The End of the Modern World
Type
Book
Authors
ISBN 10
1882926234
ISBN 13
9781882926237
Category
Christian civilization
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Publication Year
1998
Publisher
Pages
220
Tags
Description
This volume combines two remarkable works of social analysis and spiritual insight by one of the most respected Christian thinkers of our century, Romano Guardini.
A professor of religion at the University of Munich, Guardini was a firsthand observer of the wrenching changes that devastated European society in World War II and laid the foundations for what has been called our "postmodern" Western civilization. from that momentous experience he draws conclusions that challenge our assumptions about the human condition at the end of the second millennium.
The first book, The End of the Modern World (from which this combined volume takes its title), examines life in the era of "Mass Man," the world in which mass-production, mass-communication, and mass-marketing threaten to crush individual character and initiative under "the power of the anonymous." Guardini further reflects on the state of man's "place" in the world. Until today, man has reached for the future by mounting the shoulders of the past. Modern man has rejected his corporate identity, ushered in our new age that has, in the profoundest sense (in part, through relativity physics), abolished the very reality of place itself. As a result, Guardini worries that postmodern man is condemned to a rootlessness that tempts the advent of mass-movements - a development which poses special challenges to a democratic society.
"The effectiveness of democratic values for the new age is problematical," he writes. "Can they be reintegrated by the person facing the . . . conditions of human life as it will be lived in the future? Can they revitalize him in his life within the mass?"
In the companion work, Power and Responsibility, Guardini extends his analysis to focus on our current ambivalence toward the nature, uses, and propriety of power. "The modern age considered every increase in intellectual-technical power as unquestionable gain . . ." he notes. But as we witness the triumph of technology and its impact on the postmodern world - evident in everything from the changes in our work lives wrought by computerization to the specter of nuclear holocaust - we no longer assume that the concept of scientific progress assures us a predictably bright future. "Today this belief is shakey, a condition which in itself indicates the beginning of a new epoch."
Guardini's examination of power leads ultimately to the question of responsibility. As he observes, "Power receives its character only when someone becomes aware of it, determines its use, and puts it to work. This means someone must answer for it."
It is the principle of individual responsibility that weaves these two books into a comprehensive and compelling moral statement. Guardini tirelessly argues that human beings are responsible moral agents, possessed of free will and answerable to God and their fellow man.
"To assert and cherish the incommunicability of each and every man," he writes passionately, "is not to advance self-interest or privilege; it is to pledge that loyalty, that fundamental duty, which is one with being a man."
Romano Guardini (1885-1968) was a professor of philosophy and theology at the University of Munich and lectured at universities around the world. Guardini wrote over twenty books, including The Lord.
Taken from the inside flaps.
A professor of religion at the University of Munich, Guardini was a firsthand observer of the wrenching changes that devastated European society in World War II and laid the foundations for what has been called our "postmodern" Western civilization. from that momentous experience he draws conclusions that challenge our assumptions about the human condition at the end of the second millennium.
The first book, The End of the Modern World (from which this combined volume takes its title), examines life in the era of "Mass Man," the world in which mass-production, mass-communication, and mass-marketing threaten to crush individual character and initiative under "the power of the anonymous." Guardini further reflects on the state of man's "place" in the world. Until today, man has reached for the future by mounting the shoulders of the past. Modern man has rejected his corporate identity, ushered in our new age that has, in the profoundest sense (in part, through relativity physics), abolished the very reality of place itself. As a result, Guardini worries that postmodern man is condemned to a rootlessness that tempts the advent of mass-movements - a development which poses special challenges to a democratic society.
"The effectiveness of democratic values for the new age is problematical," he writes. "Can they be reintegrated by the person facing the . . . conditions of human life as it will be lived in the future? Can they revitalize him in his life within the mass?"
In the companion work, Power and Responsibility, Guardini extends his analysis to focus on our current ambivalence toward the nature, uses, and propriety of power. "The modern age considered every increase in intellectual-technical power as unquestionable gain . . ." he notes. But as we witness the triumph of technology and its impact on the postmodern world - evident in everything from the changes in our work lives wrought by computerization to the specter of nuclear holocaust - we no longer assume that the concept of scientific progress assures us a predictably bright future. "Today this belief is shakey, a condition which in itself indicates the beginning of a new epoch."
Guardini's examination of power leads ultimately to the question of responsibility. As he observes, "Power receives its character only when someone becomes aware of it, determines its use, and puts it to work. This means someone must answer for it."
It is the principle of individual responsibility that weaves these two books into a comprehensive and compelling moral statement. Guardini tirelessly argues that human beings are responsible moral agents, possessed of free will and answerable to God and their fellow man.
"To assert and cherish the incommunicability of each and every man," he writes passionately, "is not to advance self-interest or privilege; it is to pledge that loyalty, that fundamental duty, which is one with being a man."
Romano Guardini (1885-1968) was a professor of philosophy and theology at the University of Munich and lectured at universities around the world. Guardini wrote over twenty books, including The Lord.
Taken from the inside flaps.
Number of Copies
1
