(REVIEW) How have we become like gods?

Tracing the story from the Middle Ages — with its philosophical culmination in Nietzsche and modern manifestation in the transhumanist movement and the Kardashians — Tara Isabella Burton explains how humanity has come to seek flourishing apart from God in her book “Self-Made.”

Albrecht Dürer was a German Renaissance painter and was one of the kick-starters of the notion of what Burton calls the “self-made man.” What made him so special? Burton asserts that it was his portraits of self-veneration, in which he portrayed himself in an artistic style reserved, in medieval times, only for depicting Christ. In doing so, he pioneered the beginning of a different view of the self.

The self-made individual, during the Renaissance, was one who could “at once leapfrog the social order and yet remain safely within the consoling paradigm of a society God had determined.”

Self-made people were considered the first geniuses and metaphorically and rhetorically referred to as demigods with a superior nature. What they possessed was unteachable and innate. They had been chosen by God to make themselves. This began to constitute a new aristocracy throughout Europe.

This self-creation, Burton argues, is an imitation of God and his divine power, and some thinkers even argued that this was the quality that makes us human. This is “the ability to determine who we are and to decide our own place in the divine cosmos,” which was supposedly God’s gift to mankind (p. 22). This school of thought began to unfurl itself in tandem with a time period when institutional religion and the idea of the Christian God were consistently under scrutiny.

It was later in the Renaissance period that thinkers such as Baldassare Castiglione began to advocate for the constant, conscious imitation of genius as a way of reaping its reward: earthly success in many forms. Here the line between authentic genius in the demigod sense and an imitated genius by way of careful study, meticulous observation, and hard work became blurry.

Toward the end of the 16th century, Michel de Montaigne took this to its next logical step. If human beings were meant to be responsible for their self-creation, then he needed to be free from societal custom. Burton discusses how Montaigne’s thought led not only to the rejection of natural law but of an ordered universe in general, with any perceived visual order in the cosmos reduced to mere societal custom. In doing so, man is deprived of a “teleology” — a divine purpose — and what is good is no longer living in accord with one’s nature, as Plato and Aristotle believed, precisely because human beings no longer seem, for Montaigne, to possess such a unifying thing.

Man’s existence thus begins to precede his essence, and he is left with the power to change the laws of the universe, since such laws are not laws at all but merely custom with no reason behind them. This is a radical shift from the medieval period, when the universe was structured, purposeful and directed towards certain ends, governed by certain laws. Burton’s account, without explicitly mentioning the word, details a story of deconstructionism. Montaigne’s thought opens the door to familiar themes that we observe in society today, such as sexual freedom, authenticity and unbridled desire.

As history rolls into the Enlightenment and beyond, people continued to break free from dominant cultural institutions and engage in their own personal liberation. Burton notes that these two things are inseparable and exemplified by 18th century French libertines. The greatest good resembled doing whatever one wished with oneself. One’s desires became the most concrete indicator of who one was, as what one did was a direct act of self-expression. One’s actions created and constituted one’s identity.

Another great good, which was developed during these periods, was manipulating the world for one’s own success. If human beings are endowed with such power, and living in complete accord with one’s raw desires is considered good, then manipulating the world for one’s own ends almost becomes prudent, in a very Machiavellian sense.

Across the Atlantic, abolitionist Frederick Douglass diverged from this norm. Living within the experimental American regime founded on some kind of morality and objective constraint, he frames the self-made man through the lens of his potential for economic success. Douglass thought of the self-made man as the epitome of the American Dream, democratizing the concept. Indeed, he believed that the American government was made for such men. In Europe, the self-made men still constituted their own aristocracy, and the idea took longer to seep into the general population.

For Douglass, the “willful, active cultivation of the self” was embodied in hard work. Douglass, presenting his speech “Self-Made Man” across America pressed home the idea that anybody, from any race, gender or cultural background, could flourish in American through plain old hard work. What separated Douglass from Montaigne and Castiglione was his commitment to objectivity and some form of human nature.

From Douglass onward, Burton draws parallels between the development of the self-made man in Europe and America, though both culminate in the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, the modern philosopher who explicitly connects the aforementioned ideas into his project. Skeptical of any objective moral truths, Nietzsche’s work centered around the importance of acting in accordance with one’s own will — wielding one’s power in his favor, often against those whom social Darwinism would call less fit.

The first four chapters of Burton’s book provide a foundation and a later culmination in Nietzsche of how the self-made man came about. It was the product of an unfurling train of ideas, thoughts, worldviews and social imaginaries that brought a view of the world as proceeding from the individual to the fore. Burton’s account ends with tangible examples of self-made meaning in this world, examining figures such as Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump, and TikTok influencers.

Burton’s book is an invigorating and tangible history of humanity’s severance from cultural constraints in favor or a kind of liberty that comes from pure subjective self-examination. It is an account of an inward turn (a term Burton often uses), by which people express what they believe to be their authentic selves.

After all, in a world where God seems debunked, humans indeed seem the natural heirs to His throne. I highly encourage anyone to read Burton’s historical analysis in this book and the consequences that sprung from the movements she brilliantly discusses, evident anywhere in our age, if one is willing to spot them.

Rafa Oliveira is an intern with ReligionUnplugged.com covering technology and religion. He is a recent graduate of The King’s College in New York City with a degree in politics, philosophy and economics. He speaks Portuguese, English and Spanish and is an ardent Manchester United Supporter.