But, this will to power must surely be tempered by Christian ethics and belief not to run amok. Tempered by Christian feeling, this will to power is not necessarily a bad thing...
You are correct. As Solzhenitysn put it in his monumental speech at Harvard in June, 1978 (A World Split Apart), and far better than I could:
"And yet in early democracies, as in American democracy at the time of its birth, all individual human rights were granted on the ground that man is God’s creature. That is, freedom was given to the individual conditionally, in the assumption of his constant religious responsibility. Such was the heritage of the preceding one thousand years. Two hundred or even fifty years ago, it would have seemed quite impossible, in America, that an individual be granted boundless freedom with no purpose, simply for the satisfaction of his whims."Subsequently, however, all such limitations were eroded everywhere in the West; a total emancipation occurred from the moral heritage of Christian centuries with their great reserves of mercy and sacrifice.
State systems were becoming ever more materialistic. The West has finally achieved the rights of man, and even to excess, but man’s sense of responsibility to God and society has grown dimmer and dimmer. In the past decades, the legalistic selfishness of the Western approach to the world has reached its peak and the world has found itself in a harsh spiritual crisis and a political impasse. All the celebrated technological achievements of progress, including the conquest of outer space, do not redeem the twentieth century’s moral poverty, which no one could have imagined even as late as the nineteenth century."
As a side note, we should recall that Solzhenitsyn was jeered and booed as he delivered this speech. Seems that his observation toucheda nerve or two. So yes, our desire for knowledge and all of our creativity can be seen as an expression of the will to power, but stripped of moral restraint or any kind of religious sanctions regarding right and wrong, the will to power quickly descends into savagery and monstrosity.
“As a side note, we should recall that Solzhenitsyn was jeered and booed as he delivered this speech”
Preaching against materialism has never been popular - either in the Soviet Union or the United States of America.
Money is great.
But, sitting with your grandchild laughing on your lap in in a different league.
To bring it back to Christianity. I think what Jesus is telling us is that by acting like Christians.... Our material needs will be taken care of anyhow.
And, if the west has been Christian he has been speaking the truth. :)
Get your book our there. I very much look forward to reading it.
Friendly cheers from Norway.