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Modern individualisms and Christian schism: why what we miss is important

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Abstract

The history of Western modernity can be briefly outlined as a history characterized by the progressive emerging of individual freedom. The consequent dynamism in cultural and socio-economic terms defines modernity as an age of great institutional change. Forms and rhythms of this change take different shapes according to the different worlds of the Christian Europe. The schism occurring between the Catholic Church and the Reformed Churches plays an important role for this aim. From many points of view, modernity cannot be understood apart from such event and from its, expected or not, consequences as well as from the characterization that the individual got from it. The West still stands in that schism. The hypothesis discussed in this contribution is that each of the two modern paths—starting, on the one side, from the Reformation and, on the other, from the Counter-Reformation—and relative models of socio-economic development characterized by the religious schism are interdependent. Moreover, they need to face a challenge that so far has been partly or not at all investigated: the anthropological challenge, beyond the reductionism suggested and reinforced by the schismatic modernity.

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Notes

  1. A very important methodological perspective is the genealogical approach, which we refer to as the Weberian approach. As known, this method tries to identify and analyse long-term historical trajectories which originated in the past but still influence present times, without acting on them in a deterministic way.

  2. See also Szakolczai (1998, 2003). For further references about ‘grace’, see Pitt-Rivers (1992); MacLachlan (1993). Weber is an important reference in this frame as he reconstructed his understanding of the rise of the modern world identifying a break between the Renaissance and the Reformation (see, among others, books of the German thinker: Weber 1968, 1904).

  3. Many reforms, for instance, those of monasticism in the Middle Age, moved in this direction, and so did the Protestant Reformation initially.

  4. Weber, Elias and Foucault separately considered each of these three aspects of grace based on these new meanings, as well as the paths derived from reading modernity and its destiny though each of them.

  5. These historical processes include, for instance, the rise of historical science, the humanist critics, the new state and law doctrines already in the fourteenth century; the major development of commerce starting in the late Middle Ages; the increasing availability of raw materials; the discovery of new lands; the monetization of the economy; the prosperity from founding credit forms; the experiments of separating workers and production equipment; and the individualistic direction of economic development.

  6. It is important to better detail the various declinations of these diverse alliances in Catholic, monarchical France, the home of the Enlightenment and political revolution; in divided Germany, where several states respected the principle of cuius regio eius religio; in liberal Holland, the home of modern capitalism; or in the Austro-Hungarian empire, which retained a strong bond to Catholicism different than that one of the colonial powers of the Mediterranean and Atlantic area.

  7. Other contributions show an indirect influence from religion on the forms of capitalism (see, in particular, Fanfani 1934).

  8. Machiavelli was the first to describe the moral character of politics. Hobbes continued by elaborating the theory of the state as an absolute judge.

  9. See especially the following essays: Die beiden formen des individualismus (1901/1902); Kant: sechzehn vorlesungen, gehalten an der Berliner Universität (1904/1918); Goethes’ individualismus (1912); Individualismus (1917/1919); Germanischer und klassich-romanischer stil (1918a, b); Das individuum und die freiheit (written not before 1913).

  10. In an early text dated 1892–1893, Simmel recalls the main moments of modern philosophy concerning freedom and the individual: Einleitung in die moralwissenschaft. Eine kritik der ethischen grundbegriffe, 1892–1893. This writing was published in two volumes and is included in a collection of Simmel’s writings (Köhnke 1989, 1991). Of particular interest for our analysis is the sixth chapter entitled Die freiheit (Simmel 1892–1893/1991).

  11. Simmel considers the incompatible distance in modern times between reason considered as calculating, instrumental intellect (verstand) and reason as the ability that organizes our knowledge and experiences according to their meaning (vernunft). The first type has pre-eminence over the second one, leading to the disentanglement of functions/instrumentality and meanings/expressivity.

  12. In both cases, the role of religion should be better explored, in particular the role of ecclesiastic institutions that were very different in the two geographical contexts. In addition, it should be remembered that the Catholic Church in France and the Anglican Church in England recalled elements similar to those in Southern European contexts. However, what Simmel here highlights (i.e. what we recall for our discussion) is the form of individualism emerging in these contexts: it was an individualism that presented the features of the individualism of singularity, reinforced by the forces of laissez-faire on the one hand and of the revolutionists on the other hand.

  13. Simmel again underlines that the singular individual fully satisfies the prerequisites of the capitalist model in a market economy and of the sovereignty of the modern State. Indeed, ‘if in all men the ever equal “man as such” constitutes the essential element, and it is assumed the full unconstrained development of this core, then naturally there is no need for any regulatory intervention in human relationships: the force’s balance here must be accomplished through the same armoury of the firmament processes, compliant with natural laws’ (Simmel 2013a, b, c/1957, p 264).

  14. Their refusal let them depend completely on secular authorities to obtain protection (also against the ecclesiastical authorities).

  15. By saying that, Simmel expressed interested in showing that, behind every economic model, there is a certain idea of humanity and individual that cannot at all be taken for granted but needs to be explored in order to better understand the logic of the organized forms of collective life (Simmel 1907/1993). Only within such a frame can it be assumed that economic and social forces do not represent historical inevitabilities but, rather, constitute the institutionalization and the reinforcement of some anthropological views at the crossroads between processes that take form in relation to spiritual (human) forces.

  16. The question certainly requires more in-depth analysis than we can do in this article, as it is real complex. In particular, it should be more explored the tension between authentic romantic elements (as the individualism of uniqueness is influenced from Romanticism—as Simmel noticed)—which recover Christian communitarian aspects—and problematic communitarian-nationalist elements.

  17. Among the most relevant studies about Genovesi in Italy, see the work of L Bruni (e.g. Bruni 2008, 2012, 2013; Bruni and Zamagni 2007). We are aware that the role played from other Latin countries (i.e. Spain) at this level (regarding an original way to modernity) should be considered and examined. Furthermore, it could be interesting to deepen also the position of other Catholic European areas, as the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the East European Regions: in some cases, the Counter-Reformation did not only stand opposite Reformation, but assumed a more positive approach with own proposals about social and economic development.

  18. For a reconsideration of Sturzo’s perspective on civil society, see Magatti (2006). On this point, it is always relevant to consider the analysis of A de Tocqueville in the famous text La democrazia in America (1935-1940/1848), in which he shows how the central public institutions cannot support responsible and free participation if they become distant and excessively bureaucratic or dominated by diffused instrumental logics and by an atomistic perspective (typical of modern individualism). In such a context, it happens that the same individuals become unaware of these conditions and end up favouring in a debonair way political and economic approaches that undermine them.

  19. About that kind of longing for control which is typical of that age, see the study by Bentham in 1791 (1995) on modern society as a society of panopticon. See also the critical analyses by Bauman (1989, 1993), who, in this specific aspect, highlights the failure of modernity with its obsession with purity and order. Another useful reference is Foucault (1975), who sees in Panopticon the prototype of modern society.

  20. Some different analyses derived from this perspective predate more recent ones. See, for instance, Arendt (1974) and Anders (1956, 1980). Among the more recent analyses, see Stiegler (2009, 2011).

  21. Another aspect which the cultural contemporary atmosphere inherits is the boundless trust in science and technology as they are able to expand individual purposes.

  22. In this sense, the following statement by Simmel is eloquent: ‘I would rather believe that the ideas of a completely free personality and of a completely unique personality are not the last words of individualism; that the huge work of mankind will provide more and more numerous and various forms, with which personality affirms itself and proofs the value of its existence’ (1913a, b, c/1957, p 269; see also Simmel 1918a, b/1999, p 149).

  23. According to Simmel, only individuals are forms that are relatively closed in themselves but interact with all their environment: ‘This is the premise of any experience and of any action, of any thought’; this is, in other words, ‘the fundamental experience’ (die Grundtatsache) of the human being (Simmel 1910/1996, p 80). For further analyses about Simmel's perspective see also Martinelli (2011, 2014).

  24. Significantly, Simmel writes: Gratitude is the moral memory of humanity’ and constitutes ‘an ideal bridge with which we can get close to the other subject. … As much as gratitude is a purely personal kind of affection, it becomes, by virtue of its thousand interlaces within society, one of its stronger connecting tools. … If all the reactions of gratitude were suddenly cancelled, society as we conceive it would crumble’ (1908/1992, pp 662–663).

  25. For particular reference to the new models of growth that consider this aspect, see Magatti and Gherardi (2014). A more anthropological consideration is presented by Giaccardi and Magatti (2014) (English translation forthcoming).

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Magatti, M., Martinelli, M. Modern individualisms and Christian schism: why what we miss is important. Int Rev Econ 63, 51–75 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12232-015-0244-x

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