Travis and I have often backslid into an argument regarding the greatest basketball player of all time. (If I’m being honest, I don’t really have a strong preference, but I truly enjoy watching him get worked up). His fool-hearted opinion is that LeBron James stands atop the precipice of NBA legends, and my accurate assessment proves Michael Jordan to be far superior. Occasionally, to watch him squirm, even more, I will suggest the names of players from previous generations. He is getting a little more privy to my prank but still cannot help himself from responding with something like: “that guy played against plumbers and firefighters, obviously he looked good!” (A reference to former NBA player, JJ Redick’s critique).
To be brutally transparent, there is substance to Travis’ counterargument. That being said, this provocative side-step (albeit far less consequential in our case) is a tactic that we frequently use to assess our modern world. As the foremost culture in the most developed society in human history, we tend to peer down our noses as we look backward in history. The British author C.S. Lewis classified this viewpoint with the phrase chronological snobbery. Lewis gives his definition: “Chronological snobbery is the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate to our age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that account discredited.” Phrased differently, this perspective that many of us are guilty of sees the past as inherently backward and less intelligent, just by the fact that they are not us, and do not think and operate the way we do.
We no longer use incantations to evade common sicknesses; we use medicine. We do not offer sacrifices to the sun; we harness its energy to power our doohickies. It no longer takes months to traverse the Atlantic Ocean. It takes an expensive plane ticket, a couple of movies on a small screen, and a banal TV dinner next to a stranger. There is, however, a thin and condescending line between this factual reality and a brief interaction that I heard from a friend. As a grown man, he was told by a teenager that he was not as smart as the lad because he did not grow up with Google in his pocket. Chronological snobbery takes the maxim, newer is better to its logical conclusion: older is always worse. Even, perhaps: older is always dumber. To be outdated is to receive the kiss of death. Like the progression of time, it must be that intelligence, moral uprightness, and the capacity for a completely rounded human experience is moving forward in a linear, upward trajectory. (Perhaps this generation we will reach perfection! — at least we can rest assured that we aren’t as bad as our grandparents.) This attitude helps to inform us why the progressive narrative in our culture can perpetually declare our need to be on the right side of history (even if it feels like we just adapted to the current outdated position).
To explain the why or how behind progressive, chronological snobbery is a much greater task than we have signed up for. Even to scratch the surface, we need to follow names like Marx, Darwin, Freud, and Nietzsche. I won’t (and likely can’t) do that to you, though.
Progress is a delightful grace that God has bestowed upon mankind. We should thank God that antibiotics allow us to live beyond a nasty case of bronchitis. Active, working, underground plumbing is evidence that our merciful God has blessed us with the ability to propel forward. It would be wise for us to continually remind ourselves that the good ol’ days had their own, uniquely terrible quirks and many people had unbearable existences. To that end, we should declare when appropriate, “always progressing!”
That being said, as we look forward, to exploring new ways to aid humanity and honor God, we must keep one eye concretely set on our foundation. The only reason our vantage point is higher than that of our forebears is that our feet are solidly standing on their shoulders. A new perspective does not arise out of a vacuum; a new perspective is only possible because of those who have come before us. If we abandon the foundations that we have built upon, we will quickly topple and destroy ourselves.
The Protestant Reformation (the world-changing movement that looked both backward and forward) employed the motto: Semper Reformada, meaning “always reforming.” The entire, extended phrase means that the Church herself is reformed (foundationally dependent upon the original intent of Jesus and the Bible writers) and is always correcting areas in which we deviate from the intent expressed in God’s Word. As Christians, we have a convictional duty to always be reforming, repenting, and remembering. To move forward, we cannot abandon or totally denigrate the past. That would be to contradict our identity.
I will let C.S. Lewis say it better: “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road. In that case, the man who turns back is the most progressive.”
As Christians, we need to be a thinking people. We must be humble and think critically, rather than being proud and critically thinking. Our progress should never be built on a practical worldview without God at its center. Our progress, like a catapult, will generally lead us backward to be shot forward. Therefore, do not abandon the process of slowing down, comparing your lived reality with the deeper Truth of the world, found in God’s Word, and allowing His thoughts to lead you. Do not forget to check the shoulders that you stand on and the foundation that is beneath the soles of their shoes, before you move onward, lest you deviate from God’s plan.
I guess, what I need you to know most is that Travis is wrong about LeBron James.