Modernism, critic Richard Lehan writes, was built on the conception that the world was caught in a conflict between organicism and mechanism, between the feminine and masculine, or, as Henry Adams put it, between the dynamo and the virgin. Modernist writers can be classified by their responses to this division: “the naturalists were trying to reduce reality to mechanistic terms, while the romantics were trying to infuse matter with spirit, energy, and life. H.G. Wells would embody the first position, while D.H. Lawrence would embody the second, and a number of other writers experiments to bridge this kind of division: Joyce, for example, with his ‘yes’ of feminine replenishment, William James with his belief in the need for a religious state of mind that gives matter direction, Samuel Butler with his interest in creative evolution, George Bernard Shaw with his belief in the life force, and Henri Bergson with his theories of vitalism.”
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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