Religion and the Rise of Modern Culture by Louis Dupré, The Theological Origins of Modernity by Michael Allen Gillespie (review)

514 BOOK REVIEWS with the mystery of what it is to be a human being and to live amongst other human beings. ANDREW]. PEACH Providence College Providence, Rhode Island Religion and the Rise of Modern Culture. By LOUIS DUPRE. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008. Pp. 128. $15.00 (paper). ISBN: 978-0-268-02594-6. The Theological Origins ofModernity. By MICHAEL ALLEN GILLESPIE. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. Pp. 368. $35.00 (cloth). ISBN: 978-0226 -29345-5. In his recent book What Is Truth? John Rist has a section called "Where the Hell Are We Now?". The two books under review here attempt, with very different degrees of success, to answer this question. Anyone trying to answer Rist's robust questions would do well to consider what sort of an answer he is looking for and where he might find such an answer. Our enquirer would quickly see that he is looking for something more than an account of the "world in review for 200...", such as a group of sociologists, journalists, economists, theater critics and political commentators might produce. The enquirer might very well see that "the world in review" approach would be an essential element of any adequate answer to his question, but he would also have a sense that he will not understand the mass of material dealing with the contemporary situation without some sense of how things got to be the way they are now. The snapshot view of reality provided by "the world in review" leaves out the dynamic or developmental aspect of the situation he is trying to grasp, the situation that has led in the first place to his frustrated question" "where the hell are we now?". Bur where will he find an account of this dynamic or developmental aspect of the situation? It would seem that a consultation with the historian would be in order. The present situation developed out of the past, he says to himself, and historians deal with the past. He quickly finds, however, that historians at least ex professo are not concerned with the whys and wherefores of what has happened, but with producing an accurate account of how things really happened. There are specializations within this broad description based on different bases: temporal, national, cultural, economic, of ideas, and so on; but they all seek to describe a past reality which is, as a reality, something given-no matter how difficult it may be to obtain an objective account of that reality. It is perfectly legitimate to ask questions about the origins of modern culture or the makings of modernity, but they are not historical questions in the strict BOOK REVIEWS 515 sense. That is, such questions are second-order questions about the dynamic aspect or developmental direction at work within history, and a request for a theory or an explanation of why things have worked out the way they have. At the same time, while such questions may be legitimate, the answers themselves must constantly be viewed in the light of first-order historical knowledge. This means not only verifying that the answer is not obviously contradicted by history, but also engaging in a continuing effort to be as sensitive and discriminating as possible, to ensure we have not begun either to ignore or to rearrange the givens of historical knowledge in the interest of our explanation. Louis Dupre's reflections on the development of history towards modernity are a model of careful scholarship and insight. His short book is a distillation and refinement of many years of careful research and serious writing on questions of the philosophy of religion and cultural history. The value of the present slim volume under review bears no proportion to the length of the book. This work carries with it the authority of what Hegel would have called the labor of the concept. Dupre's outlines of various problems and his descriptions of the positions of a wide range of thinkers have a distinction that is only achieved by a persevering and hands-on effort to wrestle with the matters dealt with, as well as a first-hand knowledge of the texts under discussion. Dupre...