Book Review: The Impulse of Po
This is the best new book I have read this year. Kelley is by no means a new author but this is a more sweeping work revealing the author's keen grasp of the philosophy of history and particularly of Western civilization.Kelley positions the roots of Western civilization in the Homeric and Platonic world of ancient Greece, but unlike many Christians and previous generations and today will brook no compromise with this "enlightenment paganism" as a valid expression of culture. He shrewdly observes that today's increasing calls for a return to the medieval synthesis of Christian and classical civilization is misdirected: "Should we accept the argument of those who wish to restore the displaced ideals represented by the medieval synthesis of Christianity and Humanism? Can such salvage operations succeed? Is it possible to remake Western civilization on the same basis from which it first sprang up? If so, why should one accept that it will turn out better the second time?" Kelley's answer is unequivocal: "There are but two options available: that which comes from God and His revealed Word, or that which arises from man's sin-darkened imagination" (pp. 16-17). Kelley observes Plato's attempt to depersonalize the pagan religion of th
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Enlightenment Romanticism, Indeed Enlightenment, Christianity Humanism, God God, Alister McGrath, Forms Ideas, Protestant Reformation, European Enlightenment, Romanticism Kelley, Christianity Aristotelian, western civilization, ancient pagan, european enlightenment, monastic ideal, enlightenment romanticism, pagan greek, medieval ecclesiocentrism, human reason, renaissance enlightenment romanticism, institutional church, medieval life,
Approximate Word count = 2419
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
 |
