Makers of the Modern Revolution

Order of Service

• Scripture Reading — Proverbs 3:13-15 and Proverbs 31:30
• Pastoral Prayer
• Sermon

---

Sermon Title: Makers of the Modern Revolution

Scripture: Proverbs 3:13-15

I. The Individual as Artist

A. Nietzsche's "death of God" demanded a revaluation of all things, placing man himself at the center

• Without transcendence, life could still be worthwhile through radical self-creation
• The Nietzschean ideal: live authentically, create yourself, do not conform to the crowd or to any transcendent authority
• Nietzsche's Übermensch (Superman) was not a racial ideal but an artistic one — modeled on figures like Goethe

B. Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) embodied this ideal of artistic self-creation more than any other figure

• Renowned as a sparkling wit, playwright, and novelist (The Picture of Dorian Gray)
• Everything about Wilde — dress, speech, manner — was deliberate self-creation as a work of art
• Philip Rieff: for Wilde, the artist is the truly revolutionary figure who leads humanity into the next culture

C. Wilde's essay De Profundis articulates the problem of conformity

• "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives are mimicry, their passions a quotation."
• Anticipates existentialist themes: existence precedes essence (Sartre); the inward self must be expressed outwardly

D. Wilde's essay The Soul of Man Under Socialism presents the artist as the ideal human

• Seemingly paradoxical: socialism as the foundation for radical individualism
• "Socialism itself will be of value simply because it will lead to individualism."
• The state makes what is useful; the individual makes what is beautiful
• Machines should do all drudge work, freeing human beings to truly create themselves
• "Be your own greatest work of art"

II. The Amorality of Art

A. The Picture of Dorian Gray illustrates Wilde's separation of art from morality

• Dorian Gray remains outwardly beautiful while his portrait decays, reflecting the ugliness of his wicked life
• Wilde's preface: "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written. That is all."

B. Wilde explicitly rejected the Victorian notion that literature should morally improve its readers

• Rebelled against didactic, moralizing literature (e.g., the Newgate Calendar)
• "I wrote this book entirely for my own pleasure... whether it becomes popular or not is a matter of absolute indifference to me."

C. The Soul of Man under Socialism reinforces the separation of art from public accountability

• "A true artist takes no notice whatsoever of the public. The public are to him non-existent."
• The purpose of art is the aesthetic pleasure it gives to the artist alone

III. The Aestheticization of Ethics

A. If life's purpose is artistic self-creation, and art is detached from traditional morality, then aesthetics becomes ethics

• That which is beautiful and tasteful becomes identified with that which is morally good
• Personal creative freedom becomes the supreme moral value

B. Wilde's writing collapses the distinction between moral goodness and aesthetic beauty

• "A man cannot always be estimated by what he does. He may keep the law and yet be worthless. He may break the law and yet be fine... He may commit a sin against society and yet realize through that sin his true perfection."

C. Wilde viewed marriage as an obstacle to the self-creating individual

• Commitment to another limits one's freedom and self-expression
• Traditional morality must fall before the centrality of personal freedom
• "It does not matter what a man is as long as he realizes the perfection of the soul that is within him. All imitation in morals and life is wrong."

D. Wilde's legacy in contemporary culture

• The Hollywood "red carpet" phenomenon: outward beauty and aesthetic appeal override moral accountability
• Artists and celebrities routinely receive a moral pass because of their cultural prestige (e.g., Roman Polanski)
• Artists frequently position themselves as moral iconoclasts relative to traditional standards
• Wilde was the quintessential sexual rebel; his persecution made him an icon and precursor of the sexual revolution
• Social media as public performance of self-creation — life as curated aesthetic presentation