A Sunday Morning Thought About Society, Culture and God...continuing
I want to pick up on last week's thoughts with a little more from T.S. Eliot. In doing this, I'm countering the tendency of many of us to focus our efforts on politics and economics. I'm not saying that politics and economics don't play an important role in our society and culture. But unless we recognize the role of religion, I do think we're more or less wasting our time. Indeed, we need to put religion in its proper place, as the primary driver of a just society and a healthy, wholesome culture.
Last week, we learned that Eliot understood how the rejection of God and religion that marks the modern world played a critical role in events leading up to World War II. He addressed the task of rebuilding Western civilization, which lay in ruins after the war in The Idea of a Christian Society and Notes Towards the Definition of Culture.
Eliot believed that the only way to rebuild a physically and morally exhausted European society and culture would be by recognizing and promoting the basic building blocks of that society and culture.
Eliot begins by defining the dominant force of a common culture: religion. In the case of Europe, that religion was Christianity. Eliot’s conclusion: If Christianity goes, the whole culture goes.
And here we find something critically lost to us in the 21st century: the understanding and appreciation of our common heritage. In his time, Eliot - and many others - understood that the catastrophe of the world wars did not grow out of a “religious worldview” which pitted people against each other - something taught in our schools these days. In fact, it was the anti-religious views that developed and grew dramatically since the Enlightenment that ripped apart civilization as we knew it. Those anti-religious forces forged the twin evils of Nazism and Soviet Socialism that undermined the Judaeo-Christian foundation of European civilization.
Yet here we are, continuing to wander in the desert of secularism, despite the lessons of the World Wars, the Cold War, and the obvious decline of moral standards that marks our decaying culture.
Will we ever learn? What will it take to convince us to turn back to God, and to live, really live, our Holy Faith?
Last week, we learned that Eliot understood how the rejection of God and religion that marks the modern world played a critical role in events leading up to World War II. He addressed the task of rebuilding Western civilization, which lay in ruins after the war in The Idea of a Christian Society and Notes Towards the Definition of Culture.
Eliot believed that the only way to rebuild a physically and morally exhausted European society and culture would be by recognizing and promoting the basic building blocks of that society and culture.
Eliot begins by defining the dominant force of a common culture: religion. In the case of Europe, that religion was Christianity. Eliot’s conclusion: If Christianity goes, the whole culture goes.
“Then you must start painfully again, and you cannot put on a new culture ready made...You must pass through many centuries of barbarism. We should not live to see the new culture, nor would our great-great-great grandchildren; and if we did, not one of us would be happy in it.”It is important to note that Eliot believes that we owe many things to our Christian heritage besides religious faith: the evolution of our arts; our conception of Roman Law (which includes our conceptions of private and public morality); common standards of literature based on those of Greece and Rome; unity in this heritage in the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome and Israel. The common elements of culture are the true bonds between us; no political or economic organization can supply this.
And here we find something critically lost to us in the 21st century: the understanding and appreciation of our common heritage. In his time, Eliot - and many others - understood that the catastrophe of the world wars did not grow out of a “religious worldview” which pitted people against each other - something taught in our schools these days. In fact, it was the anti-religious views that developed and grew dramatically since the Enlightenment that ripped apart civilization as we knew it. Those anti-religious forces forged the twin evils of Nazism and Soviet Socialism that undermined the Judaeo-Christian foundation of European civilization.
Yet here we are, continuing to wander in the desert of secularism, despite the lessons of the World Wars, the Cold War, and the obvious decline of moral standards that marks our decaying culture.
Will we ever learn? What will it take to convince us to turn back to God, and to live, really live, our Holy Faith?
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