Makers of the Modern Revolution

Order of Service

• Scripture Reading — Psalm 2
• Closing Prayer

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Sermon Title: Makers of the Modern Revolution

Scripture: Psalm 2

I. Introduction and Purpose of the Lecture Series

A. Goal: to provide historical, intellectual, and cultural background to modern intuitions B. Features of modern culture under examination:

1. Rampant individualism and emphasis on personal rights and freedoms
2. Moral relativism — no absolutes, self-invented morality
3. Deep suspicion of power and those who hold it
4. The view that religion is not merely false but positively harmful

II. Friedrich Nietzsche — Background and Significance

A. Dates: 1844–1900; spent his final decade in permanent mental breakdown B. Along with Marx and Freud, Nietzsche has profoundly shaped modern thinking and institutions C. His writings are distinctive in style

1. Much philosophy written in aphoristic form due to chronic ill health
2. A literary philosopher — vivid, accessible, challenging even to non-specialists
3. Much of his thinking expressed through stories and parables D. Nietzsche assumed, as Marx did, that the Enlightenment had successfully rendered traditional Christianity untenable for intelligent people

III. First Key Passage — The Shadow of the Buddha (The Gay Science, §108)

A. Text: after Buddha died, his shadow was still shown for centuries in a cave; God is dead, but his shadow remains and must also be vanquished B. Core argument: it is not enough to abolish God

1. The Enlightenment (Hume, Kant, etc.) may have diminished or eliminated God, but the morality built upon the idea of God persists
2. Nietzsche calls Immanuel Kant "the spider" — sitting at the center of a metaphysical web that still justifies Christian morality even after the Christian God has been discarded
3. Everything built upon the foundation of God must also be dismantled — morality, meaning, metaphysics C. Nietzsche is calling the bluff of the Enlightenment: you cannot get rid of God and retain the world religion made

IV. Second Key Passage — The Parable of the Madman (The Gay Science, §125)

A. Summary of the parable: a madman lights a lantern in broad daylight, runs to the marketplace crying "I seek God," and confronts the atheists gathered there B. First claim: God and theism are finished

1. This was anticipated by Hume and Kant, but Nietzsche demands the Enlightenment fully reckon with what it has done
2. God has not simply ceased to exist — humanity has killed him C. Second claim: most people do not grasp the significance of this
3. The madman addresses the atheists — those who deny God but do not understand the implications
4. The crowd laughs; they have done the deed but not heard the thunder yet D. Third claim: the death of God is of unimaginable, total significance
5. Everything built on God — meaning, morality, purpose — cannot survive his death
6. Nothing remains stable; all must be reinvented E. Fourth claim: existential vertigo follows
7. "Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually — backward, sideward, forward, in all directions?"
8. No up or down, no truth, no foundation — the horizon has been wiped away F. Fifth claim: humanity must become gods
9. With no transcendent teleology, human beings must invent their own meanings and moralities
10. The greatest human being is the one who transcends himself, creates himself, rises to the challenge
11. This sets the stage for the modern "expressive individual" — be whatever you want to be, not what the crowd makes you G. An ambiguity at the heart of Nietzsche's philosophy
12. His declaration is simultaneously triumphant and terrifying
13. Modern society mirrors this: greater freedom than any prior generation, yet catastrophic anxiety, depression, and purposelessness
14. Illustration: students given freedom to invent their own exam questions often find that freedom uncomfortable — true freedom can be terrifying

V. Nietzsche's Legacy and Self-Assessment

A. Nietzsche was largely ignored in his own lifetime — works did not sell, publishers were difficult to find B. His ideas have since permeated modern culture and institutions C. In his autobiography Ecce Homo (written shortly before his final breakdown), he wrote:

1. "I know my fate. One day my name will be associated with the memory of something tremendous."
2. "I am no man. I am dynamite." D. He set the stage for Oscar Wilde, who will be examined in the next lecture as the embodiment of Nietzsche's ideal expressive individual

VI. Discussion and Application

A. Nietzsche is arguably the most honest atheist philosopher — he understood and articulated the full, fatalistic implications of a godless worldview B. The common thread among the thinkers in this series (Marx, Nietzsche, and others to come) is a hatred of religion and a desire to destroy or displace God C. Where these philosophies have been institutionalized (e.g., in governments), they have proven disastrous D. Nietzsche prophetically described the present moment: a society with no agreed up or down, no black and white, where claiming there is a right or wrong is treated as heresy E. The response of Scripture — Psalm 2

1. The nations rage and rulers take counsel against the Lord and his Anointed
2. God in heaven laughs and holds them in derision
3. His King is set on Zion; the Son will inherit the nations
4. The call to all people: be wise, serve the Lord with fear, kiss the Son — lest he be angry
5. "Blessed are all those who take refuge in him" — Psalm 2:12 F. Pastoral application: Christians are not to wallow in depression over the darkness of the age
6. We are united to the Son, who has all authority over heaven and earth
7. We are called to expose self-contradictions in godless philosophies and call people to repentance
8. We carry the banner of Christ into this secular, post-Christian age with courage and confidence in the King of kings