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Add to NewsvineGledhill reports on an address a Roman Catholic cardinal gave to the Lambeth conference, in which he chastised certain sections of the Communion for having "spiritual Alzheimer's." Excerpt from the cardinal's speech:
'"Much is spoken today of diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. By analogy, their symptoms can, at times, be found even in our own Christian communities. For example, when we live myopically in the fleeting present, oblivious of our past heritage and apostolic traditions, we could well be suffering from spiritual Alzheimer's. And when we behave in a disorderly manner, going whimsically our own way without any co-ordination with the head or the other members of our community, it could be ecclesial Parkinson's."
Interesting, using the disease metaphor here to describe the disorder brought about by the progressives in TEC and parts of the C of E. It's also interesting to think that this same accusation is more or less what traditionalist Catholics say about the Second Vatican Council, and is also more or less the traditional Orthodox criticism of Roman actions leading up to the Great Schism. That churches and institutions change can't be seriously denied; the mechanisms they have for change is what's really at issue.
Overall, though, isn't the whole point of Modernity to induce spiritual Alzheimer's and call it a symptom of improving health and wellness?
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Jillian,
Modern (as opposed to contemporary) Germany, Japan, and Russia were hardly "traditional" or only "traditional" in their self-conceptions.
Hitler's regime in Germany, Tojo's regime in Japan, and Stalin's regime in the Soviet Union were each of them far more modernist than traditionalist in orientation -- even their visions of tradition were modernist ones.
The case of Japan comes closest to your characterization, but even then not so close.
Germany and Russia especially were laboratories in which every bad (as opposed to good) idea of "modernity" was put into practice with absolutely horrible results.
While the British issued copies of *Palgrave's Golden Treasury of Verse* to their soldiers during World War I, the Germans issued copies of *Thus Spake Zarathustra* by Nietzsche, which ought to tell one something about the modern German self-conception vis-a-vis modernity (and Christianity).
Lenin, Stalin, et al were just successors to a longer line of Russian autocrats, it is true. But the nature of their own autocracy was quite a bit different from those that came before. I'd be interested in what the Orthodox reading this thread might have to say about how well their own tradition fared in the Soviet Union -- not to mention what Jews might have to say.
The paradox here is that modernity itself is a part of tradition by now -- and as such it ought be viewed just as critically as any other part of the past.
When the Germans, the Japanese, the Russians, reject their recent past, they are *rejecting* as much as embracing modernity.
Posted by: Augustus Johnson | July 23, 2008 8:06 PM
Jillian,
Modern (as opposed to contemporary) Germany, Japan, and Russia were hardly "traditional" or only "traditional" in their self-conceptions.
Hitler's regime in Germany, Tojo's regime in Japan, and Stalin's regime in the Soviet Union were each of them far more modernist than traditionalist in orientation -- even their visions of tradition were modernist ones.
The case of Japan comes closest to your characterization, but even then not so close.
Germany and Russia especially were laboratories in which every bad (as opposed to good) idea of "modernity" was put into practice with absolutely horrible results.
While the British issued copies of *Palgrave's Golden Treasury of Verse* to their soldiers during World War I, the Germans issued copies of *Thus Spake Zarathustra* by Nietzsche, which ought to tell one something about the modern German self-conception vis-a-vis modernity (and Christianity).
Lenin, Stalin, et al were just successors to a longer line of Russian autocrats, it is true. But the nature of their own autocracy was quite a bit different from those that came before. I'd be interested in what the Orthodox reading this thread might have to say about how well their own tradition fared in the Soviet Union -- not to mention what Jews might have to say.
The paradox here is that modernity itself is a part of tradition by now -- and as such it ought be viewed just as critically as any other part of the past.
When the Germans, the Japanese, the Russians, reject their recent past, they are *rejecting* as much as embracing modernity.
Posted by: Augustus Johnson | July 23, 2008 8:07 PM
I'm kind of with Jillian 6:41 pm. People use 'tradition' and 'wisdom of the past' as if they were formulas. No folks, you need to t-h-i-n-k about the current society and I would say, how best to implement the real meaning of Christianity instead of unthinkingly following something written in 1600 by people who had very different understandings (and lots of misunderstandings) of the world and the people around them.
Posted by: michael | July 23, 2008 8:30 PM
"No one should be surprised in the slightest when the dissolution of the Anglican Communion yields bumper crops of converts for Rome, and I'm sure His Eminence is just preparing the way. The death of the via media is a sad thing, I think, but perhaps inevitable."
As long as there are three bishops to consecrate more bishops, there will be Catholics in this world who will refuse to kiss the red slippers of the whore of Babylon.
Perhaps the ViaMedia will be narrower, but then narrow still is the road to heaven. Christ's Holy Catholic Church will survive in England and all of the world.
Posted by: HR | July 23, 2008 8:44 PM
HR (Henricus Rex?),
there will be Catholics in this world who will refuse to kiss the red slippers of the whore of Babylon.
Wasn't she one of Saddam's molls?
Oh - you meant that fellow with the popish Pradas! Je m'excuse. Ma faute, ma faute, ma très grande faute!
Christ's Holy Catholic Church will survive in England and all of the world.
Well said. And let us pray to its founder St. Augustine that its day of restoration may come soon.
- Orlandus Caballarius
Posted by: Roland de Chanson | July 24, 2008 8:02 AM
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