Good point. Dostoevsky’s “Demons” - argues that Communism IS atheism, that socialism manifests on its surface as its godless “moral order” or hierarchy (a complete inversion of Christianity, but considered as high thought and provocative) which ultimately unravels into frivolousness and hedonism once accepted as the common belief. “Strange was the state of people’s minds at that time…Something light and happy-go lucky came about…A certain disorderliness of the mind became fashionable.” (Dostoevsky, Demons 319). The characters are pulled forward, as if involuntary in a landslide but with full capacity for free will to turn to Christ’s mercy at any moment, yet they don’t (thinking of the Opportunists in the vestibule of hell in Dante’s Inferno or Feverstone mud-sliding into the abyss in C.S Lewis’ That Hideous strength.) The pet parenting seems so benign, I laughed even, but it really is a brutal indication of the rot starting to push through the surface.
Thanks for mentioning the rest of us. You had a taste of something (not sure what) while traveling. Imagine never having family to talk about. Or imagine staying single. Jesus had a thing or two to say about that in the first part of Mt. 19. I've never heard anyone preach on that passage. V. 13 is the earliest I've heard mentioned, Jesus and the little children, of course.
I'm in a better place with the church I belong to now, because it has a better culture than the others like it that I have belonged to in the past. Still on the fringe, but more solidly so.
Good point. Dostoevsky’s “Demons” - argues that Communism IS atheism, that socialism manifests on its surface as its godless “moral order” or hierarchy (a complete inversion of Christianity, but considered as high thought and provocative) which ultimately unravels into frivolousness and hedonism once accepted as the common belief. “Strange was the state of people’s minds at that time…Something light and happy-go lucky came about…A certain disorderliness of the mind became fashionable.” (Dostoevsky, Demons 319). The characters are pulled forward, as if involuntary in a landslide but with full capacity for free will to turn to Christ’s mercy at any moment, yet they don’t (thinking of the Opportunists in the vestibule of hell in Dante’s Inferno or Feverstone mud-sliding into the abyss in C.S Lewis’ That Hideous strength.) The pet parenting seems so benign, I laughed even, but it really is a brutal indication of the rot starting to push through the surface.
Thanks for mentioning the rest of us. You had a taste of something (not sure what) while traveling. Imagine never having family to talk about. Or imagine staying single. Jesus had a thing or two to say about that in the first part of Mt. 19. I've never heard anyone preach on that passage. V. 13 is the earliest I've heard mentioned, Jesus and the little children, of course.
I'm in a better place with the church I belong to now, because it has a better culture than the others like it that I have belonged to in the past. Still on the fringe, but more solidly so.