The Rise of Neo-Medievalism, Religious Authoritarianism, and the Fusion of Church & State in the West
When I first posted my stories about the ‘American Theocracy’ over a year ago, I did not expect to see such significant manifestations of this intellectual, religious and spiritual trend within the span of a year. But throughout 2015, I have noted several surprising trends that all point to a very disturbing pattern regarding the fusion of religious ideology with political rhetoric to produce a frightening new phenomenon in the American scene. This new movement is a form of bigotry, hatred and malice that appears very different to us who witnessed the horrifying racial, ethnic and religious hatred of the modern era, but in principle it is no different from the thoughts systems that produce Nazism, Communism, Socialism, and the extreme forms of social and economic racism in this nation’s history . And for those of you following my stories on the American Theocracy, the struggle over these moral principles is the cornerstone of that imaginary story set in the future.
I hope to return to that series soon, but I want to take some time to relate the principles that under gird my story to our current context so that you, my readers, can better understand what I am seeking to communicate. While the origins of the story itself is only eight years old, nonetheless, I will admit that the influences upon my thinking which led to its creation were the result of twenty-four years of different streams of thought merging together together withing my own view of the world and Biblical truth within the last ten years. These same streams bring us back to the main purpose in creating this blog in 2013.
In all fairness, before proceeding with this post, I should state for readers not familiar with all the nuisances of my theology and my thinking a key presupposition that guides my analysis of current events as well as their relationship to the past. As an unapologetic Protestant Christian, I believe that the source of all truth is found only in the gospel of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. By consequence, I also believe that the fruit of a true knowledge of truth is liberty of conscience-both spiritual and material (see John 8:32). Thus, I draw a direct line from the rise and fall of the Protestantism in the West to the rise and fall of liberty and constitutional government among the Western nations in the last five centuries. But I am not alone in this supposition. Many historians, both Christian and secular alike, have noted the unique and close kinship between the rise and spread of Protestantism five centuries ago and the rise and spread of personal liberty, or as it is often known, Classical Liberalism. Alternatively, few historians and thinkers in our day-both modern and postmodern alike-have failed to note the close parallels between the decline of historic Protestantism and the rise of the totalitarian state with its authoritarian ideologies in the last one hundred years. Nonetheless, since the dawn of the twentieth century, this process is exactly what has unfolded in the West-first in Europe in the middle of that century, and now in the United States in our own time. Consequently, in Europe, as Protestantism died, the old order of constitutional monarchies or constitutional ideals were replaced with Socialism, Fascism, Nazism, and Communism. The result was a continent ravaged with with a century of war, chaos, carnage and destruction. But now, in the early decades of the twenty-first century, that same cancer has spread to North America, and this principle is the underlying reality to all the disturbing news stories of the past year:
The CAUSE of the death of Liberty and constitutional government in the United States is directly linked to the death and decay of Protestantism in the United States.
Several lines of historical and theological arguments could be offered to support this claim, and I hope to continue exploring these themes in future posts. But for this article, I simply want to note the the board historical arch which unites events of this year indicating that Protestantism is dead, and consequently, our Postmodern world is quickly returning to a Pre-Protestant and Pre-Reformational status. But there is another term I would prefer to use to describe this phenomenon:
In 2015, the world watched the first major surge of an intellectual, religious and spiritual movement that could be defined as ‘Neo-Medievalism.’
What is ‘Neo-Medievalism’? Obviously, the term, ‘Medieval’ is generally used by historians to describe the millennium between the ancient era of history and that of the Reformation/Modern Era which still continues to affect our Postmodern world. But while some might simply employ that term as a chronological sense, I would argue that Medievalism was more than just a broad designation for an era of disjointed historical chaos. Granted, few in the actual Medieval period probably used that word to describe their own thinking regarding truth, religion, and the world (they would not have even known such a term). Nonetheless, the Medieval European and Medieval Semite (occupant of the Ancient Middle East) possessed a carefully defined and highly developed worldview. One of the great tragedies resulting from the Modern and Postmodern study of history has been the over-simplification of the exact nature of the Medieval worldview by both Christian and Secular historians alike. The term, ‘Dark Ages’ is often used to describe that era of a thousand years as a time of backward thinking and provincial attitudes. As a Protestant, I would argue that indeed much of Europe and the Middle East (as well as other parts of the globe) were in a deep spiritual darkness, and in that sense, the world was living in a ‘Dark Age’. But it is the height of historical ignorance to argue that somewhere intellectual thought died during that extended period of time. If we could learn one key lesson from the events of the Protestant Reformation (which was a true intellectual revolution for the West), the European ‘Wars of Religion’ (1524-1648) demonstrated there was clear conflict of worldviews between the Medieval and the Reformational Protestant. And that one hundred and twenty-eight year conflict of worldviews did more than just impact religious bodies. Besides devastating much of the populace of Europe, this conflict completely changed the entire continent, giving birth to the idea of separating the church from the civil government, and religion from society at large.
When we consider the seismic impact of the Reformation to Europe, we must ask this question: what was the foundation of Medieval Thought in contrast to Reformational Protestantism?
Without over simplifying a rather complex question (and one that deserves much more study than I have given to it), permit me offer what I believe to be the one key distinctive of the Medieval worldview in contrast to the Protestant worldview. And while I must admit that there were and still are Protestants and Catholics who may not fit precisely into this category, I would argue that such individuals are the exception to the general observable pattern:
The Medieval mind viewed the institutional church and institutional religion as the cornerstone of society (hence Medieval and Modern Catholics often approach political and economic theory from a purely collective or materialistic perspective) whereas the Protestant mind viewed the individual and his or her family as the centerpiece of human interaction (and therefore approached their worldviews from more of an individual and spiritual perspective).
Much could and should be flushed out in this definition which at the moment I will not take the time to do. But if one considers that basic definition of Medieval thinking in contrast to historic Protestant thought, a pattern within the significant events of 2015 begins to manifest itself:
1. The U. S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell vs. Hodge declared that same-sex unions were equal to more traditional definitions of marriage and therefore, should be given the same legal status by the U. S. Constitution as traditional marriage is.
This decision renewed a long standing call by ‘Evangelical’ and other ‘Christian’ conservatives that it was the responsibility of the State, as a ‘Christian entity’ to define and regulate the institution of marriage.
2. In the wake of the recent terrorist attacks linked to ISIL as well as the influx of Syrian refugees to Europe and North America, some ‘Evangelical’ and ‘Christian’ politicians have called for the implementation of Identity Cards be issued to those who do not publicly adhere to the Christian faith.
3.The open hatred expressed by some Christians towards both open homosexuals and Muslims in general is yet another reflection of the same spirit of religious intolerance and bigotry that fueled the wars of religion in Europe in the 1600’s.
4. The address of Pope Francis I to a joint session of the U. S. Congress-a first in American history, and one that was widely applauded by many self-identified Protestants and Evangelicals, despite the pontif’s ambiguity on things like the definition of marriage, the role of government in both economics and politics and a papal exhortation for Americans to embrace multiculturalism despite the fact that many Evangelicals strongly oppose such positions.
5. In recent weeks, the number of American Conservative Christians who have publicly denounced the reception of Syrian refugees by the American government to the United States as a policy that is both ‘Un-american’ and ‘Unchristian.’ simply because these refugees may hold either Muslim beliefs or simply non-Christian beliefs.
6. And lastly, but most disturbingly, calls by some Christians to embrace a total war or a ‘holy crusade’ against militant Islamic groups throughout the Middle East.
Each of these particular issues deserve more attention than I can give in a single post, but for the moment, simply consider the broad pattern that unites these events:
In 2015, we noted an unusual paradigm shift within the American political and social structure in responding to these events:
It was the political Left (not the ideological left, mind you), that became the promoter of ‘individual liberty’ as it is so badly defined in our Postmodern society, and it was the political right (and in this case, the ideological and political bloc are slowly fusing with each other) that was promoting government intervention in everything from society to economics to political power to the very definition of warfare itself.
Regardless of one’s personal views or convictions, this trend is a highly significant pattern for the student of history. But this reality is even more troubling for the Christian who holds that the Bible is their supreme authority and that Christ is their only Lord, for here is the practical lesson we ought to learn from this observation:
The Modern world is dead, and the Postmodern world has given to us ‘The Brave New World.’ For those of you reading this blog who think that the world is still in the PROCESS of becoming the ‘Brave New World”, permit me burst your bubble right now. Postmodernism IS the ‘Brave New World,’ and that means the ‘Brave New World’ IS NOW. And as this new paradigm works itself out in other realms of human life, the ‘Brave New World’ will appear in this fashion: the political left will defend their version of ‘personal liberty’ which might better be defined as ‘chaotic licentiousness’ and the political right will defend religious authoritarianism as the ‘divinely ordained’ means to prevent this new Postmodern ‘liberty’ from spreading.
But here is the great irony in this historical development: It was NOT Postmodernism that killed ‘liberty’. The rise of Neo-Medievalism that considers the church and and external or institutional religion with all its entangling totalitarianism is what is truly killing and has already killed liberty in the United States. And this ideological foundation is fueling the conflict that is manifested by an intense hatred of many American Christians against Islam, Secularism and the inane theory of the ‘Great Left-wing conspiracy’. This the paradigm that will govern the next fifty to one hundred years of American religion as its influence continues to grow upon American public policy. But that reality is small in comparison to the truly frightening source of this new paradigm. This embrace of ‘Neo-Medievalism’ by the Christian church in American is the consequence of the death of Protestantism in America.
smcope 