“Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.” ― G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man
"“At least five times,” says Chesterton, “the Faith has to all appearance gone to the dogs. In each of these five cases it was the dog that died.”
The current crisis, I think, is the sixth death of the Faith...."
I have just left a town founded by the Free Presbyterian Church, who (being Scottish) profited from a gold rush, founded the first university and producedprofessionalls including ministers of religion and ourbeaat Catholic Poet (James K Baxter). The town now has a university that makes Maori animism a mandatory religion.
There will be a return to God... even though it is a mission field. But this will require that their sources of apostasy and pride -- including that university -- implode.
If we forger Tod, don't e wpcr him to bless you. Expect correction, which usually means suffering.
The Gate is narrow. When true believers do their job, others join in in order to be part of a high trust charitable society. Ancient chiefs joined in in order to promote a lawful society without having to do human sacrifices and whatnot.
When government took over roles once run by the church, the church lost much appeal. Many stayed on in order to be respectable, but even that excuse is gone.
Churches need to get back into founding AND RUNNING schools, hospitals, homeless shelters, wholesome community centers etc. with the actual true believers making sure that such things are run in a Biblically compatible fashion.
After government took over all 'good' laws from church they are left only with guilt, limits and the afterlife. Guilt and limits are liked by no one. Afterlife for most people is fairytale. When I ask my parents what can the church offer for anybody anymore they have no answer. And is true. I go irregularly to my church but only to listen to the priest's thoughts. But for that you have to be open for philosophy which again bores to death most of the people.
Also, doing volunteer work it a great friendship builder. As I pointed out in my Rule 7 series, today's techies are extremely worried about being Canceled in part because work is their only source of social life. Ceremony-only church can provide a social life for extroverts but not introverts.
Introverts need something to talk about. Wrangling over theological fine points works -- which is why I don't think perfect unanimity or Statements of Faith are healthy. The Bible has mysteries and ambiguities for our benefit. Doing good works also works. The harder the better. Shared adversity creates bonds. That's one reason why fraternity hazing works.
I made many great friends during my Libertarian activist days because we both wrangled over fine points of political philosophy and we did hard things together.
Wonder not, brethren, if the world hate you. 1 John 3:13
If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. John 15:19
I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me: because they are thine. John 17:9
I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world. John 17:14
And every spirit that dissolveth Jesus, is not of God: and this is Antichrist, of whom you have heard that he cometh, and he is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome him. Because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore of the world they speak, and the world heareth them. 1 John 4:3-5
Lilith is the name of the abortion clinic in downtown Portland, for a reason. From the EC article,
"The character of Lilith comes from Mesopotamian mythology, originally depicted as a she-wolf with a scorpion’s tail. She is also to be found in Talmudic tradition, as a female demon who kills newborn babies and seduces men to create other demons. According to the Kabbalah, an esoteric Jewish tradition, Lilith refers to Adam’s first wife, fashioned like him from clay and not from his rib. Hence the infatuation with the character among feminists, who see her as a figure in the struggle against patriarchal omnipotence."
The mass attendance "at least monthly" line is showing an uptick in 2020. My church said that they had about 200 people attending pre-covid hysteria. Post-covid hysteria that number is now 400. Anecdotally, there might be a small revival happening. But not a cultural force and no longer any institutional power.
Yes, Not for buying it per se, but because he conspired with his mother to lie to his father (stirring up conflict between a man and wife in addition to the fraud), and because the purchase itself shows he didn't trust God to make the prophecy come true (same problem Abraham and Sarah had with the promised son).
They start out equally wicked but end up differently. Quite lengthy to fully describe that, and probably the wrong venue. Happy to take it P2P if you are ever interested.
Thank you kindly for your answer and for your offer but there is no need to take up more of your time. I feel I have the means to find my way to the available sources.
Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago said that he would die in his bed, the next one would die in prison, and the Archbishop after that would be burned at the stake....
Respectfully, I do not think the Church has been an important cultural force since at least the Protestant Revolution (not a mistype). Throughout Christendom, that movement put any and every church under the thumb of the state, often in a new and odd caesaropapism, and after that it’s been a slow but steady process of bringing all culture under the direction of the state, which jealously guards against the intrusion of any independent institution. All that we’ve really experienced is the reification of the inevitable consequences.
Similarly, all or most of the seeming apostasies occur amongst people who were functionally apostates before. Liberalism is totally incompatible with Christianity (Catholicism specifically), and everyone nowadays is a liberal. Some people are just finally admitting it. To put it another way, the fakers are stopping the LARP and taking off the costumes. Is that a bad thing? Only in the sense that their hearts are turned where they are, but that was true while they were still doing the LARP. An honest separation of wheat from chaff is, IMO, preferable to delusion.
I say this to be a voice of optimism. A core of true believers will accomplish far more good than a large grouping of the lukewarm. Once all such lukewarm have left, as is imminently to be the case, things will be much improved and there will very likely finally be something to light a fire in the hearts of those (departed, but more honest) lukewarm. The darkest times were the five centuries previous, but we live in the grey of predawn, I say.
I like essentially everything you say here. But find myself questioning if a wildly outnumbered core of true believers would be able to accomplish much on the worldly level, and instead eventually be driven underground by their former lukewarm co-religionists, allied with ... well, the rest of society. A return to "the catacombs"? But even this does not rattle my confidence in the least. Our Lord is invincible.
I think the keyword in your comment is “worldly.” If it was a worldly institution probably no, it would not accomplish much. But the Church was smaller before and suffered worse and that led to great things. Material hardship has always strengthened the faith; it’s our prosperity that’s allowed our present sickness to go on for so long. And our lack of zeal that formed the basis of the apostasies to begin with.
As for persecution, the apostates who were too lukewarm to inconvenience themselves enough to go to Mass every Sunday I don’t think are going to throw themselves zealously into that project. At any rate they’re becoming more and more alienated from the actually evil with every passing day. Those evil powers themselves are growing weaker, more decrepit, and more incompetent by the day.
If the apostates stood by their former brethren, would they resist evil? The idea that great masses of sort-of-committed tag-alongs are of great importance or even a necessity for a movement to have consequence is a modern conceit that I think many are starting to see is (and always was) a myth.
The real questions are: “who is more likely to endure or even grow stronger under persecution?” and “who is more likely to inspire converts?” I think the answer to both is people of zeal and conviction rather than a much greater mass of half-hearteds. People always drifted away in times of spiritual sickness and persecution, and they always left behind a remnant faithful more sure of itself, more cohesive, more inspired, and more refined — and such a remnant always formed the basis for great flourishings thereafter. I can’t think of a contrary scenario where multitudinous but dubiously committed masses were a great strength of the Church, even to countervail large numbers of infidels in their surrounding societies (which our present masses have certainly not done, despite that they could).
But the obvious and short response is: Jesus only needed twelve.
I sure hope you are right. But as for “who is more likely to inspire converts?” The Bolsheviks did a bang up job of inspiring endless hordes of converts, when the shit hit the fan. Terror and starvation can inspire people to do literally anything. Which maybe points to the factor that will really shape what’s coming: “Dubiously commited masses” will very quickly become commited to whoever’s in control of the food, when there ain’t no more on shelves in stores. No jobs. No heating. Martial law and lots of company for the J6 prisoners imprisoned without a trial. Call me a pessimist, but America at least is at the point of being a very dark parody (I’m American). Europe just a different flavor of crazy. Every positive scenario would be possible if Eisenhower America 2.0 was in the pipeline. No. I suspect more likely may be shattering hardship for the masses. But the big upside of THAT for us is that true faith will be the ultimate wealth then for those who possess it.
As far as I know, the persecuting fanatics amongst either the Bolsheviks or French revolutionaries (for example) were the real ideological converts rather than the starving desperate. Even the Stasi, unrivaled for numbers so far as I know, were only able to inspire low-level snitching from their hordes by terror. The terrorized and starving do not usually make very brave or useful minions.
By the same token you can call me an optimist. I do not really worry about these sorts of things. I hope that gives you some hope too. It might be painful, but it won’t be insurmountable and it certainly won’t be permanent.
Thanks for your reply. Especially since we seem to be on “the same side” of things. To be honest, since coming to Substack in February, I have vastly reduced sharing thoughts on politics and any of the many disturbing trends we are seeing, particularly when related to the present papacy. Focusing on such things does not bring out the best in me, I’ve realized, thanks be to God, and isn’t good for my soul. My strength is in our Lord, my trust in him unshakeable, come what may. Nothing will happen that he does not allow. Therefore the best possible outcome is assured. Hard to admit, but I still find myself reflexively posting comments and replies when really sharp-edge stuff appears. And lately afterwards I increasingly ask myself why I felt the need to do so. Wishing you all the best!
Agreed on the first and second point. Ever since The Enlightenment, Christians have been no more than cattle churning out moral and capable children for the world.
Doesn’t the Bible say a believing spouse is a blessing to an unbelieving family?? I think that we can extrapolate that to society. As Christians, we have children, but their salvation is not guaranteed. They are born as pagan and unbelieving as anyone else; however, we have the tools to produce functional and capable children regardless, so the unbelieving societies we live in still benefit from our fruits.
I had to research the term Broney-boy, as I had never come across it before reading this article. I am stunned at the on-going infantilization of the spiritual instinct of man. The character "Luce" (meaning Light and which has a strong association to "The Morning Star") is akin to a Japanese Animé character. It is appalling that this has been chosen to represent the Divinity of the Church. It is a cartoon: "a sketch or drawing, usually humorous, as in a newspaper or periodical, symbolizing, satirizing, or caricaturing some action, subject, or person of popular interest."
The Vatican's Luce campaign is far worse than that. Its designer and owner of the company that produces the figure also designs and sells a big range of vibrators and sex toys (tokidoki x brand), whose graphics and packaging echo the Luce character's Anime style, only far more sharp-edged.
This whole thing, including Luce, is all about pedophilia. It reeks of pedophilia, and the sex devices are clearly being pitched to an underage market. Just a quick google of "tokidoki x" will bring up more images of these sex devices than you can count.
"Oh but the Vatican must not have known about THOSE things" many will cry. But I am sure that the degenerate clerics not only knew about it, but chose the designer and his creations precisely because he is pushing pedophilia, which is the next taboo that the "love is love" people intend to topple. And in the process demoralizing even more beleaguered believers.
Perhaps we have great expectations in the East: a refreshed and powerful champion of Christian civilisation which even now is destroying the amoral western powers.
Reading this tragic commentary on the state of Christian involvement in the 21st century, or vice versa I should say, only increases my gratitude for the TLM, where, TBH, we are packed to the gills with young single men, women, and young marrieds with a regular assembly line of infants and toddlers in tow. My early Church history tells me that, where holiness becomes the most scarce, it becomes like a superpower for those few who can still achieve it. We call them Saints.
Think of the OPIUM WARS. Now China is having its revenge, without the West even knowing it. The West buys Chinese electric cars and Chinese lithium batteries and Chinese solar panels, all in the name of climate change religion. Meanwhile the Chinese keep building coal-fired electrical plants. I'm learning Japanese myself. Atarashii Gakko!
I would urge cautious use of the word “Christianity”.
If you use it here to refer to traditional church organizations, the I have no doubt that you are correct.
But there seems to me to be a quiet but accelerating resurgence of a kind of underground Christianity among people whom the name-brand churches have alienated by polluting their message of salvation with political propaganda.
I was recently in a certain area of the country (US) and was somewhat surprised by the large number of houses and properties with crosses prominently displayed.
The part of the country I live in is heavily dotted with (some rather large and popular) off-brand (non-denominational) churches, many of which seem to be a little more focused on that which is God’s than they are on that which is Caesar’s.
The name-brand churches, blinded by political and social activism, are, by and large, missing the boat on the spiritual tsunami that is building. It is in that sense that I agree with the “suddenly” thesis.
Lon...from the other side of the pond here. You are correct. There is a resurgence, especially among young men for Christianity and its teachings here in the US. The report I read is that they are going to Baptist and reform churches outside of the mainstream. Here we have all manner of protestantism...those churches are graying and dying. Episcopal (CoE), Methodist, Presbyterian, Unitarian and Congregationalist. Then there's are the traditionally African American churches: Church of God in Christ, African Episcopal Church, Baptist, etc. They may be our saving grace. The problem with this shift of young men is that the young women are going in the other direction. As you know, young men need young women to have a family.
What I would like to see examined are the reasons the church has lost so much. Popular culture is certainly a big part of it, but the church also needs a little self reflection. I am Episcopalian (CoE) and there's plenty of stupid stuff going on, I'll grant you that. But, I think the damage brought by the abuses in the church in general and the Catholic church in specific hurt us all. Abuse of power is just that and having a crucifix hang over the event makes it really bad. Churches and their hierarchy lost their humility. They got too much power and, among other things, abused our children. It's going to be a long road back. I believe one day they will return because Christ's message is universal.
African-American churches vote reliably for the party of sodomy, transgenderism, and abortion. There will be no revival of Christianity arising from them.
If by that you mean they traditionally vote left, yes. But leftward voting has just recently been associated with those things you mention above. And many people don't vote only according to their faith. There are a myriad of other things they are voting for when they cast a ballot. My comment was simply to say those I know in these churches are solid Christians. More than most people I've encountered. I will defend them and stand for them even though I am not a leftward voter.
The Spiritual Dynamic of Berdyaev's Critique-J. Norris Beam, Ph.D.
For Berdyaev, the arrival of technics in the modern period opens up a whole new chapter in humanity's relationship to the cosmos. With technics the relationship of spirit to reality (matter) is involved. The creative human spirit relates to nature as it invents machines and technology out of physical elements; thus, the arrival of technics is a phase in humankind's spiritual development. Yet the arrival of technics also signals humanity's enslavement to objects in the world. This is true as far as humanity has abandoned spiritual aims and values. It has begun to look to the earth and the miracles of applied science to provide life with an ultimate meaning and happiness. A novel reality has entered history. It is human organization. Because it is neither organic nor inorganic reality, technics poses a challenge to human existence. Having separated itself from God and spiritual values, modern humanity pridefully turns exclusively to the construction and organization of its material world to find meaning, happiness, and security. Technics is precisely the means by which modern humanity, apart from God, and by its own devices, seeks to achieve desired beneficial ends for itself.
In modernity, several autonomous spheres of existence seek to dominate exclusively the whole of life, and technics is one of them. Once modern humanity discarded the Medieval worldview, with its religiously integral view of reality, it has sought integrality of being in one of several spheres of life. Technics is a part of these spheres. Specifically, technics must reckon with the spheres of statism and economics. Berdyaev perceives a pernicious development in modernity in which collective forces (the "masses") look to the state, economics, and technics to provide them with total happiness and well-being. Like Dostoevsky, from whom he gleamed many insights, Berdyaev thinks that humankind's appeal to technics, statism, and economics for total well-being only leads to human self-enslavement. Thus, humanity illustrates Dostoevsky's dictum that when humans abandon God, they (unknowingly) abandon or betray themselves as well.
Berdyaev explains more specifically that humankind has experienced certain periods in history when different relationships of spirit to matter are suggested. The ultimate outcome of the arrival of technics depends upon whether the human spirit can attain sufficient moral control over the machine to avoid a total domination and destruction by the machine.
"Technics is precisely the means by which modern humanity, apart from God, and by its own devices, seeks to achieve desired beneficial ends for itself."
These desired beneficial ends for itself are also meant in the Knowledge of Weal and Woe (misleadingly interpreted and translated as the knowledge of good and evil).
The tree's name seems to suggest that Adam can attain to a type of knowledge that will help him to what he wants and save him from what he don't want. The tree's name is God's ultimate test. Had he styled it the Tree of Death, Adam sure would have avoided it. But then the test would have missed God's purpose. What Adam should have understood from the name of the tree is that the forbidden knowledge was double-edged. Therefore ultimately harmful rather than beneficial.
But that's the road which mankind has chosen, with the help of Church and Bible and in spite of being in the possession of the tiny but magnificent Myth of the Garden of Eden. The road of double-edged knowledge that destroys at a far greater pace than it can heal what is has laid waste.
I would submit that the picture is much worse (and yet also BETTER) than you describe, William.
Jesus loses none of His own. His sheep hear His voice and follow no matter what. (See John 10, e.g.) He will get the glory He deserves, extracted from all tribes, tongues, nations. See Rev 7, 21, 22, etc.
The *apparent* decline in numbers and any semblance of orthodoxy is due, rather, to the dynamic He outlines in places like Matthew 7, 13, and 25, and which Paul & John pick up, e.g., in Romans 2 and 9 and 1st John (the whole epistle).
Basically: there will be and always have been *hordes* of self-deceived-and-deceiving non-born-again pretenders who pack it in once they don't get what they want, which, all along, was centered on their own unregenerate desires in and for this fallen dark wicked world.
“Christendom has had a series of revolutions and in each one of them Christianity has died. Christianity has died many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the grave.” ― G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man
"“At least five times,” says Chesterton, “the Faith has to all appearance gone to the dogs. In each of these five cases it was the dog that died.”
The current crisis, I think, is the sixth death of the Faith...."
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2018/09/20/the-sixth-death-of-the-church/
I humbly think this too.
Said it better that I could.
I have just left a town founded by the Free Presbyterian Church, who (being Scottish) profited from a gold rush, founded the first university and producedprofessionalls including ministers of religion and ourbeaat Catholic Poet (James K Baxter). The town now has a university that makes Maori animism a mandatory religion.
There will be a return to God... even though it is a mission field. But this will require that their sources of apostasy and pride -- including that university -- implode.
If we forger Tod, don't e wpcr him to bless you. Expect correction, which usually means suffering.
The Gate is narrow. When true believers do their job, others join in in order to be part of a high trust charitable society. Ancient chiefs joined in in order to promote a lawful society without having to do human sacrifices and whatnot.
When government took over roles once run by the church, the church lost much appeal. Many stayed on in order to be respectable, but even that excuse is gone.
Churches need to get back into founding AND RUNNING schools, hospitals, homeless shelters, wholesome community centers etc. with the actual true believers making sure that such things are run in a Biblically compatible fashion.
After government took over all 'good' laws from church they are left only with guilt, limits and the afterlife. Guilt and limits are liked by no one. Afterlife for most people is fairytale. When I ask my parents what can the church offer for anybody anymore they have no answer. And is true. I go irregularly to my church but only to listen to the priest's thoughts. But for that you have to be open for philosophy which again bores to death most of the people.
Also, doing volunteer work it a great friendship builder. As I pointed out in my Rule 7 series, today's techies are extremely worried about being Canceled in part because work is their only source of social life. Ceremony-only church can provide a social life for extroverts but not introverts.
Introverts need something to talk about. Wrangling over theological fine points works -- which is why I don't think perfect unanimity or Statements of Faith are healthy. The Bible has mysteries and ambiguities for our benefit. Doing good works also works. The harder the better. Shared adversity creates bonds. That's one reason why fraternity hazing works.
I made many great friends during my Libertarian activist days because we both wrangled over fine points of political philosophy and we did hard things together.
Wonder not, brethren, if the world hate you. 1 John 3:13
If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. John 15:19
I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me: because they are thine. John 17:9
I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world. John 17:14
And every spirit that dissolveth Jesus, is not of God: and this is Antichrist, of whom you have heard that he cometh, and he is now already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome him. Because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore of the world they speak, and the world heareth them. 1 John 4:3-5
Lilith is the name of the abortion clinic in downtown Portland, for a reason. From the EC article,
"The character of Lilith comes from Mesopotamian mythology, originally depicted as a she-wolf with a scorpion’s tail. She is also to be found in Talmudic tradition, as a female demon who kills newborn babies and seduces men to create other demons. According to the Kabbalah, an esoteric Jewish tradition, Lilith refers to Adam’s first wife, fashioned like him from clay and not from his rib. Hence the infatuation with the character among feminists, who see her as a figure in the struggle against patriarchal omnipotence."
The mass attendance "at least monthly" line is showing an uptick in 2020. My church said that they had about 200 people attending pre-covid hysteria. Post-covid hysteria that number is now 400. Anecdotally, there might be a small revival happening. But not a cultural force and no longer any institutional power.
Briggsian words of fire 🔥
We in the church are the Esau of modernity.
Born into the family of God and sold our inheritance for a mess of pottage.
We're the reason why Christ asked "Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"
He will, but it will be as rare in our time as it was in His.
Here's a great little demonstration of the thinking of the modern churchman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ8WcXbL74c
Is not the buyer of the inheritance on a par with the seller in wickedness?
I for one have never been able to figure out Jakob's pre-eminence over Esau.
Yes, Not for buying it per se, but because he conspired with his mother to lie to his father (stirring up conflict between a man and wife in addition to the fraud), and because the purchase itself shows he didn't trust God to make the prophecy come true (same problem Abraham and Sarah had with the promised son).
They start out equally wicked but end up differently. Quite lengthy to fully describe that, and probably the wrong venue. Happy to take it P2P if you are ever interested.
Thank you kindly for your answer and for your offer but there is no need to take up more of your time. I feel I have the means to find my way to the available sources.
Cardinal George, Archbishop of Chicago said that he would die in his bed, the next one would die in prison, and the Archbishop after that would be burned at the stake....
Cardinal Cupich, George's successor, is far more likely to die in a gay sex dungeon than in a prison.
I'll bring the stakes ....
I'll bring the steaks...
🤣🤣 The Archdiocese picks up the champagne tab
Respectfully, I do not think the Church has been an important cultural force since at least the Protestant Revolution (not a mistype). Throughout Christendom, that movement put any and every church under the thumb of the state, often in a new and odd caesaropapism, and after that it’s been a slow but steady process of bringing all culture under the direction of the state, which jealously guards against the intrusion of any independent institution. All that we’ve really experienced is the reification of the inevitable consequences.
Similarly, all or most of the seeming apostasies occur amongst people who were functionally apostates before. Liberalism is totally incompatible with Christianity (Catholicism specifically), and everyone nowadays is a liberal. Some people are just finally admitting it. To put it another way, the fakers are stopping the LARP and taking off the costumes. Is that a bad thing? Only in the sense that their hearts are turned where they are, but that was true while they were still doing the LARP. An honest separation of wheat from chaff is, IMO, preferable to delusion.
I say this to be a voice of optimism. A core of true believers will accomplish far more good than a large grouping of the lukewarm. Once all such lukewarm have left, as is imminently to be the case, things will be much improved and there will very likely finally be something to light a fire in the hearts of those (departed, but more honest) lukewarm. The darkest times were the five centuries previous, but we live in the grey of predawn, I say.
I like essentially everything you say here. But find myself questioning if a wildly outnumbered core of true believers would be able to accomplish much on the worldly level, and instead eventually be driven underground by their former lukewarm co-religionists, allied with ... well, the rest of society. A return to "the catacombs"? But even this does not rattle my confidence in the least. Our Lord is invincible.
I think the keyword in your comment is “worldly.” If it was a worldly institution probably no, it would not accomplish much. But the Church was smaller before and suffered worse and that led to great things. Material hardship has always strengthened the faith; it’s our prosperity that’s allowed our present sickness to go on for so long. And our lack of zeal that formed the basis of the apostasies to begin with.
As for persecution, the apostates who were too lukewarm to inconvenience themselves enough to go to Mass every Sunday I don’t think are going to throw themselves zealously into that project. At any rate they’re becoming more and more alienated from the actually evil with every passing day. Those evil powers themselves are growing weaker, more decrepit, and more incompetent by the day.
If the apostates stood by their former brethren, would they resist evil? The idea that great masses of sort-of-committed tag-alongs are of great importance or even a necessity for a movement to have consequence is a modern conceit that I think many are starting to see is (and always was) a myth.
The real questions are: “who is more likely to endure or even grow stronger under persecution?” and “who is more likely to inspire converts?” I think the answer to both is people of zeal and conviction rather than a much greater mass of half-hearteds. People always drifted away in times of spiritual sickness and persecution, and they always left behind a remnant faithful more sure of itself, more cohesive, more inspired, and more refined — and such a remnant always formed the basis for great flourishings thereafter. I can’t think of a contrary scenario where multitudinous but dubiously committed masses were a great strength of the Church, even to countervail large numbers of infidels in their surrounding societies (which our present masses have certainly not done, despite that they could).
But the obvious and short response is: Jesus only needed twelve.
I sure hope you are right. But as for “who is more likely to inspire converts?” The Bolsheviks did a bang up job of inspiring endless hordes of converts, when the shit hit the fan. Terror and starvation can inspire people to do literally anything. Which maybe points to the factor that will really shape what’s coming: “Dubiously commited masses” will very quickly become commited to whoever’s in control of the food, when there ain’t no more on shelves in stores. No jobs. No heating. Martial law and lots of company for the J6 prisoners imprisoned without a trial. Call me a pessimist, but America at least is at the point of being a very dark parody (I’m American). Europe just a different flavor of crazy. Every positive scenario would be possible if Eisenhower America 2.0 was in the pipeline. No. I suspect more likely may be shattering hardship for the masses. But the big upside of THAT for us is that true faith will be the ultimate wealth then for those who possess it.
As far as I know, the persecuting fanatics amongst either the Bolsheviks or French revolutionaries (for example) were the real ideological converts rather than the starving desperate. Even the Stasi, unrivaled for numbers so far as I know, were only able to inspire low-level snitching from their hordes by terror. The terrorized and starving do not usually make very brave or useful minions.
By the same token you can call me an optimist. I do not really worry about these sorts of things. I hope that gives you some hope too. It might be painful, but it won’t be insurmountable and it certainly won’t be permanent.
Thanks for your reply. Especially since we seem to be on “the same side” of things. To be honest, since coming to Substack in February, I have vastly reduced sharing thoughts on politics and any of the many disturbing trends we are seeing, particularly when related to the present papacy. Focusing on such things does not bring out the best in me, I’ve realized, thanks be to God, and isn’t good for my soul. My strength is in our Lord, my trust in him unshakeable, come what may. Nothing will happen that he does not allow. Therefore the best possible outcome is assured. Hard to admit, but I still find myself reflexively posting comments and replies when really sharp-edge stuff appears. And lately afterwards I increasingly ask myself why I felt the need to do so. Wishing you all the best!
Agreed on the first and second point. Ever since The Enlightenment, Christians have been no more than cattle churning out moral and capable children for the world.
Doesn’t the Bible say a believing spouse is a blessing to an unbelieving family?? I think that we can extrapolate that to society. As Christians, we have children, but their salvation is not guaranteed. They are born as pagan and unbelieving as anyone else; however, we have the tools to produce functional and capable children regardless, so the unbelieving societies we live in still benefit from our fruits.
I had to research the term Broney-boy, as I had never come across it before reading this article. I am stunned at the on-going infantilization of the spiritual instinct of man. The character "Luce" (meaning Light and which has a strong association to "The Morning Star") is akin to a Japanese Animé character. It is appalling that this has been chosen to represent the Divinity of the Church. It is a cartoon: "a sketch or drawing, usually humorous, as in a newspaper or periodical, symbolizing, satirizing, or caricaturing some action, subject, or person of popular interest."
The Vatican's Luce campaign is far worse than that. Its designer and owner of the company that produces the figure also designs and sells a big range of vibrators and sex toys (tokidoki x brand), whose graphics and packaging echo the Luce character's Anime style, only far more sharp-edged.
This whole thing, including Luce, is all about pedophilia. It reeks of pedophilia, and the sex devices are clearly being pitched to an underage market. Just a quick google of "tokidoki x" will bring up more images of these sex devices than you can count.
"Oh but the Vatican must not have known about THOSE things" many will cry. But I am sure that the degenerate clerics not only knew about it, but chose the designer and his creations precisely because he is pushing pedophilia, which is the next taboo that the "love is love" people intend to topple. And in the process demoralizing even more beleaguered believers.
Perhaps we have great expectations in the East: a refreshed and powerful champion of Christian civilisation which even now is destroying the amoral western powers.
Reading this tragic commentary on the state of Christian involvement in the 21st century, or vice versa I should say, only increases my gratitude for the TLM, where, TBH, we are packed to the gills with young single men, women, and young marrieds with a regular assembly line of infants and toddlers in tow. My early Church history tells me that, where holiness becomes the most scarce, it becomes like a superpower for those few who can still achieve it. We call them Saints.
Think of the OPIUM WARS. Now China is having its revenge, without the West even knowing it. The West buys Chinese electric cars and Chinese lithium batteries and Chinese solar panels, all in the name of climate change religion. Meanwhile the Chinese keep building coal-fired electrical plants. I'm learning Japanese myself. Atarashii Gakko!
I would urge cautious use of the word “Christianity”.
If you use it here to refer to traditional church organizations, the I have no doubt that you are correct.
But there seems to me to be a quiet but accelerating resurgence of a kind of underground Christianity among people whom the name-brand churches have alienated by polluting their message of salvation with political propaganda.
I was recently in a certain area of the country (US) and was somewhat surprised by the large number of houses and properties with crosses prominently displayed.
The part of the country I live in is heavily dotted with (some rather large and popular) off-brand (non-denominational) churches, many of which seem to be a little more focused on that which is God’s than they are on that which is Caesar’s.
The name-brand churches, blinded by political and social activism, are, by and large, missing the boat on the spiritual tsunami that is building. It is in that sense that I agree with the “suddenly” thesis.
Lon...from the other side of the pond here. You are correct. There is a resurgence, especially among young men for Christianity and its teachings here in the US. The report I read is that they are going to Baptist and reform churches outside of the mainstream. Here we have all manner of protestantism...those churches are graying and dying. Episcopal (CoE), Methodist, Presbyterian, Unitarian and Congregationalist. Then there's are the traditionally African American churches: Church of God in Christ, African Episcopal Church, Baptist, etc. They may be our saving grace. The problem with this shift of young men is that the young women are going in the other direction. As you know, young men need young women to have a family.
What I would like to see examined are the reasons the church has lost so much. Popular culture is certainly a big part of it, but the church also needs a little self reflection. I am Episcopalian (CoE) and there's plenty of stupid stuff going on, I'll grant you that. But, I think the damage brought by the abuses in the church in general and the Catholic church in specific hurt us all. Abuse of power is just that and having a crucifix hang over the event makes it really bad. Churches and their hierarchy lost their humility. They got too much power and, among other things, abused our children. It's going to be a long road back. I believe one day they will return because Christ's message is universal.
African-American churches vote reliably for the party of sodomy, transgenderism, and abortion. There will be no revival of Christianity arising from them.
If by that you mean they traditionally vote left, yes. But leftward voting has just recently been associated with those things you mention above. And many people don't vote only according to their faith. There are a myriad of other things they are voting for when they cast a ballot. My comment was simply to say those I know in these churches are solid Christians. More than most people I've encountered. I will defend them and stand for them even though I am not a leftward voter.
The Spiritual Dynamic of Berdyaev's Critique-J. Norris Beam, Ph.D.
For Berdyaev, the arrival of technics in the modern period opens up a whole new chapter in humanity's relationship to the cosmos. With technics the relationship of spirit to reality (matter) is involved. The creative human spirit relates to nature as it invents machines and technology out of physical elements; thus, the arrival of technics is a phase in humankind's spiritual development. Yet the arrival of technics also signals humanity's enslavement to objects in the world. This is true as far as humanity has abandoned spiritual aims and values. It has begun to look to the earth and the miracles of applied science to provide life with an ultimate meaning and happiness. A novel reality has entered history. It is human organization. Because it is neither organic nor inorganic reality, technics poses a challenge to human existence. Having separated itself from God and spiritual values, modern humanity pridefully turns exclusively to the construction and organization of its material world to find meaning, happiness, and security. Technics is precisely the means by which modern humanity, apart from God, and by its own devices, seeks to achieve desired beneficial ends for itself.
In modernity, several autonomous spheres of existence seek to dominate exclusively the whole of life, and technics is one of them. Once modern humanity discarded the Medieval worldview, with its religiously integral view of reality, it has sought integrality of being in one of several spheres of life. Technics is a part of these spheres. Specifically, technics must reckon with the spheres of statism and economics. Berdyaev perceives a pernicious development in modernity in which collective forces (the "masses") look to the state, economics, and technics to provide them with total happiness and well-being. Like Dostoevsky, from whom he gleamed many insights, Berdyaev thinks that humankind's appeal to technics, statism, and economics for total well-being only leads to human self-enslavement. Thus, humanity illustrates Dostoevsky's dictum that when humans abandon God, they (unknowingly) abandon or betray themselves as well.
Berdyaev explains more specifically that humankind has experienced certain periods in history when different relationships of spirit to matter are suggested. The ultimate outcome of the arrival of technics depends upon whether the human spirit can attain sufficient moral control over the machine to avoid a total domination and destruction by the machine.
"Technics is precisely the means by which modern humanity, apart from God, and by its own devices, seeks to achieve desired beneficial ends for itself."
These desired beneficial ends for itself are also meant in the Knowledge of Weal and Woe (misleadingly interpreted and translated as the knowledge of good and evil).
The tree's name seems to suggest that Adam can attain to a type of knowledge that will help him to what he wants and save him from what he don't want. The tree's name is God's ultimate test. Had he styled it the Tree of Death, Adam sure would have avoided it. But then the test would have missed God's purpose. What Adam should have understood from the name of the tree is that the forbidden knowledge was double-edged. Therefore ultimately harmful rather than beneficial.
But that's the road which mankind has chosen, with the help of Church and Bible and in spite of being in the possession of the tiny but magnificent Myth of the Garden of Eden. The road of double-edged knowledge that destroys at a far greater pace than it can heal what is has laid waste.
I would submit that the picture is much worse (and yet also BETTER) than you describe, William.
Jesus loses none of His own. His sheep hear His voice and follow no matter what. (See John 10, e.g.) He will get the glory He deserves, extracted from all tribes, tongues, nations. See Rev 7, 21, 22, etc.
The *apparent* decline in numbers and any semblance of orthodoxy is due, rather, to the dynamic He outlines in places like Matthew 7, 13, and 25, and which Paul & John pick up, e.g., in Romans 2 and 9 and 1st John (the whole epistle).
Basically: there will be and always have been *hordes* of self-deceived-and-deceiving non-born-again pretenders who pack it in once they don't get what they want, which, all along, was centered on their own unregenerate desires in and for this fallen dark wicked world.