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Modern Times By Paul Johnson Essay

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Modern Times by Paul Johnson gives an overview of the history from the nineteen twenties until the nineteen nineties. He bases his book on the presuppositions of the Judeo-Christian worldview. Johnson is very clear in his belief in the Judeo-Christian worldview as he states it explicitly multiple times throughout his lengthy book. The presuppositions of the Judeo-Christian worldview are: “the Kingdom of God is spiritual, man is prophet, priest, and king under a sovereign God and that there is no institutional interposition between God and man.” This worldview causes him to affirm limited government, free market economics, the rule of law and self-government. His main thesis is that the history of modern times is defined by how people have either followed the Judeo Christian worldview or have created ill-fitting replacements for those values. He supports this thesis extensively throughout the book with numerous examples. This is defined by a move away from limited self-government toward moral anarchy, and relativism. This move was encouraged by the ideas of Freud, Einstein, Marx and Nietzsche. This led to an increase in the overall size of government as self-government decreased and the desire for destruction of enemies and despotic power increased. Johnson begins by describing how Leninism is the religion with Lenin as the god. Lenin is the ultimate authority on all things. He does not ultimately look to anyone else for answers, not even Marx. Lenin had a

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