Like many people, I have been trying to learn more about the trends and philosophies that are blanketing society like a freezing blizzard of unbelief.
The search has lead me to find a surprising amount of consensus from different sources. On the one hand, I would expect to find Albert Mohler’s commentary ably exposing the latent philosophies which are opposed to a Christian worldview. Yet I’ve been surprised to find non-christian voices like Jordan Peterson, Douglas Murray, and many others making observations that resonate with elements of the Christian worldview.
Who would have thought a decade ago that the New Atheists would ever be siding with Christians. But now they both affirm the scientific verity of binary sexes, making them outlaws together! Darwinists and Christians together! These are strange days indeed.
The swirl of discussion centres around social justice, racism, sexism, class warfare, and the general ‘oikophobia‘, or disdain for one’s own oikos, household or country.
Although concern for equity is great in the Scriptures since God himself is called, Jehovah Tsidkenu, ‘The Lord Our Righteousness” (Jer 23:6), there is also the concern that mankind does not subvert God’s intent. It is easy for man to ascribe to himself the role of ultimate lawgiver, casting off the bonds of God’s law in favor of his own (cf. Psalm 2).
This casting off of the bonds of God is ably summarized in Robert Smith’s exposition of “cultural marxism”. His essay in Themelios is a rare combination of thorough background study, sound synthesis and a useful application to the leading issues of our own day.
Some observations about the article, as it relates to Cultural Marxism and Critical Theory:
The disdain for Western civilization
Smith writes regarding the Frankfurt school’s philosophy:
the general consensus of its members was that Western civilization was effectively responsible for all the manifestations of aggression, oppression, racism, slavery, classism and sexism that marked post-industrial society. Marcuse even went so far as to call democracy “the most efficient system of domination.”
3.4. Assessing the Work of the Frankfurt School
The philosophy of minority elitism aiming to suppress majorities
Smith quotes from Charles Taylor, the Canadian Roman Catholic philosopher:
“It is also profoundly elitist, for it ultimately forces Marcuse to see the majority of people “not as semi-rational human beings … but rather as irrational objects of manipulation … The majority must be liberated from themselves by the Marcusian minority which alone is rational.”
Smith, quoting Taylor fn 130, Charles Taylor, “Marcuse’s Authoritarian Utopia,” Canadian Dimension 7.3 (1970): 51.
The intent to undermine institutions based on Christian morality
Smith has a summary here:
While majoritarian systems always have the potential to become tyrannous, and the track-record of Western civilization is far from unblemished, to demonize the key elements and attainments of Western culture—e.g., Christian morality, family, hierarchy, loyalty, tradition, the rule of law, sexual restraint, universal suffrage, property rights, patriotism, capitalism, and technology—is both myopic and ungrateful. Furthermore, criticizing an imperfect system when you have no idea how to build a better one is more than idealistic; it is irresponsible.
3.4. Assessing the Work of the Frankfurt School
Evaluation of philosophies impacting the contemporary scene
Smith summarizes:
Nevertheless, as ongoing interest in their work testifies,149 there is no denying that the first generation of the Frankfurt School (in general) and Marcuse (in particular) have played a significant role in shaping the contours of the current Western civilizational divide. Political correctness,150 the new intolerant-tolerance and ever-increasing erotic liberty are part of their legacy.151 Similarly, Gramsci’s ideas have also borne very real (and not particularly appetizing) fruit—not least in the arena of identity politics, intersectionality and the rise of victimhood culture (today’s versions of “class consciousness”), as well as in the fact that, in the fields of media and academia (and politics too), the “long march through the institutions” is virtually complete.152
4.1. Cultural Marxism: Fact or Fiction?
Being careful about using the Cultural Marxism label, yet without discarding it.
Smith cautions:
Given the existence of conspiratorial explanations of the nature and goals of Cultural Marxism, is there a case for avoiding the term and using an alternative (e.g., neo-Marxism or Critical Theory)? In my view, there is no inherent problem with the label, but Christians ought to be careful with how (and to whom) it is applied.
4.3 This Calls for Wisdom
The structure of an alternative to God’s order (cf. ‘stoichea tou kosmou’ Gal. 4:3,9;Col. 2:8,20)
Here is the alternative structure which Smith points out:
For this reason, Marxism, whether in classical or cultural form, can be viewed as a corruption or parody of the gospel—replete with its own false prophet (Marx), false Bible (Das Kapital), false doctrine (dialectical materialism), false apostles (Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Marcuse), and false hope (a communist utopia).162 Therefore, the fact that Cultural Marxism is a real ideology making a real impact on our world is not good news.
4.3 This Calls For Wisdom
Speaking up, graciously but clearly
Smith quotes Albert Mohler:
While we have solid biblical reasons for seeing ourselves as “strangers and exiles on earth” (Heb 11:13), “we must not exile ourselves, and we certainly must not retreat into silence while we still have a platform, a voice, and an opportunity. We must remind ourselves again and again of the compassion of truth and the truth of compassion.”
fn 170, [170] R. Albert Mohler, We Cannot Be Silent: Speaking Truth to a Culture Redefining Sex, Marriage, and the Very Meaning of Right and Wrong (Nashville: Nelson, 2015), 151.
Closing thoughts
This article is long on philosophy, so it makes for technical reading. However, it is the kind of summary article which provides an introduction to the background of many cultural currents in the West today. The benefit of the article is that it finishes with Christian wisdom, highlighting the need to be charitable so as not to presume people’s motives, yet clear-thinking to apply biblical truth to “take every thought captive” (2 Cor 10:5).
Read the whole article here: Cultural Marxism: Imaginary Conspiracy or Revolutionary Reality?
Photo credit: Members of the Frankfurt School. Photograph taken in Heidelberg, April 1964,by Jeremy J. Shapiro at the Max Weber-Soziologentag. Horkheimer is front left, Adorno front right, and Habermas is in the background, right, running his hand through his hair. Siegfried Landshut is in the background left. (wiki)
