The Simplicity of The West

"The Simplicity of the West". In recent years there has been much misunderstanding of the West, not only in Japan, but even in Britain and America, and not least in the postmodern academic world. This misunderstanding is based on the development of the so-called (or rather self-styled) "enlightenment" with its accompanying secularization, which goes back to the early years of the seventeenth century. During these past few centuries, Western civilization has been deeply affected (or infected) by industrialization, which itself has depended on scientific expertise and the so-called "Puritan work-ethic", resulting on the one hand in material comfort for developed countries, but on the other hand in international warfare and increased poverty. But the further we look into the past, from the age of Shakespeare backwards, we find a deeply religious ideal centred on the teaching of Jesus Christ, while allowing for a continuation of the twofold culture of the Bible and the Classics, often termed "Hebraism" and "Hellenism", as twin streams of "simplicity" converging on the High Middle Ages.