From the Archives: Part 38 of The Self and its Sources

The social leveling which is the inevitable product of the Biblical revelation can only take place without catastrophe in a world that has discovered another way of experiencing transcendence. This is why the "Greatest Commandment" - to love the Lord your God with all you heart, soul, and mind - is so essential. A graphic example from the French Revolution.

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 194

They returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the Temple blessing God.
Leaving behind the old sacred system but only under the impulse of a religious prompting.

There’s no way out.
you were born to waste your life,
You were born to this middle class life
As others before you were born to walk in procession
To the temple
Singing

Louis Simpson

NOTE: This is the final excerpt from the Poetry of Truth series. Beginning in January we will start a new series of excerpts from a presentation Gil Bailie made in 1993 entitled "Crucial Choice" focusing on stories by Isak Dinesen, "Babette's Feast", and Flannery O'Connor, "The Displaced Person".

From the Archives: Poetry of Truth Part 181

If the Cross represents the decisive beginning of the descralization of our world, will the result be simply secularization?