For those of you who might not be familiar with Victor Davis Hanson, he is a classicist and a student (and teacher) of the history of ancient warfare. His depth of historical knowledge has also made him one of the more astute commentators on the human condition as it is played out in today's current events. He is always worth reading.
In this particular column Dr. Hanson makes a believable comparison between the Roman Empire and our own society, claiming that Rome collapsed largely because of its population's never satisfied sense of entitlement "and the resulting debits, inflation, debased currency, and gradual state impoverishment gave the far more vulnerable Western Empire far less margin of error when barbarians arrived, or rival generals marched on Rome." Sound familiar? Maybe it's time to stock the pantry.
You can read Dr. Hanson's column in its entirety here: Why Did Rome Fall?
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My favorite periodical, and one I have read since it was first published in 1990, is First Things, a journal focused on religion in the public square and founded by the late Father Richard John Neuhaus. The most recent issue -- the 20th Anniversary Issue -- offers some interesting glimpses into the journal's history. In addition to reprinting a handful of articles that appeared in First Things over the years, the editors also included brief "snapshots" -- comments that appeared in the journal's pages during its first two decades. I've included a few of these snapshots below, those that caught my attention as I flipped through the pages this morning. I don't necessarily agree, at least not completely, with every comment, but each did get me to examine my own thinking.
"Here is the crux of the problem. Evangelical and fundamentalist Christians find too little difficulty validating the Jewish right to the land of Israel on the basis of biblical promises. But the Vatican and the recent bishops' statement err in the other direction...It is not enough for the Catholic Church to take note of Jewish ties to the land 'that have deep biblical roots.' If they have deep biblical roots, then the Church must also take these ties seriously, not only something that Jews have but as something the Church must struggle with. That decision was made when the Church decided to make the Hebrew Bible its own." -- The Bishops and the Middle East by Michael Wyschogrod, April 1990.
"The News can't be fixed. There is something about daily publication, all by itself, that distorts reality. That is why the addiction to News that so many of us share has brought on a kind of stupidity. Our whole society shares this stupidity, and so we have a hard time recognizing it." -- Why the News Makes Us Dumb by C. John Sommerville, October 1991.
"The painful truth is that both liberals and conservatives have forgotten how to account for character and creed. They have ignored the fact that the fate of the moral order depends on the state of the soul." --Crime and the Cure of the Soul by Charles Colson, October 1993.
"Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. The right to life does not depend, and must not be declared to be contingent, on the pleasure of anyone else, not even a parent or a sovereign." -- Recalling America by Mother Teresa, May 1994.
"One weekend in that tumultuous year 1968 I was on call at a parish church outside of Baltimore. At the end of my Sunday Mass I came into the body of the church to make my thanksgiving, and as I knelt in the pew I noticed that the pulpit from which I had preached had on its front a banner with the inscription 'God is other people.' If I had had a magic marker within reach, I would not have been able to resist the temptation to insert a comma after the word other." -- The Ways We Worship by Avery Cardinal Dulles, March 1998.
"At a recent conference on the ethics of withdrawing nourishment and fluids from mentally incompetent patients, I was approached by an acquaintance who is close to retirement age. 'Richard,' he said in a grave tone, 'when I become seriously ill, I want you to promised me one thing.' I told him I'd do my best. 'Whatever you do,' he said, 'keep those damn bioethicists out of my hospital room.' -- Matters of Life and Death by Richard M. Doerflinger, August/September 2001.
"It is once again time for Catholic universities to serve as monasteries, preserving the deepest things, in the midst of the current barbarian ravages. They are uniquely qualified to preserve the most precious of legacies: the Western intellectual tradition, which is linked to an openness to the human condition wherever it is found...In an academic culture that no longer affirms individual freedom, responsibility, accountability, and dignity, Catholic universities must preserve the belief that freedom and dignity have an ontological status that is a precondition of our full humanity. They must bear witness to the belief that freedom is a gift that distinguishes us from the beasts." -- Pluralism and the Catholic University by Alan Charles Kors, April 2002,
"All told, it is good that God has left us without exact information. If we knew that virtuually everybody would be damned, we would be tempted to despair. If we knew that all, or nearly all, are saved, we might become presumptuous. If we knew that some fixed percent, say fifty, would be saved, we would be caught in an unholy rivalry. We would rejoice in every sign that others were among the lost, since our own chances of election would thereby be increased. Such a cempetitive spirit would hardly be compatible with the gospel." -- The Population of Hell by Avery Cardinal Dulles, April 2003.
"A theologian friend recently made the plaintive observation that our generation seem to lack thinkers of the stature of previous generations. Is that so surprising? We lack the coherent church culture that gave their theologies precision, depth, and scope. Theologians can innovate to their hearts' content, but without a standard theology the total effect of our efforts is far less than the sum of its parts." -- Theology After the Revolution by R. R. Reno, May 2007.
"No event during the first millennium was more unexpected, more calamitous, and more consequential for Christianity than the rise of Islam. Few irruptions in history have transformed societies so completely and irrevocably as did the conquest and expansion of the Arabs in the seventh century." -- Christianity Face to Face with Islam by Roobert Louis Wilken, January 2009.God's peace...
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