Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
How a Non-Western Non-Christian Can Help American Christians Think About Western Civilization

How a Non-Western Non-Christian Can Help American Christians Think About Western Civilization

Last updated on: July 25, 2017 at 1:12 am by Chris Gehrz

How a Non-Western Non-Christian Can Help American Christians Think About Western Civilization 2017-07-21T15:17:31-04:00 Chris Gehrz

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Debates about “Western civ” are nothing new for those of us who teach history in colleges and universities. But it’s not often that they rise to the level of international news, like they did earlier this month.

In Europe for the G-20 summit, Pres. Donald Trump visited Poland, he said, “not just to visit an old ally, but to hold it up as an example for others who seek freedom and who wish to summon the courage and the will to defend our civilization.” To cheers, he warned that

the West is also confronted by the powers that seek to test our will, undermine our confidence, and challenge our interests…. We must work together to confront forces, whether they come from inside or out, from the South or the East, that threaten over time to undermine these values and to erase the bonds of culture, faith and tradition that make us who we are. If left unchecked, these forces will undermine our courage, sap our spirit, and weaken our will to defend ourselves and our societies.

Alluding to his hosts’ historic struggles against both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Trump concluded, “Just as Poland could not be broken, I declare today for the world to hear that the West will never, ever be broken. Our values will prevail. Our people will thrive. And our civilization will triumph.”

Embed from Getty Images

Some critics were horrified by Trump’s ten mentions of “the West” and five of “our civilization.” Peter Beinart of The Atlantic concluded that, in Trump’s hands, “The West is a racial and religious term.” He placed the speech in the context of earlier white nationalist rhetoric from presidential advisors Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller. So did Slate columnist Jamelle Bouie, who contrasted John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan’s “ideological” vision of the West with Trump’s nativist one, “defined by ties of culture and religion” and supposedly threatened by Latino immigration as much as Islamist terrorism.

“To hear paeans to an entire Western civilization as if they were merely tribal is bizarre,” shot back Michael Brendan Dougherty in The National Review. He acknowledged that Trump makes an awkward messenger for the values he espoused (“if he embodies something Western, it is that civilization’s defects, its arrogance and avarice”) and that the West has a checkered past (“Like every other great civilization, it is filled with hypocrisy, and nobility. Capable of monstrous cruelty, and great beauty”). But Dougherty found himself still wanting to defend a civilization facing a kind of crisis:

Even if I disagree with Trump about the seriousness of some external threats to our common civilization, I believe that Western civilization is undergoing a deep crisis in its spirit, that it suffers from having lost its faith and also all the hope it had placed in the ideas and ideologies that it used as substitutes for faith.”

“There is no shortage of fair criticism of Trump’s speech,” agreed Jason Willick in the Washington Post. “But by identifying Western civilization itself with white nationalism, the center-left is unwittingly empowering its enemies and imperiling its values.”

So should Americans identify with “the West”? Do they need to defend “our civilization” against existential threats? More importantly (at least for readers of this blog), how should Christians in America answer such questions?

Back to Warsaw: this Polish mural reads, “Solidarity with Liu Xiaobo” – CC BY 3.0 (Brandmeister)

Let me propose that a non-Western intellectual might help us think through our answers: the Chinese writer-activist Liu Xiaobo, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. Imprisoned by his country’s Communist government for a third time after co-writing the Charter 08 manifesto, Liu died of liver cancer on July 13th — one week after Trump’s speech in Poland.

If, like me, you didn’t know all that much about Liu, get started with Perry Link’s tribute in The New York Review of Books (“The Passion of Liu Xiaobo”). Then pick up No Enemies, No Hatred, a 2012 collection of essays and poems edited by Link with Tienchi Martin-Liao and Liu’s wife, Liu Xia. Both in the NYRB piece and his introduction to No Enemies, No Hatred, Link emphasizes Liu’s complicated relationship to Western civilization.

On the one hand, Liu admired several liberal values that he found in the West, especially the United States, which (he argued in 2006) achieved great power status “without relying on the occupation and plunder of colonial territory, but… by supporting freedom, democracy, and national independence around the world, including independence from colonial rule.” (He later wrote that the election of Barack Obama “underscores the greatness of the American system.”) Liu was less impressed by his first interactions with Western scholars. Link writes of Liu’s visit to Columbia University, not long before the protests in Tiananmen Square:

People expected him, as a visitor from China, to fit in by representing the “the subaltern,” [sic] by resisting the “discursive hegemony” of the “metropole,” and so on. Liu wondered why people in New York were telling him how it felt to be Chinese. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Was “postcolonialism” itself a kind of intellectual colonialism? Liu wrote in May 1989 that “no matter how strenuously Western intellectuals try to negate colonial expansionism and the white man’s sense of superiority, when faced with other nations Westerners cannot help feeling superior. Even when criticizing themselves, they become besotted with their own courage and sincerity.”

Liu was about to publish his book Chinese Politics and China’s Modern Intellectuals, but his experience in New York caused him to rethink his relationship to the West, as he explained in an epilogue reprinted in No Enemies, No Hatred. “Western culture,” Liu continued to believe, “can serve as a comparison that helps to illuminate the contours, including the many flaws, of Chinese culture, as a critical tool with which to attack China’s obsolescence, and as a source of wisdom that can bring new lifeblood to China.” But he also lamented his own “obsequious” posture (“I have viewed the West as if it were not only the salvation of China but also the natural and ultimate destination of all humanity”) and concluded that Western culture’s “tradition of critical reason” required “one to adopt a critical attitude toward everything—the West as well as China.”

Most pointedly, Liu criticized the West for falling short of its own aspirations. While it “requires concern for the fate of all humanity and for the incompleteness of the individual person,” the West “cannot save humanity in an overall sense.” Like any civilization, he concluded, “it possesses all the flaws of humanity in general” and is unable to address the true problems of the late 20th century:

Humanity so far has been unable to conceive a completely new civilization that might solve such problems as the population explosion, the energy crisis, environmental imbalance, nuclear disarmament, and addiction to pleasure and to commercialization. Nor is there any culture that can help humanity once and for all eliminate spiritual suffering or transcend personal limits…. Humanity has been seeking a final destination ever since its banishment from the Garden of Eden; Western culture is not that final destination, but merely a stage in the journey.

Liu’s allusion to Genesis is particularly noteworthy, and sets up further biblical reflection as the epilogue continues: “Even more lamentable, the Western notion of ‘original sin’ has grown weaker over time and general awareness of repentance is in sharp decline…. How can people who lack a sense of ‘original sin’ ever hear the voice of God?” (The collection also includes a poem inspired by Augustine’s Confessions.) In the end, his critique of the West was less political than spiritual: “By its own hand, humanity in the West has killed the sacred values of its heart.”

Embed from Getty Images

While he doesn’t seem to have converted to Christianity (unlike some other Chinese dissidents), Liu admired “the miraculous triumph of Jesus over Caesar.” Writing from a labor camp in 1998, Liu extolled Jesus with words that seem particularly timely for Western Christians tempted to make alliances with contemporary caesars for the sake of “our civilization”:

Jesus is a model of martyrdom because he withstood the temptations of power, wealth, and glamour, and remained steadfast even when threatened with crucifixion.

Most important of all, Jesus exemplified opposition without hatred or the desire for retaliation; his heart was filled with boundless love and forgiveness. Completely eschewing violence, he epitomized passive resistance, serenely defiant even as he meekly carried his own cross.

No matter how profane and pragmatic our world is, we will have passion, miracles, and beauty as long as we have the example of Jesus Christ.

Previous Post

July 24, 2017

The Last Religion Standing

Next Post

July 26, 2017 Prosperity Gospel Apocalypse: Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's PTL Empire

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe guest post Guest Post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How long did it take to rebuild Jerusalem's walls under Nehemiah?

Select your answer to see how you score.

12 months 7 years 40 days 52 days