ABSTRACT
Modernity, in Troeltsch's sense, replaces a strong centralizing church authority with an 'individualism of conviction', and under the sway of independent and rational convictions, divine infallibility and ecclesiastical intolerance necessarily give place to human relativity and toleration. Troeltsch shows that having ripped institutional religion from its moorings, Protestantism in the early twentieth century had become the preeminent example of the religion of personal conviction and conscience, and as such it had adapted itself to a modern, individualistic civilization that had intensified the extension of individual freedom from all dogma, and the ascendency of personality over institutionally shaped character. The individualistic tendency of modern civilization manifests itself most dramatically in the last two areas discussed by Troeltsch—art and religion. Troeltsch enumerates the elements of modern civilization in terms of politics, economy, art, science, and finally, religion itself.
