Friday, May 24, 2019

Our Collective Dive off the Cliff

The burning of the Cathedral of Notre Dame - in the heart of Paris, in the heart of France, in the heart of Europe, in the heart of Christendom and Western civilization - was an absolute cultural catastrophe.

Does her categorization really differ from how most of the Western world views Notre Dame? How many among the 95% of France's non-Catholic population regard it as a house of God, worthy of spiritual veneration and deference, and not just a profitable tourist magnet? How many media talking heads lament its loss while holding contempt for the cathedral's living congregants and the ideas that led them there? How many comprehend that the cultural vigor with which it was constructed has been a smoldering ruin since long before this past April?

Over at CNN, Frida Ghitis penned a heartwarming, sincere panegyric, but one in which she cannot help but refer to Notre Dame as "a building, technically a religious structure." Technically a religious structure? I wonder what tipped Ghitis off.

The giant crucifix bestriding the altar? The religious imagery that adorns literally every surface of the place? The masses of people who gather there daily to pray? What facet of the building does Ghitis consider technically a non-religious structure? Ghitis is not Omar, and I doubt she chose her words to deliberately insult the faithful.

It is maddeningly tragic that we no longer possess the religious faith, the civilizational confidence, or the collective will to build something so transcendent ever again.

What has France created since the Revolution? The Sacré Coeur de Montmartre and the Eiffel Tower are impressive structures in themselves, but they are architectural stillbirths next to Notre Dame and the Palace of Versailles.

Has Germany produced another Bach, Austria another Mozart? England another Milton or Shakespeare? Which E.U. artists compare to Michelangelo or Raphael? Can Leiden provide a contemporary Jan Steen? Florence, a modern Filippo Brunelleschi or Dante Alighieri? Can any modern university cultivate another Thomas Aquinas?


https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/05/our_collective_dive_off_the_cliff.html

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