The Cube and the Cathedral
April 21, 2005
About once a year, I order a couple dozen books on current affairs, and then I plow through them, hoping against hope to find some thread to help me through the chaos.
One of this year's turned out to be an unexpected gem: "The Cube and the Cathedral" by George Weigel.
I picked it up last night, and read it one sitting. (It is short -- 180 pages.)
Weigel tells me I am dead wrong in my assessment of the world. The Enlightenment project, and celebration of autonomy, the sense that each of us are and should be at liberty to sculpt a sense of self independent of the dead hand of religious dogma are not sources of life, he argues. Rather, these are the signs of spiritual decay. Our past, our Christian past, is our destiny; we ignore it our peril.
It is a well-made and intriguing argument.
The book is still too fresh in my mind to determine whether the impressions it made will last. But I have the sense that it is a work worth sharing.
A new conservative Pope. Powerful fundamentalist currents in our country. Battles over the judiciary and the commitments of judges who occupy it. Weigel helped me understand why some of those toeing these battle lines are so desparate to win the culture wars.
Oddly, I couldn't say he was wrong. Indeed, he forced me to rethink many of my commitments. I'll be looking at more of his works in the weeks and months to come.
The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God, George Weigel, (Basic Books, NY, 2005) $23.00.