The J. H. Bavinck Reader by Bolt John;Bratt James D.;Visser Paul J.;De Jong James A.;

Author:Bolt, John;Bratt, James D.;Visser, Paul J.;De Jong, James A.; [Bolt, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL000000
ISBN: 4859419
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
Published: 2013-06-18T00:00:00+00:00

§9. Religious Consciousness and Modern Culture

Before we turn our attention to a deeper examination of the underlying principles of religious consciousness, we first need to ask to what extent that consciousness is still alive in our modern world. When we consider religious consciousness, are we dealing with something that belongs to bygone times, or is it still present everywhere, albeit in different forms? This is a question that is of compelling interest in assessing the future prospects of our culture.

In and of itself, it is highly unlikely that the religious consciousness that has played such a weighty role in human thought and reflection throughout the ages could no longer be found whatsoever in our century. This unlikelihood presses itself upon us particularly because it is becoming increasingly apparent that whatever heights modern life might achieve, human beings have essentially changed very little. When we disregard our electric trams and diesel engines, our radios and vacuum cleaners, modern people are startlingly similar to the people of past centuries. They are just as petty, jealous, egotistical, and proud. They are loved just as they were then. They are just as driven as former generations by concerns like providing life’s basic needs, having recreation, finding sexual satisfaction, and dealing with their fear of death. When we read the books of ancient Greece and Rome, or even of ancient China and India, we definitely find our modern technological achievements missing. But in the human portraits sketched in those materials, we generally recognize ourselves rather quickly. Indeed much has changed, but on the deeper levels, much remains the same. And religious consciousness belongs on those deeper levels. Just on that basis, it is not at all difficult to accept that modern people would be affected by religious considerations. That the religious sensitivities in their lives assume different forms is of course possible, but to say that they could be entirely lacking would be untenable.

Naturally, it is another question as to what form these religious sensitivities take in our modern culture. In that regard, we must keep in mind that for many centuries Europe has been under the fairly strong influence of the gospel. Obviously, definite residues of that influence are still visible in our culture. This gives the issue of religious consciousness in our modern culture a rather unique character. On the one hand, religious consciousness in our modern culture has been more or less bent in a distinct direction by Christianity while, on the other hand, it is strongly resistant to that same Christianity. In either case, it betrays the significance that Christianity has had on our culture. I want to make very clear at this point that I am not speaking here about the church, but about modern culture in unchurched circles, where in many respects people have left the church and set themselves against the church. In an overwhelmingly huge proportion of our modern culture, we frequently and often unexpectedly see displayed signs of that ineradicable religious consciousness. We see this in its unwarranted ferocity, its bitterness, its sense of tragedy, its fears, and its expectations.

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