When we take a long, hard look at our culture today, it is painfully clear that we are in a profound crisis.
The racial, economic, political divisions in society, exacerbated by COVID, the elections last fall, and the violence in our midst, have become a profound obstacle to unity, peace, compassion, and even truth.
Regardless of one’s political stance, who fully believes anything we hear and read?
A toxic anger pulses through the core of American life today, which poisons the fabric of our institutions and even relationships. Deep down we know God as the only One who can heal, forgive, unify and restore us to a common vision of truth, goodness, and beauty which builds a culture of life and love.
At the core of the word “culture” is “cult,” a word which today signifies a brainwashed group of fanatics who want to steal your children, but the fullest meaning of “cult” is simply the worship of God — the essence of religion.
To worship, adore, thank, and speak to the Lord are the most fundamentally human acts because they both express and deepen our relationship with God as His beloved children.
When we worship God, we affirm Him as the center of our lives and the purpose of our common existence.
A culture truly ordered around God’s sovereignty and truth will cohere as a community which welcomes and cares for every human being, seeks justice and peace, and builds a civilization of compassion and goodness.
Not by accident is the Church at the center of every medieval city.
Take “cult” out of “culture” and society falls apart because the center does not hold without God.
Culture shaped over the centuries
Our current Western worldview has been shaped by many intellectual forces throughout the centuries, beginning with Greek philosophy and Roman law, but truly formed by the intellectual tradition of the Church, grounded in the Scriptures and the writings of the early Church Fathers.
When the Roman Empire collapsed in the fifth century, the Catholic Church stepped into that vacuum with a bracing vision of human dignity, the inherent value of monogamous marriage, the spiritual worth of work, and the need to educate, heal, and serve all people in the name of Christ.
Hospitals, universities, cathedrals, and monasteries rose all over Europe as centers of civilization, inspired by this Christian worldview.
Every facet of life was inherently spiritual because God was rightfully viewed as Lord and Savior.
If we mistakenly idealize the Middle Ages, however, we will overlook the violence, corruption, and injustice which worked against the Christian ideal.
Serfs suffered a life of unrelenting labor and poverty, an economic chasm divided the nobility from the poor, corrupt popes and bishops lived more like feudal lords than servants of Christ, and minorities, such as Jews, endured violent and murderous prejudice.
The medieval Church certainly needed radical reform, which partially explains the Protestant Reformation as well as the urgency and success of the subsequent Counter-Reformation within the Catholic Church Herself.
On the other hand, the medieval Church made enormous contributions to the development of Western culture.
Art, literature, philosophy, law, agriculture, medicine, theology, and architecture all expanded their vision and content within the spiritual vision of Catholicism.
Serfs suffered terribly but they were not slaves.
Women enjoyed few rights, but the dignity of the feminine was emerging as a result of widespread devotion to the Blessed Virgin.
Judicial systems began to recognize the rule of law and the inherent rights of every person.
Popes and bishops sponsored artists, poets, and professors. The educational reach of universities and monasteries extended beyond the noble and the privileged.
A sacrificial concern for the poor and suffering shone in the lives of saints and even some political leaders.
Much of our cultural reality, which we easily take for granted today, came to be as a consequence of the Christian world view, exemplified in many ways by saints as diverse as Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, Francis of Assisi, and Hildegard of Bingen; artists such as Fra Angelico, Giotto, and later Michelangelo and Rafael; authors like Teresa of Avila, Dante, and Chaucer.
Shifts in culture
The Renaissance and the Enlightenment represent huge cultural shifts in the mindset of the West.
Instead of looking to God as the highest good, the focus of attention shifted to the human person.
Instead of looking to the next world as the ultimate reference of meaning, many people sought fulfillment in this life instead.
Science emerged as the explanation of all reality and individual experience, rather than religious faith.
The conclusion that the earth revolved around the sun seemed to contradict the authority of the Scriptures.
Voyages of discovery encountered new human cultures with a wide variety of religious and human convictions.
Philosophy disconnected itself from theology and sought answers apart from a fundamental spiritual dimension.
Not all of the consequences of these profound changes in thinking were bad by any means, but they do illustrate the breakdown of the coherent Christian worldview with God at the center, which had formed and guided Western humanity for a millennium.
In next week’s column, I will explore some of the philosophical underpinnings of our current culture, which work against our efforts to practice our faith, evangelize others, and live the mission of the Church in the public square.