by Chris Alexion, Copyright April 11, 2006, all rights reserved. 273 views
In his superb history of philosophy, Thales to Dewey, Gordon Clark raises the point that non-Christian worldviews ultimately destroy meaning, leaving one with a choice between revelation and futility:
The history of philosophy began with naturalism….The pre-Socratic naturalism dissolved into Sophism, from which a metaphysics arose; and the metaphysics lost itself in a mystic trance. Then under the influence of an alien source, Western Europe appealed to a divine revelation. In the sixteenth century one group put their complete trust in revelation, while another development turned to unaided human reason. This latter movement has now abandoned its metaphysics, its rationalism, and even the fixed truths of naturalistic science. It has dissolved into Sophism….[C]ould it be that a choice must be made between skeptical futility and a Word from God?*
Clark makes a similar criticism in Religion, Reason, and Revelation when he argues that John Dewey's instrumentalism can't get off the ground unless life is worth living–a value that is disputed, and that Dewey can't justify.
And oddly enough, a catchy and concise statement of these points has turned up in pop music. San Diego rock/alternative band Switchfoot, a group bringing Christian perspective to the mainstream industry, released The Beautiful Letdown in 2003, scoring success in both the mainstream and Christian circles. Their song "Gone" is the one that first caught my attention.
The song, like Shelly's "Ozymandias," points out the fleeting nature of human existence: "Today will soon be gone / Like yesterday is gone / Like history is gone…You pretend like you're immortal. … Where's your treasure; where's your hope / If you get the world and lose your soul?… Like Al Pacino's cash / Nothing lasts in this life. … All the riches of the kings end up in wills."
From the pre-Socratic Greeks to the modernists of the Enlightenment, humanistic thinkers have attempted to build life–epistemology, theology, ethics, meaning–on the premise of man's autonomy, his independence from God. This is, as Douglas Jones put it, "a rebellious attempt to deify human categories." Clark's paragraph points out what happens. Sometimes this rebellion takes the form of naturalism or empiricism, entrenching itself in "solid" rules of sense experience and scientific investigation, only to run into inescapable presuppositions and faith commitments. At other times, sophism and relativism may predominate, rejoicing in freedom from modernistic rules and regulations. But such confusion eventually leads to ethical and intellectual chaos. Other rebels seek sanctuary in a mystic tower, rejecting reason in favor of some unutterable Encounter, whose irrationalism eventually destroys the very values mysticism is supposed to protect. The attempt has failed. Babel is gone–like Frank Sinatra. Like Elvis and his mom. "We are not infinite. We are not permanent. Nothing is immediate. We're so confident in our accomplishments; Look at our decadence." On humanism's terms, life is meaningless.
But that doesn't mean life is actually meaningless. Songwriter Jon Foreman doesn't end in postmodern cynicism, with every man doing right in his own eyes and rejoicing in relativistic pandemonium. The last few lines answer Clark's question with a firm "Life is still worth living" because "Life is more than you are." This point, in fact, ties into the album's title track. Rebellious autonomy is an intellectual letdown, but it's a beautiful letdown, since our bankruptcy allows us to see our need for the "treasures of wisdom and knowledge" hidden in Christ (Col. 2:3). "It was a beautiful letdown when I crashed and burned, / When I found myself alone, unknown, and hurt. / It was a beautiful letdown the day I knew / That all the riches this world had to offer me would never do."
Foreman's second verse describes how he can "see everything clear" after his letdown and redemption. The biblical Gospel does more than just save our soul so that we can "go to heaven when we die." It provides us with a comprehensive way of seeing the world and acting for God's glory while we're here. Christ has conquered. This is His world. And He will receive the inheritance the Father promised him (Ps. 2:8-12, 110:1-2). Our calling is to understand all aspects of life in the light of Christ, the Logos. This means more than just Sunday school and creation science; it means building a solidly biblical philosophy that will include epistemology, ethics, politics, the arts, and more.
Incidentally, that's what groups like Switchfoot are doing, and their message is more than you can usually find in the well-worn grooves of mainstream and Christian pop. Let's hope it catches on.
* Gordon Haddon Clark, Thales to Dewey (Unicoi, TN: The Trinity Foundation, fourth ed., 2000), pp. 412-413
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