Last weekend I attended a 2-day conference hosted by Ideas Matter discussing the topic entitled ‘Civilisation Under Siege?’. There was a range of interesting speakers addressing the topic from a number of different angles and plenty of opportunities for attendees to share their own views and perspectives to enter into the discussion. Naturally, the questions arose by what is meant by the terms ‘Civilisation’, ‘Culture’, and how the current culture wars are playing out in different spheres particularly the arts and certain national institutions. I believe all the talks were recorded and will be available to watch on Youtube in the not too distant future.
The purpose of this post isn’t to try and summarise the different speakers or areas covered at the conference, but to reflect upon some of the material presented and share what I came away from the two days thinking about the concept of western civilization being ‘under siege’. One aspect that struck me was just how hard it was to try and define what we mean by civilisation, and western civilisation in particular. Kenneth Clark was quoted a few times over the weekend, and in particular his answer to the question of ‘what is civilisation’ being ‘I can’t define it in abstract terms – yet. But I think I can recognize it when I see it’.
It is clear that each generation is the recipient of a heritage – in art, architecture, science, literature, law, politics etc, and in some sense our civilisation is the sum of what has been received and is therefore the composite of all which has been deemed worthy of keeping, preserving and passing on to the next generation either explicitly or implicitly. And so when we see aspects of our heritage that we value, treasure and appreciate being tossed aside, actively dismissed, undone or being airbrushed from history there is a sense of anger and frustration that what we want to preserve and pass on is being lost. It is of course obvious that we all have different preferences and choices around what should be preserved and passed on, and therefore civilisation becomes the collection of those things that we corporately have decided to keep. During the course of the conference there were interesting insights into our history and the ‘canon’ of material that has shaped our society today. Whether that is Greek and Roman literature and philosophy, or ecclesiastical works and reforms of the medieval period, Shakespeare, Michaelangelo, Newton, Einstein to name but a few, the concern expressed by many was that there is a growing disregard for the genius and creative minds of the past which have shaped our society for centuries, and a corresponding lack of opportunity for future generations to know and build upon this legacy.
However, the thought occurred to me that in most cases, those who are seen as materially shaping and creating the events of their times which have since become defining acts that have forged what we now refer to as ‘western civilisation’ were not attempting to either preserve or create such a thing. Indeed, many such people have only become truly appreciated with the passing of time for in their own day they were sometimes perceived as being too radical. But in any case, their driving motivation was the outpouring of their creative and/or intellectual genius made manifest in their literature, or art, or buildings or scientific advancements. In some ways, therefore, trying to neatly define our ‘civilisation’ to be able to wrap it up neatly and keep it beautifully preserved for future generations is perhaps a fools’ errand. A civilisation can’t be preserved in aspic – it is a living, dynamic, changing thing. Those whom we admire and seek to honour from previous centuries would probably not recognise what we have as being ‘their culture’ or ‘their civilisation’. And had we tried to just hold onto our 15th century civilisation, for example, what we’d have now would be little more than a dried up, cracked and withered society without life or vibrancy.
Furthermore, I would argue that what is unique about our western civilisation is that it has been hugely shaped by Christian theology and practice, and moreover it cannot be preserved or developed without that same input. It would be like taking a beautiful branch that has grown from an oak tree and then, observing its beauty and strength, trying to saw off the branch so it can be kept as it is to be admired. But it can’t exist apart from the tree on which it grew, and whilst for a time it may keep the semblance of the great limb it once was, it is unable to grow and in time will decay. All the interventions in the world cannot make it a living tree again. In the same way, it is fallacy to believe that our civilisation can bear the fruits which we enjoy of it apart from being in relationship with God, anymore than we can believe the oak branch is anything other than the product of being produced by virtue of being part of an oak tree.
In a similar vein, I’ve sometimes wondered what the great movers and shakers of our history felt of their achievements in their own lifetimes. Particularly those from within our Christian faith tradition – I wonder if St Paul had any concept that the letters he wrote to those fledgling, struggling churches would be the most highly copied, published and read works in the entirety of human history, translated into every language some 2,000 years later? Or would those who were imprisoned and martyred for seeking to print the bible in the vernacular have any concept that teaching institutions and seminaries would be named after them with their life stories and achievements being emblazoned in our history? I suspect not, I suspect that all too often such people would have been simply trying to do their best with the gifts and talents they had, seeking to be faithful to God, seeking truth and desiring to be obedient in their service of him. This is encouraging indeed, for these are things all of us can do; perhaps it’s the case that rather than worrying about how we preserve our civilisation instead we seek to be the best we can be in our lives and that through doing that collectively, our descendants will one day look back on our times and with the clarity that comes with the passing of the years, they will discern that through us, our civilisation has indeed been preserved and handed down.
As a Christian I have every hope in God, and a firm belief that he will achieve all the things he promised to do. I have no need to worry myself with the outcome, my role is simply to be faithful to the gospel I have received. St Paul writes ‘whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things’. It is this which gives me every hope for our country, our institutions and our civilisation; because it is through our ancestors doing just these things that we have the civilisation we are rightly proud of today.