A reverent conclusion

So, we started this great adventure with a quest that would combine knowledge and emotion. Knowledge conflicts with emotion to form virtue. We went on to cover 42 different civilizations and time periods to attempt to define a culminating virtue which may serve as a kind of reverse stereotype and even an archetypal of the people or the period. The study guide was both topically and chronologically laid out to be a sketchy companion with the Prentice Hall World History Text. After a solid year of writing and after 50,000 words I am afraid I have run low on inspiration. I hope for those of you that read this that it may serve you in completing my course. There is so much to study in World History. The most difficult part is to determine what to leave out. I had no desire to slight any civilization, nation or time period in my writing. I have certainly pursued this project from the bent understanding of a middle aged American with a Christian, Western European Heritage. My desire in writing this was to weave a silver thread through history that you could hold onto the wisdom of the ages.

That is not to say that some of the archetypal primary resource readings I have included represent true wisdom. In fact some of them border on the kind of reasoning that Hitler may have used to inspire youth and have them follow him. You see Adolph Hitler, one of the true villains in World History, was most influenced by his history teacher. For this reason I consider my privilege to teach World History quite seriously. Hitler was influenced by the kind of folk stories that would be similar to the Prince Lazar story in the last post. I am finding most unfortunately that the same passionate ideologies that bind men to one another under a national banner may also be their greatest source of racism. This was an unexpected and disappointing epiphany. Perhaps it supports Thomas Hobbes’s argument about mans evil nature.

Progress is a tempting thread that can be grabbed to string together the facts and dates of history. This system is called modernism by historians. It seems however that with every technological advance men fall back morally in the implementation of progress. Modernism as the silver thread has its limitations. Two men that I greatly admire are Friedrich Hegel and Soren Kierkegaard. Hegel defines Christianity as a kind of slave ideology for democracy. His culminating virtue was the recognition that drives American progress. Kierkegaard later added his existentialism to balance pure reason and reintroduce faith into the equation. I have a different conclusion.

There are theologians who attempt to remove every vestige of myth from religion. This is called demythologization. The conflict of religion with science is real. The scientific method would remove the element of faith from the analytical process. Some myths are very dangerous like the myth of a super race that Hitler adhered to or the Prince of Lazar of the Serbians. To remove folklore from the historical record can give a clearer explanation of the description of the period. If however these myths are no longer studied do we lose the lessons of the virtue of that period? Even Bantu necklacing has the virtue of community at its base. Can we balance and learn from the virtue expressed from an ideology that generates a bad outcome? The legend of William Tell continues to keep Switzerland neutral from European wars. The Swiss victory was bound up in isolation instead of aggression. Can science be studied with faith in place? The European skepticism of the enlightenment gave way to a romanticism filled with virtue and heroism.

And so when all is said and done there is a need for someone outside of man’s experience to define him. Someone, like an immigrant who can transcend man’s reason and bridge the gap outside of man’s sphere. The immigrant that defines mans history could be God himself. The religions of man have served him to align his virtues with ideological harmony. The religions of man can also be used to separate man from other men. Does the founder of a religion intend to separate man with hatred or unite him in love? A case can be made for both; however, genuine believers would tend to choose the later while those outside of the religion will tend to believe that a particular religion is divisive. Therefore we can reason that it was probably God’s intention to unite men in love. The truth of these religious ideologies are important to give men meaning however, if man’s virtue is governed by God, then it can produce peace and tranquility in this brief time span that is represented in a man’s life in history. The virtue of reverence can balance meaning with peace much like the man above who shows his piety by wearing sandals with nails aimed at the bottom of his feet. The sincerity of a believer becomes the critical component to stop the divisive warping of the founder’s intent. So we are left with the sincerity of ones piety that becomes a force to regulate virtue through the ages. For this reason there is good reason to encourage reverence here in the present. Francis Fukihama would say the end of history is represented by the lack of competing ideologies (dialectic). I would say that competing virtues continue and must persist until men find meaning and peace. Ideologies have given men meaning but many times they have led to war. For me reverence is the culminating virtue of history because it is the regulator that tests mans sincerity to his founder instead of his own selfish ends. Thank you for reading this. :-)

-- Limited only by imagination!

Mr. Parris