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Nihilism in the Twentieth Century: A View from Here

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Clyde L. Manschreck
Clyde L. Manschreck
Affiliation:
Professor of the history of Christianity in Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois, delivered this Presidential Address at an evening meeting of the American Society of Church History in Chicago on December 28, 1974.
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Extract

Nihilism has been present in Western culture for many centuries, but no century has been so permeated by nihilism as has our own. With perceptive insight Alexander Salzhenitsyn recently observed that Western democracy is in its “last decline,” has no ethical foundation, and consists only of “parties, and social classes engaged in a conflict of interests, just interests, nothing higher.” Solzhenitsyn's observation can hardly be brushed aside. His words describe a nihilism that is prominent in more than Western democracy, Nihilism reaches as far back as Ecclesiastes in our Old Testament and Nargarjuna in Buddhism. Perhaps no century has been without it, but in our century it has become pervasive, finding expression not only in a flood of literature but in virtually every phase of our existence. The Nazi holocaust, Vietnam, the “death of God,” and Watergate fall within its scope. It is so pervasive that it merits attention, especially from church historians.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , March 1976 , pp. 85 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1976

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