The Gnostic Heresy's Political Succssors

The Catholic World Report ^ | February 2, 2021 | Dr. Edward Feser

[viewfromthefrontier]

With wokeness suddenly flooding universities, high schools, the medical profession, the military, business, and seemingly everywhere else, we are seeing something comparable to the Arian crisis of the 4th century or the Albigensian crisis of the 13th century – the alarmingly rapid spread of a toxic religious cult that threatens the general sociopolitical order no less than it does the Church. As in these earlier crises, there are many Christians, already heterodox anyway, who are happy to cave in to the madness. And there are also some otherwise orthodox Christians who, out of cowardice and/or muddle-headedness, try to accommodate themselves to it. In the secular context, we see a similar dynamic among conservatives.

{snip}

Gnostic woke madness will not be remedied by aping it. On the contrary, more than ever, what the times call for is conservative sobriety. And orthodoxy. Heresies not only aim to subvert the Church, but they fill the vacuum that opens up when the Church loses its self-confidence, its fidelity to its traditional teaching, and its sense of mission – and as a consequence, loses its attractiveness. The crisis of the West is the crisis of the Church. The West will not be restored to health until the Church is restored to health. And that is a project that requires us to see beyond election cycles, and indeed beyond politics.

[CatHerd]

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[livius]

“...an essentially apostate and heretical phenomenon, modernity is also an Oedipal phenomenon. Its series of grand, mad schemes amount to the West fitfully seeking – now this way, now that – finally to free itself from the authority of its heavenly Father and to defile the doctrine of its ecclesiastical Mother. “

Interesting observation. You can certainly see this in all of the Marxist thinkers, including Marx himself, of course.

[Ban Draoi Marbh Draoi]

Eric Vogelin said as much in his masterwork “Science, politics and Gnosticism.” ; at one time it was required reading in college.

[viewfromthefrontier]

I thought that was an insightful conclusion too. Fallen human nature is compelled to hide from God.

[viewfromthefrontier]

Eric Vogelin said as much in his masterwork ….

Yes, the article draws heavily on Vogelin's work.

[Varda]

Interesting. Ping for later more in depth read.