Summary: William Lind looks for solutions in an unlikely place to the West’s deep problems. Like me, he moves beyond diagnosis of problems – complaining – to seeking solutions. More people doing this would start a new era for America. It won’t be easy.
Martin Luther started the Reformation on 31 October 1517. We can do it again.
A Second Reformation?
By William S. Lind.
From Traditional Right • 10 October 2018.
Posted with his generous permission.
Rome has fallen.
Beginning in the 1960s, most mainline Protestant churches fractured over two divergent understandings of Christianity. In one camp are those who believe Christianity was revealed in the person of Jesus Christ, in Holy Scripture, and in the traditions of the early church. The duty of present-day Christians is to pass that heritage, unaltered and undiminished to future generations until the Lord comes again. In the other camp are those who believe the faith must reflect the Zeitgeist, altering itself as necessary to maintain a broad appeal. They see revelation as an ongoing process in which new commandments can override old.
Under a veneer of unity, this same tension has been present within the Roman Catholic church. With the release of Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano’s recent letter attributing priestly pedophilia to a widespread toleration of homosexuality among Roman clergy, the fracture is in the open. The Zeitgeist has proclaimed homosexuality normal and, as in the mainline Protestant churches, the faction within the Roman church that follows the Zeitgeist must follow suit. To traditional Christians this is anathema. Rome appears headed for schism. This may be good news.
A schism within the Roman church and the emergence of a sizable Roman “continuing church” would create the possibility of a second Reformation, with the difference that this Reformation would unify rather than divide. “Continuing church” Protestants and Catholics would have more in common with each other than with modernizers in their own denominations; the same would be true for the other side. It is conceivable that Catholics and Protestants could unite in two new churches, one reflecting Zeitgeist, the other upholding traditional Christianity. Given the number of both Catholic and Protestants traditionalists, a new, united “continuing church” might be the larger – large enough to wield substantial cultural and political power.
To be sure, the obstacles would be significant, especially for the traditionalists. Traditional Protestants and Catholics would each have to look back before the Reformation to find common ground. Protestants would have to accept a Catholic understanding of the Eucharist and adopt a valid liturgy for their communion services (even some Baptist churches had liturgy up into the early 1900s). Catholics would have to share the Apostolic Succession with non-Catholic male clergy and forego requiring that Protestants accept the innovations arising out of the Council of Trent, Vatican I and Vatican II. The Holy Spirit would have to do some heavy lifting to make a union come about.
What might be the strategic implications of such a second Reformation? Since the end of the Thirty Years’ War in 1648, the West has discounted religion as a strategic factor. But at present, the primary strategic weakness of the West is that it no longer believes in itself. Western culture’s will to live died in World War I, in the mud and slaughter of the Western Front. After the Somme, Verdun, and Passchendaele, the best lacked all conviction. Fascism attempted to recover by exalting the will, but fascism failed, felled by its own errors. And so today as the old West, Europe, is invaded by hordes of mendicants from strange cultures, the European elites offer their countries as doormats.
As Russell Kirk wrote, “Culture comes from the cult.” Religion has been at the heart of most, perhaps all cultures since human culture arose. While the First World War collapsed the West’s faith in itself, the religion at the core of Western culture had long been under assault by rationalism. Fractured by the first Reformation, the church could no longer speak with the united voice necessary to reply convincingly (about this, see Brad S. Gregory’s recent book, The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized Society
To Descartes’ “Cogito ergo sum,” a united church would have answered, “Non est. Deus cogitavit, ergo es.” {Ed: per the comments, that means – “Wrong. God thought you, therefore you are.”}
How can Western culture recover the will to live when, in Europe, the churches are empty because most of the clergy no longer believe the Nicene Creed, while in the U.S. many of the most popular churches preach a therapeutic narcissism that has little to do with taking up your cross and following Jesus? Among the ruling elites in both Europe and America, Christian faith is regarded as spiritual eczema, an unfortunate condition to be covered up in public. It can have no role to play in strategy; the very notion is absurd.
This, then, is the potential strategic significance of a second Reformation, one that unites all traditional Christians in one church: the West’s recovery of the will to live. Far from being strategically unimportant, religion is now as it always has been, one of the most powerful strategic factors, a lesson the Islamics teach us regularly on our own soil. Culture comes from the cult, and a united church, marching as to war, could revive Western people’s’ belief in their culture and in themselves.
Deus vult. {“God Wills It”, battle cry of the First Crusade.}
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Editor’s comment
Spirituality has often been a decisive factor in history. It is dying in America, and people tend to despise values that they have lost. History suggests that “culture comes from the cult” {aka religion} has been said by many philosophers and historians, including Arnold Toynbee and Russell Kirk. The concept was developed and popularized by Christopher Dawson, as in this often-quoted excerpt from his Gifford Lectures.
“A social culture is an organized way of life which is based on a common tradition and conditioned by a common environment. …It is clear that a common way of life involves a common view of life, common standards of behavior and common standards of value, and consequently a culture is a spiritual community…. Therefore from the beginning the social way of life which is culture has been deliberately ordered and directed in accordance with the higher laws of life which are religion.” (1947)
Lind looks to a future when Christianity again becomes a powerful force in the West. See this posts about feminists’ conquest of Christian churches in America.
More broadly, Lind and I have followed similar analytical paths over the years. Odd, considering our different philosophies and beliefs. Now we’re both searching for solutions, moving beyond description and diagnosis to seek paths to a better world. At some point descriptions of problems become whining. Pouring more water on a rock does not make it wetter.
The key is forming alliances: different groups who have found their common interests and decide to stand together. It has happened before in American. It can happen again. Here is a possible. example.
- Men standing together can end the gender wars.
- A surprise end to the gender wars: men stand together.
About the author
William S. Lind’s director of the American Conservative Center for Public Transportation. He has a Master’s Degree in History from Princeton University in 1971. He worked as a legislative aide for armed services for Senator Robert Taft, Jr., of Ohio from 1973 to 1976 and held a similar position with Senator Gary Hart of Colorado from 1977 to 1986. See his bio at Wikipedia
Mr. Lind is author of the Maneuver Warfare Handbook
He’s perhaps best known for his articles about the long war, now published as On War: The Collected Columns of William S. Lind 2003-2009
- His posts at TraditionalRight.
- His articles about geopolitics at The American Conservative.
- His articles about transportation at The American Conservative.
For More Information
Ideas! For shopping ideas see my recommended books and films at Amazon.
If you liked this post, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. See all posts about Christianity, about Reforming America: steps to new politics, and especially these about our divisions and how to overcome them …
- DEFCON 2: both Left and Right have turned against us.
- Hot political rhetoric & fake polarization make us weak.
- Our elites reveal their plan to govern America: divide and rule.
- Fighting America’s dark side. Fighting against those seeking to divide and weaken us.
- Tribalism and racism are the 1%’s best friends.
The best book about the roots of our spiritual weakness
Closing of the American Mind
By Allan Bloom.
“The brilliant an controversial critique of American culture with nearly a million copies in print.”
This is my top recommendation of a book explaining what is wrong with America. From the publisher …
“In 1987, eminent political philosopher Allan Bloom published The Closing of the American Mind, an appraisal of contemporary America that “hits with the approximate force and effect of electroshock therapy” (the New York Times) and has not only been vindicated, but has also become more urgent today. In clear, spirited prose, Bloom argues that the social and political crises of contemporary America are part of a larger intellectual crisis: the result of a dangerous narrowing of curiosity and exploration by the university elites.
“Now, in this 25th anniversary edition, acclaimed author and journalist Andrew Ferguson contributes a new essay that describes why Bloom’s argument caused such a furor at publication and why our culture so deeply resists its truths today.”
