Wednesday, August 31, 2005 AD
Christianity and "common sense"
Moving on to some of the more general points that came to mind reading Michael Newman's book on socialism (see previous posts 1 | 2), in one chapter Newman looks at the emergence of the "New Left" in the 1960s.
One earlier figure who Newman identifies as a significant influence on the New Left was the Italian communist leader Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), who was imprisoned by Mussolini for the last eleven years of his life. Newman writes of Gramsci:
Increasingly, people are finding the Christian account of the origins, meaning, purpose and goal of life, and of the moral implications that flow from this, not merely incorrect, but incomprehensible. Christian teachings seem to fly completely in the face of "common sense", whether in relation to sexual ethics, euthanasia, the uniqueness of human beings as distinct from animals, and so on.
Reading Newman's summary of Gramsci's ideas, it is striking to see how - even as socialism as an overarching economic and political system has become increasingly marginalised - much of our society's "common sense" has been reconstructed along New Left lines. Some key examples of this include the transformation in attitudes towards women's rights, homosexuality and environmental issues.
This has not been a wholly negative process - in each of those areas there have been changes in law and social attitudes that I for one would not wish to see reversed - but overall the new "common sense" that has emerged is radically secular and hostile to Christianity, seeing it as an old, oppressive system that needs (at the very least) to be rigorously excluded from the public square.
As with the hegemony of capitalism, this secularist hegemony rests more on "ideological factors" rather than "overt aspects of power". It is very easy for us to absorb unconsciously the "common sense", the received wisdom, of our society, and to remain unaware of the constructedness of that "common sense". In particular, we can easily find ourselves reading the Bible through the lenses of "common sense", thus distorting its message.
And this also suggests that the way to respond to this change in circumstances is not to seek political power, or victory in a "culture war" (which, even if it were remotely possible, would simply be to turn Christianity into another ideology). Rather, we need to create (or rather, hold fast to) our own "counter-hegemonic project", our own "common sense", our own "alternative ideas and cultural constructs".
In other words, instead of seeking to justify Christian teachings according to the standards of the world's "common sense", or even worse, changing our teachings to accommodate that "common sense", we need to be clear about holding on to a Christian worldview, not simply in terms of moral values, but in terms of how we see the world - as a created, fallen, redeemed world whose destiny is resurrection. And to see that way of looking at things as simply being "common sense".
One earlier figure who Newman identifies as a significant influence on the New Left was the Italian communist leader Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), who was imprisoned by Mussolini for the last eleven years of his life. Newman writes of Gramsci:
In his writings, he dealt extensively with the extent to which capitalist domination (hegemony), particularly in Western Europe, rested on ideological factors, rather than overt aspects of power.It strikes me that this is the problem that Christianity now faces in much of the west: the Christian worldview has ceased to be part of the "common sense" of our society. This isn't just about "Christian values", but the loss of the whole Christian narrative - creation and fall, death and resurrection, the direction of history - as the framework within which we view the world.
He stressed the need for socialists to be able to create a counter-hegemonic project - a new "common sense", based on alternative ideas and cultural constructs.
Increasingly, people are finding the Christian account of the origins, meaning, purpose and goal of life, and of the moral implications that flow from this, not merely incorrect, but incomprehensible. Christian teachings seem to fly completely in the face of "common sense", whether in relation to sexual ethics, euthanasia, the uniqueness of human beings as distinct from animals, and so on.
Reading Newman's summary of Gramsci's ideas, it is striking to see how - even as socialism as an overarching economic and political system has become increasingly marginalised - much of our society's "common sense" has been reconstructed along New Left lines. Some key examples of this include the transformation in attitudes towards women's rights, homosexuality and environmental issues.
This has not been a wholly negative process - in each of those areas there have been changes in law and social attitudes that I for one would not wish to see reversed - but overall the new "common sense" that has emerged is radically secular and hostile to Christianity, seeing it as an old, oppressive system that needs (at the very least) to be rigorously excluded from the public square.
As with the hegemony of capitalism, this secularist hegemony rests more on "ideological factors" rather than "overt aspects of power". It is very easy for us to absorb unconsciously the "common sense", the received wisdom, of our society, and to remain unaware of the constructedness of that "common sense". In particular, we can easily find ourselves reading the Bible through the lenses of "common sense", thus distorting its message.
And this also suggests that the way to respond to this change in circumstances is not to seek political power, or victory in a "culture war" (which, even if it were remotely possible, would simply be to turn Christianity into another ideology). Rather, we need to create (or rather, hold fast to) our own "counter-hegemonic project", our own "common sense", our own "alternative ideas and cultural constructs".
In other words, instead of seeking to justify Christian teachings according to the standards of the world's "common sense", or even worse, changing our teachings to accommodate that "common sense", we need to be clear about holding on to a Christian worldview, not simply in terms of moral values, but in terms of how we see the world - as a created, fallen, redeemed world whose destiny is resurrection. And to see that way of looking at things as simply being "common sense".
