Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Politics and Religion
Why the West Lost Its Nerve

Why the West Lost Its Nerve

Last updated on: February 28, 2020 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

0 Comments

Why the West Lost Its Nerve 2020-02-26T16:27:49-05:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I once took a friend of mine from Germany to a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game. He was greatly bothered by the pre-game custom of presenting the flag and everyone standing to sing the National Anthem. Such patriotism, he said, is wrong, is dangerous! I realized then that his society has had a very different experience with patriotism–and thousands of people gathering in stadiums to sing hymns to the fatherland–than our has had.

Postmodernist academics condemn all “totalizing” discourses and ways of thinking–that is, ideologies or religions that attempt to account for all of life–along with all “meta-narratives” (stories that explain all other stories). Why? Because of the Nazis.

The conventional wisdom in these circles is that Nazism comes from believing anything too much. That the way to prevent Nazism from coming back is to reject all objective belief systems in favor of a general openness to existence. (Never mind that, as I have shown, Nazism actually derived from the forebears of postmodernism who repudiated all moral and intellectual absolutes as “Jewish,” insisting on constructing new realities expressive of a national will to power.)

Now the editor of First Things, R. R. Reno, has written a book on this phenomenon, which manifests itself today in the West’s repudiation of its own culture and its inability to assert itself. The book is entitled Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West.

Texas A&M political science professor James R. Rogers (a member of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod) reviews the book at Law & Liberty. This is one of those especially useful reviews that not only explains the book’s position but engages with it in a way that advances the discussion and criticizes where it falls short.

From James R. Rogers, The Inescapable Particularity of Strong Gods:

Western elites, he argues, overreacted to the nationalist horrors of World War II, and threw out salutary commitments to nation, family, and religion in an understandable desire to deter revival of the forces that led to that devastating conflict. . . .

In recoiling from the horrors of nationalism in the first half of the century, Reno argues, Western elites after the war led a philosophical war on all boundaries, all particular commitments: political boundaries, economic boundaries, social boundaries.

Prof. Rogers quotes from the book: “In the second half of the twentieth century, we came to regard the first half as a world-historical eruption of the evils inherent in the Western tradition, which can be corrected only by the relentless pursuit of openness, disenchantment, and weakening.” This meant breaking down all boundaries–national boundaries (thus the ideology of unlimited immigration), cultural boundaries (in favor of multi-culturalism), religious boundaries (in favor of liberal ecumenism), moral boundaries (as in the sexual revolution), and now even the boundaries between men and women (feminism and transgenderism).

Quoting from the book once again:

This is absurd. It is not 1938. Our societies are not gathering themselves into masses marching in lockstep. . . . Instead, our societies are dissolving. Economic globalization shreds the social contract. Identity politics disintegrates civic bonds. A uniquely Western anti-Western multiculturalism deprives people of their cultural inheritance. Mass migration reshapes the social landscape. Courtship, marriage, and family no longer form our moral imaginations. Borders are porous, even the one that separates men from women.

Prof. Rogers summarizes Reno’s subsequent argument:

Recoiling from the horrors of World War II and the movements that led to it, Western elites embraced “the weak gods of openness.” Reno argues that human flourishing requires boundaries, and only the “strong gods” of family, nation, and religion will do.

This strikes me as a persuasive account of why the West lost its nerve and why “the weak gods of openness,” having done their damage, are now obsolete. Reno calls for the restoration of “strong gods”–above all, the actual deities of actual religions–along with the restoration of national, cultural, religious, moral, and sexual boundaries. These do not lead to Nazism, but are necessary for human flourishing.

But Prof. Rogers says that Reno drew back from his own conclusions.

The main problem with Reno’s argument is that it lacks the very particularity for which he criticizes liberalism. “In an age that, he argues, begs for the power of the particular, he treats the ‘strong god’ of religion in terms more appropriate to the vapid religiosity of the 1950s than to the needs of the present.”. . .

The irony is Reno genuflects to the same weak god of openness and borderlessness in his invocation of a generic neo-Romantic religiosity and a free-floating sacredness. Whether it’s the aesthetic and abstract itch of the Romantic era that something amorphously “sacred” and “transcendent” is out there, or a 1950s, Eishenhower-style latitudinarianism that commends a “deeply felt religious faith, I don’t care what it is,” there is no particularity.

Reno is a Catholic, but he stops short of invoking the Christian God as the “strong god” that society needs.

There are very practical reasons to eschew religious particularity in his argument. Reno goes shallow for exactly the same reason that the liberal theorists he criticizes commend openness: Particularity divides. And so Reno purchases his intellectual reach at a steep cost, because there is no power in the generic. The generic religiosity of the 19th century Romantics never took off, just as the generic commitments of 1950s religion led only to the collapse of the mainline churches that embraced it.

Reno recognizes this in writing the obvious—that he does not desire a return of the strong forces of the sort that led to World War II. Yet here, on this ground, might even Reno reasonably prefer to live under the weak gods rather than live under the wrong strong god?

Prof. Rogers points out that strong gods, including those of family or nation, can be in conflict with each other. Jesus would often warn about putting even one’s family above Him. Allegiance to the nation can be virtuous, but it can also be idolatrous. The Christian God is so strong that His claims upon us are all-comprehensive. His law, though, His providential care for His creation, and His active presence in vocation do provide a basis for family, communities, nations, and our other relationships. As long as we don’t make them “gods,” whether strong or weak.

critique of West civilization

Nazism

postmodernism

Western culture

Previous Post

February 27, 2020

Marxists on Bernie Sanders and the Revolution

Next Post

March 2, 2020 An Actual Millennial Responds to Church Efforts to Attract Millennials

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"While she worked for Trump she was a tool's tool!"

reg

Luther on Tools

"I know wired earbuds are making a comeback (I never stopped using them as I ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

"VCRs, tape decks, and cassette players are all having a revival among a segment of ..."

Tom Hering

Luther on Tools

"As a (retired) lawyer I see potential liability from sharing things like power or sharp ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category America Apologetics Art baseball Bible Blog Christ Church crime Culture Economics Education Ethics Family Food Football Government History Holidays Holy Week Humor International Islam Language Law Life Issues Literature Media Medicine Movies Music Nature News Personal Philosophy Politics psychology Reformation Religions Sacraments Science sex Social Science Sports technology television terrorism Theology Uncategorized Vocation war

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Though you sit among the coals lamenting, you must remember that_________. What does Lamentations say will not cease?

Select your answer to see how you score.

His love His compassions His presence His covenant

Books by This Author Books by Gene Veith

See All Titles »