Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

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over people and events. “Nearly everybody believed in some magical means of turning the power of supernatural beings to a desired end” (Durant, 1950:985). Many people thought that making the sign of the cross, or using holy water and the sacraments were equal to magical rites, and medicine and magic were nearly equal. Science and philosophy, in the medieval West, had to grow up in such an atmosphere of myth, legend, miracle, omens, demons, prodigies, magic, astrology, divination, and sorcery as comes only in ages of chaos and fear. All these had existed in the pagan world, and exist today, but tempered by a civilized humor and enlightenment (Durant, 1950:984). Such was Medieval Europe, where belief in witchcraft was nearly universal. All manner of beliefs and laws concerning witches existed. “The Church was at first lenient with these popular beliefs, looking upon them as pagan survivals that would die out; on the contrary they grew and spread; and in 1298 the Inquisition began its campaign to suppress witchcraft by burning women at the stake” (Durant, 1950:986). Though rational and Christian notions gradually suppressed and replaced these deep-rooted beliefs that dominated Europe, the transition took centuries. Amid famines, plagues, and wars, in the chaos of a fugitive or divided papacy, men and women sought in occult forces some explanation for the unintelligible miseries of mankind, some magical power to control events, some mystical escape from a harsh reality; and the life of reason moved precariously in a milieu of sorcery, witchcraft, necromancy, palmistry, phrenology, numerology, divination, portents, prophecies, dream interpretations, fateful stellar conjunctions, chemical transmutations, miraculous cures, and occult power in animals, minerals, and plants. All these marvels remain deathless with us today, and one or another wins from almost every one of us some open or secret allegiance; but their present influence in Europe falls far short of their medieval sway (Durant, 1957: 230). 164 University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, <strong>South</strong> Africa
With the dawn of the Enlightenment, a fresh urgency toward rationalism arose. The church worked with the humanists to remove myth and (animistic) superstition from Western life, a relationship that interestingly would re-fashion Christianity, and encourage widespread resistance to the ‘supernatural’ Gospel, even within the Church. “For so long, spiritual and religious thought were disparaged as archaic and intellectually primitive” (Clifford, 2003:2). The efforts to remove animistic beliefs and practices were less successful than hoped, more often suppressing, rather than removing them. “Many books were written in this age against superstition, and all contained superstitions” (Durant, 1957:233). Even the great Reformer, Martin Luther, was typical of the time, believing “in goblins, witches, demons, the curative value of live toads, and the impish incubi who sought out maidens in their baths or beds and startled them into motherhood” (Durant, 1957:420). By 1700, somewhere between thirty thousand and several millions of witches had been tried and executed. The Reformation, however, launched a biblical attack on magical elements in contemporary Christian practice, and on the occult world outside the church, which began to restrain the world of superstition... Peter Gay, who contends that the Enlightenment itself was a neo-Pagan revival, notes that in the left wing of the movement, among libertines such as the Marquis de Sade, sexual magic and a semi-serious demonolatry were practiced in places like the Hellfirse Caves of France and England (Lovelace, in Montgomery, 1976:80). Folk religions carried on in alchemy, astrology and magic, often variously blended with Judaism, Islam or Christianity. The Kabala, a Jewish mysticism, became very popular. The Hermetica was rediscovered during the Renaissance. Attributed to the ancient mythic figure Hermes Trismegistus, its notions of secret spiritual knowledge became popular, while religious notions rooted in magic and the occult became popular to the French intelligentsia. People like, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), reinterpreted Christianity, and created completely new religions (cf., Swedenborgianism). At the same time, other religions were created based upon the study of ancient Greco-Roman religions (Johnson, 2004). With the dawn of the Industrial Revolution came still more new 165 University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, <strong>South</strong> Africa
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1 POSTMODERNITY: IMPACT AND IMPLICA
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3 Key Terms Postmodern, postmoderni
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5 An Apologetic Response 115 Compro
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killed massively in the name of goo
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9 together in an eclectic, rather d
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11 Postmodernity: Impact and Implic
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13 heights” (Veith, 1994:30). For
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15 autonomy proper to human reason
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inviolability and Divine origin, th
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diminished” (Bosch, 2000:6). The
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‘god’ to keep and to save him.
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Occultism flourished among the Brit
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He was a passionate, powerful chara
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27 record reveals that the church o
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29 eliminating poverty, hunger and
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may simply transform the nature and
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Contrary to Christian notions that
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35 ‘modernize’ the nation. To b
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37 expression. This “first respon
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39 of his own awareness of God” (
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41 Existentialism understandably em
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depends upon our decision makes our
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group Socialisme et Liberte. During
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47 The Mind of Sartre Sartre’s vi
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ethical absolutes (Craig, 1994:67).
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51 Chapter II Postmodernity: The Es
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53 Postmoderns promote individualis
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meaning and language. The postmoder
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pointed out that science, far from
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59 Ferdinand de Saussure at the tur
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considers the Greek logos (i.e., λ
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63 models and then try not to subve
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marginalized and to the historical
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without essential foundations (Khan
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maximum voluntary community agreeme
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71 something akin to the virtual re
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73 During the 1960’s, Foucault wa
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generally agreed that his views wer
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had been trapped. Through Nietzsche
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Foucault also seemed to delight in
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elieve the conventions of modernity
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83 Will 'Po-Mod' Endure Ernst Gelln
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85 referentially incoherent. That i
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87 the second postmodern wave, whic
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action. During the colonial period,
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interpretation. It again gives sugg
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93 There are three basic forms of (
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diverse immigrant populations becom
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desperate population to believe tha
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99 but hardly in entirety. Keeping
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salvation. Here again we see how Go
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103 and sick, conquered ignorance t
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with relativism, pluralism and no a
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107 our first love -- Jesus Christ
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109 and the life. No one comes to t
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Those who truly know Jesus Christ a
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Page 115 and 116: 115 An Apologetic Response Beyond t
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Page 131 and 132: 131 Chapter VI Postmodernity and th
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Page 137 and 138: 137 Rome, ‘The Way’ (i.e., Chri
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Page 143 and 144: society. State authorities quite of
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Page 149 and 150: 149 Christendom West. For example i
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Page 157 and 158: 157 of Washington, D.C., have now d
Page 159 and 160: says, “Homosexual practice is inc
Page 161 and 162: the position held by the non-Wester
Page 163: 163 Chapter VII Postmodern Spiritua
Page 167 and 168: contemporary West look not to the c
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Page 171 and 172: 171 (Johnson, 2004). Contemporary n
Page 173 and 174: 173 The postmodernists undertook th
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Page 177 and 178: 177 postmodernity has opened the do
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Page 181 and 182: most Catholics in Brazil. Many Musl
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Page 187 and 188: 187 the higher religions. The pleth
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Page 191 and 192: in the movies, further fulfilling t
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Page 195 and 196: 195 more, the atoning work of Jesus
Page 197 and 198: 197 to develop. Even after several
Page 199 and 200: 199 excesses of scientism and reduc
Page 201 and 202: Carson, D.A., ed. (2000). Telling t
Page 203 and 204: Grudem, W. (1994). Systematic Theol
Page 205 and 206: McMichael, P. (2004). Development a
Page 207 and 208: 207 Riss, R. (1988). A Survey of 20
Page 209 and 210: 209 Bibliography of Electronic Sour
Page 211 and 212: 211 Foucault, M. (1982). Truth, Pow
Page 213 and 214: Montgomery, J.W. (2002). Defending
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215 The University of Zululand Esta
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