The cultural wealth accumulated by Modernity is directly tied to their (unwitting) use of Christianity’s currency. Because the naturalist worldview assumes the absence of a “storyteller,” Modernism lacked the tools to tell its own story. Thus, Modernism assumed much of the Christian story. Physicist John Byl offers an apt assessment of the Modernist project (accounting for both its strengths and weaknesses) in his book, The Divine Challenge: On Matter, Mind, Math & Meaning[i]. The book, published by Banner of Truth, is must reading not only for those interested in the sciences, but for all those who have an interest in applying the Christian faith to every sphere of life. Says Byl:
“Man’s initial downfall was his desire to be like God. Prompted by Satan’s seductive words, ‘Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil’ (Gen 3:5), Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Ever since, fallen man still willfully rejects God and his Word. Man is still searching for metaphorical trees of knowledge of good and evil, magical shortcuts leading to divine knowledge and power.
The modern, naturalist worldview was based on the biblical worldview. The biblical worldview asserts that there is a real world beyond our senses. This world and its history have a purpose. As theologian Robert Jeson puts it, the biblical worldview has its own true story and promise. The story is the biblical story of creation, fall and redemption. The promise is the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ and a future eternal life with God. The universe has a true story because there is a universal Historian.
Modernity took over the biblical notion of rational man in an orderly world but rejected the God who created man and the world. In essence, it was just a continuation of man’s war against God, begun in Eden. Modernity, Jesnon notes, wanted to maintain a realist faith while denying the God who was that faith’s object. It tried to live in a universal story of its own making, without a universal storyteller. Modernity’s version of the gospel promise was its confidence in progress, in a future utopia where man would solve all his social problems.
Modernity is collapsing. In the modern world, human reason elevated itself above God and claimed sovereignty. This entailed that it could criticize all beliefs. Yet, once reason was given license to criticize all things, it was inevitable that it must eventually criticize also itself. Then reason unmasks itself as unreasonable. Critical human reason, once uncorked, is an insatiable acid that dissolves all absolutes, whether in religion, ethics, science or logic. Eventually it erodes even its own foundation, causing modernity to self-destruct.
Modernity, having banished God, is now realizing that it is left with no sound basis for objective knowledge. Without a universal storyteller the universe can have no story. Meanwhile, modernity’s hope in progress has been dashed by catastrophic World Wars, the fall of Marxism, the rise of international terrorism and the persistence of crime and violence that characterizes modern civilized society. Modernity has lost both its story and its promise. Modernity has lived off the intellectual and moral wealth inherited from Christianity. This wealth is rapidly running out. Modernity cannot replenish it without denying itself and bringing back the biblical God it has banished.”
