The title "Chronological Snobbery" comes from C. S. Lewis. But others have certainly weighed in on such a truth-constricting point of view, relegating older writings to the dinosaur age, rendering them nothing more than insignificant wonders in the scheme of things. On the other hand, we would not affirm that all older writings are to be preferred to newer ones, for that would be to subjugate ourselves to the same malady only in the opposite direction. Rather, all writings should be accepted on their own terms without the interference of dated bias. As Lewis also affirmed, we do not prefer to mix older with newer writers because they did not also make mistakes. They did. It's just that they didn't make the same ones that we do. So, we read older writers to "hear" speech unencumbered by today's culture. In so doing, we hope to gain a heart of understanding.
The following comes from Peter Berger:
There is a hidden double standard. The past can be relativized simply by explaining the misconceptions of the ancient worldview. "The present, however, remains strangely immune from relativization. . . . In other words, the New Testament writers are seen as afflicted with a false consciousness rooted in their time, but the contemporary analyst take the consciousness of his time as an unmixed intellectual blessing. The electricity- and radio-users are placed intellectually above the Apostle Paul.
And therein lies the danger.
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