Christianity + Western Civilization
There is a flow to history and culture. This flow is rooted and has its wellspring in the thoughts of people.
-Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?
Do you want to fight for the values of Christianity and of Western Civilization? Do you want to combat encroaching cultural marxism and the related ideologies that threaten both the church and society?
For the New Christian Intellectual is a worldview ministry aimed to help you do just that. To sustain the values of both Christianity and Western Civilization, you need to know how to define those values.
Many people do not see that the battle for the world is a battle for ideas and definitions.
Instead, they see it as a battle for decency, common sense, and for our good heritage and traditions. They are partially right. But it will not do simply to defend tradition or decency. We cannot win the battle if we think that way. We have to think in terms of fundamental ideas that make our traditions decent in the first place.
If we are going to fight with clarity and conviction, we need ideology. That is, we need an integrated theory to understand society, morality, man, and knowledge. These are the foundations of Western Civilization — if there is to be a Western Civilization.
Mere appeals to decency have not stopped societal decay. They never will. Do not simply appeal to decency; define it. Define why collectivism and socialism are wrong, then define the alternative.
Show why every answer is connected:
1. We reject Collectivism, in favor of Individualism. Every person has the right to his own life. Groups do not have rights; individuals do.
2. Why believe this?
Because rights are for thought and action, and only individuals think and act. Speaking precisely, there is no “group mind,” “group values,” or “group will.” We accept a moral code based on individual life — on the rational self-interest of each individual. We reject a moral code that treats self-sacrifice for the sake of others as an end in itself. Against the dominant trend of what is preached today, we contend that Scripture itself rejects philosophical altruism.
3. Why believe Scripture at all? Not because of a burning in our bosom, wishful thinking, or because we simply “presuppose” it. Unlike many contemporary Christians, we reject faith as a means to knowledge, which is fideism or mysticism. We believe Scripture because we are convinced by reason that it is true.
These are the key ideological issues. And we have to choose. The proposed answers are mutually exclusive, and they are exhaustive. Either the axis of Mysticism, Self-Sacrifice, and Collectivism is right; or it is wrong. And if it is wrong, then there is only one alternative. It is the axis identified by the novelist-philosopher Ayn Rand: Reason, Self-Interest, and Individualism.
For the Christian, these ideological questions undergird all others. Either the Bible supports individual rights, or it does not. Either God calls us to seek life, or he does not. Either Christianity is rational, or it is not.
The battles for Western Civilization and for true Christianity are linked by these questions. We will help you identify the links. When you learn to see them, you will know how the battle for ideas is to be won.
Originally published at ChristianIntellectual.com
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