There is some kind of a consensus - especially among Christians - that Western Civilization is ending, and that this multi-stage collapse is substantially self-inflicted - partly suicidal due to hedonic materialism and cowardice of the unreligious-aspiritual masses; and partly the outcome of deliberate contrivance among the Western/ Globalist leadership class.
Where opinions differ, is related to what happens afterwards.
Many people apparently have the assumption that human history is either cyclical, or like a pendulum; and that Western Civilization is therefore destined to dwindle but (sooner or later) recover and be "reborn".
And such people take hope from this - or at least they claim to.
This cyclical/ pendulum assumption is popular even among Christians, which I find quite strange - given that pretty much everything that the New Testament says about human history states explicitly that it is destined to be linear, unidirectional, ending with the End Times.
Some of the New Testament links the End Times with a "second coming", a return of Jesus Christ; although the premier authority, and earliest secondhand, Gospels sources do not describe a second coming of Jesus.
I mean the Gospel called "John", which is an eyewitness account from a beloved disciple and (Chapters 1-20) was composed shortly after the events described; ; and "Mark" which is the first recorded of the second-hand, post-ascension Gospels).
However, whether or not the End Times are also regarded as a Second Coming; the point is that for the New Testament the path of human history is linear.
Linear and not repetitive.
The Christian conception of history is therefore not primarily cyclical, nor a matter of pendulum swings - and if apparent recurrences do occur, then these can only be approximate; because they are subordinate to an overall and basic linearity.
And this, of course, fits with the pattern of human history as it appears spontaneously to the simple observer.
My conclusion is that when (not if) Western Civilization begins to collapse quickly and undeniably; there will be no coherent "Christian" reason to expect that Western Civilization will ever re-develop.
But even if there was, I find it very hard to believe that people who take consolation and derive hope from cyclical/ pendulum theories of history are being sincere!
I mean: I find it hard to believe that they really do derive genuine consolation and real hope from their assumption that - although we shall collapse soon; nonetheless some future, unknown and unrelated, persons shall experience a return of something-like Western Civ.
This is so feeble and remote an expectation that I strongly suspect it serves merely as an excuse for here-and-now mental laziness and cowardice; for current dishonesty and evasiveness.
Anyway; that's how the stuff about cycles and pendulum swings strikes me; as yet another instance of clutching at fake straws.
2 comments:
This made me think of something you wrote about Spengler several years ago. I think Spengler, though no Christian, would largely agree with you here. When a cultural form has proceeded through its cycle it inevitably dies, never to return. It will be replaced by something entirely different and, from our perspective, fundamentally unrecognizable. I don't see anything in this to contradict the New Testament view of a linear history.
@Stefan - Yes, I have thought about this question before, and more than once discussed it here.
I suppose this time I am more focused on the paradox of Christians professing a cyclical view in the current context. Even when not explicit, I sense that many Christians implicitly operate on the basis that Their church etc will *inevitably* survive, and again thrive at some point, because That is the nature of reality.
I first became consciously aware of this by reading Owen Barfield (who makes this point several times) - and also RJ Reilly's critical discussion of Barfield in Romantic Religion.
I think "cyclicism" of this kind, is a species of desperation intended to ward-off despair, when it occurs in somebody whose understanding of Christianity is *culture-bound* - i.e somebody who cannot conceive of a Christianity outwith a rather specific (or indeed absolutely specific) institutional context.
For such an individual, if Christianity is to survive, the culture must survive.
But I am confident that any individual can (if he chooses) follow Jesus to resurrected eternal life in *any* society - this will always be made possible by God through creation.
Therefore, I personally see no reason to assert that there will be a pendulum swing, or a wheel turn - whatever happens, whatever society (including when there is no civilisation) salvation will be possible.
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