Hat tip to John Beeler in his latest round-up. In particular, he quotes a blog posting – Post rationalism. I have often lain awake thinking about these things, and there is nothing we can do about the society in which we live. The conservatives would revive the political climate of the early twentieth century and especially the period following World War I. The so-called “liberal” movements seek to impose ideologies and stereotypes, missing the essential intuitions that were at the origin of their claims.

The comments (at least most of them) are as fascinating as the article. Christianity seems to be dead because it’s no use to anyone. We have the Welfare State, hospitals and state schools. Very few have any notion of the inner spiritual content of Christianity. The future of the west seems to be divided between “medieval” and “fundamentalist” Islam and Orwellian technology and totalitarianism.

My own intuition is that collective humanity is brainless, the perfect expression of the Valentinian hylics (from the Greek ύλη – matter). The world has always been materialist and hostile to the life of the spirit. Prophets, saints and artists have always been individual persons. No one could ever do anything about the world other than bring it into deeper evil and materialism. My point is that we waste our breath trying to do something about the world by competing at the level of authority.

We can only compromise as best we can with the world, the only alternative being our death. We have to make money to live, feed the Welfare State and pay taxes, pay back debts for our houses, cars and education. Some of us will be forced out by the sheer pressure, to begin anew elsewhere. Mankind can be extremely resourceful. We will always live in a hostile world in which man eats man.

Christianity will always survive where it remains true to itself, and will founder when it tries to compete with the world instead of answering with love and self-sacrifice. It will seem most triumphant when it forms an alliance with world powers in a seeming coincidence of interests, but that kind of Christianity is hollow, hypocritical and to be rejected by anyone of a spiritual vision. What will remain are prophets and saints purified in the crucible.