel all affections of nature when His
honor is involved.”
Luther and Calvin believed that mankind is totally
depraved - that even “good works” fall short of God's
standards of righteousness. The reason for ethical
behavior is that a righteous man will automatically
incline towards such behavior, not because it is logically
or ethically justified in itself. Salvation is attainable only
by complete surrender of the self to Christ.
This constitutes a rejection of medieval scholasticism,
and of the “logical ethics” arguments of Aristotle (“this
damned, conceited, rascally heathen” - Luther) and
Aquinas. “Reason” is mistrusted and even condemned.
Concerning the two kingdoms Calvin stated: “Let us
observe that in man government is twofold: the one
spiritual, by which the conscience is trained to piety and
divine worship; the other civil, by which the individual is
instructed in those duties which as men and citizens we
are bound to perform. To these two forms are commonly
given the not-inappropriate names of spiritual and
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temporal jurisdiction, intimating that the former species
has reference to the life of the soul, while the latter relates
to matters of the present life, not only to food and
clothing, but to the enacting of laws which require a man
to live among his fellows purely, honorably, and
moderately. The former has its seat within the soul; the
latter only regulates external conduct. We call the one the
spiritual, the other the temporal kingdom.”
Calvin avoided prescribing the best form of
government, feeling that this is a question for secular
authorities to decide. Luther considered collective
governments to magnify human corruption, hence he
favored monarchies.
Against Catholicism Luther and Calvin argued the
autonomy of the state under God. Against radical
fundamentalists such as the Anabaptists, they argued the
theological necessity for civil government. Against
aggressive civil rulers they argued the autonomy of the
church [in the Protestant sense].
Calvinism condemned art, Lutheranism tended to
ignore it, and within Catholicism there was a reaction
against renditions of nudes, resulting in the defacing or
alteration of many earlier works. Consequently there
were few Reformation-era artists of note, with the
exception of Dürer, Holbein, and El Greco. Artists began
to work more as professionals, and to produce works for
secular officials and for the middle classes.
In the scientific realm Copernicus (d. 1543) asserted
heliocentrism.
The greatest support for the Reformation came from
the secular nobility and the emerging merchant middle
class. This support was born essentially of the desire by
these groups to rid themselves of the economic burden of
the papacy and its subordinate echelons.
In time the Reformation provoked the Catholic
“Counter-Reformation”, a somewhat desperate and
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militant retrenchment by that church. From 1545 to 1563
the Council of Trent, a Catholic Church conference, met
to resolve questions of dogma. Once decided, these
dogma were promulgated and enforced with a
seriousness not found during the pleasure-loving papacy
of the Renaissance. “If my own father were a heretic,”
said Paul IV, “I would burn him.”
In 1540 Ignatius Loyola founded the Society of Jesus
(Jesuits), characterized by extreme discipline and
Machiavellian social influence. Loyola placed great stress
on education, and by the 17th century Jesuit-dominated
universities were educating virtually all of Catholic
Europe.
After 1550 tensions between Catholics and Protestants
had reached the stage of religious warfare, culminating in
the terrible Thirty Years' War between Denmark, Sweden,
and the Protestant German principalities on one hand
and the Catholic Hapsburgs (Spain, Austria, Netherlands,
Italy, and most of Catholic Germany) on the other.
France, though Catholic, fought against the Hapsburgs
for secular political reasons. Approximately one-third of
Germany's population died from the war and its side-
effects, and the final Peace of Westphalia (1648) was
brought about more by exhaustion than by genuine
reconciliation.
8. Secular Negative Free Will
Culturally the 16th and 17th centuries were a time of
transition between medieval/Renaissance knowledge and
the new, scientific climate of the Enlightenment. Ancient
history was still known only by the “Old Testament”,
other histories being considered later and inferior to it.
While scripture put creation at 4004 BCE, histories
began ca. 400 BCE, with large episodes of later history
being unknown.
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The universe was generally thought to be Earth-
centric, and the non-Christian/European world was
considered to be “savage”. It was difficult for intellectuals
to know just what to believe. Even the noted Galileo
published his Authority of Scripture in 1614, and Isaac
Newton devoted many years to Biblical studies. He wrote:
“If any question at any time arise concerning Christ’s
interpretations, we are to beware of philosophy and vain
deceit and oppositions of science falsely so-called, and
have recourse to the Old Testament.” A generation after
he published his famous Principia, Newton was still
trying to discover the exact plan of Solomon’s Temple,
which he considered the best guide to the topography of
Heaven.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) took a scientific,
materialistic approach to the OU, asserting that the
supernatural or SU was beyond rational understanding.
Impressed by mathematics and geometry, Hobbes
postulated human behavior as similarly structured. He
thus sought to understand the “mechanics” or “laws” of
human social behavior. Hobbes departed from Aristotle
and the medieval tradition by denying that man is a social
animal, i.e. that he seeks companionship, society, and
political interaction as an end in itself. Man is indeed a
“solitary beast”.
Echoing the Sophists in Plato’s Republic: There is no
“supreme good”; there is only self-interest and
gratification. “In the first place, I put for a general
inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire
of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.” The
“supreme evil” is death, and it is fear of death that
prompts human cooperation. Society is thus negatively
motivated.
In contrast to the “natural inequality” espoused by
Aristotle, Hobbes argues that all humans are “naturally
equal”. Hence the door is opened for social contract,
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which Hobbes defines as a de facto contract between the
people and the state for popular security and prosperity.
The individual “contracts” with society and is thus bound
to obey its laws, but he may disobey if his life is
threatened. He reserves the right to make this decision
for himself.
The social contract has two parts: agreement to
acknowledge as sovereign the individual or group
selected by the majority, and the vote determining the
sovereign.
The task of reason is to intensify the fear of death and
the desire for comfort as factors in society - to the extent
that the resultant cooperation overcomes the destructive
desires for
“glory” and “pride”.
Hobbes’ ideal government has a simple task: to
maintain order and security for the benefit of the citizens.
The citizens, he says, do not submerge their individuality
in it; they are “contracting parties” with it. Government
should be authoritarian but not totalitarian.
Hobbes preferred monarchy as a form of government,
but monarchy based upon its social effectiveness in
maintaining order - not based upon the “divine right of
kings” principle.
While Hobbes is systematic, he is not scientific in the
sense that he supports his contentions with empirical
evidence. He is still a purely rational philosopher, much
like Niccolò Machiavelli. He was the first exponent of
“possessive individualism” - the trade-oriented ethic of
the 17th century that ran counter to the landed
aristocratic system and institutional religious conflict. He
advocated politics based upon material self-interest for
individuals.
Hobbes differs from Machiavelli in that Hobbes does
propose a morally-binding social law (based on natural
law in the “observed behavior” sense). Machiavelli is
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comparatively lawless: no social contract, and of course
no telos: no rationale other than raw power politics.
9. The Enlightenment:
Secular Positive Free Will
The late-17th and 18th centuries loosely encompass a
scientific and cultural climate known as the
Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was not an
organized or coordinated movement [as could be said of
the Reformation, compartmentalized though it was].
Rather it was a sort of encouraging or stimulating
atmosphere for certain kinds of thought brought about by
at least the limited acceptance of the ideas of a few
prominent pioneers such as Francis Bacon, Rene
Descartes, Isaac Newton, and John Locke. Among the
features of the Enlightenment were:
(1) A relegation of mankind to a “natural
place”, not a privileged place within the
natural order of things.
(2) A vague, general disbelief that God, if he
were presumed to exist, would ignore the
operation of natural laws to take an interest
in the behavior of individual human beings
for better or worse.
(3) A sentimental admiration for the culture of
ancient Greece and Rome, together with a
distaste for the medieval Christian heritage.
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