The Two Loves

1. The Two Loves What Was It All About? A Review of the class through the lens of the Scopes trial.

2. Why the Class Title? • Love of Self or Love of God • Each book that we read contributed to one of these loves; How? • What is the difference between the love in Plato’s Symposium and the love in Bernard’s On Loving God? • What is the difference between the way that the prince rules in Machiavelli’s The Prince and the way that the King rules in Shakespeare’s Henry V?

3. Why the Scopes Trial • Background to the trial.

4. Political Background • During WWI the government took measures to secure the country (because of war) which, in the minds of many, threatened civil liberties. • As a result of this the ACLU was born • The ACLU was concerned about teachers who had been fired for teaching that truth could be obtained by reason not revelation

5. Note that this idea of the rational over the revelation or science over religion could not have come without the work of Hobbes. • Hobbes work could not have come without the work of Machiavelli • Machiavelli and Hobbes anticipate the Scopes trial in a number of ways that will become evident • All of this causes fear among the religious fundamentalists of the day

6. The Reason for the Trial • The ACLU advertised, asking for a teacher willing to break the anti-evolution law • Several men, hoping to increase tourism to Dayton, TN, asked Scopes if he would be willing to be the test case.

7. The Religious Background to the Trial • The Fundamentalist/Modernist Controversy • Fundamentalists began to withdraw from and distrust society, science, and education • Modernists lost sight of the gospel in light of the many social tasks that they were doing

8. The Trial Itself • The Great Champions

9. For the Fundamentalists • William Jennings Bryan • Fighting for “democracy; the right of the people to have what they want. There is more virtue in the people than can be found anywhere else. . . The parents who pay the salary have a right to decide what shall be taught. . . :

11. For the Liberals (Boo, Hiss) • Clarence Darrow • Darrow had earlier argued that because of social Darwinism two teenagers were not wholly responsible for their crime of kidnapping and strangling a classmate. • Darrow argued that nature and society made these boys who they were (Machiavelli shouts here)

13. The Town • The town of Dayton, TN was turned into a circus.

14. The People • The people were small town or “country” people set upon holding onto their way of life. They did not want to be like those who lived in the “Big City” (Hobbes) • They were portrayed as hicks, fools, etc. by the newspapers and especially by H.L. Mencken-One of the most cynical men ever to hold a pen

15. The Atmosphere • The Town was a circus

16. The Fallout • Today Bryan is looked upon by many as a buffoon. • This is largely because of the movie “Inherit the Wind” and not the actual trial • The trial drove Fundamentalism even more into its own subculture • What did the trial teach us?

17. The Trial and this Class • What does the trial say to us about the two loves? • How do the two loves progress according to the ladder of love? • Did Bryan fall into the trap of Modernity by even agreeing to enter into this trial? • How would the various authors that we have read this semester have argued this trial?

18. Who in this trial most clearly represents the work of Machiavelli? • Who represents the love of self? • Who represents the mechanistic view of the universe that was worked out by Hobbes? • Who represents the rational approach to Christianity shown to us by Aquinas?