Our Golden Age

In the United States and much of the Western world, we live in a Golden Age unequalled by any other society in any other time or place. It is not perfect, but we have enjoyed stable institutions, rule of law, human rights and egalitarian ideals, freedom of religion and conscience, economic freedom and opportunity, education, science, technological power and comforts, the arts, and overall prosperity including a thriving middle class - all of this at a level unimaginable in any society other than our post-Enlightenment West.

As with all golden ages, ours is temporary. We can already see the cracks in the foundation, but lets enjoy this period that God gave us and not take it for granted. Remember that this time is unique and miraculous and that we are privileged to be a part of it. It did not have to be this way.

In my view, our Golden Age is a result of the alignment of Christian values with Enlightenment rationality. Others, like John Mark Reynolds, have referred to "Athens and Jerusalem" to invoke a similar view. After the European post-Reformation religious wars, the West took on a more liberal and pluralistic approach to religion and politics, guided by Enlightenment philosophers including John Locke and others. Christian beliefs were almost universally held in the West, though now with more diversity and freedom of thought than during the previous Catholic-dominated era. The Enlightenment focus on rationality led to new approaches to investigate and understand the world, and the more tolerant and increasingly liberal government systems allowed those new approaches to flourish. The pro-social values from Christianity enabled strong institutions and families, which led to a psychologically healthy, stable, and productive society. The result was a tremendous wave of discovery and the application of knowledge, starting with Newton and leading to the space age.

Now today, Christianity is on the decline. My view is that Christian values can persist for a couple of generations without the actual faith and fellowship of Christian religion in a home. But we are now starting to see a new majority arise with only a vestigial trace of Christian values. In certain sectors (academia and education, for example) this trace is further eroded. This process is also further along in Europe than in the United States. As a result we see decaying family structure, more divorce, worse psychological health in the rising generations, less stable institutions, less trust.

In my opinion, rationality is also on the decline in the West. Critical Theory has injected Hegelian dialectical reasoning into political movements. I love the quip by Bertrand Russell (a rationalist but not a Christian) in his A History of Western Philosophy, that Hegel’s reasoning “illustrates an important truth, namely, that the worse your logic, the more interesting the consequences to which it gives rise.” That seems to fit some the current political movements. Also, much of popular culture and the intelligentsia has decided to fully adopt the anti-reasoning (and anti-Christian) philosophy of Rousseau, with emphasis on authenticity to ones innermost unreformed passions and desires. We are indoctrinated on this view with almost every movie, pop song, pop psychology book, etc.

Though we live in an amazing time of prosperity and comfort, I believe it is the type of Golden Age described by Toynbee as the “Indian Summer” of a civilization. Carroll Quigley refers to such a Golden Age in his Evolution of Civilizations as “the glow of overripeness, and soon decline begins.”

If the wonders of our civilization are founded on an intersection of Christian values and beliefs with rationalism, then the decay of both pillars will inevitably lead to a collapse. Or, if you are more optimistic than me, you might refer to it as a transformation - but until I know more about what we are becoming, I will continue to worry. Or, more precisely, the more I see what we are becoming, the more I worry. 

From a historical perspective, I don’t think it was at all inevitable that the Enlightenment Christian period (spanning roughly the late 17th to late 20th centuries) would occur, with all its marvels. I believe God was probably behind it and guiding this development (obviously, this doesn’t mean that I think everything that happened during that span was divinely directed). It is tragic to me that I see this Enlightenment Christian period mostly out the rear view window.

A full return to rationalism and Christianity as the dominant philosophical foundation of society is no longer possible, but I think there is great value in studying this miraculous convergence. We can individually do our part to hold on to these values in our homes, and maybe if enough of us push back on the prevailing trends, we can maintain pockets of reason and truth, and perhaps delay for a time the inevitable collapse of our Golden Age into irrationality and irreligion (or perhaps it’s secular civic religions taking the place of true religion). That is one of the main reasons I want to write this blog. I see others doing the same from their own perspectives. I’m sure my writings are not the best or most pertinent, but I’m hoping they can join a rising chorus of voices pushing back on unreason and secularism.

In my next post (or at least one of my upcoming posts - I may get distracted), I will turn to one of the intersectional heroes of rationality and Christianity, John Locke, and discuss some of the points he makes in his under-appreciated work, The Reasonableness of Christianity, from which I have borrowed the title of this blog.