The Two Loves

1
The Two Loves

• What Was It All About?
• A Review of the class through the lens of the
  Scopes trial.

2
Why the Class Title?

• Love of Self or Love of God
• Each book that we read contributed to one of
  these loves How?
• What is the difference between the love in
  Platos Symposium and the love in Bernards On
  Loving God?
• What is the difference between the way that the
  prince rules in Machiavellis The Prince and the
  way that the King rules in Shakespeares Henry V?

3
Why the Scopes Trial

• Background to the trial.

4
Political Background

• During WWI the government took measures to secure
  the country (because of war) which, in the minds
  of many, threatened civil liberties.
• As a result of this the ACLU was born
• The ACLU was concerned about teachers who had
  been fired for teaching that truth could be
  obtained by reason not revelation

5

• Note that this idea of the rational over the
  revelation or science over religion could not
  have come without the work of Hobbes.
• Hobbes work could not have come without the work
  of Machiavelli
• Machiavelli and Hobbes anticipate the Scopes
  trial in a number of ways that will become
  evident
• All of this causes fear among the religious
  fundamentalists of the day

6
The Reason for the Trial

• The ACLU advertised, asking for a teacher willing
  to break the anti-evolution law
• Several men, hoping to increase tourism to
  Dayton, TN, asked Scopes if he would be willing
  to be the test case.

7
The Religious Background to the Trial

• The Fundamentalist/Modernist Controversy
• Fundamentalists began to withdraw from and
  distrust society, science, and education
• Modernists lost sight of the gospel in light of
  the many social tasks that they were doing

8
The Trial Itself

• The Great Champions

9
For the Fundamentalists

• William Jennings Bryan
• Fighting for democracy the right of the people
  to have what they want. There is more virtue in
  the people than can be found anywhere else. . .
  The parents who pay the salary have a right to
  decide what shall be taught. . .

10
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11
For the Liberals (Boo, Hiss)

• Clarence Darrow
• Darrow had earlier argued that because of social
  Darwinism two teenagers were not wholly
  responsible for their crime of kidnapping and
  strangling a classmate.
• Darrow argued that nature and society made these
  boys who they were (Machiavelli shouts here)

12
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13
The Town

• The town of Dayton, TN was turned into a circus.

14
The People

• The people were small town or country people
  set upon holding onto their way of life. They
  did not want to be like those who lived in the
  Big City (Hobbes)
• They were portrayed as hicks, fools, etc. by the
  newspapers and especially by H.L. Mencken-One of
  the most cynical men ever to hold a pen

15
The Atmosphere

• The Town was a circus

16
The Fallout

• Today Bryan is looked upon by many as a buffoon.
• This is largely because of the movie Inherit the
  Wind and not the actual trial
• The trial drove Fundamentalism even more into its
  own subculture
• What did the trial teach us?

17
The Trial and this Class

• What does the trial say to us about the two
  loves?
• How do the two loves progress according to the
  ladder of love?
• Did Bryan fall into the trap of Modernity by even
  agreeing to enter into this trial?
• How would the various authors that we have read
  this semester have argued this trial?

18

• Who in this trial most clearly represents the
  work of Machiavelli?
• Who represents the love of self?
• Who represents the mechanistic view of the
  universe that was worked out by Hobbes?
• Who represents the rational approach to
  Christianity shown to us by Aquinas?