I finished Out of the Ashes the other day. Regular readers here know I am huge fan of Anthony Esolen. Perhaps my coolness to the current effort has more to do with what I need rather than what Mr. Esolen has to offer.
As always he writes very well. His writing is always a delight to read. However, at times (in Out of the Ashes) he seemed to have so much to say that he didn't know how to say it briefly, so uses examples that don't clearly cover the problem.
And this is another problem. The book is subtitled "Rebuilding American Culture", but Mr. Esolen spends so much time defining the problems, he neglects how to rebuild, other than 'don't continue the problem.'
Perhaps this was it for me. I read for enjoyment and to learn; the enjoyment was there, but in this case, I thoroughly know the problems already. I have been struggling in my own way to rebuild culture at least in my family and among my friends. I wanted a different perspective.
However, I DO recommend the book. This is not meant to be a negative review, just that my personal expectations were not met - I am sure Mr. Esolen did not write the book to satisfy me. But take a look, for example:
The progressives of old had a clear idea of what they thought would bring about their earthly paradise: the dictatorship of the proletariat, the emancipation of women, the elimination of monarchy and its replacement with democracy, universal education, and so on. None of their nostrums has delivered on its promise, and some have had the perverse effect of rotting away the foundation upon which their suppositions of beneficence were based. So it is that democratic machinery without the soul of democracy has produced a far more intrusive and liberty-crushing state than anything that the proudest monarch could have imagined-or wished, since such a constant political preoccupation would have left no time for boar hunting or chasing women. So it is that universal schooling has not brought Milton to the millions, but rather has taken Milton away from the brightest and replaced him with "young adult" junk. So it is that women have been emancipated from the freedom of the home and chained to salaried work and lives of relative loneliness.
Oremus pro invicem!
1 comment:
I think Esolen wrote this as a sort of unofficial rebuttal of Rod Dreher's The Benedict Option. I have read neither as I am still working on other weighty tomes that make this look like light reading in comparison. But I think both men represent two impulses that already exist in Protestantism today.
Dreher and likeminded people remind me of premillennial Christians who believe that the Second Coming will occur before any redemption of the earth will take place. They retreat to a safe zone until Christ comes and does the job for them as the world turns to Hell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premillennialism
Esolen and likeminded people remind me of postmillennial Christians who believe they can redeem the world in some way, turn it into Heaven, and present it as a shiny trophy to the Lord upon His return.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmillennialism
Amillennialism rejects the pre and post positions, and I think it is the correct position. The world will continue as it is now with periods of apostasy and renewal until the end of time. The consequence or "cash value" of this position is that you are pessimistic when others are optimistic while you are optimistic when others are pessimistic. This reflects the reality that this present world is neither Heaven nor Hell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amillennialism
We are in a current period of great apostasy. As such, I remind people that Christ is still on His throne, and God wins in the end. Reading the Bible, church history, and biographies of various saints teaches us to always have a faith that abides regardless of times of trial or refreshment. One of my favorites is Daniel who was a great one during the lowest time in biblical history when the Babylonians took the Israelites into captivity. He was a man of faith in a hostile environment much like today.
Daniel demonstrated constancy which is the quality of being enduring and unchanging. I think we have lost our knowledge and appreciation of this important quality especially in the Roman Catholic Church. We are not here to change the world so much as to not let the world change us. The counterintuitive wisdom here is that we become a beacon of hope to the world by this quality of being unchanging and indifferent.
If you combine Dreher's call for spiritual renewal with Esolen's belief in not retreating from the world, this would be the amillennial approach and the basic gist of St. Augustine's The City of God. So far, I don't see any modern writers or thinkers putting this position out there. I'm with Tolkien in believing that some things are worth fighting for even if you can't win.
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