A Reading of Theological Origins of Modernity by Michael Allen Gilliespie (A Book).

Abstract

This paper presents a reading and a review of the book Theological Origins of Modernity by Michael Allen Gillespie, an American professor of philosophy.  The book reflects its author’s intellectual interest in revealing all the common characteristics of life during Medieval Europe. What actually motivates Gillespie to write it is his desire to engage himself in an academic debate on the concept of modernity. Moreover, he felt the need to understand what is exactly happening in today’s world., Gillespie, hence, keeps in mind two significant events; the falling of Berlin Wall and the attack on the World Trade Towers on September 1, 2001 in the United States. According to him, those buildings should not be considered as mere constructions, rather their value stems out of the fact that they have their special emotional place in the hearts of all nations round the world. The wall symbolized totalitarianism, on the one hand, and on the other hand it stood for the acute confrontation between two worlds; one is free while the other being the enslaved one, during the Cold War.