The Evolution of Western Individualism

Abstract

Louis Dumont has shown how Western individualism is rooted in religion. He explained the rise of modern inworldly individualism as the result of a transformation of outworldly individualism in early Christianity, brought about by a changing Church/State relationship. In this essay, Dumont's thesis is accepted in principle, but several nuances and qualifications are added. This essay traces the development of modern individualism from the outwordly individualism of early Hellenistic times to the new idea of the person in the ‘broken’ world of early Christianity, then further to the gradual rise of inworldly individualism within the ‘unified culture’ which occurred after the Papal Revolution, and to its blossoming, together with its corollary, the ethical personality, at the beginning of the Reformation. If finally points to a reaction to this transformation within Germany's Lutheran tradition.