Signs of the end? September 27, 2011
Posted by Hampton Morgan in Theological commentary.
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Walter Russell Mead, who teaches at Bard College, is not given to alarmist rhetoric or exaggerated verbage. I’ve seen him interviewed on “The News Hour” a few times. He is almost boring; it would be an effort for him to become animated. But he is an informed observer with sharp perceptions. All of which makes his most recent blog post at at The American Interest somewhat startling.
The one-word title is “Panic?” Here are a few of Mead’s thoughts that really grabbed my attention:
…we need policy discussions more than we need political ones. This is not just about how big the deficit should be; it is about whether the international financial system will survive the next six months in the form we now know it. It is about whether the foundations of the postwar order are cracking in Europe. It is about whether a global financial crash will further destabilize the Middle East and, if so, what we and the Europeans are going to do about it. It is about whether the incipient signs of a bubble burst in China signal the start of an extended economic and perhaps even political crisis there. It is about whether the American middle class is about to be knocked off its feet once again and indeed whether the middle class as we’ve known it will survive. It is about whether sovereign governments can still underwrite economic performance and financial stability in the leading economies of the world.
In all cases, I think the odds still favor outcomes well short of catastrophic and worst case scenarios — but the global economy is now in the catastrophe zone where speculation about such scenarios is no longer science fiction but becomes part of prudent planning….
It appears that while investors panic quickly and head for the exits at the first sign of trouble, many politicians, journalists and social thinkers go to sleep when the fire alarms begin to ring. The success of the West in establishing a solid set of social, political and economic institutions and policies after World War Two was so durable that we came to believe that the arrangements made then would last forever, and that further change would be slow and evolutionary rather than quick and disruptive.
I still hope the old house can weather one more storm, but it is clear that we can no longer take that for granted. The ground under the foundations is washing away; the wind threatens to rip off the roof, and cracks are appearing in load bearing walls. Sooner rather than later we are going to have to redesign and rebuild.
Mead is not a wild-eyed, flaming liberal looking for a crisis by which he can recommend some fundamental reordering of the existing financial and political order. Rather, he sees the existing order beginning to come apart and current leaders failing badly at holding it all together.
At times like this many Christians have turned to the scriptures to brush up on what the Bible says about the end times. The books of Daniel and Revelation figure prominently in these efforts to understand the meaning of current events. A couple of days ago in the New York Times, Professor Matthew Avery Sutton of Washington State University wrote about this. His article, “Why the Antichrist matters in Politics,” is a fair reading of evangelical history and an appropriate suggestion that today’s news will surely encourage more of this. He also fears (unnecessarily, I think) that a smart politician could exploit the “apocalyptic anti-statism of conservative Christians” and win the White House.
I consider myself a fairly balanced Christian — able to read the news with discernment and reasonably gauge the signs of the times. Like Professor Mead, I see the current political and financial order beginning to come apart. I share his concerns that today’s politicians daily demonstrate their ineptitude in making the sound decisions necessary to turn the tide of looming disaster. Unlike some, I do not see a conspiracy to make the current order fail so that an elite cadre can bring in a new world order. World orders, like civilizations and nations, rise and fall without the help of conspirators. They usually fall because of moral decay and bad leaders. Sometimes they fail because the world has changed and they are no longer effective.
Despite my self-perceived balance, I am quickly becoming one of those Christians about whom Professor Sutton wrote. I believe in a God who acts in the midst of human history. Christian faith, while connected to events in the past, is really all about the future — “new heavens and a new earth.” But we cannot get there without passing through the events that will render the current order obsolete; yes, even events that will destroy it.
Christians in previous times and centuries have lived through events just as disturbing as those we experience today. And the end did not come. Somehow, humanity muddled through and brought a new order into reality that was eventually perceived by most everyone to be better than the previous order. Professor Mead’s hopes may be realized and that may still happen.
But I am concerned that it may not.
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Signs of the end? September 27, 2011
Posted by Hampton Morgan in Theological commentary.trackback
Walter Russell Mead, who teaches at Bard College, is not given to alarmist rhetoric or exaggerated verbage. I’ve seen him interviewed on “The News Hour” a few times. He is almost boring; it would be an effort for him to become animated. But he is an informed observer with sharp perceptions. All of which makes his most recent blog post at at The American Interest somewhat startling.
The one-word title is “Panic?” Here are a few of Mead’s thoughts that really grabbed my attention:
Mead is not a wild-eyed, flaming liberal looking for a crisis by which he can recommend some fundamental reordering of the existing financial and political order. Rather, he sees the existing order beginning to come apart and current leaders failing badly at holding it all together.
At times like this many Christians have turned to the scriptures to brush up on what the Bible says about the end times. The books of Daniel and Revelation figure prominently in these efforts to understand the meaning of current events. A couple of days ago in the New York Times, Professor Matthew Avery Sutton of Washington State University wrote about this. His article, “Why the Antichrist matters in Politics,” is a fair reading of evangelical history and an appropriate suggestion that today’s news will surely encourage more of this. He also fears (unnecessarily, I think) that a smart politician could exploit the “apocalyptic anti-statism of conservative Christians” and win the White House.
I consider myself a fairly balanced Christian — able to read the news with discernment and reasonably gauge the signs of the times. Like Professor Mead, I see the current political and financial order beginning to come apart. I share his concerns that today’s politicians daily demonstrate their ineptitude in making the sound decisions necessary to turn the tide of looming disaster. Unlike some, I do not see a conspiracy to make the current order fail so that an elite cadre can bring in a new world order. World orders, like civilizations and nations, rise and fall without the help of conspirators. They usually fall because of moral decay and bad leaders. Sometimes they fail because the world has changed and they are no longer effective.
Despite my self-perceived balance, I am quickly becoming one of those Christians about whom Professor Sutton wrote. I believe in a God who acts in the midst of human history. Christian faith, while connected to events in the past, is really all about the future — “new heavens and a new earth.” But we cannot get there without passing through the events that will render the current order obsolete; yes, even events that will destroy it.
Christians in previous times and centuries have lived through events just as disturbing as those we experience today. And the end did not come. Somehow, humanity muddled through and brought a new order into reality that was eventually perceived by most everyone to be better than the previous order. Professor Mead’s hopes may be realized and that may still happen.
But I am concerned that it may not.
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