This is a photograph of a leading theologian by the name of Mary Eberstadt. She has written a most intriguing article which merits reading and re-reading several times. It is not short but is very comprehensive in its attempt to put a finger on the reason for the decline of Anglicanism in our time.
If Eberstadt is correct in her observations, and I think she is, then traditional orthodox theology is not only making a comeback in the 21st Century, it is proving itself to be the only credible path for Christian at all. This thought provoking piece argues that the ‘liberal experiment’ has failed and now threatens the very existence of Anglicanism itself and all other attempts to deliver a ‘middle way’ of Christianity. This is a conclusion then with huge implications for society as a whole! I offer a couple of juicy paragraphs as an enticement to follow the link!
Surveying the record to date of what has happened to the churches dedicated to this long-running modern religious experiment, (liberalism), a large historical question now appears: whether the various exercises in this specific kind of dissent from traditional teaching turn out to contain the seeds of their own destruction. The evidence—preliminary but already abundant—suggests that the answer is yes.
These examples are among many that could be cited to illustrate an important point: Even in the hands of its ablest defenders, Christianity Lite has proven time and again to be incapable of limiting itself to the rules about sex alone. Once traditional sexual morality is dispensed with in whole or in part, it is hard, apparently, to keep the rest of Church teaching off the chopping block. To switch metaphors, which came first, the egg of dissent over sex—or the chicken of dissent over other doctrinal issues? We do not need to know the answer to grasp the point: History shows that Christianity Lite cannot seem to have one without the other.
This leads to a third pattern arising from the experiment of Christianity Lite: the ongoing and inarguable institutional decline of the churches that have tried it. Today, the ELCA—the largest and most liberal of the Lutheran bodies of America—faces the same fate as the Anglican Communion: threats of schism, departing parishes, diminishing funds, and the rest of the institutional woes that have gone hand in hand with the abandonment of dogma.
Christianity Lite has left enough evidence in its wake for us to judge the final outcome of that great experiment: It is a failure. The effort to throw out the unwanted bathwater of the sexual code has taken the baby—the rest of Christian practice and belief—along with it.
But the one thing we can spy as of this moment is noteworthy enough: the beginning of the end not only of Anglicanism as the world has known it in the past century but also of the other churches that similarly joined their fates to that of Christianity Lite. It is hard to overstate how momentous their unraveling is—or how bracing a slap in the modern face. After all, if there is a single point to which modern, enlightened people have been agreeing for a long time now, it is that the antiquated sexual notions of the Catholic Church are an anachronism that had to go for the sake of a kinder, gentler Christianity. It would be more than passing strange if, at the end of the day, that very anachronism were to turn out to be something that could not be sacrificed after all—not without having everything else fall down, anyway. Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time in Christian history that a piece rejected by the builders turned out to be the cornerstone.
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What a brilliant article and analysis.
Fr Ed
On a respectable blog such as this, I think you need to be a little bit careful who you associate with. Google “Mary Eberstadt” and you will find some deeply unpleasant opinions, emanating from this ‘leading theologian’ which, knowing you as I do, I trust you would dissociate yourself from.
Struggling to see what you are saying John. I did Google her and found the following. Looks a very robust CVWhat is so bad about this?
Mary Tedeschi Eberstadt is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and consulting editor to Policy Review, the Hoover Institution’s bimonthly journal of essays and reviews on American politics and society.
Eberstadt focuses on issues on American society, culture, and philosophy. She has written widely for various magazines and newspapers, including Policy Review, the Weekly Standard, First Things, the American Spectator, Los Angeles Times, London Times, Newark Star-Ledger, and the Wall Street Journal
She is also a contributing writer to First Things magazine. Recent essays there include “What Does Woman Want?” (October 2009) and “The Will to Disbelieve”(February 2009). Other recent essays include “My Irving Kristol and Ours” in the October 5, 2009, Weekly Standard .
Between 1998 and 1990, she was executive editor of the National Interest magazine. From 1985 to 1987, she was a member of the Policy Planning Staff of the U.S. State Department, a speechwriter for Secretary of State George P. Shultz, and a special assistant to Ambassador Jeane J. Kirkpatrick at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. She was also managing editor at the Public Interest. A four-year Telluride Scholar at Cornell University, Eberstadt graduated magna cum laude in 1983. She is an associate member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars.
Someone who teaches at a Catholic seminary noted recently that the students have been becoming increasingly conservative in recent years to a degree that he found disquieting. He wondered why. I suppose that the reasons would, at least, include the fact that ‘liberal’ Catholics would probably not encourage a son to consider the priesthood whereas ‘conservative’ Catholic parents probably would. Consequence -the ‘liberals’ are going to become less and less common in the hierarchy over the coming years. I was also reading recently that the famous ‘progressive’ theologians of the 60′s have not been replaced by younger successors, who have presumably joined ‘progressive’ churches.
It’s all good, the ‘liberals’, who have encouraged the ‘cafeteria style’ Catholicism amongst the laity, appear to be busy making themselves a smaller and smaller minority in the Church.
Not sure what you mean either, John, she seems just the sort of right wing ideologue that you would expect Fr Ed to champion
I think that’s a bit unfair, Rod. A swift Google for Dr (presumably) Eberstadt does indicate ritht-wing views in secular politics, but Fr Ed is certainly to the left of our nominally “Labour” government on access to higher education, for example.
I’ve just skim-read Eberstadt’s piece, and haven’t yet made up my mind to what extent I agree with her. One (minor) issue on which she is certainly wrong is her implied belief that Prince Charles’ wedding to Camilla took place in church. +Cantuar’s cop-out of a subsequent blessing makes an interesting contrast with the bolder action – not entirely supportive of Eberstadt’s thesis! – of the Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid when the Prince of Asturias married the divorced Dr Letizia Ortiz Rocasolano. He celebrated a a pontifical nuptial mass with all the trimmings in his cathedral church.
It’s a good piece, and she’s a real treasure. If you want to read her best work, I recommend you read her article, “The Vindication of Humanae Vitae,” from the Nove’ ’08 issue of the last Fr. Neuhaus’s journal of religion in the public square, “First Things.” You can cut and paste the link below.
http://www.firstthings.com/article/2008/07/002-the-vindication-of-ihumanae-vitaei-28