According to the German Catholic philosopher Josef Pieper, the “wisdom of the West†expresses the sum total of what man “ought to” be. This wisdom was then discredited and rejected in the Modern era, and so is largely unavailable to post-modern man, who bobs along in the wake of Modernism, which has largely discredited itself. Here I use Pieper’s vision as the standard against which to chart the spiritual and cultural decline of the West.ON FAITHPieper: Man, insofar as he realizes his meaning, is someone who—in faith—opens himself by listening to God’s word, whenever he can perceive it.Modern: Modern man,...