Posted on 12/27/2004 4:24:06 AM PST by ishmac
Europeans, Americans, et al. who subscribe to this "high culture" deny the existence of God and the fundamental spirituality of humans, which is an inherent longing for God, as ruthlessly as previous generations denied the fundamentality of human sexuality--and with about as much success.
interesting read
Indeed, the heartland of the faith has never recovered from the French Revolution. I see the two world wars of the last century as a chastisement for a culture given over to bourgeoise comfort and indulgence. It's not the same as being middle class. America, for all her faults, is not bourgeoise. It's middle class. In spite of all the inroads of the welfare state, our country still has a sense that sacrifice is a given of human life and suffering is redemptive.
The Intercontinental Left--or the "gnostic underground," as Eric Voegelin would call it--was always present in Europe's culture, but it was held in check by what was, even after the reformation, a Christian culture. That all went by the boards after the Jacobins' Terror. It was St. Clement Hofbauer I think who stated around 1815 that all Central Europe needed re-evangelization. He did his part, preaching in Warsaw in a Poland where the faith had fallen on hard times. The result was a country that had faith strong enough to resist the latter-day Jacobins, the Bolsheviks. In other areas this didn't happen, e.g. Bohemia.
Man must be governed by God or he will be ruled by tyrants-----I remember the quote but not sure of the author.
Very true. The U.S. left is just a prominent branch of that beast called the "intercontinental left" (I got that phrase from an obscure Czech emigre named Rio Preisner, who fled Czechoslovakia in '68). The U.S., for all her faults, is the only large country left that still acknowledges God in the public forum. It's people still have a sense of the "real reality" spoken of by Voegelin, although the social engineers are doing their best to erase it through public education and their PR branch, the MSM.
And the astounding thing is that they are setting themselves up for a replay.
I wish more Europeans would do the same. What treasures they have, but don't appreciate!
Now it's Europe's turn to be ignored by God.
All the soaring cathedrals in the world won't save her if His Spirit is no longer there.
Sad but true. The one city I know well is Prague--zlata, stovezata Praha. Like Rome, you can scarcely throw a brick without hitting a church. But the only people who go in those churches anymore are Japanese touists, elderly Czech women, and crazy Americans like me. Of course, the Czech Republic is an especially secular place, sort of like Sweden. It's been that way for a century now.
Still, it's an amazingly beautiful place. If you can love a city like a woman, that's the way I loved Prague.
We're not that far behind and we're closing fast. With the homosexual movement and hate crime, hate speech, laws it won't be long.
OK, but 1500 years is a long time to be a visitor. How long does a country have to wait before a religion becomes a people's "history"?
I expect that they will come to realize the value of their treasures, but it will likely be too late.
Yes. I have also spent a bit of time in Europe and her cathedrals are among my favorite places to visit. They speak of a different age now become little more than museums in most places.
Not too long ago, I was in Canterbury at the Cathedral. Simply magnificant! But when the hourly prayers were read by the vicar, it was no different than somebody reading a laundry list of artifacts. It was pure rote. The tourists were hushed for a moment, but nobody else was there to actually participate, just gawkers paying their fee and coming only to stare at the stained glass and handiwork. It was just depressing, depressing like a cold, dead thing.
On the other hand when I attend my church here in America, it invigorates the soul and is full of life, preaching, enthusiastic singing, and the Spirit of God.
God does not push Himself upon us, but goes where He is welcomed. In much of Europe, He is not welcomed but scorned. But in those places - even in Europe - where He is welcomed, He gladly goes.
It's amazing that these "educated, intelligent elites" will not face the most fundamental philosophical questions of life:
1) Is there a God? (overwhelming affirmative evidence)
2) Is He good? (for God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son..)
3) What does He require of me? ("To do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God")
4) How do I get closer to God ("Jesus said to them, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me" (John 14:6))
While bourgeois does of course mean middle class, it is a French term dripping with elitist contempt for the middle class and its values. American culture, in contrast tends to honor and respect its middle classes and to celebrate their values. Americans are often either suspicious or merely amused by their own upper classes and cultural elites.
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