I've just listened again to Handel's Messiah, as I delight in doing every year in this glorious and glowing season. An image I cherish in connection with this work is that of George II, in regal dignity no doubt but mightily moved by the magnificence and deep, deep beauty of the Hallelujah Chorus, surging to his feet in reverence. What a thrill it is to participate in the traditional reenactment of that sublime moment which attends every performance of this treasure.
How great the civilization which generated and preserved such wonders. I'm reminded of this most intensely when we celebrate the birth of the spiritual founder of our western world; the credibly believed to be redeemer of all humanity from chastisement for its misdeeds and guarantor of eternal life. His Faith is the essential moral backbone which is sine qua non in our public and private lives in our part of the world ,the willful and presumptuous rejection of which in our time by so many of its fortunate and ungrateful spawn has had predictably catastrophic consequences. What a lovely and inspiring time it is.
He was born into a place in which the high and seminal culture of Rome met that of the people for whom it can be believed that they have a covenant with a power which will always be beyond our comprehension: to witness just how he wishes human life to be led. Within a little more than three centuries they had given rise to that without which present day Western Civilization could never have been - the Catholic Church.
Via the Romans and classical Islam - the Greeks - who introduced us to the intellectual rule of reason and the worth of the individual; to the Romans with their noble language, their vision of Europe as a whole, their superlative engineering and above all their regard for the rule of law; to Christ, Paul, Augustine, Aquinas, Henry II, Petrarch, Michaelangelo, DaVinci, Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, Newton, Locke,Voltaire, Jefferson, Washington, Lincoln , perhaps Churchill and of course Mother Theresa and St.John Paul II; our Western pantheon does us proud.
The Chinese sun shines never more proudly than now in the East. Theirs is a very great and consequential culture and I hope that it may live in harmony with ours. I am so very grateful that I've been born into that of the West. Jack
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Well said! I recommend my recently published textbook, The Essential Guide to Western Civilization, to anyone wishing to explore the achievements of Western Civilization in depth. As I indicate in the preface, anyone who disparages our civilization (and there are plenty of people who do) needs to reflect on how almost all salient critiques of Western Civ flow out of the freedom and the intellectual rigor which it has nurtured. Indeed, most griping Third Worlders wouldn't have the mental equipment to challenge Western dominance if it wasn't for the medical, technological, and most of all ideological/moral advances that we have bestowed on them. The West has utterly and for all time REMADE THE WORLD, and for the better. We should give thanks for all of this.
Dr. Waddy: I'll get your book. I'm reminded of a silly young woman I knew in college who said "I'll probably be in an ashram in India next year". She hadn't the slightest idea of how overwhelming the third world can be and though I never heard her disparage our Western World I'll bet that if she followed through she probably came back chastened and very glad to enjoy the myriad benefits our civilization affords us. Barack Obama displayed obvious disdain for our culture but has as yet refrained from moving to, say, Kenya. He could run for President again there, that is if their 29th constitution would allow it. Then again, constitutions are no obstacle for him. Thank God for the West; no apologies from this boy - we have more than enough detractors among us already.
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