Seven Men Who Rule the World From the Grave

Dave Breese is a Christian author and lecturer. His book, Seven Men Who Rule the World From the Grave, is an analysis of seven of the most influential thinkers in modern times. These men are:

1. Charles Darwin
2. Karl Marx
3. Julius Wellhausen
4. Sigmund Freud
5. John Dewey
6. John Maynard Keynes
7. Soren Kierkegaard

This book is important because it provides a background perspective of many ideas and philosophies commonly encountered today. Philosophical trends come and go, but God's truth remains the same. Being a Christian often means holding unpopular opinions and standing in the minority. By understanding the spirit of the age, the Christian can better understand and remain true to his own faith.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was a British naturalist who developed the idea natural selection as the motivating force behind evolutionary creation of new species. His most famous work is The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859). The diary of his five year voyage to South America and the Galapagos Islands is entitled The Voyage of the Beagle (1839).

Darwin's ideas are summarized as:

Those individuals whose distinctive capacities gave them a better chance of survival in the surrounding environment lived, and lived long enough to pass on their particular genetic makeup to the next generation. Over time these slight differences accumulated, with the result that eventually organisms emerged that no one would claim are the same species. Herbert Spencer later coined the phrase "survival of the fittest" to describe the effects of the action of natural selection.

This view has become the pervasive view of science. Dr. Breese notes several shortcomings of science for determining matters of ethics and origins though. These are:

1. Science cannot know the ultimate nature of things
2. Science cannot know the origin of things
3. Science cannot fathom past processes
4. Science cannot predict the future with certainty
5. Science cannot control all possible forces
6. Science cannot know the reason "Why?"
7. Science cannot say what ought to be

In summary, science is incapable of determining moral values. Modern science often begins with "There is no God", but it is not capable of making that determination itself. On the contrary, the Bible tells us that ultimate knowledge begins with God.

Karl Marx (1818-1883) is perhaps history's most prominent socialist. Dr. Breese summarizes his ideas as follows:

He fancied himself a discoverer of certain "laws" within the social structure that produce the inevitable advance of socialism. He called this set of laws the "socialist world revolution" and developed the idea that the destiny of the world was at stake in the implementation of those laws for all men and for all nations.

His most famous work is The Communist Manifesto (1847), which sets out these goals among many others:

1. Abolition of private property
2. A heavy progressive income tax
3. Abolition of the right of inheritance
4. Confiscation of property of emigrants and rebels
5. Centralization of credit in nationalized banks
   
6. Centralization of transportation and communication

In his view, the true conflict in society was between the bourgeoisie (ruling class) and the proletariat (working class). He also produced a major work on economics called Das Kapital (1867).

At its core, communism is atheist, materialist and determinist. Marx was heavily influenced by the dialectical scheme of George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. From Hegel, Marx developed the idea of dialectical materialism. That is, that the status quo constitutes the thesis. The next wave of history is the antithesis, which overwhelms the thesis, finally producing a synthesis. This synthesis eventually becomes the new thesis and the cycle repeats itself. The ultimate wave of history would usher in the Communist utopia, a worker's paradise on earth.

This ideology has taken hold in a large portion of the world, leaving over 60 million dead.

Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918) was a German scholar who specialized in textual criticism of the Bible. His view, known as the Documentary Hypothesis of the Pentateuch, was that four different men wrote the first five books of the Bible. Prior to this point, the Christian world viewed the Bible as divine revelation and that Moses was the sole, inspired author of the Pentateuch. However after Wellhausen's influence the Bible became commonly viewed as merely a collection of human documents.

Over time, men began to "demythologize" the Bible and many denominations began to practice an empty humanist Christianity. Religious liberalism engulfed Europe and many churches in the United States. Eventually however, the fundamentalist movement arose in the United States. The primary tenets of fundamentalism are:

1. The inerrancy of Scripture
2. The diety of Christ
3. The finished work of the cross
4. Salvation by grace alone
5. The premillennial return of Christ

Today, fundamentalism has largely been succeeded by conservative evangelicalism. Those denominations which strayed into liberalism have tended to remain there and gradually diminish in attendance and importance.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was an Austrian physician who revolutionized the field of human psychology. He pioneered new directions in the study of personality, the subconscious mind, neurosis and psychoanalytic therapy. In his early years he was widely criticized by his peers, but he persisted and eventually his views gained wide acceptance.

Freud's definition of the human personality has been extremely influential. It consists of three overlapping components:

1. Id - the collection of thoughts, ideas and contradictions buried in the personality.
   
2. Ego - the entity through which the id interacts with the outside world; the outside person.
   
3. Superego - something like the conscience, exercising a judgemental function over the content of the id and activities of the ego.
   

Interacting with the components are the Oedipus Complex, Libido, Life Instinct and Death Instinct.

Dr. Breese notes that Freud neglected the most important aspect of man, that he has been created in the image of God.

In contrast to the Freudian view, the Scripture teaches that man is a tripartite being consisting of body, soul and spirit. The body of man was created out of the dust of the ground, but the spirit of man is the entity in which is resident the very creative power of God.... the soul of man grows out of the interaction between body and spirit and is the sense in which man communicates to the outside world.

John Dewey (1859-1952) was a prominent American philosopher and educator.

[He] refashioned the educational system in America, moving it from the so-called static concepts of the past into a wholly new era in education. In the process, he redefined almost everything -- from the nature of truth to the responsibilities of the teacher and the capacity of the human personality. His influence became pervasive in America and had an effect as well on the way students in most other nations are educated.

Dewey, like Marx and Kierkegaard, was influenced by the philosophy of George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. As a result, Dewey viewed reality as developmental and changing rather than as fixed foundational truth.

Dewey's educational philosophy centered on experience rather than dogmatic propositions. Language and mathematics should no longer be the core of education. Rather, the production of social change should be the central purpose. Furthermore, since society was constantly changing, educational content and methodology must always be changing with it.

A summary John Dewey's ideas:

1. Final truth is illusory.
2. We must not think of truth but must concern ourselves with meaning. Meaning is the interaction of "the facts" with the current moment.
   
3. Truth is resident in experience.
4. Teaching fundamentally depends on experiment. There is no final truth and no final methodology.
   
5. The "idea of God" has meaning to those who believe. Religion, however, must be reformed to serve mankind.
   

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) was a highly regarded British economist and intellectual. He pioneered a new system of economic thought which became known as Keynesian Economics.

Prior to Keynes, economists considered economic cycles of growth and recession were inevitable, but self-regulating. That is, during times of economic expansion, growth would be limited by the ability of businesses to produce without costly expansions to their buildings and equipment. On the other hand, recession would be limited by the availability of surplus investment capital, reflected in low interest rates.

Keynes' theories are summarized as:

1. An economy in depression could stay there, in a state of equilibrium with high unemployment.
2. Prosperity depends on ongoing business investment.
3. Capitalism could not be depended upon to provide ongoing business investment.

For Keynes, the answer to this dilemma is government investment. When the economy goes into a slump the government needs to jump-start the economy with an infusion of dependable expenditures, even if this involves increased taxation or deficit spending.

Problems with this approach are the following:

1. Increased taxation results in reduced profitability of businesses, reducing the incentive to invest and expand.
2. Increased tax rates often result in reduced tax revenue, due to businesses anticipating reduced profit and shifting investment to other opportunities.
   
3. Deficit spending obligates the government to make up the difference at some time in the future. If future tax revenues are insufficient to cover this debt, the temptation will be to debase the currency by printing money, resulting in inflation.
4. Deficit spending can also result in undesirable foreign control of national credit markets.

The major opposing view of economic theory is Monetarism.

Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was a Danish writer and is commonly regarded as the father of Existentialism. Dr. Breese notes that it is difficult to summarize Kierkegaard's ideas because he often advocated contradictory viewpoints.

One might touch on the essence of Kierkegaard (although this is a dangerous presumption) by suggesting that his reputation is built around a concept summed up in the title of one of his works, Truth is Subjectivity.

Kierkegaard's subjectivity did not find a wide audience until the 20th Century, long after his death. After World War II, Christian Liberalism was becoming disillusioned and slipping into irrelevance. Liberal theologians discovered Kierkegaard's subjectivity, leading to the creation of Neoorthodox Theology. Doctrinal truth was traded for subjective experience. Scripture was no longer the Word of God, but "contained" the Word of God. Consistent morality was discarded in favor of the existential view that there is no final truth.

Conclusion
This excerpt from the end of chapter 9 is a fitting summary of Seven Men Who Rule the World From the Grave.

Christianity must articulate its case in public presentation that is characterized by theological soundness and scholarly, philosophic interpretations of life and reality. Whatever other accomplishments the church has produced in our time -- and they have been many -- we have not succeeded in winning the battle for the minds of men.

Moody Press, 199o, ISBN 0-8024-8448-4