By Alphabetical Order:

A Auburn Affirmation Ayer, A. J.  B Bailey, Alice  Barth, Karl  Besant, Annie  Beauvoir, Simone de  Benedict XV (Pope) Bohr, Niels  Bonhoeffer, Dietrich  Born, Max  Broglie, Louis-Victor Duc de  Brunner, Emil  Bryan, William Jennings  Buber, Martin  Bultmann, Rudolph  C Carnap, Rudolf  Cayce, Edgar  Chamberlin, Thomas C.  Chesterton, G. K.  Compton, Arthur Holly  Croce, Benedetto Curie, Marie and Pierre  D Darrow, Clarence  Dewey, John  Dirac, Paul  E Edington, Arthur S.  Einstein, Albert  Evans-Pritchard, E.E. F Fermi, Enrico  Ford, Henry  Fosdick, Harry Emerson  Frazer, James George  Freud, Sigmund

G Gentile, Giovanni  Gilson, Etienne H Heidegger, Martin  Heisenberg, Werner  Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr.  Hubble, Edwin  Humanist Manifesto  Huxley, Aldous  Huxley, Julian  J Jansky, Karl  Jaspers, Karl  Jeans, James  Jung, Carl Gustav  K Krishnamurti, Jiddhu  L Leadbeater, C. W.  Leeuw, Gerardus van der  Lemaître, Georges  Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich Levi  Levi-Strauss, Claude  Lewis, C. S.  M Machen, John Gresham  Malinowski, Bronislaw  Marconi, Guglielmo  Margenau, Henry  Maritain, Jacques  Moore, G. E. N  Niebuhr, H. Richard  Niebuhr, Reinhold O Otto, Rudoph  Ouspensky, P. D.

P Pauli, Wolfgang  Pauling, Linus Carl  Pius X (Pope) Pius XI (Pope) Pius XII (Pope ) Planck, Max R Richards, I. A.  Reber, Grote  Rosenberg, Alfred  Russell, Bertrand  Rutherford, Ernest  S Schlick, Moritz  Schrödinger, Erwin  Schweitzer, Albert  Scopes "Monkey Trial" Shapley, Harlow  Skinner, B. F.  Slipher, Vesto  Sorel, Georges  Sorokin, Pitirim Alexandrovitch  Spengler, Oswald  Steiner, Rudolf  Stevenson, Charles  T Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre  Thomson, J. J.  Tillich, Paul  Toynbee, Arnold J. V Van Til, Cornelius  W Weil, Simone  Wells, H.G.  Whitehead, Alfred North  Wittgenstein, Ludwig  Wulf, Maurice de

By Historical Subject Area: Logical Positivism and Analytic Philosophy Ludwig Wittgenstein I. A. Richards Moritz Schlick Rudolf Carnap Bertrand Russell G. E. Moore A. J. Ayer Charles Stevenson The New Look of Astronomy and Physics 1. GENERAL PHYSICS Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin Arthur S. Edington Louis-Victor Duc de Broglie 2. ASTRONOMY Harlow Shapley Vesto Slipher Edwin Hubble Karl Jansky Grote Reber 3. ATOMIC THEORY Marie and Pierre Curie Guglielmo Marconi J. J. Thomson Ernest Rutherford Arthur Holly Compton Enrico Fermi 4. RELATIVITY Albert Einstein Georges Lemaître 5. QUANTUM MECHANICS Max Planck Niels Bohr Max Born Erwin Schrödinger Werner Heisenberg Paul Dirac Wolfgang Pauli Linus Carl Pauling 6. PHILOSOPHICAL EVALUATIONS OF MODERN SCIENCE James Jeans Henry Margenau Developers and Cultivators of the New Technology Henry Ford Psychology Sigmund Freud Carl Gustav Jung B. F. Skinner Sociology and Anthropology James George Frazer Rudoph Otto Bronislaw Malinowski Pitirim Alexandrovitch Sorokin Claude Levi-Strauss E.E. Evans-Pritchard Gerardus van der Leeuw History of Civilization Benedetto Croce H.G. Wells Oswald Spengler Arnold J. Toynbee Evolution Theory Julian Huxley Process Philosophy/Theology Alfred North Whitehead Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Liberalism Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. John Dewey Humanist Manifesto Theosophy and Religious Syncretism Annie Besant C. W. Leadbeater Levi Rudolf Steiner Edgar Cayce P. D. Ouspensky Alice Bailey Aldous Huxley Jiddhu Krishnamurti Elitism Georges Sorel Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Giovanni Gentile Alfred Rosenberg Existentialism Karl Jaspers Martin Heidegger Jean-Paul Sartre Simone de Beauvoir Christianity Responds 1.  A MAJOR FOCAL POINT:  THE SCOPES "MONKEY" TRIAL The Trial Itself William Jennings Bryan Clarence Darrow 2. FUNDAMENTALISM John Gresham Machen Cornelius Van Til 3. CHRISTIAN LIBERALISM The Auburn Affirmation Harry Emerson Fosdick Eugene Carson Blake 4. EVANGELICALISM Albert Schweitzer G. K. Chesterton C. S. Lewis Simone Weil 5. "NEO-ORTHODOXY" Karl Barth Emil Brunner Reinhold Niebuhr H. Richard Niebuhr Dietrich Bonhoeffer 6. CHRISTIAN EXISTENTIALISM Rudolph Bultmann Paul Tillich 7. ROMAN CATHOLICISM Maurice de Wulf Pope Pius X Pope Benedict XV Pope Pius XI Pope Pius XII Jacques Maritain Etienne Gilson Judaism Responds Martin Buber The First Half of the 20th Century:  A Full History

LOGICAL POSITIVISM AND ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY

The "Logical Positivism" of the Vienna Circle This movement was formally launched with the Vienna Circle in the 1920s, though it had influential predecessors among the linguistic analysts Wittgenstein and Richards.  It claims that the language of metaphysics and religion is not false – it is merely meaningless.  Existentialist philosophy is also meaningless because "experience" cannot be proven or demonstrated as to its truthfulness.  Philosophy should limit its focus on that which is immediately demonstrable by empirical logic.  Linguistic analysis (the language of logic) is at the heart of the work of Logical Positivism. Major works or writings of the Vienna Circle: Wissenschaftliche Weltauffassung. Der Wiener Kreis (A Scientific World-View: The Vienna Circle) (1929) Schriften zur wissenschaftlichen Weltauffassung (Papers on Scientific World-View) (eds. Schlick and Frank: 1928-1937) Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) He grew up in Austria, and began study of engineering in Berlin at the age of 14, moving on to study at the University of Manchester in England (1908-1911) and then Cambridge University, where he studied under Bertrand Russell (1912-1913).  He left England to join the Austrian army when World War One broke out, was subsequently captured in Italy, and while in prison wrote his his Tractus Logico-Philosophicus (1918)  This was published in German in 1921 and, with the help of Bertrand Russell, in English in 1922. After the War Wittgenstein took up the work of a rural elementary school teacher in Austria (1920-1926).  Then from 1926 to 1929 he worked at various hands-on jobs in Austria.  But contact with the Vienna Circle convinced him to return to the life of philosophy; he thus returned to Cambridge and philosophical research and lecturing.  In 1938 he became a British citizen and the following year a professor at Cambridge. But when World War Two broke out he again volunteered for war service (with the British).  With the War's end in 1945 he returned to his professorship at Cambridge for a couple of years.  But then he retreated to Ireland to begin work on his Philosophical Investigations. But in 1951 he died of cancer, and this work was not published until two years after his death. Initially he had a great influence on the Vienna Circle (most of whom moved to the US in the 1930s) with his Tractus Logico-Philosophicus. But he broke from the Circle later in life.  In his Philosophical Investigations, he was very critical of philosophical systems (such as Logical Positivism).  He still felt that the task of philosophy was to focus on an analysis of language – but drew back from the idea that such analysis could lead to the development of whole intellectual systems. Wittgenstein's major works or writings: Tractus Logico-Philosophicus (1922) Philosophical Investigations(1953) Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics (1956) The Blue and Brown Books (1958) On Certainty (1969) I. A. Richards English Humean scholar who had a strong influence on the Vienna Circle Richard's major works or writings: The Meaning of Meaning (1920) Moritz Schlick (1882-1936) Professor at Vienna (1922-36) and early leader of the Vienna Circle. We can communicate the content of our personal experiences only through the conventionalized forms of social language: only through the form of language does experience of one person have any meaning for another person. Schlick's major works or writings: Raum und Zeit in der gegenwärtigen Physik (1917) Allgemeine Erkenntnislehre (1918) Fragen der Ethik (1930) Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970) Carnap went well beyond Schlick in attempting to bring a precise order to empirical language by categorizing various kinds of empirical statements into types or "protocol- statements."  To Carnap there are various kinds of hierarchies in language – with the precise language of empirical science being potentially the highest form of language. Carnap's major works or writings: The Logical Structure of the World (1928) Philosophy and Logical Syntax (1934) Testability and Meaning(1936-1937) Introduction to Semantics (1942) Meaning and Necessity (1947) Logical Foundations of Probability (1950) The British "Analytic Philosophy" Analytic philosophy is the British cousin of Austrian/German logical positivism.  It too is an early twentieth century reaction to Hegel's philosophical Idealism that for 100 years dominated European academic philosophy.  Analytic philosophy tried to build philosophical "reality" on concrete, even mathematical, foundations – rather than on the passionate stirrings of the romantic heart (on which Idealism was accused of resting).  Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore at Trinity College, Cambridge, are recognized as the founders of this British philosophical movement. Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) Cambridge professor of mathematics at Trinity College.  He was a mathematician, logician and philosopher – helping to develop, along with G.E. Moore, analytic philosophy.  He was also a vehement pacifist – ending up in trouble with civil authorities for his pacifist stance in World War One (six months in prison in 1918) and his anti-nuclear position during the Cold War (imprisoned again in 1961). He believed in the ability of the learned individual to make the right moral choices, such as might steer history toward a higher course.  He opposed superstition (religion) as being the source of so much evil in human history – -for to Russell religion had long clouded the thinking of people and had led them to undertake horrible actions in the name of their religious crusades. He dedicated his work to trying to define the kinds of empirical-logical certainties that would step humans beyond what he saw was mere fancy and bias in our thinking.  He tried to build a precise science of learning, of conceptual development, of word usage. Among Russell's 55 books are: The Principles of Mathematics (1903) Principia Mathematica (1910-1913) with A.N Whitehead Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy (1919) The Analysis of Mind (1921) The A B C of Relativity (1925) The Analysis of Matter (1927) Education and the Social Order (1932) A History of Western Philosophy (1945) Human Knowledge, Its Scope and Limits (1948) Mysticism and Logic (1957) Why I Am Not a Christian (1967) G. E. Moore (1873-1958) G. E. (George Edward) Moore was a close associate of Bertrand Russell's; and also in Trinity College at Cambridge, as fellow (1898-1904), lecturer (1911-25) and professor (1925-39) Moore helped develop Wittgenstein's philosophy at Cambridge – -and, with Bertrand Russell, developed analytic philosophy. He was an empiricist who believed in the reliability of "common sense."   He distrusted high abstractions of reality and particularly objected to the high-flown theorizing on the part of the "idealist" philosophers of the German Hegelian mindset.  He objected to the splitting of hairs over the meaning of words – for most concepts cannot be exactly defined, such as "yellow."  They are merely something that is understood.  Where there is no such understanding, no amount of explanation will bring another person to understand them. Moore's major works or writings: Refutation of Idealism in Mind (1903) Principia Ethica (1903) A Defense of Common Sense Ethics (1912) Philosophical Studies (1922) A. J. Ayer (1910- ) Ayer's major works or writings: Language, Truth and Logic (1936) Charles Stevenson Stevenson's major works or writings: Ethics and Language (1945)

THE NEW LOOK OF ASTRONOMY AND PHYSICS

1. GENERAL PHYSICS Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin (1843-1928) Arthur S. Edington (1882-1944) Edington's major works or writings: Stars and Atoms (1926)  The Internal Constitution of the Stars (1926) The Nature of the Physical World (1928) New Pathways in Science(1935) Fundamental Theory(1946) Science and the Unseen World Louis-Victor Duc de Broglie (1892-1987) Broglie's major works or writings: Recherches sur la théorie des quanta (Researches on the quantum theory)(Thesis, 1924) Ondes et mouvements (Waves and motions) (1926) Matter and Light: The New Physics (1939) The Revolution in Physics (1953) Physics and Microphysics(1955) New Perspectives in Physics (1962) Étude critique des bases de l'interprétation actuelle de la mécanique ondulatoire (The Current Interpretation of Wave Mechanics: A Critical Study) (1963)

2. ASTRONOMY Harlow Shapley (1885-1972) Vesto Slipher (1875-1969) Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) Karl Jansky (1905-1950) Grote Reber An American ham operator who discovered cosmic radio waves – -of a very long variety (6 feet) – emitted by distant stars within our Milky Way.

3. ELECTROMAGNETIC AND ATOMIC THEORY Marie and Pierre Curie (Marie: 1867-1934 / Pierre: 1859-1906) Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) In 1901 Marconi successfully transmitted radio waves across the Atlantic from England to the United States. J. J. (Joseph John) Thomson (1856-1940) It was the English scientist J.J. Thomson who gave the first satisfying explanation of the inner structure of the atom – at least to the extent of identifying electrons (which Thompson at the time called "corpuscles").  The scientific world was fascinated with the ability of cathode rays to pass through vacuum tubes – with no means of conveyance for "waves" to pass through.  Speculation was that these rays were not waves but were particles.  It was Thomson who was able to conclusively demonstrate that indeed cathode rays were actually a flow of minute particles – corpuscles (electrons) – given off by atoms.  Thomson noted that these particles were very much alike for a variety of materials – and concluded that these particles were themselves quite uniform – their variance, like atoms in elements, a matter of their number and not not any kind of variety among them. Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937) Rutherford's major works or writings: Radio-activity (1904) Arthur Holly Compton  (1892-1962) Compton's major works or writings: Secondary Radiations Produced by X-rays (1922) X-Rays and Electrons (1926) X-Rays in Theory and Experiment (with S. K. Allison, 1935) The Freedom of Man (1935) Human Meaning of Science (1940) Enrico Fermi (1901-1954)

4. RELATIVITY Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Einstein wanted to unify all branches of physics around a cohesive set of simple laws, ones that described physical behavior in all possible settings. He was initially troubled by the inherent contradictions between the classic understanding of the relativity of the laws of mechanics (Galileo and Newton) and the newer view of the absolute character of the laws of electromagnetism (Maxwell).  With his theory of special relativity (1905) he demonstrated mathematically that electromagnetism functions with the same relativity of classic mechanics – because of the elasticity of space and time!  This theory seemed counter-intuitive at the time, though experiments over the next quarter of a century gave clear demonstration of the correctness of his theory. A major difficulty with his theory of special relativity was that it applied only to "special" situations (thus its name), that is, situations where light was being measured by an observer whose momentum was constant.  Einstein knew that situations of perfectly constant momentum (unchanging speed and direction) are rare.  Normally our movements are in constant flux, accelerating, decelerating, turning, etc. as we encounter varying forces acting externally upon our movements.  Einstein thus set out to define a more comprehensive theory of mechanical and electromagnetic physics, one he called general relativity. In this quest for a general theory of relativity it was the issue of gravity that received his greatest attention.  Through a number of mental "games," he came up with the notion that gravity is not really a separate force but merely a result of the structuring of the movement of objects through what he called spacetime.  This too was counter-intuitive, in the sense that he was attempting to describe a dimension of physical existence that had no exact parallels in what we humans have ever been able to perceive directly.  As an analogy of this strange world of general relativity Einstein pointed to the type of curve that is always described on the surface of a globe when something attempts to move along the globe's surface in a straight line. Another analogy was a rubber membrane with a heavy iron ball nestled in the center of it--and the effect this would have if we tried to roll a much smaller ball across the membrane and past the iron ball in an attempt to reach the other side of the membrane.  Depending on how close the smaller ball came to the larger ball, it might be led around and past the larger ball by the curvature of the membrane around the ball – or if it came too close, the smaller ball might be drawn in a circular path around the larger ball and finally into collision with it.  Einstein asserted that there was no gravitational "force" that drew the the smaller ball into the orbit of the larger ball – only the curvature (of spacetime) around the larger ball.  Thus gravity was explained as being (sort of) merely a curve in the flow of spacetime – a curve created by the presence of concentrated matter/energy.  And thus we could calculate the effect of gravity without having to resort to the notion of gravity itself, thus eliminating an unnecessary concept in physics and thus further simplifying physics. Thus with general relativity Einstein saw himself moving the discipline of physics closer to a cohesive body of laws, laws uniformly applicable in a variety of different physical settings.  By eliminating gravity as a separate concept he had certainly moved physics closer to that goal. But with the development of the field of quantum mechanics Einstein felt that the move toward conceptual unity was headed in the opposite direction.  For the longest time he debated the quantum theorists (Bohr, for instance) – -until he had to admit that their theoretical world worked--though in apparent contradiction to his own world of relativity. For the rest of his life he tried to close the gap within physics created by the quantum revolution--though seemingly without further success. For more information on Einstein Einstein's major works or writings: Theory of Relativity "What Is Relativity?" (1919)  The Principle of Relativity (1923) "The World As I See It" (1949) Ideas and Opinions(1954) Georges Lemaître (1894-1966) A Belgian priest and astronomer/physicist who in 1927 first advanced the "Big Bang" theory of the origins of the universe, based on what he saw as the implications of Einstein's theory of relativity.

5. QUANTUM MECHANICS Max Planck (1858-1947) Planck was the German physicist at the University of Berlin (1889-1926) most noted for laying the foundations of quantum physics with his idea of the quantum of small particle action, known as the Planck constant or simply, h.  The constant h he developed in his study of black-body radiation--noting that the energy values emited in such radiation were not of a continuous variety or array but instead discontinuous, in the the form of discrete, tiny energy packets:  quanta.  In other words, Planck demonstrated that the energy given off in radiation did not vary in a continuous spectrum from slight to great, but varied over that spectrum in tiny but quantifiable jumps, which happened to be multiples of h.  Thus Planck quantized the energy spectrum. These quanta of energy (E) were measurable as the product of the frequency of the radiation (  or Greek nu) and Planck's constant h.  The resultant energy radiation equation for Planck's constant was thus E=h. H was a very small quantity, approximately 6.626 × 10-34 (h actually works out to be not much more than 0!).  Nonetheless, it was significant enough that it called into question the assumption held since the time of Newton that the laws of physics were uniformly applicable under all (rather than just select or discrete) circumstances. Planck's major works or writings: The Theory of Heat Radiation (1914) Where Is Science Going?(1932) The Philosophy of Physics (1936) Niels Bohr (1885-1962) Bohr's major works or writings: Atomic Physics and the Description of Nature (1934) Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge(1958) Max Born (1882-1970) Erwin Schrödinger (1887-1961) Schrödinger's major works or writings: What Is Life? Mind and Matter My View of the World Nature and the Greeks Science and Humanism Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) Theory of Uncertainty: we cannot know something as its exists "in and of itself" – because our very action to observe this thing has a shaping effect on it; it responds to our efforts to observe it – thus making a "neutral" observation impossible. Heisenberg's major works or writings: Physics and Philosophy Physics and Beyond Philosophical Problems of Quantum Mechanics Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (1902-1984) Dirac's major works or writings: Quantum Theory of the Electron (1928) The Principles of Quantum Mechanics (1930) Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) Linus Carl Pauling (1901-1994) Pauling broadened the reach of quantum theory by bringing it into the world of molecular chemistry, into the realm of crystals and into the domain of medicine.

6. PHILOSOPHICAL EVALUATIONS OF MODERN SCIENCE James Hopwood Jeans (1877-1946) Jean's major works or writings: Physics and Philosophy (1943) The Mysterious Universe Henry Margenau Margenau's major works or writings: The Nature of Physical Reality (1950) The Miracle of Existence

DEVELOPERS AND CULTIVATORS  OF THE NEW TECHNOLOGY

Henry Ford (1863-1947) He was born on a farm near Dearborn, Michigan, and received formal schooling only up to age 15.  He loved mechanical objects and was particularly fascinated with the newly developing automobile.  He undertook to build cars himself. Always looking for an easier, faster and cheaper way of building these automobiles, in 1913 Ford began the use of the assembly line process.  This involved the movement away from custom building of cars to the use of standardized parts and a standardardized assembly process.  He also employed the principle of simplifying the production process by also simplifying of the features on the automobile.  The basic black Model T was the result.  He developed this logic further by eventually coordinating the entire automobile business from the point of acquiring raw materials, to the manufacture of parts, to the assembly of the car, to its final distribution and sales. This permitted him to lower considerably per-unit costs and to pass price reductions on to the purchaser--and thus increase the demand for his product.  This brought the automobile within the economic reach of the middle class.  And in turn this transformed American society into a highly mobile nation--with the home and community now spread at further distances from the old town and city centers.

PSYCHOLOGY

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Freud posited an "unconscious" mind which drives human action from deep, unseen centers within ourselves – in strong opposition to the popular view of his day that we are moved in our actions by human reason. Freud believes that we operate unaware of the influence of these forces within us because we have "repressed" them, or hidden them from conscious view because they arise from base desires (often sexual) that have been overlaid by our social consciousness, which forbids such desires.  But our dreams give us away – for dreams involve the surfacing of such repressed thoughts – ones in fact that may reach way all the way back to events in our very early childhood. Freud developed psychoanalysis to help cure mental illnesses brought on by the kinds of mental conflicts that can arise from such repression.  He not only developed a new vocabulary for interpreting dreams – but also for interpreting thoughts brought to the surface through his program of awake-state analysis. This theory not only was a strong rebuke to the Victorian pretensions of the day to rational self-control of all "civilized" people – but it would later serve as an explanation of the wild irrationality displayed in the mind-boggling destructiveness of World War One.  It also would play a small part in underwriting the notion of the "naturalness" of the human "will-to-power" popularized in the Fascist movements of 1930s Europe. Freud's major works or writings: The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) Psychopathology of Everyday Life (1904) Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality Civilization and Its Discontents Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) "Depth" psychologist (Freudian school) "archetypes" – patterns of thought in relation to "reality" which are present, in some cohesive form or another, in all cultures (thus universal) – but which are sufficiently ambiguous that they lend themselves to distinct interpretation by each culture and generation – though guiding that interpretation within precise boundaries.   Jung's major works or writings: Memories, Dreams, Reflections Symbols of Transformation Synchronicity Psychology and the East B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) Skinner's major works or writings: Beyond Freedom and Dignity

SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY

James George Frazer (1854-1941) Scot, educated at the University of Glasgow and Cambridge, becoming a fellow in Trinity College at the latter in 1879 – and then a professor at the University of Liverpool in 1907. Frazer's major works or writings: The Golden Bough (1890-1915) (13 vols) Totemism and Exogamy (1910) Man, God, and Immortality (1927) Creation and Evolution in Primitive Cosmogonies (1935) Rudoph Otto (1869-1937) German professor of comparative religion.  Searches for the causes of the sense of the "holy." Religion begins with a sense of the "numinous" (divinity) – ying within the realm of personal religious experience and not easily definable by reason Otto's major works or writings: The Idea of the Holy (1917) Mysticism East and West (1932) Bronislaw Malinowski (1884-1942) Functionalist.  Studied religion and magic of Tobriand Islanders.  Magic and religion play an integrative function and underpin societal leadership – plus provide psychological support in times of crisis. Pitirim Alexandrovitch Sorokin (1889-1968) Russian-American founder of the Department of Sociology at Harvard University in 1930. Sorokin's major works or writings: Social and Cultural Dynamics (4 vol. 1937-1941) Man and Society in Calamity (1942) Claude Levi-Strauss (1908- ) Structuralist:  Studied the process of thought of a people – in terms of its logical patterns, its intellectual sources, its systematic character as a cosmology or religion Levi-Strauss's major works or writings: Structural Anthropology (1958) E.E. Evans-Pritchard Evans-Pritchard's major works or writings: Theories of Primitive Religion Nuer Religion(1956) Gerardus van der Leeuw (1890-1950) He studied religion as power.  Power is the source and underlying essence of all religion.  The goals of religion are satisfied when power is achieved (however defined by a religion).

HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION

Benedetto Croce (1866-1952) Italian moral/cultural philosopher and historian. Born of a noble Italian family, and living out most of his life in Naples, he wrote reflectively on the proper ideals of modern Italian culture and politics – particularly in the journal La Critica which he founded and in which he published numerous works over a period of 41 years. He was sensitive to the need of the individual to find a way to contribute creatively to the larger culture – and the needs of a culture to be responsive to the genius of its individual members.  He was opposed to the cynicism bred by World War One which allowed self-indulgent individualism to run rampant in post-war Italy – and at first was sympathetic to the ideals of Fascism:  everyone working together toward the common good.  But as Italian fascism demonstrated its true nature, Croce turned against the movement and used his journal to denounce the pretentious tyranny that Fascism was imposing on Italy. He used his studies of history (European, Italian and local) to demonstrate the vital role that civic virtue played in the greatness of societies – and the dangers to society when such civic virtue was lacking. After World War Two his voice was deeply respected for its push to rebuild Italian civic virtue. Croce's major works or writings: La Critica [ Estetica come scienza dell'espressione e linguistica generale / Esthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistics [or just simply:  Esthetic] (1902) Logica come scienza del concetto puro / Logic as the Science of Pure Conception (1909) Filosofia della pratica: economia ed etica / Philosophy of the Practical: Economic and Ethic (1909) Teoria e storia della storiografia / History: Its Theory and Practice (1917) La storia come pensiero e come azione / History as Thought and Action (1938) Filosofia, poesia, storia / Philosophy, Poetry, History (1951) H. G. (Herbert George) Wells (1866-1946) English futurist, novelist and historian.  He was born into a humble middle class family and received no formal schooling, training instead as an apprentice to become a draper.  He changed jobs several times over the next years.  But he loved to read and became self-taught, until at age 18 he won a scholarship to study biology at the Normal Institute in London (T.H. Huxley was one of his teachers).  In 1888 he graduated from the University of London and went to work as a science teacher.  He loved writing, and in 1893 published a textbook on biology.  But he also had a fertile mind for science-fiction and in 1895 published The Time Machine, which became a best seller. He also had a deep interest in social questions, ones provoked by a world undergoing rapid technological change.  In 1903 he became a member of the prestigious The Fabian Society of English social philosophers.  But a mounting dispute with George Bernard Shaw and Sidney and Beatrice Webb a few years later over the direction of the organization caused him to withdraw. Wells' major works or writings: Textbook of Biology (1893) The Time Machine (1895)  The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896)  The War of the Worlds(1898) The First Men in the Moon (1901) Mankind in the Making (1903) A Modern Utopia (1905) The New Machiavelli (1911) The World Set Free (1914) War and the Future: Italy, France and Britain at War Outline of History (1920) The Shape of Things to Come (1933) The Invisible Man Oswald Spengler (1880-1936) Spengler's major works or writings: The Decline of the West Arnold J. Toynbee (1889-1975) He was professor of international history at the University of London and director of Studies at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1925 to 1955. As an historian he wrote history of civilizations rather than distinct political units.   His most famous work was his 12-volume Study of History, which focused on 26 distinct civilizations.  He was looking in particular for patterns in their birth, development, maturity, decline and collapse.  His overall conclusion was that civilizations decline not because of economic or political failure but because of moral and spiritual or religious failure. Successful civilizations arise because they possess a vital vision, one which leads them forward through a round a great achievements. But problems set in as the original vision is completed in this achievement, leaving the civilization at a loss as to where to go next.  The very success of the civilization proves its undoing as it loses its original sense of drive, purpose – the source of its original identity as a distinct people.  A loss of nerve and energy sets in, a rigid orthodoxy replaces imaginative thinking, and the prime motivation for living becomes defensive rather than expansive.  Their pleasure now is in the glorious past – not in the future. This leaves such civilizations open to dethronement by subject peoples, either from within the civilization or at its margins, or by outsiders.  They newly rising groups within the decaying civilization may breathe new life back into the civilization--even as they bring elements of radical change to the program.   Toynbee's major works or writings: The Western Question in Greece and Turkey (1922) A Study of History (12 vols: 1934-1961) Civilization on Trial (1948) Twelve Men of Action in Graeco-Roman History (1952) An Historian's Approach to Religion (Gifford Lectures, 1952-1953) East to West: A Journey Round the World (1958) Hellenism: The History of a Civilization (1959) Change and Habit:  The Challenge of Our Time (1966) Science in Human Affairs:  An Historian's View (1975)

EVOLUTION THEORY

Julian Huxley (1887-1975) J. Huxley's major works or writings: Religion without Revelation (1959)

PROCESS PHILOSOPHY / THEOLOGY

Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) Whitehead's major works or writings: Religion in the Making (1926) Science and the Modern World (1927) Process and Reality (1929) Adventures of Ideas (1937) Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) We actually do not include Pierre Teilhard de Chardin here in this section--because it really was only until after his death in 1955 that his real influence began in the West.  For his story go to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (Theologians of the Second Half of the 20th Century).

LIBERALISM

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) John Dewey (1859-1952) Dewey's major works or writings: Democracy and Education Logical Conditions of a Scientific Treatment of Morality Humanist Manifesto (1933) A declaration drafted in 1933 by Raymond B. Bragg and signed by a number of individuals, including John Dewey – which rejected Christianity and Judaism's claim of a divine origin of the universe.  It proposed to develop a better religious formual for modern times, which it called "Religious Humanism" (acknowledging the fact that Humanism is indeed a religion like any other).  It also included the assertion that we are essentially physical beings (there being no "spiritual" person apart from our bodily existences) and cultural by-products.  And it also included the assertion that our purpose in life is to achieve human happiness through both personal and social human self-development. Humanist Manifesto

THEOSOPHY AND RELIGIOUS SYNCRETISM

Annie Besant Besant's major works or writings: An Autobiography (1886) Why I became a Theosophist (1889) Esoteric Christianity; or, The Lesser Mysteries (1901) C. W. Leadbeater Ledbeater's major works or writings: An Outline of Theosophy (1903) Levi Levi's major works or writings: The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ (1907) Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) Founder of the Anthroposophical Society (1924) and the Waldorf School Movement Steiner's major works or writings: Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment An Outline of Occult Science The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) American photographer and mystic gifted with psychic powers of medical diagnosis P. D. Ouspensky Ouspensky's major works or writings: A Key to the Enigmas of the World (1920) In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching (1949) The Fourth Way (1957) Alice Bailey (1880-1949) Bailey's major works or writings: Initiation, Human and Solar (1922) The Reappearance of the Christ (1948) The Externalization of the Hierarchy (1957) The Rays and the Initiation (1960) Unfinished Autobiography Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) A. Huxley's major works or writings: The Defeat of Youth (1918) Limbo (1920) Crome Yellow (1921) Antic Hay (1923) Point Counter Point (1928) Brave New World (1932) Eyeless in Gaza (1936) Grey Eminence (1941) Time Must Have a Stop (1944) Ape and Essence (1949) The Perennial Philosophy (1945) The Devils of Loudun (1952) The Doors of Perception (1954) Heaven and Hell Island (1962) Jiddhu Krishnamurti (1895- ) Krishnamurti's major works or writings: The Network of Thought

ELITISM

Georges Sorel Sorel's major works or writings: Reflections on Violence (1908) Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924) He reorganized the more radical wing of the Russian Social Democrats into the faction known as the "Bolsheviks" (1903).   He developed the New Economic Policy to revitalize the war-torn/revolution-torn Russian economy.  In 1919 he founded the Third (Socialist) International with its headquarters in Russia. Lenin's major works or writings: "Materialism and Empirio-Criticism" (1909) "Marxism and Revisionism" (1908)  "The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism" (1913) "What can be done for public education" (1913) "The Historical Destiny of the Doctrine of Karl Marx" (1913) "The Marx-Engels Correspondence" (1913)  "Karl Marx"  (1913) "Disruption of Unity Under Cover of Outcries for Unity" (1913) "Slogan for a United States of Europe" (1913) "On the Two Lines of the Revolution" (1913) State and Revolution (1917) "The Military Programme Of The Proletarian Revolution" (1913) [Interview with the Manchester Guardian] (1919) "A Great Beginning: Heroism of the Workers in the Rear" (1919) Left-Wing Communism -- an Infantile Disorder (1920) "Draft resolutions of the 10th Congress of the R.C.P." (1921) Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) Lev Davidovich Bronstein. Created the Soviet Red Army.  He served as the Soviet Commissar or Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1918-1925.  He was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1929 under orders from Stalin.  He then turned his mighty pen against Stalin and his "betrayal" of the Bolshevik Revolution.  In 1940 he was silenced by an assassin in Mexico City. Trotsky's major works or writings: War and the International (1914) Pacifism as the Servant of Imperialism (1917)  The New Course (1923) The Lessons of October (1924) The History of the Russian Revolution (1930) The Rise of Hitler and Destruction of the German Left (1930) Their Morals and Ours (1936) The Revolution Betrayed (1936) Trotsky in Norway (1936) Stalinism and Bolshevism (1937) Giovanni Gentile Alfred Rosenberg Rosenberg's major works or writings: The Myth of the 20th Century (1930)

EXISTENTIALISM

Karl Jaspers (1883-1969) Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) Heidegger's major works or writings: Being and Time (1927) What Is Metaphysics? (1929) What Is Called Thinking (1952) An Introduction to Metaphysics (1953) The Origins of the Work of Art (1956)  Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) French novelist, playwrite, philosopher.  Existentialist turned social-democrat (Marxist). Sartre's major works or writings: La Nausée (1938) Psychology of the Imagination (1940) Being and Nothingness (1943) No Exit (1944) The Age of Reason (1945)  [series:  Les chemins de la liberté/The Roads of Liberty] The Reprieve (1945)  [series:  Les chemins de la liberté/The Roads of Liberty] Existentialism and Humanism (1946) The Respectful Prostitute (1946) Troubled Sleep (1949) [series:  Les chemins de la liberté/The Roads of Liberty] Iron in the Soul (1949) Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr (1952) The Condemned of Altona (1959) Critique of Dialectical Reasoning (1960) Words (1964) [autobiography] Gustave Flaubert (3 vols: 1971-1972) Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) A French novelist and philosopher of an existentialist-turned-Marxist bent.  She was hightly critical of middle class or capitalist society.  She was linked personally to Sartre from their college days together until his death in 1980. Beauvoir's major works or writings: L'Invitée (She Came to Stay) (1943) Pyrrhus et Cinéas (1944) Le sang des autres (The Blood of Others) (1945) Tous les hommes sont mortels (All Men are Mortal) (1946) The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947) L'Amérique au jour le jour (1948) Deuxieme Sexe (The Second Sex) (1949) Les Mandarins (The Mandarins) (1954) La longue marche (The Long March) (1957) Mémoires d'un jeune fille rangée (Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter) (1958) [autobiography] The Prime of Life (1960) [autobiography] La force des choses (Force of Circumstance) (1963) [autobiography] A Very Easy Death 1964 [autobiography] Les Belles Images (1966) La femme rompue (1968) The Coming of Age (1970) [autobiography] All Said and Done (1972) [autobiography] Adieux: A Farwell to Sartre (1983) Lettres au Castor [letters from Sartre to Beauvoir]

CHRISTIANITY RESPONDS

1.  A MAJOR FOCAL POINT:  THE SCOPES "MONKEY" TRIAL The Trial Itself (July 10-25, 1925:  Dayton, Tennessee) William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) Clarence Darrow (1857-1938) Some of Darrow's works or writings on the controversy: Absurdities of the Bible Why I Am An Agnostic The Lord's Day Alliance

2. FUNDAMENTALISM John Gresham Machen (1881-1937) Machen was New Testament professor at Princeton Seminary.  Among the several books he published was Christianity and Liberalism (1923), in which he claimed that Christian Liberalism was not even Christianity, but some other religion.  He was distressed that Christian Liberals believed (like Unitarians) that Christ was not a "personal savior" but instead a "personal teacher," setting moral examples which all, Christian and non-Christian, ought to follow.  And Liberalism tended to view Christianity as simply one of many ways that led to the Fatherhood of God. When in 1928 the Presbyterian General Assembly voted to move Princeton from a traditionally conservative theology to a more liberal position, Machen and two other Princeton professors withdrew from the seminary to start a new one in nearby Philadelphia:  Westminster Seminary.  In 1935 Machen was suspended from the Presbyterian ministry. Machen's major works or writings: Christianity and Liberalism (1923) Cornelius Van Til (1895-1987) Van Til was born in the Netherlands, but came to Indiana at age ten with his family in order to farm.  He attended Calvin College, Princeton Seminary, received a Ph.D. from Princeton University and became an instructor at Princeton Seminary in 1928 – but the next year joined the newly formed Westminster Theological Seminary as professor of Apologetics after the liberal-conservative split at Princeton. Van Til's major works or writings: Why I Believe in God A Survey of Christian Epistemology (1932)  A Survey of Christian Epistemology The Defense of the Faith Introduction to Systematic Theology Christianity and Barthianism The New Modernism The Protestant Doctrine of Scripture (1967) Christian Theistic Ethics (1971) A Christian Theory of Knowledge (1972) Common Grace and the Gospel (1972) My Credo

3. CHRISTIAN LIBERALISM The Auburn Affirmation (1924) signed by 1,274 Presbyterian ministers Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969) Liberal preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick presented a sermon at the First Presbyterian Church of New York City entitled "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?"  So incensed was the General Assembly (sort of a Presbyterian Congress) at what it considered an attack on the fundamentals of the faith that it considered removing Fosdick from the pulpit (he was defended by the New York Lawyer, John Foster Dulles, who would serve as America's Secretary of State during the Eisenhower presidency in the 1950s).  But Fosdick instead simply resigned his position (John D. Rockefeller would select Fosdick to pastor the prestigious Riverside Church that he had funded!).

4. EVANGELICALISM To 20th century evangelicals, God's Word is True – but such truth comes to the believer through the mysterious work of the Spirit and is based on the inner perceptions of personal faith. Thus evangelicalism is not to be confused with "fundamentalism" which stresses the rational and objective basis of the truth of God's Word in Scripture. But neither is is evangelicalism aligned with "liberalism" which also (like fundamentalism) tries to base the truth of God's Word on some objective factual basis, a basis which however Liberals recognize as being much reduced in extent from what the fundamentalists believe to be the case--because of the many  flaws which text-criticism has revealed as existing within the literature of scripture. Evengelicalism departs very strongly from both fundamentalism and liberalism, which attempt to found the Christian faith on some sort of objective system of "facts."  Faith, not fact, is the truth-foundation for evangelicalism. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) Schweitzer carried forth Weiss' critique of Biblical criticism, pointing out that Jesus lived entirely to the expectation that the Kingdom of God was immanent and that it is absurd to speculate using modern logic that Jesus was trying to force the event with his death. He also pointed out the impossibility of extracting a "true" or "historical" Jesus from the scriptural account of the early church – for what was given there was not a "factual" description of Jesus at all, but rather the reflections of the faithful as to the ultimate meaning of Christ. Schweitzer's major works or writings: The Mystery of the Kingdom of God (1901) In the Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906) G.K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton (1874-1936) Chesterton's major works or writings: Orthodoxy (1908)  Heretics (1908) What's Wrong With the World (1910)  The Everlasting Man (1925)  C.S. (Clive Staples) Lewis (1898-1963) Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  He is sometimes remembered for his tender romance with an American fan of his, Joy Davidman Lewis's major works or writings: The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition (1936 ) The Screwtape Letters (1942) Beyond Personality: the Christian Idea of God (1944) The Chronicles of Narnia Abolition of Man (1947) Mere Christianity (1952) Simone Weil (1909-1943) Weil's major works or writings: Waiting on God

5. "NEO-ORTHODOXY" Neo-orthodoxy was a close cousin to evangelicalism – in that it stressed the role of faith as the foundation for the Truth of God.  But it tended to look to the broad range and long run of such faith, the faith-witness of countless generations of Christians over the centuries, to give some degree of "objective" character to such truth.  Thus to the neo-orthodox, the all-important "faith" that underpins the Christian truth is importantly to be found the collective, historical voice of the church, the living "body of Christ." Karl Barth (1886-1968) Barth was a formulator of "neo-orthodoxy": revitalization of the dogmas of traditional Christianity as the key to faith.  Scripture, guided by the exegetical traditions of the church, is the surest source of faith – and Divine Truth He was opposed to an "historic" Jesus – as unproveable and irrelevant  He posited instead the Christ of faith, who acts to deepen faith in the heart of the believer. Barth's major works or writings: Church Dogmatics The Humanity of God(1960) Emil Brunner (1889-1965) Brunner's major works or writings: Dogmatics Truth as Encounter Reinhold Niebuhr (1893-1971) A Protestant theologian best known for his study of the task of relating the Christian faith to the reality of modern politics and diplomacy. He attended Elmhurst College (Illinois), Eden Seminary (St. Louis, Missouri) and Yale University, receiving a Batchelor of Divinity Degree from Yale in 1914.  In 1915 he was ordained a pastor in the Evangelical Church and took up a pastorate in Detroit, Michigan, where he remained for the next 13 years.  In 1928 he took up a teaching position at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. During his life's intellectual journey he moved from socialism to a position of political "realism" which acknowledges the human aptitude for both sin and goodness--and therefore the necessity of certain (democratic) political structures to keep human behavior on the right track.  But even these political structures needed to be worked with great caution.  Ultimately it was the sovereignty of God that all the world needed to look to as the only unfailing source of goodness in life. Reinhold Niebuhr's major works or writings: Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic (1929) Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932) An Interpretation of Christian Ethics (1935) The Nature and Destiny of Man (2 vols: 1941-1943) The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness:     A Vindication of Democracy and a Critique of Its Traditional Defence(1944) Faith and History: A Comparison of Christian and Modern Views of History (1949) The Irony of American History (1952) The Self and the Dramas of History (1955) The Structure of Nations and Empires (1959) For more information on Niebuhr H. Richard Niebuhr (1894-1962) Protestant theologian teaching at Yale Divinity School (1931-1962).  He is known best for his interest in how the Christian faith is mediated through popular culture – and how the church should present the Christian gospel in such a way that it could be clearly understood in the context of modern culture. He was the younger brother of Reinhold Niebuhr and followed his older brother's footsteps in attending Elmhurst College and Eden Seminary – before travelling east to Yale where he took a Ph.D. in theology.  He returned to the mid-West where he taught at Eden Seminary (1919-1922 and 1927-1931) and served as President of Elmhurst College (1924-1927).   In 1931 he moved permanently to the East to become a professor of theology and ethics at Yale Divinity School.   H. Richard Niebuhr's major works or writings: The Social Sources of Denominationalism (1929) The Kingdom of God in America (1937) The Meaning of Revelation (1941) Christ and Culture (1951) The Purpose of the Church and Its Ministry (1954) Radical Monotheism and Western Culture (1960) The Responsible Self (1963). Faith on Earth: An Inquiry into the Structure of Human Faith (edited by his son, Richard R. Niebuhr, 1989) Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) Bonhoeffer's major works or writings: Akt und Sein - Act and Being (1931) Creation and Fall(1933) Nachfolge - The Cost of Discipleship (1937) Gemeinsames Leben - Life Together (1939) Ethik - Ethics (posthumously: 1949) Widerstand und Ergebung - Letters and Papers from Prison (posthumously: 1951) For more information on Bonhoeffer

6. CHRISTIAN EXISTENTIALISM Rudolph Bultmann (1884-1976) Bultmann's major works or writings: Theology of the New Testament (2 vols: 1951/1955) Jesus Christ and Mythology (1958) Paul Tillich (1886-1966) Tillich's major works or writings: The Religious Situation (1926) The Socialist Decision (1932) On the Boundary (1936) The Protestant Era (1948) The Courage to Be (1952) Systematic Theology (3 vols: 1951/1957/1963)

7. ROMAN CATHOLICISM Maurice de Wulf (1867-1947) Pope Pius X  (pope: 1903-1914) Giuiseppe Melchiore Sarto (1835-1914).  He was born in poverty in Northern Italy ... worked hard to get an education, became a priest, and became popular among the common people for his simplicity and affection.  He would remain ever-dedicated to the Franciscan idea of poverty being a key part of the dignity of the faithful.  Even with his rise in the ranks of the Catholic clergy, he held as much as possible to that principle ... and refused to extend any particular material favors to his family ... who  remained pretty much in that same state of poverty during his papacy.       He was an excellent preacher and got the attention of the Church’s higher officials ... was elevated in rank and eventually came to the notice of Leo XIII.      As pope, he was particularly interested in restoring Catholic worship rituals.  And he too was a strong supporter of the idea of Mary as holy Mother of the faithful.  And he too was a strong Thomist.  He also restored the Gregorian Chant ... and emphasized the critical importance of the Eucharistic mass.   And he was strongly opposed to theological Modernism ... with its efforts to update our understanding of scripture and Church theology, in order to bring it more in line with the secular-materialist worldview coming into dominance at the time.  He viewed such Modernism as pure heresy, and to be opposed on all counts.      He also took a much less diplomatic approach to Europe’s secular states ... even breaking off diplomatic relations with France’s Third Republic (1905). And his tightening of restrictions about religiously-mixed marriages actually succeeded in heightening the religious discord between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland!  He did however end the decree prohibiting Italian Catholics from voting.  But relations in general with the Italian state did not improve any during his papacy. Pius X's major works or writings: Pope Benedict XV  (pope: 1914-1922) Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa (1854-1922).  From the very outbreak of the Great War (World war One) he declared the Catholic Church to be neutral in this nationalist contest.  Indeed, he tried on two occasions (1916 and 1917) to formally mediate the conflict ... but was rejected by both sides of the contest.  He undertook to offer humanitarian aid to both soldiers (captured and/or wounded) and hungry civilians.      After the war he was not only able to restore diplomatic relations with France, he worked to improve relations with the Italian state, allowing Catholics to participate in its public offices. Pius Benedict's major works or writings: Pope Pius XI (pope: 1922-1939) Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (1857-1939).  As pope, he confirmed Thomist theology as foundational to Catholicism, emphasizing the role of  the Vatican’s own Dominican-administered university - the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas - as the Church’s own primary academic institution devoted to teaching Thomist theology and philosophy. He worked to improve diplomatic relations with Europe’s various states, finally ending the standoff with the Italian government by the signing of the Lateran Treaty of 1929.       But in 1931 he issued another encyclical Non abbioamo bisogno (We Do Not Need), not opposing the Italian state as such ... but very strongly condemning Mussolini’s Fascist political philosophy ... especially in the way that it was directed again the Church and two of its key organizations, Italian Catholic Action and the Italian Catholic Youth Organization.       With respect to similar developments in German he did sign a Reichskonkordat in 1933 with Hitler’s Germany ... in the hopes of softening the persecution just underway against German Catholic clergy and Catholic politicians by the Nazis.  But ultimately Hitler paid no attention to the terms of the agreement.  Catholics, priests and parishioners, were arrested on wild charges ... solely to shut down all voices in Germany except Hitler’s.     Finally, in 1937, Pius repudiated the Reichskonkordat, issuing a new encyclical, Mit brennender Sorge (with Burning Anxiety) condemning the political-ideological trends that had developed in Germany under the “mad prophet” (Hitler) ... an encyclical secretly distributed (300,000 copies in German) to be read from Germany’s Catholic pulpits on Easter Sunday.  Hitler was furious ... and had his Gestapo seize all copies they could get their hands on ... and increased dramatically the oppression of the Catholic Church.  Catholic schools were shut down.  Catholic youth organizations were ended.  But amazingly, Catholics seemed to stand with the pope in this matter ... at least for the present.       But the pope answered Hitler’s accusations that the Church was pro-Communist also issued another encyclical, Divini Redemptoris, also denouncing Communism as anti-religious, citing the persecution of the Church that accompanied the establishment of Communism in Russia. Pius XI's major works or writings: Pope Pius XII (pope: 1939-1958) Eugenio Maria Guiseppe Giovanni Pacelli (1876-1958).  Italian of aristocratic origins (and well-placed family in the church hierarchy) who served as papal representative to various European monarchs, to the newly established Soviet Union ... though most importantly to Weimar Germany.  Then as the pope’s Secretary of State (1930) he would be responsible for the Vatican’s foreign policies.  He would eventually (1933) be responsible for establishing the Catholic Church’s Reichskonkordat with Germany (protecting the rights of the Catholic Church in an increasingly secular Germany).  He would also set up similar treaties with other European  nations: Austria (1933), Yugoslavia (1935), and Portugal (1940).     During the war, now serving as pope, he worked to keep the papacy neutral ... pleasing neither side and bringing him much criticism after the war.  He was accused of turning a blind eye to the Jewish holocaust.  But in fact he had those working under him (Roncalli, for instance) working at the problem.  And Pius apparently had links to the German Resistance during the war.      After the war he was a very strong voice in opposition to the persecution and deportation of Catholic priests by the Communist governments in Soviet-controlled East Europe.     He also confirmed the concept of the Immaculate Conception, the sinlessness, and the bodily Assumption (“taking up” to Heaven) of the Virgin Mary in his Munificentissimus Deus in 1950. Pius XII's major works or writings: Mystici corporis Christi (1943) Munificentissimus Deus (1950) the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary Humani generis(1950) Jacques Maritain (1882-1973) Etienne Gilson (1884-1978) Gilson's major works or writings: The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas (1961)

JUDAISM RESPONDS

Martin Buber (1878-1965) Originally raised in a "modern" German-Jewish home, Buber as a young man was to take up mysticism, notably Hassidic Judaism.  He was increasingly disenchanted with the modern vision of life and sought for a deeper sense of life's purpose.  In particular he was looking for a path that brought him to a closer connection with God, and through God to a deeper connection with the rest of the world, both natural and human. He was an ardent Zionist--though a cultural Zionist rather than a political Zionist, and less interested in the establishment of a well-defended Jewish state than in the establishment of an open Jewish society. Buber's major works or writings: Ich und Du (I and Thou) (1923) Chassidischen Bücher (Tales of the Hasidim) (1927) Netivot be-utopya (Paths in Utopia/Pfade in Utopia) 1947 Der Weg des Menschen nach der Chassidischen Lehre (The Way of Man, According to the Teachings of Hasidism) 1948 Bilder von Gut und Böse (Images of Good and Evil) (1952)

THE FIRST HALF OF THE 20TH CENTURY: A FULL STORY

he World Since 1900 - An Overview (Spiritual Pilgrim) The Last Days of the Gilded Age (Spiritual Pilgrim) The "Great War" (World War One) (Spiritual Pilgrim) Attempts at Post-War Recovery (Spiritual Pilgrim) Depression and Dictatorship (Spiritual Pilgrim) World War Two (Spiritual Pilgrim)

Go on to the next section:  The Philosophers of the 2nd Half of the 20th Century

  Miles H. Hodges