Dark Ages-- Have They Arrived?
1st in 4 part series
“Like men with sore eyes, they find the light painful, while the darkness, which permits them to see nothing, is restful and agreeable” Dio Chrysostom, lived 40-120A.D.
The time between the fall of the western Roman Empire and the age called the Renaissance (approximately 500 to 1500AD) was known as the Dark Ages. Scholar Petrarch coined the term, and it has been used derisively for an age when no major power ruled, and smaller kingdoms existed with the superstitions allowed by the Catholic Church prevalent. Today most say we should use the term Middle Ages, because although there were superstitions afoot, the serious and faithful members of the church accomplished a lot during this time. I don’t have time to go into that in this article, but it leads to my title. Maybe the Dark Ages have finally arrived.
“Our great civilization may not yet lie in smoldering ruins, but the enemy is within the gates” said Charles Colson in his book Against the Night. He said that in 1989. Things have not gotten better. Whether politics, theater, our courts, on social media, television, in our schools, or the nightly news, we are harangued with a mindset that is extreme, and seemed to come out of nowhere. At least to the older crowd, who remember a very different day not so long ago. Where did this new way of thinking, that rejects biblical values and mandates, come from? Colson argued that it took a while, but he says it may have started in about 1610AD with Rene Descartes. A French mathematician and philosopher who resolved to doubt everything that could be doubted. He determined there was only one thing that could not be doubted and that was his ability to doubt. He said, “I think, therefore I am.”
A startling new premise, that man, rather than God, was what everything revolved around. Other philosophers played off this idea. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) created a code of morality based on self-interest. He thought only individuals were important, and whatever maximized their pleasure and minimized their pain was of value. The goal of society should be to give the greatest pleasure to the greatest number. Boy, have we grabbed ahold of that idea! Before Mill, Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) would say in essence: When men and women are left unfettered (by things like religion), their natural virtues will be cultivated by “the voice of nature.” In other words, “group think” creates cultural values, not an antiquated Bible. Few people today read, or even recognize the names, of Mill or Rousseau, yet their ideas have filtered down to us and had a major impact on the western mind.
But didn’t we become a great nation by allowing the individual to thrive? Weren’t men like Daniel Boone and Sam Houston great at taking the reins and doing their own thing? Colson in his book says that there is nothing wrong with being a strong individual; the problem is with the “ism.” An “ism” converts healthy ideas into ideologies. He gives examples. Authority is a biblical notion; but authoritarianism twists what’s good into a lust for power and control. Community is a good thing; but communism becomes an insidious ideology with much harm. Respecting the individual affirms human dignity and our uniqueness; but individualism distorts this into an ego cult of one. Colson says that through much of our country’s history, families and churches have served as a fire wall of morality to restrain society from individualism that is out of control. We are losing that.
Many others have chimed in. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) believed that in every decision a person stands alone. There are no moral absolutes, so one decision is as good as another. What benefits you most? Biblical morality no longer plays a part. Is abortion good or bad? It becomes an emotional argument, not a moral one, and one answer is as good as the other, according to this thinking. So, how dare you make a law against it, since I’m in favor?
We end up with a cry for tolerance that becomes very intolerant of anyone who holds to moral absolutes. That’s where we are. When my personal feeling is king, when there are no objective standards, we end up with two sides who simply try to shout louder than each other. Sound familiar? Maybe the Dark Ages have arrived.
Cross Point: There was light even in the Dark Ages. Jesus once said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Let’s be serious about walking in that light.
“Like men with sore eyes, they find the light painful, while the darkness, which permits them to see nothing, is restful and agreeable” Dio Chrysostom, lived 40-120A.D.
The time between the fall of the western Roman Empire and the age called the Renaissance (approximately 500 to 1500AD) was known as the Dark Ages. Scholar Petrarch coined the term, and it has been used derisively for an age when no major power ruled, and smaller kingdoms existed with the superstitions allowed by the Catholic Church prevalent. Today most say we should use the term Middle Ages, because although there were superstitions afoot, the serious and faithful members of the church accomplished a lot during this time. I don’t have time to go into that in this article, but it leads to my title. Maybe the Dark Ages have finally arrived.
“Our great civilization may not yet lie in smoldering ruins, but the enemy is within the gates” said Charles Colson in his book Against the Night. He said that in 1989. Things have not gotten better. Whether politics, theater, our courts, on social media, television, in our schools, or the nightly news, we are harangued with a mindset that is extreme, and seemed to come out of nowhere. At least to the older crowd, who remember a very different day not so long ago. Where did this new way of thinking, that rejects biblical values and mandates, come from? Colson argued that it took a while, but he says it may have started in about 1610AD with Rene Descartes. A French mathematician and philosopher who resolved to doubt everything that could be doubted. He determined there was only one thing that could not be doubted and that was his ability to doubt. He said, “I think, therefore I am.”
A startling new premise, that man, rather than God, was what everything revolved around. Other philosophers played off this idea. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) created a code of morality based on self-interest. He thought only individuals were important, and whatever maximized their pleasure and minimized their pain was of value. The goal of society should be to give the greatest pleasure to the greatest number. Boy, have we grabbed ahold of that idea! Before Mill, Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) would say in essence: When men and women are left unfettered (by things like religion), their natural virtues will be cultivated by “the voice of nature.” In other words, “group think” creates cultural values, not an antiquated Bible. Few people today read, or even recognize the names, of Mill or Rousseau, yet their ideas have filtered down to us and had a major impact on the western mind.
But didn’t we become a great nation by allowing the individual to thrive? Weren’t men like Daniel Boone and Sam Houston great at taking the reins and doing their own thing? Colson in his book says that there is nothing wrong with being a strong individual; the problem is with the “ism.” An “ism” converts healthy ideas into ideologies. He gives examples. Authority is a biblical notion; but authoritarianism twists what’s good into a lust for power and control. Community is a good thing; but communism becomes an insidious ideology with much harm. Respecting the individual affirms human dignity and our uniqueness; but individualism distorts this into an ego cult of one. Colson says that through much of our country’s history, families and churches have served as a fire wall of morality to restrain society from individualism that is out of control. We are losing that.
Many others have chimed in. Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) believed that in every decision a person stands alone. There are no moral absolutes, so one decision is as good as another. What benefits you most? Biblical morality no longer plays a part. Is abortion good or bad? It becomes an emotional argument, not a moral one, and one answer is as good as the other, according to this thinking. So, how dare you make a law against it, since I’m in favor?
We end up with a cry for tolerance that becomes very intolerant of anyone who holds to moral absolutes. That’s where we are. When my personal feeling is king, when there are no objective standards, we end up with two sides who simply try to shout louder than each other. Sound familiar? Maybe the Dark Ages have arrived.
Cross Point: There was light even in the Dark Ages. Jesus once said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Let’s be serious about walking in that light.
Posted in Cross Points