ABSTRACT
Christianity, in particular, was the first universal religion that came closest to bringing about true self-consciousness by teaching that all human beings are equal as well as finite: “the whole evolution of the Christian world is nothing but a progress toward the atheistic awareness of the essential finiteness of human existence.” In historicist fashion, McLuhan was distinguishing between the old individualistic Greco-Roman Christianity and the new tribalist participatory Christianity of the new age. McLuhan also followed a historicist logic when he associated the truth of Christianity with its institutions over time. While religion has experienced a powerful revival on a global scale since the death of Kojeve in 1968, Western democratic elites have still held onto the secular myth that most human beings desire progress as well as rational atheism. Tribalism reminds us that human beings have not meekly become self-interested consumers around the world.
