narrative of decline — Neither/Nor Blog

Neither/Nor:
Ruminations of a Spiritual Traveler

With apologies to Kierkegaard’s Either/Or, our general topic is the reflective Christian sailing in the sea of contemporary culture (and church). A cacophonous sea of competing claims and counter-claims, to which I often find myself responding “neither/nor.” But “what instead?” Aye, there’s the rub, matey. And that’s the white whale we pursue. Boats away!

The Narrative of Decline

In the 18th century there was an ongoing debate referred to as “The Ancients-Moderns controversy,” in which one side argued that the present was clearly inferior to the past, especially in terms of art, virtue, and the state of civilization in general. The other side trumpeted the superiority of the present and future over the relatively ignorant past. That debate is still going on.

Daniel TaylorDaniel TaylorSeptember 12, 2011narrative of decline, R-S- Thomas Comment

Neither/Nor: Ruminations of a Spiritual Traveler

Neither/Nor:
Ruminations of a Spiritual Traveler