On the Bookshelf: The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics

I've updated the On the Bookshelf linked list (on the right menu). The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics includes Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain, Miracles, A Grief Observed, and The Abolition of Man. I am midway through Mere Christianity, and it is already worth the price. Anyone who considers Christianity to be irrational or unreasonable will be forced to reconsider. Lewis treats the deep questions of life in a logical and systematic way, with helpful and colourful analogies.

Civilizational Collapse

I'm slowly making my way through the series The Christians (it's On the Bookshelf on the right side of the blog). It's a fascinating read, full of details and illustrations. The end of Volume I was particularly interesting in its chronicle of the fall of Jerusalem.

As Volume II takes up the threat against the Roman empire from the barbarians, it describes the state of Roman civilization:

Centuries earlier, the citizen-militia had been replaced by a professional army, increasingly recruited outside the Italian heartland. Then the very success of the empire, bringing with it a flood of cheap imports like Egyptian grain, had eviscerated the dutiful citizen farmers and artisans. Some rose into the bureaucratic ranks, the patricians and the equites (knights) growing obscenely wealthy in the imperial service. But many Roman citizens simply lived off the free grain ration and lolled at the public baths or the games.

"The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else," lamented the dyspeptic poet Juvenal, "now disturb themselves no more, and long eagerly for just two things - bread and circuses!" And their supposed betters, the gentry, were if anything worse. As the wealth and personal retinue of noble Romans burgeoned, so did their sloth, luxury, and licentiousness. Too many young aristocrats preferred fine wines and witty mistresses to forced marches and camp life. Too many young wives preferred to have lovers rather than children - birth control, abortion, and the exposure (abandonment in open fields) of infants were commonplace. The latest celebrity actor and the all star gladiator were far more entertaining than strategy and politics. Ease and indolence do not make for big families, and by the mid-second century the workforce had shrunk, and the government had to conscript labor to transport essential supplies into the city.

This list could very well describe much of the Western world, particularly Europe.

• The citizen-militia... replaced by a professional army... It is striking that more and more people in Western society are unwilling to fight - verbally or militarily - for the civilization on which they depend for peace and freedom.
• flood of cheap imports... eviscerated dutiful citizen farmers and artisans... Many Western manufacturers have been forced either to fold or to import due to the cheap labour and goods from overseas (e.g. from China).
• Some rose into the bureaucratic ranks... The bureaucratic class has ballooned in the West, often in inverse proportion to the quality of service provided.
• Many... simply lived off the free grain ration... Many citizens of Western countries - including many immigrants - feed at the public trough of welfare and social services, unwilling to be bothered with productive and constructive contribution to the public on which they depend. Mark Steyn calls them welfare junkies.
• As wealth and personal retinue... burgeoned, so did... sloth, luxury, and licentiousness... Ditto for the West.
• Lovers rather than children... birth control, abortion, the exposure were commonplace...The sexual revolution has made sex a god and end in itself. The products of sex - children - are seen as little more than side-effects of an otherwise good drug. Birth control is expected. Abortion is accepted. Exposure is uncommon literally, but many children are quite unwanted and are left to virtually fend for themselves in terms of love and companionship, though they are showered with things they ultimately care less about, such as money and toys.
• The latest celebrity actor and the all-star gladiator were far more entertaining than strategy and politics. Put "athlete" in place of "gladiator" and you may as well be describing Western society.
• Lack of big families, shrinking of the workforce... A family with four children is considered large and inconvenient, not to mention quite environmentally irresponsible. The workforce is shrinking. Here in Canada, we will soon run into the problem of greater benefits and pensions for more and more retirees with fewer and fewer workers to support them. It is a question of demographics, a topic Steyn has treated at length in America Alone.

In Rome, we saw an empire and civilization at the verge of defeat. But it was not the Barbarians who overthrew the empire. As the saying goes, civilizations die not from murder, but from suicide. The Roman empire was in decline before the Barbarians arrived. The West is in a frightfully similar situation.

After these paragraphs, The Christians continues to describe the growth of the unquenchable religion called Christianity. In fact, the despair and hopelessness of Roman society seems to have made it a mission field ripe for harvest. Perhaps that is the silver lining for the West, too. When African Christians are calling the West to repentance, you know the tides have turned - the West is now the mission field. Maybe that will be its saving grace. Perhaps for a few righteous in the West, God will spare our civilization (Genesis 18:16-33).