Worldviews II

Welcome to our second installment of the worldviews series here at Insense. This article will deal with a worldview that is a particular favorite of mine: premodernism. Premodernism was the dominant view held by people up until about the 18th century. In today's world, it is not so common unfortunately. There are four main points under premodernism. The first one is that the premodern worldview is theistic. Premodernists believe in a personal God with whom one can have a close relationship. As a result, the followers of this particular worldview tend to be Christian, Jewish, or Muslim.

The second point under premodernism is that God is the basic foundation for all truth, morality, and meaning. Each of the three religions mentioned above all have very similar ethical codes which were derived from their respective "holy books." Each of these books (the Bible for Christians, the Torah for Jews, and the Q'uran for Muslims) were supposedly inspired by God or a prophet of Him. As a result, everything contained within them is viewed as perfect and infallible by each member of each respective religion. The writings in these books therefore were viewed to be the highest authority as they had come from God.

The third point is that everything should be viewed in relation to God. More contemporary philosophies (even within the Christian church) teach that God has His own little bubble on the multi-circled Venn diagram of life, but premodernism teaches that God's bubble is bigger than all the rest and, in fact, should encompass every other sphere of life. In today's world, this is viewed as a very risky thing, for reasons that will be explained when dealing with modernism. Premodernists believe that everything in life should be about God and revolve around God -- which is precisely where it should be.

The final point that premodernism believes is that all art and music should be created for the glory of God. Before the 18th century, this belief actually was carried out for the most part. Most classical music composers wrote music soley for churches or for the magnification of God. Since everything in life should revolve around God, it only makes sense to make and dedicate all art and music to God's glory. This seems to be a more preferable use of talent in comparison to making art and music to glorify oneself. It would also keep lyrics cleaner, and there would be no talk of "American Idiots," gangstas doin' drugs, or promiscuous sexual relationships. There would be no need for music censorship. Sadly enough, a day may be fast approaching when God glorifying music itself may be censored for the offensive messages of peace, love, and moral decency.

If I had to give this worldview a grade, I would without a doubt give it an A+. I would also venture to say that the others here at Insense would agree with me. One cannot be a true follower of God and be a scientific modernist or a subjective postmodernist. One can be an existentialist, however, and we will get into that delightful worldview a bit later. The only really major critique that one can bring against the premodern worldview is the existence of God. Obviously if you do not believe in a supreme being, then it would be quite difficult to accept the beliefs of the premodern worldview. The premodern worldview is definentaly a solid one to hold. Next time, we will discuss the worldview of modernism. Be sure to check back often throughout the coming month for more updates in this series

~Tribal~