Tea at Trianon: “Weird” Christians

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

“Weird” Christians

From The Catholic Thing:

Secular liberals observing the trend face a similar perplexity. They try to explain away this religious attraction as a youthful craze. They blame it on a superficial and fetishized attachment to “otherworldly aesthetics,” which leaves them exasperated, labeling what they cannot understand as “weird.” Burton and many who join her online have adopted the label with a certain irony.

Thus, “weird” Christians are appearing on the cultural scene, often in Internet spaces where they can congregate and share their views. Burton claims that “More and more young Christians, disillusioned by the political binaries, economic uncertainties and spiritual emptiness that have come to define modern America, are finding solace in a decidedly anti-modern vision of faith.”

These millennials and Gen Zers sense the hollowness of the postmodern cultural wasteland. They also reject the shallowness of the mainline Protestant churches that have watered-down supernatural truths and exalted the trivial. These online pilgrims detest the barren, ugly and brutal aspects of modern life.

They want something real and profound. Their penchant for returning to the Middle Ages and traditional belief is a liberal’s worst nightmare. What disconcerts liberals is not only the attraction these young people have for a robust Christianity but also their rejection of the liberal order’s anti-metaphysical foundations, which has been accelerated by the political and economic breakdown of that order wrought by the coronavirus.

The problem with this counter-cultural current is its difficulty in defining and expressing itself. Its followers never knew the traditional world they now admire. They are victims of a chaotic postmodern culture without structures and stability. Burton claims a “punk” rebelliousness characterizes the movement, which seems to be against everything establishment, including the modern economy. (Read more.)