The State of First Things, April 2011

Next in the continuing series.

A) Must Read Articles

1) Meilaender, “Thinking About Aging”

A really interesting reflection on the desire to live longer.  The question of aging is increasingly important as the ability to extend life becomes greater and greater.  But, why should we want to live longer?  In part, the desire to live longer is part of the modern desire to deny the reality of death.  So, if we accept that death is an obvious and natural part of life, why should we want to live longer?  And, then, when you think about it, few people would really want to live longer if it meant constantly aging; we desire to live longer with youthful minds and bodies.  So, the real question is not simply how to prolong life, but also how to retard aging.  Is there any good reason to want to live longer, to prolong our time in this world?  Meileander argues that the desire to prolong our love for others is a legitimate aim in desiring a longer life.  I am not so sure his answer works—after all, if we aren’t going to Love even more in Heaven, then Heaven must be a very odd place.  So, if the desire is to maximize Love, surely we should want to die sooner.  An interesting puzzle, this—once my children are old enough to care for themselves, is there any reason I should wish to prolong my life?  I do want to do so (and not simply because I am not sure my children will ever be able to take care of themselves), but why?  If I can’t answer that question, then isn’t my desire to live longer simply a fear of Death, and if it is that, isn’t the desire inherently Wrong.  If I say with Paul “To live is Christ, to die is gain,” then shouldn’t I necessarily be indifferent as to when I die?

2) Weigel, “All War, All the Time”

A great account of the conflict between the Communists and the Catholic Church.  This is one of those behind the scenes battles of the Cold War.  Incredible.  I’d ask “Who knew the Communists were so petty and vile?,” but the answer is that everyone who was paying attention knew.  This is a cursory account, just outlining the details of what will be a definitive book sometime.  Weigel concentrates on the conflict in Poland (touching on the conflict elsewhere) since John Paul II was Polish and Weigel wrote The Biography of him.  The anecdote which surprised me the most—the Communists had actually forged a diary of a woman who claimed to have had an affair with Wojtyla (John Paul II before he became Pope)—they had planned to blackmail him, but the plan was ruined when the guy in charge of planting the diary got drunk.

B) Flawed, but worth reading

1) Woodward, Memories of a Catholic Boyhood

A Charming account of growing up Catholic.  But, I am not sure there is a point.  “Catholics are normal people too” seems to be the closest thing to a point, but I am not sure when the last time was that anyone believed differently.

2) McDermott, “Evangelicals Divided”

I wasn’t sure what to make of this article; on the one hand, there isn’t much that surprised me, on the other hand, it is a decent survey of the growing Evangelical Divide.  The Divide is between what McDermott calls the Meliorists, who seek to find a way to make evangelicals more palatable to the general population, and the Traditionalists, who seek to keep the evangelical movement theologically pure.  The Meliorists are ultimately going to drive their wing of evangelicalism into the same irrelevance as the Mainline denominations currently have.  Why do Christians worry so much about being popular?

3) Esolen, “Restoring the Village”

A wandering essay with one interesting point.  Governments tend to think of themselves as the institutions by which society persists over time.  But, families predate governments.  And if you think of the family as an institution that predates the State, where did the State get the authority to interfere with the prerogatives of the family?

Editor update:  The new editor, Reno, still hasn’t taken the helm.  Maybe next issue?  This holding pattern, waiting to see what happens next, is getting old.  This issue like the last few was decent, but since we all know things will be changing within the year, it would be nice to get some idea of how.