To return to what was lost — or rather, to find a new road to an old destination — means this: recognizing what was lost, comprehending why it was lost and redeeming it. The first stop on this journey back to authentic identity and vocation is ‘taking stock’ — making an inventory of the spiritual losses suffered by Western man after his surrender to Modernity. The most obvious ‘accounting method’ for making such an inventory is the application of the standard spiritual measure of Western civilization: the Christian measure. In this regard, the question of whether or not the Christian measure is the best conceivable measure — whether or not it is intrinsically ‘superior’ in comparison with other religious traditions — is entirely irrelevant. The same applies to the question of whether or not Westerners still ‘feel’ Christian. The Christian heritage of Western civilization is still its heart and even if Western people take on another faith, they will still have to find a way of incorporating this heritage if they want to retain their identity. Even if substantial sections of the Western peoples ‘convert’ to Islam in the near future — an alternative that is highly preferable to certain destruction through Cultural Nihilist social implosion — their Christian heritage must have a prominent place within a new ‘Euro-Islam’. In the Balkans and on the Black Sea littoral there are already many examples of Islamic cultural forms that are calibrated to incorporate Western civilization and Christian heritage (the Bektashi in Albania, the Naqshbandi in Bosnia). There, Christian heritage is fully expressed by interpretations and experiences of Islam that are spiritually and intellectually far superior to the atavistic forms of Islam found in primitive non-Western peoples. There, it is even possible to discern a synthetic sublimation that truly unifies the three Abrahamic religions. It is only such a sublimation that can rise above pure Christianity: thus, such a vision may be a future — effectively millennialist — vocation, but it is still very far removed from current reality (cf. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, 1975). The current reality is that what now calls itself ‘Islamic’ is far less civilized than what still calls itself ‘Christian’, for the simple reason that the peoples that carry Islam are largely far less civilized than the peoples that are still called Christian.
For now, however, the psycho-historical inventory of contemporary Western civilization that is here aimed at can only proceed from its psycho-historical standard condition, and that standard condition is Christian. Thus, this chapter must emphasize the importance of Christian spiritual inventory; it will measure some of the characteristic features of Western Modernity by the measure of the old Christian catechism. It should be noted, however, that Traditionalism itself cannot provide such a spiritual inventory: Traditionalism is merely the Guardian of Tradition — of all authentic Traditions — and it is not Tradition in and of itself. Traditionalism can merely point out the way back — the way up, back to an authentic Tradition. From a Traditionalist perspective, all authentic Traditions may be understood as specific reflections of the Sophia Perennis and the Empyrean, all of them equally precious, but never freely interchangeable. Individual ‘lost sheep’ from the scattered Western herd may find shelter and salvation elsewhere through religious conversion or esoteric mysticism. But for the Western herd as a whole, there is only one obvious road to a self-surpassing resurrection: the road to the Seven Storey Mountain of Christianity (Thomas Merton, 1948).
‘The Seven Story Mountain’
The failure of Christianity is Christian doctrine.
— Nicolás Gómez Dávila
In the author’s recent book Sunset, the genesis of Modernity is analysed from different cultural-historical perspectives without the assumption of a hierarchical priority between the simultaneous and mutually reinforcing transformative processes that are the central themes within these different perspectives. In a radical departure from academic consensus historiography, which is entirely based in Historical Materialism, no causal priority is assumed for processes of political and social-economic transformation over processes of religious and psycho-social transformation. In accordance with its Traditionalist perspective, Sunset recognizes only one form of ‘determinism’, viz. the hierarchical priority of the macro-cosmic transcendental sphere over the micro-cosmic immanent sphere. Traditionalism, proceeding from the principle of the (philo)Sophia Perennis, assumes all immanent phenomena that are observable in the earthly realm to be — direct or indirect, positive or negative — reflections of the transcendental realities of the heavenly sphere. Thus, all the various transformation processes that are characteristic of the Modern Age (capitalist-monopolist accumulation in the economic sphere, the regression of the castes in the social sphere, totalitarian collectivism in the political sphere etcetera) appear as mere symptoms of a single meta-historical reality, viz. ‘Modernity’, defined as the inevitable inversion of ‘Tradition’ during the Dark Age (the Christian End Times, the Hindu Kali Yuga).
From this perspective, Modernity, and the unprecedented damage it is inflicting on the human and natural world, gains meta-historical meaning. The ‘demonic’ slavery, exploitation and destruction of humanity and nature — of the Earth itself — are not merely historical ‘collateral damage’ and cosmic ‘coincidence’. In terms of ontological categorization, the damage suffered by humanity and nature are the affection (the subjective paschein) that accompanies the substance (the objective ousia) of Modernity. The damage suffered is the substantive time content of the Dark Age and it determines the ontological experience of Modern man, either passively or actively, as the perpetrator of Modernity or as its victim. Approaching the chronological trajectory of the Dark Age, each authentic Tradition — each authentic religious Tradition — interprets this ontological experience in its own manner, fitting it into its particular doctrines and rituals. In terms of an eschatological ‘solution’, each of the three Abrahamic religions has articulated its own particular themes, according to its particular bio-evolutionary and cultural-historical context: Judaism emphasizes ‘Exile’, Christianity emphasizes ‘Redemption’ and Islam emphasizes ‘Submission’. Thus, each of these religions articulates a specific metaphysical ‘answer’ to the meta-historical ‘problem’ of Modernity, answers that ‘fit’ to the peoples that have cultural-historically associated themselves with these religions. In the face of the approaching culmination of Modernity — the ‘Crisis of Modernity’ — the Western peoples now experience a deep existential crisis, which can be traced back to a failure of the Christian ‘answer’ to Modernity. Thus, the psycho-historical inventory-taking that necessarily precedes the ‘psycho-therapy’ of the Western peoples must proceed from a Christian standard measure.
In old-fashioned Christian terminology, this matches the examination of conscience that must precede the act of contrition in the sacrament of confession. From a cultural-historical perspective, it can be said that the Christian identity of the Western people constitutes a major ‘handicap’ in their ability to face Modernity. Western civilization is empathically ‘individualistic’ in the sense that Christianity requires a permanent individual ‘self-renewal’. Unbreakable self-assertiveness and unshakeable self-confidence, derived from an Eternal Covenant, allow Israelites to thrive even in external exile and persecution; these are entirely lacking in Christianity, which requires permanent self-investigation and self-transformation. Self-absorbed fatalism and self-evident directedness, derived from a stylized-recapitulating contractual simplicity, allow Muslims to thrive even in urban-hedonistic tribulation and temptation — these are entirely lacking in Christianity, which requires self-sacrifice and self-conquest.
A statement of these Christian ‘handicaps’ also indicates the final frontier of the ‘therapeutic’ functionality of any Traditionalist cultural-historical diagnosis of the Crisis of the Modern West: such a diagnosis can point Western man to the right road, but he himself will have to walk this mysteriously impossible road, as a pilgrim and a penitent. Before Western civilization can co
llectively overcome this crisis, every Western man will have to privately subtract himself from it. If the orthodox Israelite and the faithful Muslim can simply live his beliefs, the truthful Christian is forced to re-create them. Such a Christian life demands a counter-temporal, vertical self-renewal that is particularly difficult during the time-obsessed Dark Age, much more difficult than the inner-temporal, horizontal self-realization that is required from the Israelite and the Muslim. From this perspective, it is no surprise Western man has historically been the first to abandon Tradition — and that the plagues of Modernity have struck the West first and hardest. At this point of pilgrimage in the Night Land of Modernity, Traditionalism cannot lead Western man, it can only remind him of his old Christian vocation and of his old Christian catechism. What Divine Providence has decreed as the final destiny of Western man inevitably escapes a mere cultural-historical analysis, but that there will be a relation between original vocation and final destiny is self-evident. In the words of Thomas Altizer: If one has been given a history in which God is present, then one must respond, whether positively or negatively, or both, to the name of God, if only as a means of making one’s history one’s own. If all those who ignore history become its victims, then it should also be realized that whoever ignores the God of our history becomes the victim of God. Thus, this chapter can only conclude by symbolically pointing to the old Christian catechism — and to the direct relationship between the typical symptoms of Modern Age and the Seven Cardinal Sins of the Christian Tradition.
‘Se7en’
And now I cry to You as the Prodigal
— Orthodox Great Lent Hymn
Even in present Postmodern reality, fully dominated by Cultural Nihilism and entirely characterized by the militant-secular rejection of all authentic forms of religious ethics, Western culture is still pervaded by an indeterminate and uneasy feeling of ‘discontent’. In this regard, Modern art takes on the function of an ‘artistic prosthesis’ for the amputated religious consciences of Western man. Artistic emphasis on the exploration of absurd, grotesque and deviant motives points to a collective ‘bad consciousness’. For Western man, now living in atavistic collectivism, the archaic religious and deeply Christian personal motives of crime and punishment, conscience and enlightenment, remorse and confession are presently accessible only through the Modern arts, strictly defined as ‘leisure time’ entertainment. These arts, defined as ‘fictitious visions’ and ‘non-committing expressions’, are the last free space for (semi-)religious experience in the public domain. Only the arts are still allowed — within certain limitation — to concern themselves with old religious notions such as absolute Truth and absolute Evil, mainly through their (largely negative) projections on marginal social phenomena such as extreme psychopathy (‘horror’) and paranormal perception (‘science fiction’). The increasing preoccupation of young people with elaborate artistic fantasy themes — and their increasing escape into ‘virtual realities’ — can be explained, at least in part, by the fact that the rest of the public domain no longer offers space for substantial religious or spiritual discourse.
This ‘demotion’ of the Western religious and spiritual discourse, its relegation to the artistic domain, is a reliable indicator of the acceleration of the decline of Western civilization. In this regard, structuralist anthropological analyses of particular Modern works of art can offer valuable insights — but such analyses fall outside the scope of Alba Rosa. But to conclude this chapter on the hamartiology, the ‘study of sin’, of Modernity, it is deemed useful to point to the occasional reappearance of purely Christian teachings in Postmodern art. An example of such a reappearance is the movie Se7en (David Fincher, 1995), in which a Postmodern re-examination of the classic ‘seven cardinal sins’ of the Christian catechism is expressed in the horror of ‘forced contrition’. To the extent that religious doctrine and spiritual discipline have failed, the movie points to the only remaining possibility for the resolution of the old sins: ‘hellish purification’ in this world (for a theological exploration of this theme, cf. Altizer, 1970). Se7en artistically expresses a realistic final scenario for the Crisis of the Modern World: a worldly realization of the otherworldly hell of Christianity; it tells the viewer to think again about the ancient wisdom of his forgotten catechism.
The Seven Cardinal Sins (Saint Gregory the Great)
Latin
English
Demon
Symbol
Modern symptom
Remedy
Gula
Gluttony
Beelzebub
pig
Consumerism
Temperance
Luxuria
Lust
Asmodeus
goat
Sexualization
Chastity
Avaritia
Greed
Mammon
money
Materialism
Charity
Ira
Anger
Satan
lion
Totalitarianism
Patience
Acedia
Sloth
Belfagor
snail
Anomie
Diligence
Invidia
Envy
Leviathan
snake
Narcissism
Gratitude
Superbia
Pride
Lucifer
peacock
Enlightenment
Humility
The Seven Social Sins (Frederick Lewis Donaldson)
Social sin
Modern symptom
Remedy
Wealth without work
< Consumerism
economic corporatism &
capital controls
Pleasure without conscience
< Sexualization
religious sacraments &
social control
Commerce without morality
< Totalitarianism
fair trade standards &
strong competition laws
Politics without principle
< Imperialism
organic hierarchy &
compartmentalized governance
Religion without sacrifice
< Anomie
religious affiliation &
institutionalized charity
Knowledge without character
< Narcissism
vocational discernment &
educational discipline
Science without humility
< Enlightenment
bio-ethical codes &
limits on scientific authority
‘Crime & Punishment’
The Modern world shall not be punished: it is the punishment.
— Nicolás Gómez-Dávila
In the Book of Exodus, the Bible relates what can happen to a people when its rulers purposefully and stubbornly persist in their sins. An enigmatic Divine judgment announces the impending effects of Providence on the Egyptian slave masters of the People of the Covenant: And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them (Exodus 7:3–5). This Divine pronouncement proves that the following Ten Plagues of Egypt are meant to provide insight into Divine Providence. In other words: those unwilling to learn must suffer. In this regard, it is important to note that the multilayered and complex symbolism of the Ten Plagues has a meaning that is not merely abstract, as an illustration of the metaphysical theme of ‘crime and punishment’, but also concrete, as a practical warning.
From this perspective, it is important that Modern Western people study the Hamartiology of Modernit
y. Knowledge of Traditional symbols, as expressed in the Biblical history of the Ten Plagues of Egypt, can help them grasp the meaning of ‘signs and wonders’ that prefigure the impending culmination of the Crisis of the Modern West. The first chapter has already sketched the outlines of this final crisis of the West, termed the ‘Harrowing of Hell’, and the chapter following this one will further investigate its social and psychological aspects. But before studying these aspects in more detail, it should be said that it is important that not only the material and physical symptoms of the Crisis of the Modern West, but also its spiritual and psychological causes are understood correctly. Traditional systems of symbolism can offer old, but well-proven ways to interpret ‘signs and wonders’. In the final analysis, however, it is up to Modern Western people to truly fathom the meaning of contemporary ‘signs and wonders’ — and to relate them to the Hamartiology of Modernity. Materialism, scientism and utilitarianism have corroded the mind of Modern Western men, impeding them from recognizing the various historical events of their own lifetimes for what they really are. But the incidents of Late and Postmodern history are not mere random accidents: they point to the ‘metaphysical’ indictment of Modern Western mankind and prefigure its ‘eschatological’ trial. With regard to the peoples of the West a correct assessment of contemporary ‘signs and wonders’, and a correct approach to the ‘metaphysical’ reality that they reflect, are absolute preconditions for their resurrection. The self-surpassing purification that lies at the heart of an authentically re-lived Christianity offers a viable alternative to the malicious self-annihilation of Postmodern Cultural Nihilism. Whereas Cultural Nihilism is characterized by a downward direction (a negative spiral of self-loathing and self-mutilation), Christianity is characterized by an upward direction (a positive spiral of self-examination and self-renewal). From a Christian perspective, acknowledgement of sins and remorse are even preconditions for spiritual growth and metaphysical hope. In this regard, the Christian thesis of the Resurrection is closely related to the Traditionalist thesis of Palingenesia: in the same way that Christianity teaches that sinful individuals and communities can be purified by confession and re-dedication, so Traditionalism teaches that forgotten forms of civilization and vocation can be recovered and relived by researching their sources and re-experiencing their origins. In this sense, the ‘strait gate’ of Christianity still offers the Western peoples an emergency exit from the impending ‘hellstorm’ of industrial ecocide, technological transhumanism, ethnic replacement and social implosion.
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