of Greek thinking. E.g., the Greeks came to ultimate symbols, they had a quasi or total mystical character – in Plato^b, the participation in the world of true essences, in the Good itself, in terms of a mystical initiation; in Aristotle^c, the participation of the eternal self-intuition of God; in the Stoics, the elevation of the wise man over the movements of reality to eternity with the logos; and in Neoplatonism, the mystical ecstasy. Now all this shows that the religious substance of the Greeks is mystical, and not world-transforming. The only power in the ancient world which transformed reality, to a certain extent – from the point of view of the law – were the Romans, but not the Greeks; and the Romans were not creative in contemplating reality, in contemplating the world.

Therefore the Renaissance has the Christian substance of the responsible transformation of reality. And perhaps I should add it anyhow now: behind this substance, again, a religious symbol, namely the doctrine of creation. Creation means that the substance of the world comes from the divine Ground and not from a matter which resists the divine, as in Greece. Therefore the basic element of the modern worldview, on the basis of the idea of creation, believes in the possibility of having the spiritual within the world of the created world. It believes in the ability to transform reality, while in Greek thinking this possibility is never envisaged. The individual elevates himself above reality and liberates himself out of the bondage to matter, into the spiritual realm.

Now this gives me occasion to another footnote, namely that the Greek worldview is substantially tragic, and the Christian worldview is substantially active and determined by hope. Now this seems to be quite different, but even another point supports this, namely the fact that Christian ascetics invaded Christianity after the Biblical period through the invasion of Platonism, and that Protestantism reduced this influence again to a great extent. Christian asceticism is disciplinary asceticism, but not metaphysical asceticism. Metaphysical asceticism – the desire to elevate oneself out of the material world – is Greek, but not Christian. But of course it came into Christianity and produced many ascetic forms of the ancient church and the Middle Ages against which, in the name of Biblical Christianity, Protestantism revolted.

Now why did I say all this in connection with the realm of technology? Because every human emphasis has ultimate roots, has roots in an ultimate concern.