Page 317 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

T H E C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S A N D I M PA S S E S O F T H E M O D E R N W O R L D
and the thinking subject, rooted in Augustine of Hippo and
developed by René Descartes, cultivated introspection and
self-awareness. In science, this led to the development of depth
psychology, analyzing the individual as if isolated from the
whole. In social life, it elevated the pursuit of individual hap-
piness to a central goal of society. In religion, it transformed
the Church into an institution serving the “religious needs” of
individuals, while piety came to be understood primarily as
emotional and moral satisfaction. This development, originat-
ing in the West, began even to erode the foundations of Or-
thodoxy.
The effects of these Enlightenment principles are evident in
all areas of culture.
In the sciences, logical specialization and technique devel-
oped. Under the influence of Isaac Newton, the world and the
human being came to be understood mechanistically, as sys-
tems governed by laws of causality. The human person was
reduced to a complex of parts, each capable of separate analy-
sis. Medicine followed this path, ceasing to view the human
being as a unified whole integrated into a broader cosmic
dynamic and approaching it instead as a machine. Today,
however, voices of protest are emerging against such views,
signaling perhaps the exhaustion of this model and the begin-
ning of a new era.
In the realm of art, similar tensions appeared. A division
arose between the natural sciences and art, and in the eigh-
teenth century art was often subordinated to rational criteria,
reduced to elegance, symmetry, and the production of plea-
sure. Only in more recent times, with movements such as
surrealism and the theater of the absurd, has art begun to
break free from the tyranny of reason and purely psychologi-
cal experience. Yet the modern world still struggles to accept
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