Summary of Western History--Valuable. From parts of Gardner's 'Beyond Belief'

BriefSummaryOfGardner

First, the complete cross of reality

The Complete Cross of Reality is a diagram at the end of ‘Beyond Belief’. It starts at the southwest corner of a square, and heads east. Thou. This is the Forward/Imperative. It heads north as the In/Subjective (I) , the west as the Back/Narrative (We), and south as the Out/Objective (They).

This is BRIEF. For the full wonderfulness, please see the book.

[Yes, I have the same structure in The Pella Square. We both got it, somehow, from Rosenstock-Huessy. I emphasize the historical and liturgical aspects, and mine can go both backward and forward as I seek a solution to discipling a community. Matthew 28. The solution is to get oneself into the position that a shepherd is in when, after leading through the service, he sends the flock out with a command—in my case, a specific set of commands that summarizes this history, and fulfills the name of the community.]

Second, the revolutions of the West

This is Chapter 5 of ‘Beyond Belief. My summaries will be too short.

Here are the revolutions: Papal, German, English, American, French, Russian.

‘Revolutions do nothing but readjust the equation between heart-power and the social order. They bring about the Kingdom of God by force, and reach into the infinite in order to reform the finite.’

Each went through four phases.

Imperative. Each revolution’ leaders felt called as a Thou..
Subjective reply: New speech, new persons, new Is.
Narrative/history, new institutions founded by these new persons. We.
Objective. These new became commonplace in the nation and over the planet. They
This is a recapitulation of any significant human experience, as we see in
The Cross of Reality.

The Papal Revolution. Gregory VII. 1076. It wound up the clock spring to which the others responded, releasing the energy. (The power of the Church over Europe’s kings and emperors—CH: Investiture, who would appoint the bishops?) This was a unified planetary institution aimed at converting and liberating the whole human race. Crusades, universities, cathedrals, the beginning of science…world history.

1517, 1649, 1776, 1789, 1917. Each leaves unfinished businees, each shows how the Holy Spirit acts in history, as our gift of speech, as our gift of high speech that calls us to a new future.
The Papal Revolution (1076) Imperative: Realize the Kingdom of God on earth by emancipating all humankind. The first transnational institution.
New Speech. Theology (argumentation) and prayer, via plainchant and more elaborate worship.
New Persons: Crusaders, Franciscans, Dominicans, members of craft guilds, university professors, captains of sailing/exploring ships over the whole world.
New Institutions: Where the above worked.
Result: Christendom in Western Europe with outposts over the whole planet.

The German Revolution (1517). Freedom of conscience. New life in the secular world. Individual believer free from dictates of Rome, which was no longer a source of renewal.
New Speech: Secular literature, music and are, plus the Bible in the vernacular. Experimental science.
New Persons: Hymn writers, musicians, artists, public school teachers, civil servants, scientists and academics. Conscientious laymen, secular priests, who felt themselves equal to pastors.
New Institutions: Especially public schools, civil service, and academies.

Results: Public education, scientific investigation, bureaucracies (civil service as religious position in country—as non-corrupt).

The British Parliamentary Revolutions (1649-1688). Imperative: Political freedom. Freeing the civil society from the dictates of kings and princes (Cromwell)—and from lingering royal and Catholic influence.
New Speech: Law, debate, argument.
New Persons: Aristocratic gentlemen, lawyers, parliamentarians.
New Institutions: Parliaments and courts.
Results: Over the planets, parliamentary democracies, states under the rule of law, reliable legal systems. (Commonwealth—Chancellor no longer needs to alternate between Church and State, but Commonwealth is united).


The French Revolution (1789). Imperative: Elevate the bourgeois citizen to power—liberty, equality, fraternity. Free from church and king. Bourgeois entrepreneur, and Reason, rule.
New Speech: National literature and arts. Journalism.
New Persons: Entrepreneur, and novelists, newspapermen, experimental scientists.
New Institutions: Corporations, newspapers, institutes of technology.
Results: Capitalism, competitive markets, free enterprise, free press, planetarily.

The American Revolution (1776). Drawn from both French and English. Christian-inspired English combined with anti-Christian Enlightenment of the French.
New Speech and New Persons, as in the English and French.
America is the ongoing source of the ‘planetary revolution’. More below, (CH: This is why I have the Lectionary Chronological Historical from 854-3170).

The Russian Revolution (1917). Imperative: Freedom from economic exploitation.
New Speech: Quantitative.
New Persons: Proletarian (including union workers).
New Institutions. Soviet union, dictatorship. Western democracies: Government agencies that sought to control national economies and to prevent exploitation of labor.
Result: Industrialized Russia, elsewhere: Social democracy with alphabet bureaucratic agencies.
Gardner: Captured French new rationalist and objective language, and Papal’s messianic belief in glorious future.

Rosenstock-Huessy wrote that all revolutions recreate both public law, and private manners, and lie between them in an open immediacy. Thus are hated.

The Planetary Revolution (1945, Forward). ERH in Christian Future—We will live for centuries in the fields of force of these revolutions. The world wars had ended the 1000 years of (CH: this kind of ) Christendom. Negative side of revolutions: World Wars. Positive side: All brought together, all strands. ERH: Great Society heir of Church and State. (CH: Elsewhere in Universal History 1954, ERH says that our challenge is to gain the small, enthusiastic groups of the tribes, without the perpetual warfare, as the Church glorified Israel by gaining inclusiveness, and the State got rid of the slavery of the Empires—Greece should remain a companion, never a social order, ERH said and wrote)
Imperatives, then: ‘…work toward the emancipation of all humankind by achieving freedom of conscience, political freedom, freedom of individual enterprise, and freedom from economic exploitation. …)
In the Third Millennium, it is the Spirit, Who has always been at work, that unifies.
Christianity has been now expressing Herself (CH) in more secular language, and is oriented toward change, not the past (alone). Constant renewal, freeing the captives, active outside the church). New Heaven and New Earth. ‘Christianity created today’s one world, our global society.’