Camera Lucida: Confident Christianity

The strength of a society

In a recent post on Nietzsche, Christianity and the West, Lawrence Auster of the View from the Right was asked by a reader:

What did Nietzsche miss in your estimation? What did he not see? What era of Christianity is the exemplar of a healthy (non-weak) Christianity that did not give rise to, or aid and abet, liberalism?

and replied thus:

Throughout the history of Christianity we find examples of this, but mainly in the Middle Ages. We can't experience this in America. If you visit Ireland, and see the remnants of the Christian buildings from the Dark Ages, or the stone crosses and Romanesque churches from the high middle ages, or look at the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells (illuminated manuscripts from the ninth century) you will experience through them a living Christian truth, a consummate state of being. If you visit medieval churches in England, you will experience the same. Or if you read The Stripping of the Altars, about the actual Christian practice (such as Corpus Christi processionals and Holy Week observances) that were followed by ordinary people in the communities and the guilds of 15th century England, you well get a glimpse of a complete order of life based around Christianity.

I would add that a non-Western country which lived in this total, life-giving Christianity is Ethiopia. After a long hiatus following the conversion of the Axumite Kings around 300AD, a confident and well-prepared population returned to a culture infused and fortified by Christianity around the 12th century. This is exemplified by their grand rock-hewn and underground churches, and the many biblical art pieces which they produced to permeate every level of society.

This confident Christianity continued its way into history, surviving isolation, pagan incursions and the great devastation of the Muslims during the 15th century, until the mid-20th century. At this moment, modernism in its various guises proved the temporary victor.

Still, although the people have lost their footing, all that they have received is nihilistic communism and atheistic capitalism. Despite this lack of confidence, a return to the ancient faith seems to be the only solution.

On a related note, I recently sent a letter to the art critic and professor at the University of the Art, Camille Paglia, regarding her on-line article at Arion "Religion and the Arts in America." I just wanted to clarify the different traditions and histories of Christianity in Africa.