Progress and Religion: An Historical Inquiry (The Works of Christopher Dawson)

Dawson’s Table of Contents

Contents chapter i Sociology and the Idea of Progress The idea of Progress has been the inspiration of the modern civilization of Western Europe. Its empirical justification. The development of machinery and applied science has produced an industrial-scientific civilization unique in the world’s history. Its value is now widely criticized. 18th century self-confidence—the oVspring of Renaissance culture and Cartesian Rationalism . A secularist apocalyptic. Ratio liberata facit omnia nova. The 19th century inherits the rationalist faith of the Aufklärung. Comte’s positivism. Dominance of scientific materialism. Herbert Spencer. Human progress and reason bye-products of a blind cosmic evolution. Pessimism. Huxley and Bertrand Russell. Anti-intellectualist reaction. Pragmatism. Vitalism. Persistence of belief in progress and in industrial-scientific civilization. c h a p t e r i i History and the Idea of Progress Rise of the historical school in Germany. German ideal intuition not discursive reason. Opposition to mechanist science. A musical not a mathematical interpretation of life. Valuation of history and nationality. The Nation as a spiritual unit. Discovery of the Middle Ages. Hegelian philosophy of history and the state. History the progressive manifestation of Absolute Spirit. Nationalist bias of history in the 19th century. Rise of comparative history of cultures. The life-cycle of a culture—analogous phases. “Predetermination of history.” Western culture in its final stage—civilization—cosmopolitan, positive, imperial—the analogue of the Roman Empire. Spengler’s book an extreme example of the fashionable historical relativism. No room for Progress. Historical development non-ethical and irrational. Cultures her5 metically sealed. History, however, shows an intercultural transmission of inventions and ideas. Mixed forms of culture. The “civilization” phase a period of cultural syncretism. There are, however, distinct cultural units which embody an idea in the form dictated by their material conditions. c h a p t e r i i i Anthropology and the Theory of Progress: The Material Foundations of Culture Anthropology a recent science, the product of Darwinism. 19th century anthropology explained resemblances between cultures by the uniformity of human nature and denied intercultural borrowings. Development everywhere a uniform process—ascertainable a priori. Contemporary reaction in favour of historical method and the admission of intercultural contact . Dr. Rivers and his disciples. Graebner and Schmidt. The Kulturkreis. Both schools liable over-simplification. Le Play— Ouvriers Europeens. Cultures based on fundamental types of exploitation of nature—hunting and food gathering, tending flocks, fishing, agriculture, forestry, mining. Three primary factors of social life—Place, Work, Family or People. Interaction between man and his environment produces a special type of culture and race, e.g., Mediterranean, Nordic, Arctic. An isolated culture tends to form a race—The perfection of a culture measured by its correspondence with its environment. Isolated cultures stable. Change the eVect of intercultural contact and racial migration. A culture cycle the progressive fusion of two cultures. Three phases: 1, Growth—fusion not yet eVected. 2, Progress— flowering of the new culture. 3, Maturity—new culture isolated and fusion complete. The strength of a culture tested by its vitality. Inner decay of Hellenism amidst external progress due to loss of contact with the soil. Cosmopolitan urbanization. Modern civilization urban and mechanical out of touch with the life of nature. Hence its ugliness. c h a p t e r i v The Comparative Study of Religions and the Spiritual Element in Culture Despite the importance of environment cultures are malleable by thought and invention. From the first man has been an artist and a con6 Contents queror of nature, e.g., the palaeolithic cave artists. Thc outlook of the primitive not confined to his physical needs, e.g., the elaborate religious ceremonial of the Australian tribes. The inner aspect of a culture the most important and distinctive. Every culture possesses a distinctive view of life—its soul and formative principle. Behind every civilization is a vision collective or individual. Cultures chiefly diVerentiated and changed by intellectual or spiritual factors—not however always or chiefly by scientific knowledge or rational criticism. Religion—a sense of dependence on superhuman powers-the womb of civilization. Primitive religion universal and vague. Matter the reflection and outward manifestation of spiritual beings . Belief in an indefinite supernatural power diVused throughout nature —Orenda, Wakan. An “ocean of supernatural energy.” Mythology distinct from religion—and to the primitive himself unimportant. It is a crude speculation which...