The Rise and Fall of Modernism in Politics and Religion

Abstract

The modernist period in ideology arose around the beginning of the 18th century, as both religion and politics became arrayed along a binary dimension of traditionalist/ conservatives against progressive/liberals. Analytically, however, the structural bases of conflict are triangular: in politics, moving among the poles of centralization, mass participation, and a decentralized balance of powers; in religion, the corresponding poles are church hierarchy, sect enthusiasm, and spiritual elites. Rebellion against authority and tradition can take place from any pole toward any other. During the Reformation and the religious wars, neither Protestantism nor Catholicism could be arrayed along the modernist dimension of liberals and conservatives; in many respects, the social organization of the Catholic church made it more anti-traditional than Protestantism. It is the period of struggle for secularization and religious toleration which crystalized in the liberal/conservative polarization of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution. This binary dimension has broken down again in the late 20th century, giving rise to the self-doubts manifested in the ideology of 'postmodernism'.