From the essay, “Seminarians,” by Martin Marty in the most recent Sightings:
We historians are not given the gift of foreseeing, but as for seeing – as in Sightings – I learned long ago to look at trends and signs that don’t fit headlines or on cable. Thus, decades ago, while many chroniclers thought that “death of God” theology was a cosmic challenge, it occurred to some of us that “high-rise apartments and the long weekend” would do more to assault the world of Sunday Schools, church attendance, and the parish as a center of communal life. Today those trends continue, and the higher-rising of apartments and the longer-yet weekend keep playing their part. Forget the current “new atheism,” so readily reported on as an assault. Notice instead patterns of leisure like Sunday marathons and soccer, patterns of work in which 24/7 job demands increase, and now, of course, “the economic crash” that colors all prospects.
Did Rome not have to collapse for it’s people to acknolwedge the frailties of life. To be reminded what genuine luxuries are and are not. To reverse the perversion that had spread and become accepted through decadence. Here we are. Sometimes the worst is the best. I think the economic route we are on could spur a revival. It’s a shame that right and wrong has become such a grey area for so many people that it has paralized there ability to stand for anything the does not relate to the weaking of there community or country. It’s a shame that our children will be eating our spoiled fruit.
Comment by joshua — May 24, 2009 @ 12:06 pm