A KISSed History of Beliefs

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As we have noted, the HOB included has included ignorance of the NT Gospel by most of the people in the world until the invention of the printing press, the Protestant Reformation and the European colonization in the 1500s, during which the proto-gospel via general revelation was the main method of discerning God and GRFS. Since that century, NT Christianity continued to be ignored by many as atheist philosophy became more popular. Still, we must remember that a remnant of folks affirmed biblical faith that flourished in the free atmosphere of America. However, we will continue to cite the problematic beliefs that competed with the Gospel of Christ.

In 1785, William Paley published The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, in which he supported abolition of slavery, then in 1794 he wrote on natural theology, describing the teleological argument using the analogy of a watchmaker.

About this time Jeremy Bentham propounded utilitarianism, which valued the greatest good as the primary ethical principle. He designed a prison called the Panopticon, which contained cells surrounding a central post for a hidden jailer, and advocated menial labor to help pay the cost of imprisonment.

In 1791-92, Thomas Paine published The Rights of Man in defense of the French Revolution against criticisms by Edmund Burke, and then in 1794 The Age of Reason, criticizing organized religion and biblical inerrancy and advocating deism.

In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, defending women’s equality, and Johann Fichte went beyond Hume’s and Kant’s subjectivism (inability to know things in themselves) by proposing idealism, the idea that consciousness is separate from anything outside of itself.

Another idealist was Friedrich Schelling, who published System of Transcendental Idealism in 1800. He said that nature is visible spirit, and that history is the progressive disclosing of the Absolute.

In 1818, Georg Hegel succeeded Fichte as professor of philosophy in Berlin. He took his cue from Heraclitus, viewing Absolute Knowledge as evolving in a dialectical process of contradiction and negation, in which a thesis and its antithesis form a new and better or more complete synthesis, which in turn serves as the new thesis.

Also in 1818, Arthur Schopenhauer published The World as Will and Idea. He affirmed Hinduism and agreed with Buddhism’s negation of volition in order to avoid painful desires, but viewed Hegel as vacuous and criticized Kant for over-looking the validity of intuition as prior to the operation of conscious reason. He adopted Aristotle’s four-fold analysis of knowledge: material using cause and effect, abstract using logic, mathematic using numerical operations, and psychological using moral reasoning.

In 1820, Friedrich Schleiermacher published The Christian Faith, in which he argued that dependence on God rather than understanding Him is fundamental. He rejected hell in favor of universalism.

 

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(1823-1849) [President Monroe issued his Monroe Doctrine against European colonization in the Americas in 1823. Russia forced Turkey to accept the independence of Greece in 1829, but it quashed a Polish revolt against its rule in 1831. Egypt took Syria from Turkey in 1832. Texas won independence from Mexico in 1836. Victoria became Queen of G.B. in 1837. G.B. took Afghanistan in 1840 and Hong Kong and New Zealand in 1841. The Boers established Natal and then the Orange Free State in 1842. The U.S. took New Mexico in 1846, then the rest of the west in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.]

{During this period, the seismograph, cotton gin and telegraph were invented, uranium and the Rosetta Stone were discovered, mutineers took the H.M.S. Bounty, Washington D.C. was founded, a steamboat was launched, a school for the blind was established, slavery was abolished in G.B., a smallpox vaccination was created, the metric system was adopted in France, copper pennies were minted. Also, atomic theory was introduced, a submarine and steam locomotive were produced, biology was so-named, Shrapnel invented the cannon shell, Macintosh invented waterproof fabric, morphine was isolated, batteries and stethoscopes were made, London streets were gas lit, trolleys traveled on iron tracks, food was canned, crushed stone roads were constructed, electro-magnetism was discovered, rugby originated, and Elizabeth Seton founded the Sisters of Charity in Maryland. In music, Paganini debuted, Casanova died, Beethoven went deaf, Rossini was a new composer, and “Silent Night, Holy Night” was composed. Goya was a new artist and Nash a new architect. New writers included Blake, Burns, Schiller, Wordsworth, Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle”, the Grimms’ Fairy Tales, Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Scott, Byron, Coleridge, Keats, and Cooper’s The Pioneers.}

The proliferation of Protestant denominations during this time so confused Joseph Smith that he prayed for God to reveal to him which was true, and the answer he heard was that none of them were true, so he should start another one! Thus, in 1830 he published the Book of Mormon and founded the Latter-day Saints or Mormonism, teaching that his church was the only true denomination of Christianity.

EXCERPTS FROM “THE DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS”

1. Containing revelations given to Joseph Smith, the prophet, with some additions by his successors in the Presidency of the Church, Copyright 1921 by Helen J. Grant, Trustee in Trust. [title page]

2. [The first revelation to Joseph Smith] took place in the early spring of 1820… Many revelations followed, in preparation for the re-establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ on earth… On September 24, 1834, at a meeting of the High Council in Kirtland, Ohio, a committee… was constituted to publish the revelations… [explanatory introduction]

3. Section 1. Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, during a special conference of Elders… held at Hiram, Ohio, November 1, 1831… This section constitutes the Lord’s Preface to the doctrines, covenants, and commandments given in this dispensation. [p.1]

4. …my servant Joseph Smith… [to whom was given] power to lay the foundation of this church… the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth. [p.3]

5. For although a man may have many revelations… [if he] sets at naught the counsels of God… he must fall and incur the vengeance of a just God. [p.4]

6. And when thou [Smith] deliverdst up that which God had given thee sight and power to translate, thou deliverdst up that which was sacred into the hands of a wicked man. [p.5]

7. As many as repent and are baptized in my name, which is Jesus Christ, and endure to the end, the same shall be saved. [p.25]

8. God… created man [but man became fallen]… wherefore, the Almighty God gave his Only Begotten Son… He was crucified, died, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven.. to reign with almighty power according to the will of the Father. [p.31]

9. Father, Son and Holy Ghost are one God, infinite, and eternal… And we know that justification… [and] sanctification through the grace of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ is just and true… But there is a possibility that we may fall from grace. [p.31]

10. It must needs be that the devil should tempt the children of men, or they could not be agents unto themselves…[but] power is not given unto Satan to tempt little children, until they begin to become accountable. [p.46]

11. The Book of Mormon and the holy scriptures are given of me for your instruction… And there are none that doeth good except those who are ready to receive the fullness of my gospel, which I have sent forth… by the hand of my servant Joseph. [p.50&52]

12. My servants Sidney, and Parley, and Leman… you shall go and preach my gospel… unto the Shakers… [for] whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for… it is lawful that he should have one wife. [p.77-78]

13. Let that which belongeth to this people not be taken and given unto that of another church… let the bishop appoint a storehouse unto this church. [p.82]

14. The land of Missouri… is the land of promise, and the place for the city of Zion… is now called Independence… wherefore, it is wisdom that the land should be purchased. [p.89]

15. He that keepeth the laws of God hath no need to break the laws of the land. [p.91]

16. Shake off the dust of thy feet against those who receive thee not, not in their presence, lest though provoke them, but in secret. [p.97]

17. Children shall be baptized for the remission of their sins when eight years old. [p.112]

18. Section 76. A vision… Prefacing his record of this vision the Prophet wrote: “From sundry revelations which had been received, it was apparent that many important points touching the revelation of man had been taken from the bible, or lost before it was compiled. [p.121]

19. These are they [the church of the Firstborn who have received the fullness of the Father] whose bodies are celestial… These are they who receive of his glory, but not of his fullness… Wherefore, they are bodies terrestrial… these are they [the telestial] who received not the gospel of Christ… who shall not be redeemed form the devil until the last resurrection. [p.125]

20. For whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods [Melchizedek and Aaronic]… they become the sons of Moses… and the elect of God. [p.137]

TBC?

 

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21. The body hath need of every member… that the system may be kept perfect. [p.141]

22. Prophecy on war, given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, December 25, 1832… behold, the southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and… slaves shall rise up against their masters. [p.144]

23. A Word of Wisdom… strong drinks are not for the belly… tobacco is not for the body, neither for the belly… and again, hot drinks are not for the body or belly. [p.154]

24. Thus saith the Lord [to Joseph Smith]… the keys of this kingdom shall never be taken from you, while thou art in the world, neither in the world to come. [p.155]

25. It is not needful that the Apocrypha should be translated. [p.158]

26. Man was also in the beginning with God… for man is spirit. The elements are eternal… the elements are the tabernacle of God. [p.160]

27. I, the Lord, justify you… in befriending that law which is the constitutional law of the land. [p.167]

28. If men will smite you… if thou rewardest him according to his works thou art justified. [p.168]

29. In case of difficulty respecting doctrine… the president may inquire and obtain the mind of the Lord by revelation. [p.179]

30. Whoso is not willing to lay down his life for my sake is not my disciple. [p. 181]

31. If any man shall… impart not his portion, according to the law of my gospel, unto the poor and the needy, he shall, with the wicked, lift up his eyes in hell. [p.183-184]

32. Talk not of judgment, neither boast of faith nor of mighty works, but carefully gather together, as much in one region as can be, consistently with the feelings of the people… until the army of Israel becomes very great. [p.189]

33. There are, in the church, two priesthoods, namely the Melchizedek and Aaronic… called the lesser priesthood. [p.191-192]

34. We therefore ask thee to… cause that the remnants of Jacob… be converted… to the fullness of the everlasting gospel. [p.202]

35. Thus shall my church be called in the last days, even the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. [p.209]

36. All those who gather unto the land of Zion shall be tithed of their surplus properties, and shall observe this law, or they shall not be found worthy to abide among you. [p.212]

37. Build a house to my name… for a baptismal font there is not upon the earth, that they, my saints, may be baptized for those who are dead. [p.221]

38. The Lord ordained and prepared before the foundation of the world the ordinance of baptism for the dead for the salvation of the dead who should die without knowledge of the gospel. [p.232]

39. The idea that the Father and the Son dwell in a man’s heart is an old sectarian notion… the Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s. [p.238]

40. In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees, and in order to obtain the highest, man must enter into… the new and everlasting covenant of marriage. [p.238]

41. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine. [p.239]

42. I reveal unto you a new and an everlasting covenant, and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned… the conditions of this law are these: All covenants… that are not made and entered into and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise… through the medium of mine anointed… my servant Joseph… are of no efficacy, virtue or force in after the resurrection. [p.239-240]

43. Therefore, if a man marry him a wife… not by me nor by my word… when they are out of the world they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are appointed angels… to minster for those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory. [p.240-241]

44. If a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise, by him who is anointed… then shall they be gods, because they have all power. [p.241]

45. This is eternal lives—to know the only wise and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent. I am he. Receive ye, therefore, my law… and ye shall be saved. [p.242]

46. Abraham received concubines, and they bore him children, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness… David also received many wives and concubines… by the hand of Nathan, my servant. [p.243]

47. If any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the first give her consent… then he is justified, he cannot commit adultery… And if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth. [p.245]

48. We do not believe it just to mingle religious influence with civil government, whereby one religious society is fostered… We do not believe that any religious society has authority to try men on the right of property or life. [p.250-251]

49. To seal the testimony of this book and the Book of Mormon, we announce the martyrdom of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and Hyrum Smith the Patriarch. They were shot in Carthage jail, on the 27th of June, 1844, about five o’clock p.m., by an armed mob—painted black—of from 150 to 200 persons… Joseph Smith, the Prophet and Seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation of men in this world, than any other man. [p.252]

50. It was needful that he [Joseph Smith] should seal his testimony with his blood, that he might be honored and the wicked might be condemned… Now, however, hearken, O ye people of my church… be diligent in keeping all my commandments… So no more at present. Amen and Amen. [p.256-end]

 

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Now that we have paused to consider the year 1830, in which Joseph Smith published the Book of Mormon and founded the Latter-day Saints or Mormonism, teaching that his church was the only true denomination of Christianity, we will continue our review of the HOB.

In 1831, Johann Goethe discovered the Hypsistarians and affirmed their reverence for the best and most perfect knowledge as connected to God. The RC Spanish Inquisition against Protestants ended in 1834.

In 1835, David Strauss pioneered the skeptical investigation of the life of Jesus by viewing all miraculous elements as mythical. In 1838, Auguste Comte labeled Sociology as the most comprehensive of the sciences, and in 1844 he published a work recommending that positivism (the golden mean of poetic ideals between philosophical ideas and political realities) replace Catholicism. He also coined the term “altruism” for the moral obligation that trumps individual rights. In 1839, Louis Blanc expressed the mantra of socialism: “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.”

In 1841, Ludwig Feuerbach published The Essence of Christianity, saying that God is a creation or projection of man, a chimera, personification and idolization of goodness. In 1843, Soren Kierkegaard published Either/Or, which described two phases of existence: the aesthetic, and the ethical. He argued that subjectivity is truth, meaning that ethical behavior is more important than physical facts. The loss of divine authority results in uncertainty, angst, dread and lack of meaning. His solution was to take a leap to faith despite having doubt, replacing herd mentality and state religion with personal passionate commitment. His views founded existentialism.

In 1846, Brigham Young established the Mormons in Utah. In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels co-authored The Communist Manifesto, which described history in terms of class struggles, and promoted rule by the proletariat or working class, which would own all property and require universal labor.

{Cultural and scientific developments during this time included: a society for preventing cruelty to animals was founded in London, baseball was organized in New York, Ohm measured electrical resistance, Garrison promoted abolitionism in America, Webster published a dictionary, Poe wrote poems and short stories, Rossini and Wagner composed operas, Dickens and Balzac wrote novels,

Carroll built the Baltimore to Ohio railroad, Wohler began organic chemistry, G.B. abolished suttee (burning widows) in India, McCormick patented a reaping machine, Hansom introduced horse-drawn cabs.

Finney preached revivalism, Halley’s comet made another appearance (1836), Audubon painted birds, the Blue Riband was awarded to the S.S. Britannia in 1840 (for crossing the Atlantic eastbound in only nine days), Barnum opened a freak show, Dorothea Dix reported horrible conditions in prisons and asylums, the YMCA was founded in England.

The potato crop failed in Ireland, the U.S. Naval Academy opened, gold was discovered in California in 1847, David Livingstone explored central Africa, and the U.S. population reached 23 million in 1850.

Inventions and discoveries included: paraffin, sulfur matches, the function of sperm, sewing machines, chloroform, the telegraph and wood-pulp paper.

New musicians included: Liszt, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Berlioz, and Wagner. Jenny Lind was the “Swedish Nightingale”. There were no famous artists.

New writers included: Hugo, Balzac, Poe, Tennyson, Andersen’s tales for children, Dicken’s novels, Hawthorne’s Twice Told Tales, Browning, Longfellow, Dumas, Disraeli, Dostoevsky, Melville and the Bronte sisters.}

 

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The HOB has noted that ignorance of the NT Gospel by most people in the world was the case (during which the proto-gospel via general revelation was the main method of discerning God and GRFS) until the invention of the printing press combined with the Protestant Reformation and European colonization in the 1500s began to publicize the NT Gospel. Since that century, as NT Christianity spread it began to be ignored by those who exchanged the truth about God for atheist philosophy.

We saw that the proliferation of Protestant denominations in America was confusing to some, including Joseph Smith who thought the solution was to found yet another even more problematic belief. Still, a remnant of folks in America and around the world affirmed biblical faith as we continue to cite competing beliefs, beginning with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who in 1848 co-authored The Communist Manifesto, which described history in terms of class struggles, and promoted rule by the proletariat or working class, which would own all property and require universal labor.

(1850-1874) [In 1852, the Dutch established the South African Republic, and Louis Napolean revived the empire in France. Russia and Turkey fought the Crimean War in 1853-56. Britain fought Persia, India and China in 1856-58. In 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln, became the 16th U.S. President, sparking the Civil War (1861-65) between northern (abolitionist) and southern (pro-slavery) states. Prussia under Bismarck expanded its territory into Germany and France in 1866-71. Britain established Canada, and Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. in 1867.]

In 1857, Herbert Spencer coined the term “evolution” and applied it universally, but especially to society, founding sociology. After reading Darwin, he coined the phrase “survival of the fittest” to describe natural selection. He was a utilitarian, but he said that people should be allowed to experience the natural consequences of their conduct in order for evolution to progress. He preached agnosticism, viewing God as the “Unknowable”.

In 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, substituting “natural selection” for Jean-Baptiste Lamarck’s “spontaneous generation” in theorizing how new species develop when adaptively advantageous variations are transmitted over several generations. Subsequently, evolutionism was opposed by some theists, who thought it contradicted the “creationism” taught in Genesis.

In 1859-69, John Stuart Mill published works advocating liberty, utilitarianism positivism and gender equality. In 1864, the Pope condemned liberalism, socialism and rationalism, and “In God We Trust” was printed on coins in the U.S.

In 1870, the First Vatican Council promulgated the dogma of papal infallibility. In 1871, Charles Russell founded the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a pacifist, Adventist sect, claiming to be the only true religion (like Joseph Smith had done for Mormonism).

In 1874, Franz Brentano published Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint, which affirmed the scholastic concept of intentionality, perception of physical reality is shaped by psychological phenomenon. His disciples included Husserl.

 

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In 1875, Helena Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society, which taught that all religions were spiritually true, but imperfectly manifested. She published Isis Unveiled in 1877.

Also in 1875, Mary Baker Eddy published Science and Health, founding Christian Science, which taught that the universe is spiritual, evil is unreal, and understanding God results in healing.

In 1878, Charles Pierce published How to Make Our Ideas Clear, founding pragmatism, which described scientific inquiry as beginning with abduction or hypothesis, deduction or testing of the hypothesis, and induction or deriving a conclusion. He noted that in order to learn, one must have desire or wonder, and he identified three categories that condition experience: Firstness (feeling, possibility, subjectivity), Secondness (relation, actuality, concreteness) and Thirdness (representation, necessity, generality). He also expanded Locke’s mention of semiotics into a study of how meaning is signified.

Also in 1878, Heinrich Treitschke began the anti-Semitic movement with the slogan, “The Jews are our misfortune!”

In 1879, Gottlob Frege published Begriffsschrift, influencing the founders of analytic philosophy. The goal was to eliminate intuitive elements by the operation of pure logic denoted by conceptual notation.

In 1883, Friedrich Nietzsche published Thus Spake Zarathustra, which declared God to be dead and sought to replace him with “the superman” race, advocating racism and implying moral nihilism.

In 1886, Adolf von Harnack published History of Dogma, advocating practical Christianity or a social gospel and rejecting the Gospel of John as well as miracles.

In 1897, the Zionist Organization was founded in Switzerland.

The U.S. fought Spain in 1898, which ceded Cuba and the Philippines. Britain fought the Boers in 1899-1900.

 

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As this HOB and especially Christianity enters the 20th century, one should keep in mind the fact the ignorance of the NT Gospel by most people in the world until this time, during which the proto-gospel via general revelation was the way most people in the world knew God's power and moral nature. The printing press, Protestant Reformation and European exploration in the 1500s began to publicize the Bible including the NT Gospel until RC via the Portuguese ships reached Japan, although it banned missionaries in 1587 as the slave trade between southern Africa and Spanish America began.

Unfortunately, as Protestant Christianity (PC) and the King James Bible (1611) spread in Europe and the British colonies during the next two centuries, atheist philosophy and Islam also became more popular and in 1716 Christianity was banned in China. In 1696 Toland's deism had deemed reason to be superior to revelation, in 1710 Berkely had advocated subjectivism and by 1717 Freemason lodges were competing with churches, although about 1736 a revival occurred in America. Modern atheism received a boost about 1750 when Hume advocated skepticism, Lessing advocated human reason, and in France Voltaire doubted the Bible was divinely inspired while Rousseau rejected divine revelation. In Germany about 1780, Kant also elevated reason above revelation while Mendelssohn did the same in Jewish philosophy, deistic Unitarianism influenced several American leaders, including Paine's The Age of Reason in 1794.

In the 19th century rationalist philosophy became entrenched in German universities as Schelling taught idealism, Hegel viewed history merely as a dialectical process of synthesis, Schopenhauer affirmed Hinduism-Buddhism and Aristotelian philosophy, and in 1820 Schleiermacher argued in The Christian Faith that dependence on God rather than understanding Him is fundamental and
that there is no hell. About 1840 Strauss concluded his skeptical investigation of the life of Jesus by viewing all miraculous elements as mythical, Comte viewed sociology as the most comprehensive of the sciences, Blanc coined its mantra, “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs”, Feuerbach opined that God is a creation or projection of man or personification of goodness, and Kierkegaard argued that subjectivity is truth, so we must take a leap to faith despite having doubt, founding existentialism.

In 1848 atheism reached its political pinnacle in Europe when Marx and Engels co-authored The Communist Manifesto. Meanwhile in America we saw that the proliferation of Protestant denominations confused some such as Joseph Smith to view them as different religions. Thus, the banner of NT Christianity was carried by a remnant of Bibe believers as after 1850 Spencer and Darwin popularized the theory of evolution and agnosticism, viewing God as the “Unknowable”. In 1864 the RC Pope condemned liberalism, socialism and rationalism, in 1870 the First Vatican Council promulgated the dogma of papal infallibility, and in 1874 Brentano taught that the perception of physical reality is shaped by psychological phenomenon. We should note that in 1878 Treitschke began the anti-Semitic movement with the slogan, “The Jews are our misfortune!”, in 1883 Nietzsche declared God to be dead and sought to replace him with “the superman” race and moral nihilism, and in 1886, Harnack's social gospel and rejected the Gospel of John as well as miracles.

And so the 20th century began with Freud founding psychoanalysis, Husserl affirming Kant’s concept of mental categories and James promoting pragmatism as anti-Jewish pogroms occurred in Russia. In 1904 Weber published The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, arguing that religious ideals influenced the development of western economies and governments, and in 1906 Schweitzer's The Quest of the Historical Jesus did not find much he deemed credible. Although in 1912 Jung viewed the human psyche as essentially spiritual, the next year Russell and Whitehead sought to replace God with materialistic math. In 1919 Barth reacted against the prevailing skepticism of theologians with dialectical theology that noted the paradox in affirming both grace and judgment. In 1921 Wittgenstein noted the role of language and semantics in philosophy and defined logic as reflection on the physical world, thereby relegating theology and ethics to the realm of metaphysical and mystical subjects, although later he realized this negated his own philosophy. In 1924 Brunner followed up Barth by publishing a neo-orthodox critique of liberal theology that upheld the centrality of Jesus as God incarnate.

In 1925 Hitler published Mein Kampf and in 1928 Stalin mandated a Five-Year Plan for the industrialization of Russia, while the Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawing war was signed by 65 states in Paris. In 1929 the Great Depression began and the “Dust Bowl” drought exacerbated the depression in the U.S. plains states. During this time Heidegger discussed Being versus beings, and Carnap affirmed logical positivism’s defining metaphysics out of meaningful existence (which the Nazis practiced), and Jaspers affirmed existentialism and the need to take a leap of faith in order to avoid sinking into despair. This brings the HOB to Hitler and WWII.

 

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The divide between theist and atheist philosophers continued.

In 1936, A.J.Ayer published Language, Truth and Logic, in which he popularized the Vienna Circle’s “verification principle”, saying that a sentence can only be meaningful if it is empirically verifiable.

Two Christian philosophers published works in 1941. WWII prompted Reinhold Niebuhr to abandon pacifism and adopt “realism” in The Nature and Destiny of Man that would empower people against evil forces. Rudolf Bultmann applied form criticism to the Gospel of John and published New Testament and Mythology, which called for demythologizing the New Testament along the lines of Martin Heidegger’s temporal and existential categories, thereby clarifying the kerygma or gospel and increasing its palatability of theology in story form for modern scientific people.

In 1942, C.S. Lewis published The Screwtape Letters, in which the antagonist is not interested in tempting “the patient” to commit spectacular evil, but to become befuddle and slowly corrupted.

In 1943, Jean-Paul Sartre was influenced by Heidegger to publish Being and Nothingness, which affirmed the freedom of the human being against being determined by physical causality.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was murdered for opposing Hitler in 1945. In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, he opposed cheap grace and advocated willingness to imitate the suffering of Christ for the cause of justice.

Shintoism was abolished in Japan in 1945, and the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947.

Ayer published three books promoting atheistic positivism, and Christian theism was represented by Paul Tillich’s The Courage to Be (1952) and Dynamics of Faith (1957), as well as his Systematic Theology (1951–63). He conceived of God as the “Ground of Being” and of faith an existential necessity.

In 1952, Niebuhr published Christ and Culture, N.V. Peale preached “The Power of Positive Thinking”, and the Revised Standard Version of the Bible was published.

In 1953, B.F. Skinner sought to explain human behavior in terms of operant conditioning.

In 1954, Billy Graham began preaching an ecumenical gospel, and the World Council of Churches was convened.

In 1955, P.T. de Chardin published The Phenomenon of Man, affirming theistic evolutionism and viewing Christ as its Omega point.

In 1961 the New English Bible was published.

In 1962, the Second Vatican Council began meeting.

 

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I realize there are young whippersnappers on CC, but for my ilk the 1960s brings the HOB to where my biography is added, so I will KISS this KISSed HOB as follows:

1. Creation – Alpha, “Big Bang”, circa 14 billion years B.C. & Earth c. 4 billion years B.C., geography/space and chronology/time.

I believe a 5+-dimensional God created this four-dimensional universe as the stage for playing out His POS, which was/is to create souls in His image for the purpose of providing eternal joy in heaven for all who cooperated or acted IAW His will during this earthly existence, although all would sin, so His provision/POS included a Way for sinners to qualify for heaven.

2. Word/Language – GW & human oral language c. 10,000 B.C. is what writing records.

I believe God communicates with souls via His Word, which is theophanized by Christ's incarnation and internalized as the HS by souls who satisfy GRFS, but which is ignored by souls who exercise their God-likeness by choosing to be foolish/atheist/anti-Christ and go to hell instead of heaven.

3. Scripture/Writing – invented c. 4,000 B.C. records history and GW for posterity.

I believe creation and conscience (c&c, called general revelation/GR) reveal GW impersonally, but God inspired some souls to write words (the OT & NT) revealing His desire to fellowship with humanity on the basis of Truth as revealed and that He saves all souls who seek truth/GW/God's POS and cooperate with Him by reflecting divine Love (although imperfectly). IOW: God initiates/reveals/loves; souls may choose to cooperate/seek/reflect His love--or not. This choice was manifested by Abraham's faith, whose physical circumcision signified his heart's saving desire.

4. OT/Judaism – Founded by Moses c. 1200 B.C. built on Abraham’s monotheism & circumcision, whose Torah was elaborated was elaborated by later OT prophets/writers.

I believe God's purpose for choosing Moses to exodus Israel from Egypt was so that culture would be the heritage of Messiah, who would pay the penalty for the sins of humanity, and those who accept Jesus as Lord become spiritual Jews/descendants of Abraham.

5. Atheism – Manifested in multiple forms, including ancient Hindu polytheism (c. 1200 B.C.), reformed by Buddhism (c. 520 B.C.) and by the atheist-humanism of Confucius in China (d. 480 B.C.) and Protagoras in Greece (d. 420 B.C.). The Greek culture aka Hellenism included science, the philosophical schools of Plato & Aristotle and Alexander’s conquests (d. 323 B.C.). It was adopted and succeeded by Romanism, which conquered the Mediterranean area and encountered Judaism in the century preceding Christ's advent.

I believe God allows souls to resist His intent or intentional will for them to be saved and to exercise their God-given human volition by choosing atheism (called His permissive will), and God judges them on the basis of the truth they reject, so those who decide not to seek Him do not qualify for heaven and will go to hell, where souls are destroyed after justice is accomplished.

TBC

 

[GWH]

6. Christianity – Founded by Jesus and his disciples, especially the apostle Paul (c. 30-68 A.D.), who taught that God’s love and plan of salvation includes everyone, so that the atonement of Christ and the New Testament superseded the Mosaic sacrificial laws and Torah.
Unfortunately, knowledge of Scripture was limited by hand-copying, and most church leaders deferred to the bishop in Rome regarding interpretation and doctrine so that biblical Christianity morphed into Roman Papalism/Catholicism after Constantine made it legal and authorized the Nicene Council/Creed (in 325).

I believe God continued to allow even Christians to stray from correct beliefs while the majority of humanity remained ignorant of Scripture and dependent on GR for knowledge of God. Thus, even as areas in Europe became Christendom nominally, there was a Dark Age regarding knowledge of the light of spiritual Truth or God's Word as Germanic migrations ended the Roman Empire (in 476), Byzantine Emperor Justinian I closed the Athens School of Philosophy (in 529), Buddhism was introduced in Japan, and a plague halved the population of Europe before ending in 594.

7. Islam – Founded by Mohammed (in 610) mainly by means of conquest, it stressed that only one God exists and taught that salvation can be earned by obeying laws. The Muslim caliph Omar I took Syria and Egypt (in 634), captured Persia (in 641) and suppressed Zoroasterianism, which taught that humans should exercise volition to participate with the god Ahura Mazda in a cosmic struggle against chaos and falsehood. Omar also closed the library and school in Alexandria. Islam continued to spread until the Omayyad dynasty expanded to the Indus River (by 674), while Christendom “fiddled” with the Monothelitism controversy (622-680), which debated whether Christ Jesus had one (human) or two (also divine) wills. The Muslims took Armenia and Algiers, then north Africa’s coast and Spain until stopped by Charles Martel (in 732), who began the Holy Roman Empire in Europe.

I believe God was grieved that the Gospel was perverted in the areas evangelized by Paul and that the founding of Islam as a consequence of the spiritual vacuum left by failure of other disciples to evangelize Africa and Asia became a punishment as it persecuted Christians.

TBC

 

[GWH]

8. Medievalism - Just as polytheistic Hinduism, Hellenism and Romanism dominated the period of Atheism while Judaism developed in Canaan/Palestine, so Roman and Eastern Catholicism dominated Europe even though several Germanic tribes migrated from the north into the region and formed various kingdoms. European hereditary fiefdoms protected by the forces of lords living in castles proliferated. In 771 Charlemagne inherited the Frankish kingdom and annexed Saxony, Lombardy and Bavaria before being crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800, when Pope Leo III separated RC from Byzantium. In 826, the king of Denmark converted to RC, opening the door for its spread to Scandinavia. In 843 the Treaty of Verdun divided the Frankish Empire into French, German and Italian dynasties. Meanwhile, Muslims took Crete, attacked Sardinia and Sicily and then sacked Rome in 846 as Vikings or Norsemen attacked Britain, Ireland and Germany, then took Kiev in 850, discovered Iceland in 861 attacked Constantinople via the Black Sea in 865, 904 and 941 and discovered Greenland. In 907 the Magyars in Hungary defeated the Moravians and raided Germany and Italy. In 951, Otto I of Germany became king of the Franks and Lombards and was crowned HRE in 962. The Poles converted to RC in 966. Eastern Catholicism was accepted by Kiev (Russia) in 988. By 1000 RC had reached Greenland, and Judaism was strongest in Spain. The Danes deposed the English king in 1013, and they conquered Norway in 1028.

The Caliphate in Cordoba was abolished in 1031, and the Seljuk Turks gained strength in Turkestan in 1042. In 1054, the schism between RC and what became Eastern Orthodoxy, due mainly to its rejection of the primacy of the Pope, became permanent (“Great”).
In 1060, Anselm of Canterbury joined Lanfranc at the Benedictine Abbey in Bec, where he wrote philosophical tracts, such as De incarnation Verbi (reconciling divine foreknowledge with human free will), and logical arguments for the existence of God, such as Proslogion (including the ontological argument: God is the first cause and greatest conceivable being). In 1062, Berengar of Tours opposed the RC doctrine of transubstantiation (the communion bread and wine becoming the physical body and blood of Christ) for being irrational. The Danes in England were defeated by William of Normandy in 1066 (the year of Halley’s comet). Poland took Kiev in 1067. The Normans conquered Italy in 1071. The Seljuks conquered Armenia in 1064 and Syria-Palestine in 1075. HRE Henry IV tired of being twice excommunicated, so he stormed Rome and imprisoned the Pope in 1084.

El Cid took Valencia from the Muslim Moors in 1094, and Pope Urban II proclaimed the First Crusade in 1095, which took Jerusalem from the Seljuks in 1099. In 1113, the order of Knights Hospitalers was organized in order to protect a hospital for pilgrims. In 1141, Peter Abelard’s ideas were condemned by a council called by Bernard of Clairvaux. Abelard wrote Sic et Non, which utilized the dialectical method of stating pros and cons. He defined sin as bad intention and affirmed a nominalist position (which views only individuals as existing) in the debate over universals.

About 1175, Peter Waldo began preaching poverty as the way to perfection, founding a movement that presaged the reform of Luther. About this time in Spain, Avicebron published neo-Platonist ideas, including that God can be apprehended only by intuition or mystical experience, not by reason. In 1182, Jews were banished from France. In 1185, the order of Knights Templars was formed for the purpose of protecting pilgrims on the route from Jaffa to the Temple Mount. About 1200, Moses Maimonides, who fled from Spain to Cairo, attempted to align theology with Aristotelianism, saying that if statements in the OT contradict reason, then they should be interpreted allegorically, and identifying God as first Mover and necessary Being. His views influenced Jewish kabbalistic philosophy collected in the Zohar, by Moses de Leon.

In 1204, the Fourth Crusade captured Constantinople, and in 1209 Pope Innocent III authorized the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathar heresy in France, which effectively began the period of the Inquisition (that continued with the prohibition of Bible reading in Toulouse in 1229). In 1214, Ghengis Khan captured Peking, then Persia in 1218. In 1215, King John signed the English Magna Carta, establishing the rule of law and certain civil rights, the same year the order of Dominicans was founded for the purpose of combating heresy, and in 1233 it was assigned to lead the Inquisition, joined later by the Franciscans.

TBC

 

[GWH]

9. Reformation - Even as RC dominated Europe and the Mongol Empire controlled Asia in the mid-13th century, the seeds of renewal of biblical beliefs were being sown by various people and events. In England Roger Bacon advocated for the study of theology to focus on the Bible in the original languages rather on scholastic debates. In 1273, Thomas Aquinas published Summa theological, which supplanted Augustinianism as the dominant RC theology. Notable doctrines included natural revelation, analogical language, and the cosmological and teleological arguments for God’s existence.

In 1283 the Teutonic Order subjugated Prussia, and in 1295 Marco Polo returned to Italy from China bringing knowledge of its more advanced civilization. In 1323 William of Occam published his Summa logicae, in which he espoused his “razor” principle: the simplest explanation or interpretation should be used. As the Hundred Years War between France and England was waged. Francesco Petrarch was honored for his humanism (faith that God gives all knowledge), presaging the Renaissance. After the Black Death (bubonic plague) devastated Europe in 1347 and the Ming dynasty overthrew the Mongols, in 1377 John Wyclif opposed RC (especially its dogma of transubstantiation) and translated the Bible (which he viewed as inerrant when interpreted correctly) into English in 1382. Meanwhile the Muslim Turks were gaining ground in Asia Minor.

In 1415, Jan Hus, who had tried to reform RC in Bohemia as Wyclif had in England, was burned at the stake. His disciples included the Taborites, the Bohemian Brethren and the Moravians as well as Martin Luther. About this time in Spain, Joseph Albo sought to correct the teachings of Maimonides by eliminating the doctrine of Messiah as essential to Judaism, stressing instead divine justice, even as Thomas a Kempis published The Imitation of Christ. In 1431, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake by her English captors, ostensibly for heresy. Meanwhile Portugal renewed the slave trade with Africa and the Incas subdued Peru.

In 1453, the Hundred Years War concluded, and the Turks captured Constantinople (ending the Byzantine Empire), then took Athens, Bosnia and Herzegovina by 1467. The exodus of Byzantine scholars to Italy, the patronage of Cosimo Medici, the humanism of Marsilio Ficino (director of a Platonist Academy founded by Medici in 1439), and Gutenberg’s printing press (1450) combined to promote a Renaissance centered in Florence.

In 1479, Ferdinand and Isabella unified Spain and cooperated with the RC Inquisition, and in 1480, Ivan III became Czar of Russia. In 1492, Spain expelled the Jews and conquered Granada, while Columbus sailed to the Bahamas in America. The next year, the Turks invaded Croatia and encroached upon Italy. Meanwhile, Leonardo da Vinci worked in Florence as an inventor and painter, and the Portuguese explored ever further along the west coast of Africa, finding a sea route to India in 1498.

In 1501, a papal bull ordered the burning of books that undermined RC authority, and Erasmus published The Handbook of the Christian Soldier, calling for reformation by reading the Scriptures. Michelangelo sculpted David's statue in 1504, Copernicus discovered the heliocentric solar system in 1512, Portuguese explorers’ reaching China by sea in 1514, Thomas More authored Utopia in 1516 and in 1517 Machiavelli wrote Il Principe.

Also in 1517, Martin Luther protested the sale of indulgences by nailing 95 theses on a church door, beginning the Protestant Reformation in Germany. Luther taught that salvation was by faith in Jesus Christ, that the Bible is the authoritative source for knowing God's will and that all believers are priests and saints. He translated the Bible into German from the Latin, which influenced the William Tyndale's English translation of the Bible. He also advocated clerical marriage. However, it should be noted that Luther expressed antipathy toward Jews, Anabaptists and other perceived heretics as well as Roman Catholics.

TBC

 

[GWH]

10. Evangelism. In the 1500s the world had five main ideologies: Islam in the Middle East and North Africa, atheist Buddhism and Confucianism in the Far East, polytheism in most of the rest of the world, with RC and evangelical Protestants (EP) in Europe. In 1520, EP Thomas Muntzer went beyond Luther’s reforms and began the Anabaptist movement when he rejected infant baptism, and he was beheaded after leading a peasant’s revolt in 1525, trying to establish a communistic theocracy. In 1528, EP Balthasar Hubmaier was burned at the stake in Vienna for preaching adult baptism, so his wife drowned herself in the Danube River. In Zurich, EP Ulrich Zwingli followed Luther’s lead, including rejection of Anabaptists, but he was killed in a battle with Swiss Catholic cantons in 1531. In that year, Henry VIII became head of the RC in England so he could divorce Catherine of Aragon to marry Anne Boleyn. Henry had Thomas More and William Tyndale murdered for opposing him, and Anne Boleyn for not bearing him children. In 1535, EP John Calvin fled France to Switzerland, where he began his lifelong work on Institutes of the Christian Religion, which rejected infant baptism but adopted a deterministic view of Augustine’s doctrine of predestination. His followers in France were called the Huguenots.

A few years after Ivan IV became Czar in Russia in 1547, Queen Elizabeth reigned in England (1558-1603) and defeated Spain's naval armada when it attempted to invade England in 1588 (that was authorized as a crusade by the Pope). In 1572, French Catholics massacred thousands of EP Huguenots, beginning in Paris on St. Bartholomew’s day, and in 1576 the Catholic League was formed for the purpose of exterminating them. Elsewhere the Moguls under Akbar I conquered Afghanistan in 1581, the Russians expanded into Siberia, Japan’s dictator Hideyoshi banned Portuguese RC missionaries in 1587, and the slave trade between Africa and America began.
From 1545-63, the RC Council of Trent met in 25 sessions under three popes to counter Protestant reforms. It affirmed the deutero-canonical books, church tradition, seven sacraments, purgatory, celibacy, Jerome’s Vulgate Bible and papal authority. Nostradamus began making astrological predictions in 1547, Calvin approved of the execution of Michael Servetus for “heresy” in 1553, and EP John Knox led a presbyterian reform movement that established the Church of Scotland in 1560. In 1610, followers of EP Jacob Arminius (called Remonstrants) objected to Calvin’s TULIP doctrine, the King James Bible was produced in 1611, Galileo was arrested by the RC Inquisition and prohibited from scientific work in 1616, and the EP Synod of Dort condemned Arminianism in 1619.

EP Christianity spread to North America in 1620 when the Pilgrims sought separation from the Church of England and founded a colony at Plymouth, governed by the Mayflower Compact. In 1621 Johann Kepler’s work was banned by RC. In 1624, Jacob Boehme published three books that influenced subsequent theosophists. In 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded by Puritans who wanted to cleanse the Anglican Church from vestiges of RC. In 1637, Rene Descartes published Discourse on Method, containing his famous maxim, “I think, therefore I am.” Foreign religions were prohibited in Japan in 1637. In 1638, EP Anne Hutchinson was banished from the Massachusetts Colony, but her church was invited to settle in Rhode Island by its founder, EP Baptist Roger Williams, who first used the term “wall of separation” to describe the relation between religion and government and whose colony was the first to establish religious liberty.

In 1648, EP George Fox founded the Society of Friends (Quakers), who valued inner light over dogmatism and creedalism. In 1651, Thomas Hobbes published Leviathan, in which he argued that it is in peoples’ rational self-interest to make a “social contract”, ceding personal liberty to an absolute sovereign for the sake of civil peace. In 1654, Blaise Pascal formulated theories of probability, later applying this to theology in his Pensees as “Pascal’s Wager”. In that year, Baruch Spinoza completed his Ethics, in which he espoused pantheism, determinism and Stoicism. In 1681, EP William Penn obtained a royal charter for Pennsylvania, where he guaranteed freedom of religion and elected government. In 1684, EP John Bunyan completed Pilgrim’s Progress, a Christian allegory.

In 1689, John Locke published Two Treatises, the first rejecting the divine right of kings, and the second advocating for natural rights and consent of the governed, which influenced the English Parliament to issue a Declaration of Rights and crown William and Mary, establishing a constitutional monarchy (while Peter the Great became Czar of Russia). In 1690, Locke published An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, in which he established empiricism, according to which the mind begins as a blank slate and develops knowledge from experiences. In 1692-93, witchcraft trials were held in Salem, and 25 people were killed. In 1696, John Toland founded deism, stating in Christianity not Mysterious that reason is superior to revelation and what contradicts reason is not revelation. In 1710, George Berkeley published a treatise in which he argued that “to be means to be perceived”, which means that we know ideas, not objects (subjectivism). In 1710, Gottfried Leibniz published Theodicee, in which he espoused optimism, that God would create the best possible world. He also postulated the existence of metaphysical monads as the ultimate essence of the universe. In 1716, Christianity was banned from China (like Japan in 1637).

The first freemason Grand Lodge was formed in London in 1717. Freemasonry used the stonemasonry square and compass as symbols of virtue, and promoted service to the Great Architect, but prohibited discussion of politics and religion. (It was condemned by the Pope in 1736.) In 1722, EP Count Zinzendorf founded a Moravian settlement called Herrnhut, stressing that “there can be no Christianity without community” (communalism). In 1730, EP John and Charles Wesley founded Methodism, seeking to revive the Church of England. In 1736, John Wesley (an Arminian) and EP George Whitefield (a Calvinist) led the First Great Awakening spiritual revival in the British colonies (revivalism), which encouraged living in accordance with New Testament teachings and entrenched the EP movement in North America.

TBC

 

[GWH]

11. Irrationalism. In 1741, Jonathan Edwards delivered a famous sermon in Massachusetts, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, which popularized Calvinist theology in America. The increased "rationalist" philosophical activity that began in the previous period continued during this and succeeding ones, becoming increasingly deist and atheist. In 1748, David Hume published A Treatise of Human Nature, which advocated skepticism–atheism and influenced Immanuel Kant. Hume discussed the problem of inductive reasoning and the uniformity of natural operations, saying that we are instinctually/necessarily compelled to believe things behave in a regular manner (in the absence of verified miracles) or have objective existence or are moral. Also in 1748, Emanuel Swedenborg claimed to have a spiritual awakening and a commission from God to reform Christianity. He published Heaven and Hell in 1758, saying that both faith and charity are necessary for salvation.

In 1749, Gotthold Lessing published The Freethinker, advocating freedom of thought and the sufficiency of human reason. In France, Voltaire, a deist, criticized the government and RC Church and devalued the Bible as an outdated human work, although saying, “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.” His most popular writing was Candide (1759), which satirized the optimism of Leibniz. A contemporary, J.J. Rousseau, was exiled from France after he published Emile, or On Education in 1762, which espoused Unitarianism and religious equivalence, while rejecting sin and divine revelation. His valuing of the simple rural life or natural man over corrupt urban political society in his first book, New Heloise, influenced romanticism. In The Social Contract (1762), he advocated Locke’s view on government checked by the general will of its populace. In 1777, Lessing published a work advocating tolerance of all religions.

In 1781, Immanuel Kant published Critique of Pure Reason, which has been viewed as a philosophical watershed. He posited that the mind is not a blank slate, but rather it contains innate categories that shape experience, which was a sort of compromise or synthesis of the rationalist and empiricist positions. He also distinguished analytic propositions, which are tautological definitions, from synthetic propositions, which add a predicate concept that needs verification by experience. Joseph Priestley published A History of the Corruptions of Christianity in 1782, which influenced Thomas Jefferson’s ideology. He followed Spinoza in affirming materialism (no mind-body dualism) and determinism. He had assisted Theophilus Lindsey in founding the Unitarian denomination in 1774. In 1776, Moses Mendelssohn published Phadon or On the Immortality of Souls, after which he was compared to both Plato and Moses and later called the father of the Jewish Enlightenment for affirming religious tolerance and the priority of reason over revelation.

In 1785, William Paley published The Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy, in which he supported abolition of slavery, then in 1794 he wrote on natural theology, describing the teleological argument using the analogy of a watchmaker. About this time Jeremy Bentham propounded utilitarianism, which valued the greatest good as the primary ethical principle. He designed a prison called the Panopticon, which contained cells surrounding a central post for a hidden jailer, and advocated menial labor to help pay the cost of imprisonment. In 1791-92, Thomas Paine published The Rights of Man in defense of the French Revolution against criticisms by Edmund Burke, and then in 1794 The Age of Reason, criticizing organized religion and biblical inerrancy and advocating deism. In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, defending women’s equality, and Johann Fichte went beyond Hume’s and Kant’s subjectivism (inability to know things in themselves) by proposing idealism, the idea that consciousness is separate from anything outside of itself. Another idealist was Friedrich Schelling, who published System of Transcendental Idealism in 1800. He said that nature is visible spirit, and that history is the progressive disclosing of the Absolute.

In 1818, Georg Hegel succeeded Fichte as professor of philosophy in Berlin. He took his cue from Heraclitus, viewing Absolute Knowledge as evolving in a dialectical process of contradiction and negation, in which a thesis and its antithesis form a new and better or more complete synthesis, which in turn serves as the new thesis. Also in 1818, Arthur Schopenhauer published The World as Will and Idea. He affirmed Hinduism and agreed with Buddhism’s negation of volition in order to avoid painful desires, but viewed Hegel as vacuous and criticized Kant for over-looking the validity of intuition as prior to the operation of conscious reason. He adopted Aristotle’s four-fold analysis of knowledge: material using cause and effect, abstract using logic, mathematic using numerical operations, and psychological using moral reasoning. In 1820, Friedrich Schleiermacher published The Christian Faith, in which he argued that dependence on God rather than understanding Him is fundamental. He rejected hell in favor of universalism.

In 1830, Joseph Smith published the Book of Mormon and founded the Latter-day Saints or Mormonism, teaching that his church was the only true denomination of Christianity. In 1831, Johann Goethe discovered the Hypsistarians and affirmed their reverence for the best and most perfect knowledge as connected to God. The Spanish Inquisition ended in 1834. In 1835, David Strauss pioneered the skeptical investigation of the life of Jesus by viewing all miraculous elements as mythical. In 1838, Auguste Comte labeled Sociology as the most comprehensive of the sciences, and in 1844 he published a work recommending that positivism (the golden mean of poetic ideals between philosophical ideas and political realities) replace Catholicism. He also coined the term “altruism” for the moral obligation that trumps individual rights.

In 1839, Louis Blanc expressed the mantra of socialism: “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” In 1841, Ludwig Feuerbach published The Essence of Christianity, saying that God is a creation or projection of man, a chimera, personification and idolization of goodness. In 1846, Brigham Young established the Mormons in Utah. In 1843, Soren Kierkegaard published Either/Or, which described two phases of existence: the aesthetic, and the ethical. He argued that subjectivity is truth, meaning that ethical behavior is more important than physical facts. The loss of divine authority results in uncertainty, angst, dread and lack of meaning. His solution was to take a leap to faith despite having doubt, replacing herd mentality and state religion with personal passionate commitment. His views founded existentialism. In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels co-authored The Communist Manifesto, which described history in terms of class struggles, and promoted rule by the proletariat or working class, which would own all property and require universal labor.

TBC

 

[GWH]

12. Militant Atheism. Before Marx founded communism, atheism had been a benign form of skepticism, but from the middle of the 19th century through the next 100 years its ideology fomented world wars as atheist philosophers argued against the existence of God. In 1857, Herbert Spencer coined the term “evolution” and applied it universally, but especially to society, founding sociology. After reading Darwin, he coined the phrase “survival of the fittest” to describe natural selection. He was a utilitarian, but he said that people should be allowed to experience the natural consequences of their conduct in order for evolution to progress. He preached agnosticism, viewing God as the “Unknowable”. In 1859, Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, substituting “natural selection” for Jean-Baptiste Lamarck’s “spontaneous generation” in theorizing how new species develop when adaptively advantageous variations are transmitted over several generations. Subsequently, evolutionism was opposed by some theists, who thought it contradicted the “creationism” taught in Genesis.

In 1859-69, John Stuart Mill published works advocating liberty, utilitarianism positivism and gender equality. In 1864, the Pope condemned liberalism, socialism and rationalism, and “In God We Trust” was printed on coins in the U.S. In 1870, the First Vatican Council promulgated the dogma of papal infallibility. In 1871, Charles Russell founded the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a pacifist, Adventist sect, claiming to be the only true religion. In 1874, Franz Brentano published Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint, which affirmed the scholastic concept of intentionality, perception of physical reality is shaped by psychological phenomenon. His disciples included Husserl.

In 1875, Helena Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society, which taught that all religions were spiritually true, but imperfectly manifested. She published Isis Unveiled in 1877. Also in 1875, Mary Baker Eddy published Science and Health, founding Christian Science, which taught that the universe is spiritual, evil is unreal, and understanding God results in healing. In 1878, Charles Pierce published How to Make Our Ideas Clear, founding pragmatism, which described scientific inquiry as beginning with abduction or hypothesis, deduction or testing of the hypothesis, and induction or deriving a conclusion. He noted that in order to learn, one must have desire or wonder, and he identified three categories that condition experience: Firstness (feeling, possibility, subjectivity), Secondness (relation, actuality, concreteness) and Thirdness (representation, necessity, generality). He also expanded Locke’s mention of semiotics into a study of how meaning is signified. Also in 1878, Heinrich Treitschke began the anti-Semitic movement with the slogan, “The Jews are our misfortune!”

In 1879, Gottlob Frege published Begriffsschrift, influencing the founders of analytic philosophy. The goal was to eliminate intuitive elements by the operation of pure logic denoted by conceptual notation. In 1883, Friedrich Nietzsche published Thus Spake Zarathustra, which declared God to be dead and sought to replace him with “the superman” race, advocating racism and implying moral nihilism. In 1886, Adolf von Harnack published History of Dogma, advocating practical Christianity or a social gospel and rejecting the Gospel of John as well as miracles.

In 1900, Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis with publication of The Interpretation of Dreams. In 1901, Edmund Husserl published Logical Investigations, which developed Brentano’s concept of intentionality into a school of thought called phenomenology, which affirmed Kant’s concept of categories as structures of consciousness (such as perception, memory and imagination) and influenced Heidegger, Sartre and Max Scheller. In 1902, William James published The Varieties of Religious Experience, which promoted pragmatism and that truth includes value as well as existence. In 1903-1906, anti-Jewish pogroms (mob violence) occurred in Russia.

In 1904, Max Weber published The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, arguing that religious ideals influenced the development of western economies and governments. In 1906, Albert Schweitzer published The Quest of the Historical Jesus, which followed Strauss (1835) in not finding much he deemed credible. In 1912, Carl Jung published The Theory of Psychoanalysis, founding analytical psychology, which viewed the human psyche as essentially spiritual and stressed the need for individuation and wholeness by integrating the conscious and collective unconscious. In 1913, Bertrand Russell and A.N. Whitehead published Principia Mathematica, following Frege in founding analytic philosophy along with Wittgenstein (1921). Russell was influenced to be an atheist by his father (John, who wrote Analysis of Religious Belief) and the writings of J.S. Mill (1859).

In 1917, Rudolf Otto published The Idea of the Holy, discussing the “numinous” as a feeling or mystery, both terrifying and fascinating. In 1919, Karl Barth published The Epistle to the Romans, reacting against the prevailing skepticism of theologians such as Schleiermacher (1820) and Harnack (1886) with a dialectical theology that noted the paradox in affirming both grace and judgment. In 1921, Ludwig Wittgenstein published Logico-Philosophicus, which discussed reality in terms of language and viewed the role of philosophy as that of semantics or clarifying what is communicated. He defined logic as reflecting the physical world, thereby relegating theology and ethics to the realm of meaningless metaphysical and mystical subjects, which pleased the logical positivists (Carnap, Schlick and Russell), but Wittgenstein realized this negated his own philosophy as well.

In 1923, Freud analyzed the human psyche into the ego, id and super-ego. He viewed behavior as a conflict between an instinctual desire to live (libido) and a death instinct (thanatos). Also in 1923, Martin Buber published I and Thou, proposing that we may experience existence as object (“it”) or as relationship. In 1924, Emil Brunner published Mysticism and the Word, a neo-orthodox critique of liberal theology that upheld the centrality of Jesus as God incarnate.

In 1927, Martin Heidegger published Being and Time, which was influenced by Husserl and Kierkegaard and which influenced Sartre. His discussion of Being versus beings was reminiscent of the scholastic debate of universals versus individuals. In 1928, Rudolph Carnap published Pseudoproblems in Philosophy, in which he affirmed logical positivism’s defining metaphysics out of meaningful existence. His co-founder of the Vienna Circle positivists was Moritz Schlick. Thus, Nazis practiced the moral nihilism preached or implied by atheist philosophers from Nietzsche to Schlick. In 1932, Karl Jaspers published Philosophie, which built on Kierkegaard’s existentialism, noting that as we explore reality, we encounter borders that empirical science cannot cross, presenting the choice of sinking into despair or freely taking a leap of faith beyond objective time and space toward ultimate Transcendence and authentic existence.

In 1936, A.J.Ayer published Language, Truth and Logic, in which he popularized the Vienna Circle’s “verification principle”, saying that a sentence can only be meaningful if it is empirically verifiable. Two Christian philosophers published works in 1941. WWII prompted Reinhold Niebuhr to abandon pacifism and adopt “realism” in The Nature and Destiny of Man that would empower people against evil forces. Rudolf Bultmann applied form criticism to the Gospel of John and published New Testament and Mythology, which called for demythologizing the New Testament along the lines of Martin Heidegger’s temporal and existential categories, thereby clarifying the kerygma or gospel and increasing its palatability of theology in story form for modern scientific people.

In 1942, C.S. Lewis published The Screwtape Letters, in which the antagonist is not interested in tempting “the patient” to commit spectacular evil, but to become befuddle and slowly corrupted. In 1943, Jean-Paul Sartre was influenced by Heidegger to publish Being and Nothingness, which affirmed the freedom of the human being against being determined by physical causality. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was murdered for opposing Hitler in 1945. In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, he opposed cheap grace and advocated willingness to imitate the suffering of Christ for the cause of justice. Shintoism was abolished in Japan in 1945, and the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947.

TBC