Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism

In Chapter 4, Arnold focuses on the contrast between Hebraism and Hellenism, which he calls the “two points of influence” in society and culture. While Arnold credits both Hebraism and Hellenism as sharing the same “final aim,” which is “man’s perfection or salvation” (319), he believes that each differs from the other in both its substance and in its means. Arnold introduces the two concepts as follows: “[T]he uppermost idea with Hellenism is to see things as they really are; the uppermost idea with Hebraism is conduct and obedience” (321, emphasis added). Arnold then explores each of these influences in more detail.

Arnold equates Hebraism with the influence of Semitic, or ancient Judaic, culture upon modern European civilization. He describes Hebraism as “seiz[ing] upon certain plain, capital intimations of the universal order” (323), to which it adheres “with unequalled grandeur of earnestness and intensity on the study and observance of them” (323). Hellenism, by contrast, is the influence of classical Greek and Roman civilization. Hellenism is concerned with “the whole play of the universal order” (323) and is therefore more flexible, open-ended, and creative than Hebraism.