Blackwell Reference Online

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The idea of modernity concerns the interpretation of the present time in light of historical reinterpretation. It refers too to the confluence of the cultural, social, and political currents in modern society. The term signals a tension within modern society between its various dynamics and suggests a process by which society constantly renews itself. The word “modern” comes from the Latin word modus , meaning now, but the term “modernity” has a stronger meaning, suggesting the possibility of a new beginning based on human autonomy and the consciousness of the legitimacy of the present time ( Blumenberg 1983 ). In Agnes Heller's words, modernity means: “Everything is open to query and to testing; everything is subject to rational scrutiny and refuted by argument” ( Heller 1999 : 41). The first use of the term modern goes back to the early Christian Church in the fifth century when it was used to distinguish the Christian era from the pagan age. Arising from this was an association of modernity with the renunciation of the recent past, which was rejected in favor of a new beginning and a reinterpretation of historical origins. However, the term did not gain widespread currency until the seventeenth-century French “Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns” on whether modern culture is superior to classical culture. The term modernity as opposed to modern did not arise until the nineteenth ... log in or subscribe to read full text