Since I have spent most of my adult life lamenting modernity, the subtitle of a new publication quickly caught my eye: “How the World Became Modern.”
Written by Stephen Greenblatt and awarded a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for non-fiction, “The Swerve” frankly explains and sadly even justifies the highly fractured society of our present world.
It is the Harvard professor’s contention that the early Renaissance discovery and publication of the ancient manuscript “On the Nature of Things” by the Roman poet Lucretius re-introduced the world to highly individualized pagan thought long ignored by a church authority bent more on eternal truths than human aspirations.
Lucretius wrote that all existence is composed of individual, interchangeable particles – atoms. No atomic particle is any more important than any other and these particles eternally and unpredictably intermingle, sometimes evolving into insects or plants, sometimes into human beings or heavenly bodies. Everything and everyone are random. Hence, humanity is not the center of the universe. Man was no more blessed at the beginning of history than he will be at the end of history.
Birth and death are simply the integration and disintegration of one’s particles. A providential creator and a rewarding afterlife are both idle wishes. Man’s true happiness consists precisely in accepting his human insignificance. The fact that history is not all about mankind nor about mankind’s destiny was actually good news for Lucretius. Human insignificance becomes liberating. Man’s unimportance is seen to be freeing. As our modern world daily convinces itself, men and women can live for the moment, answerable neither to history nor to eternity. Relishing the moment is existence’s supreme gift and society’s ultimate value. Forget the past, ignore the future, live for today.
Although author Greenblatt awards Lucretius the title of Father of Modernity, others whose names are mostly best left to college philosophy classes held similar thoughts. Epicurus, whose name spawned the English modifier “epicurean” meaning pleasurable, also had an atomistic or very individualistic view of creation and society. Man is just an accidental amalgamation of particles – so make the best of life here and now.
William of Occam, a medieval Christian philosopher, was not quite as radical as Epicurus and Lucretius but he failed to appreciate any universal essence, any common quality that would link all things and all humanity together in a collective bond. His philosophy, called Nominalism, separated humanity, in fact all reality, into individual units. It was literally every man for himself – before God, before the community, before the church.
One can easily see the roots of sectarian Protestantism in William of Occam’s individualistic assessment. Occam thought that every man had his own unique essence. Eventually Luther would think that every man was his own unique priest. Before them, Lucretius and Epicurus had thought that every man was his own god. The rampant fruit of this centuries’ old, individualistic thinking can be seen everywhere in today’s world.
Nowadays individual happiness is paramount. Sexual activity in general is appreciated solely as individual fulfillment completely part from the permanent bonding of spouses and the introduction of children. Parents are legally free to abort a child in the mother’s womb. They have no legal obligation beyond themselves. Abortion is a personal (read individualistic) decision.
End of life decisions are made solely on the comfort of the individual and not on the inherent dignity of the human body and soul. Society would redefine marriage to suit a same-sex couple completely ignoring centuries of human tradition, interaction and biology. Church attendance and church participation have become individual choices; persons are free to pray to God in their own way or not at all. Revelation takes a back seat to personal inspiration. Fraternal societies have greatly declined. Modernity is the triumph of individuality.
The Roman Catholic Church, while gravely influenced by modernity, essentially contradicts the rampant individualism found in society today. Man is neither random particles nor an isolated essence. Mankind has God as a father, Christ as a brother, and the Holy Spirit as a spouse.
Mankind is united by a common source, a common providence, a common destiny. The church’s ecclesiastical life is the earthly embodiment of this common unity that emanates from God. Bonding love, not individual will, is at the heart of the universe.
