Why You Think the Way You Do: The Story of Western Worldviews from Rome to Home

by Glenn S. Sunshine

But at the same time, the founders did not rely on institutional structures to keep the country headed in the right direction. Instead, they knew the institutions would only be as good as the people elected to fill them, and thus they emphasized the character of those who would be elected far more than the structure of government. Some of the founders worked to establish a public school system to educate people, not just on the basic subjects, but on morality and the Bible; after all, education was not just about reading and writing but also about character formation. Others set up Bible societies and other religious organizations to try to instill virtue in the people, because only then would the government be kept from becoming too corrupt. In short, although the conditions of each revolution were different, so were the ideas that motivated them — and the ideas determined the outcome every bit as much as the historical circumstances. But things did not stand still. The 1800s saw the consolidation of a much more secular, “modern” worldview grown from the roots of Enlightenment thought but progressing well beyond them. The next chapter examines how that worldview emerged.