Mary de Rachewiltz, Ezra Pound, and the Battle for Western Civilization

Mary de Rachewiltz (1925-2026) has died at the age of 101. She wasn't exactly a household name but as the daughter of Ezra Pound and Olga Rudge, she was somewhat famous in European and American artistic circles. But her reputation was tarnished at least in part by her father Ezra and his associations with Fascism and Mussolini and the fact that she devoted most of her adult life to curating his work and memory.

Musing on The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance and Forty Years that Shook the World (II)

All things considered, I don't disagree with Wyman's general narrative regarding the rise of the modern West and how it surpassed previous super-power states and cultures like that of the Ottoman Empire.

But rather than celebrate Capitalism and the way it has reshaped the world, I would offer some different narratives to consider.

Musing on The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance and Forty Years that Shook the World (I)

Patrick Wyman's The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance and Forty Years that Shook the World (published in 2021 by Twelve) focuses primarily on the years1490-1530. He argues this period was critical for understanding the modern world as the West moved through these four decades of transition.

In the process of surveying some of the main historical events of this period, he teases out key cultural markers that (he argues) set the stage for the coming period and the world we know today.

Postscript: An Aesthetic both Transient and Transcendent

Recovering the First Reformation - Toward a Proto-Protestant Narrative of Church History (XXII/Final)

We ought to understand that technology and art are not easily separated and both are to some extent inseparable from questions of epistemology and morality. Additionally, if we grasp that socially conservative attitudes toward the arts and culture (while inconsistent) cannot be divorced from their larger cultural narratives surrounding epistemology and previous generational progress and values, it behooves us (lest we be swept away by these powerful cultural forces and heavily promoted arguments) to apply the otherworldly and non-conformist ethos of the First Reformation to the present day. Our culture is in crisis and thus to many, the arguments made by conservatives seem very persuasive and grounding but from a New Testament perspective they are flawed at almost every level.

An otherworldly and non-conformist ethos leads us to a cultural posture and interaction that embraces neither the Classic nor the Enlightened. In fact in many ways we are better able to resonate with the postmodern critique and even the cynical. We benefit from critiques that expose the world system's inherent flaws and contradictions, that reveal it to be an idolatrous fraud and resting on transient and degenerating foundations – as Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 7.29-31 and Romans 8.19-23. This should not upset us but rather drives us all the more toward the inescapable choice between dependence upon revelation and the hope it grants or a collapse into nihilism.

Pluralism, Modernity, and the Third Constantinian Shift

Recovering the First Reformation - Toward a Proto-Protestant Narrative of Church History (XIV)

Once again we are reminded of the strange relationship between separatist Christianity and the forces of secularisation and how the pluralism generated by the latter leads to a more congenial environment for the Church than the monistic sacralism of the Constantinian paradigm. Indeed in addition to the folk of the First Reformation, even the early beleaguered Magisterial Protestants understood that an environment of pagan or even secular opposition is preferable than persecution at the hands of a hostile Christendom. Better a Turk than a Habsburg is a lost sentiment but in light of today's Dominionism and its aspirations it's one we would do well to reconsider. While I don't think the Dominionists are going to 'win' today's struggle they are nevertheless scoring 'victories' and if they should win and attain the cultural supremacy they so badly want – the old phrase will once more have relevance even though the context is very different. They won't hesitate to use the power of the state to silence Christians who oppose them and use the Bible to expose their error.

The Legacy of First Reformation Separatism versus Magisterial Protestantism's Establishment Ethos (1517-1914)

Recovering the First Reformation - Toward a Proto-Protestant Narrative of Church History (X)

There is value in a further elaboration of this contrast between the First and Magisterial Reformations and thus as an exercise it's worth briefly surveying the latter's historical and ethical legacy as it transitioned from the Renaissance era into modernity.

American Evangelicals and European Right-Wing Populism

https://issuesetc.org/2019/08/06/2183-lessons-from-the-demise-of-western-europe-dr-allan-carlson-8-6-19/

Italy is poised to turn even farther to the Right. After the Atlantic Establishment (via its media outlets) tried to stoke a Russia-gate type scandal, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini decided to make his move and by calling a snap election he is attempting to turn the tables on his enemies in both Rome and Brussels.

Purity Culture Revisited: A Distortion Subjected to Distortion

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/15/opinion/sunday/sex-christian.html

I was both surprised and disappointed to discover this article in the New York Times. The topic is one that should probably stay within Christian circles as the lost will undoubtedly misunderstand the issues and turn to blasphemous mockery. The paper which in the same edition published a piece on how a celebrity Sodomite couple spends their Sundays is a poor forum indeed for a professing Christian to air internal grievance.

The 'Purity' issue has vexed me in the past and continues to do so in the present. Something that was good and well intentioned was turned into a harmful distraction and now a new generation sows seeds of confusion and brings with it a potential for great harm.  

But so it is with Post-War American Evangelicalism. The movement once known as the New Evangelicalism was rooted in error from the beginning and has now spawned many 'new' Evangelicalisms... confusion and I fear apostasy. The fact that the author of the opinion piece is a managing editor of Christianity Today is a rather stunning indictment of that magazine and the Evangelical movement it represents.

Tolkien, Liberalism and Modernity

It is not uncommon to hear it suggested that Tolkien's idealised depiction of The Shire reflects the type of society envisioned by Libertarians. They would point to the fact that despite having a mayor and a few officials The Shire is largely self-governing and self-regulated.

Tolkien mentions an unofficial system of patronage in which some of the wealthier hobbits provide for those in need so that no one is truly destitute.