Modern faith in automatic progress persists without remembering its religious origins

Evidence

But as noted by Karl Löwith, the German philosopher who traced these intellectual developments back to Saint Augustine, we began to assume that progress marches on without having a conscious understanding of why it would do so. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 161

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: how secular political movements unknowingly inherit a sacred structure — useful for a piece on the belief in automatic social progress.
• XREF: Connects to Karl Löwith’s Meaning in History and to the Frankfurt School’s discussions of the secularization of eschatology. — connects to: The universalized theology of progress makes historians unconsciously reproduce imperial hierarchies — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism: A Critique of…, 209

Broader Connections

• The universalized theology of progress makes historians unconsciously reproduce imperial hierarchies #expands (0.82) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 209