Another crackerjack essay. I read them slowly so as to savor the rich language. I really enjoyed your characterization of the upper-class women of that day (which would include my own Boston and Woodstock, Vermont “bluebloods”) as being “entrained to the practice of active virtue.” I suspect there was not a little of James 2:18 in their collective worldview: “Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” And their status in the community was surely enmeshed with those “somethings that lifted people up.” But unfortunately I suspect there may have been more than a light confectionary dusting of that evil tyrant John Calvin in their noble efforts, which certainly were that.
But they were also rich targets for satire. Am thinking particularly of Indiana humorist George Ade (1866-1944) whose Fables in Slang were hugely popular in the 1890s and early 1900s. His piece on “The Fable of the Good Fairy with the Lorgnette, and why She Got it Good” is really a hoot in lampooning noble pursuits done for the wrong reasons. Ade’s tales always ended with an ironic “moral,“ in this case, “In uplifting, get underneath.”
(But even Ade was down with the practice of active virtue. By the end of 1900, he was earning $1000 a week and had a huge mansion in which he entertained hundreds of orphans on special occasions.)
But I really camped on your last full ‘graph about the new awakening sweeping the world. As an evangelical I will be the first to condemn and reject the “guilt ethic of old line Christianity.” The Christian Church did many wonderful things historically but one of them was not controlling people through guilt while simultaneously picking their pockets. People, as you know, were actually burned at the stake for daring to think outside the priestly “box” and interpreting the Scriptures for themselves.
I don’t see the merging of various religious traditions into a new agey smorgasbord as a good thing. Chrislam? No thank you. The Bible is very clear on what is required for salvation, and it specifically rejects this form of universalism in a number of passages, including John 3:16-17 and 1 John 5:11 and following. I would only add that, in this, we are seeing Biblical prophecy fulfilled before our very eyes: “For the time will come when they will no longer endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
And the last thing that caught my eye was your final sentence about the last 2,000 years, which sounds like a condemnation of Christianity. In fact, all of human history has been a record of repression, war and hate since right after Day One, whenever that was. Not just the last 2,000 years.
Lovin’ your essays, thanks for sending and keeping me engaged.
That is so interesting. I was thinking of the first century after Christ, when women would hold home churches and theFaith was not organized. I read a wonderful book about that time called The Immortality Key, a young lawyer is given free rein in the Vatican library, discovers the drugs that were used then to connect with the divine, the early merging of Christianity with the old religion, and its subsequent “purification”. Christianity keeps reinventing itself by returning to the direct communication between the divine and human. It is what I see in black revivals, and some evangelical churches, that are ecstatic. The old Wasps went through a mannerist phase, all punishment, no virtue and then, arguably, their culture died
Might it be possible that this new movement of which I know little but sort of intuit internally could be a final emergence of the true Christian message. I always thought that absent the obvious atheism there is bit of Buddhism in Christ. Not sure what New Age means but if it is a taking up of more holistic traditions is that outside the realm of the Christian. Might all of it culminate into a completed act of love and is that not the Christian message.
The true Christian message was the incarnation--Jesus was fully God and fully man who fulfilled the scriptures with his perfect life, death on a tree and resurrection. The Bible was 27 percent prophecy at the time it was written with each one coming true, especially the regathering of Israel in its land. The merging of world religions sets the stage for the Antichrist. Since Satan doesn’t know when the current Church Age will end, he has had an Antichrist candidate in each generation waiting in the wings.
Did Jesus die for the collective greater good? No, he died in your place, suffering the full wrath of the Father so you can stand righteous before the throne.
Yes - they may get the costumes correct (although I am not sure that even that is true) - but they get the society totally wrong. 19th and early 20th century America was dominated by the ethnic that people should try and improve society (not just their own lives), by their own efforts and their own resources. Instead the television series presents a lazy, parasite, ruling class - more like today than the time period it is supposedly set in. Wealthy people of that time period would not just ignore vast numbers of desperate people living on the streets, or chant "the government must spend more money", they would personally try and find out what had gone wrong - and try and improve things, themselves (by their own efforts).
Yes, and that is exactly what they did do. Plus the costumes are ridiculous. All that swathing of fabric on their back ends? That would have been seen as vulgar beyond belief.
When most writers would wind things down after such a brilliant assessment, this one goes into high gear at the end and what a wild, joyous ride.
What incredible insights… both historical and sociological. It’s so true how a woman’s worth was determined by her deeds back then. Look closer and the same is true today. We just assume it isn’t because those good deeds get lost in the noise of shallow, vulgar displays on Tik Tok. I’m surprised Julian Fellows fell for this ruse and was captured by shallow 21st century tropes about wealth, race and class. Has he been captured too because this isn’t the Fellows of Downton Abbey.
The last paragraph is truly virtuosic and so, SO true. That movement is real and its steamrolling over everything. Look what it did to the left-right political divide. It’s dead and buried. Nobody has yet defined it this clearly. Just fantastic and I mean every word!
I have just come upon your writings and find them fascinating. This particular essay is most enlightening. I have studied the Wasp once dominant in the USA and found them to be quite as you describe them. Thank you for taking the time and I will continue to read you for the profundity of your thinking. The disappearance of the WASP has been a tragic lose to the country and has allowed lots of corrosion to occur in the American ideal.
It would be of great interest to me to learn more about your perspective on this emerging Awakening. I sense something here but cannot myself wrap a complete idea around it.
Another crackerjack essay. I read them slowly so as to savor the rich language. I really enjoyed your characterization of the upper-class women of that day (which would include my own Boston and Woodstock, Vermont “bluebloods”) as being “entrained to the practice of active virtue.” I suspect there was not a little of James 2:18 in their collective worldview: “Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” And their status in the community was surely enmeshed with those “somethings that lifted people up.” But unfortunately I suspect there may have been more than a light confectionary dusting of that evil tyrant John Calvin in their noble efforts, which certainly were that.
But they were also rich targets for satire. Am thinking particularly of Indiana humorist George Ade (1866-1944) whose Fables in Slang were hugely popular in the 1890s and early 1900s. His piece on “The Fable of the Good Fairy with the Lorgnette, and why She Got it Good” is really a hoot in lampooning noble pursuits done for the wrong reasons. Ade’s tales always ended with an ironic “moral,“ in this case, “In uplifting, get underneath.”
(But even Ade was down with the practice of active virtue. By the end of 1900, he was earning $1000 a week and had a huge mansion in which he entertained hundreds of orphans on special occasions.)
But I really camped on your last full ‘graph about the new awakening sweeping the world. As an evangelical I will be the first to condemn and reject the “guilt ethic of old line Christianity.” The Christian Church did many wonderful things historically but one of them was not controlling people through guilt while simultaneously picking their pockets. People, as you know, were actually burned at the stake for daring to think outside the priestly “box” and interpreting the Scriptures for themselves.
I don’t see the merging of various religious traditions into a new agey smorgasbord as a good thing. Chrislam? No thank you. The Bible is very clear on what is required for salvation, and it specifically rejects this form of universalism in a number of passages, including John 3:16-17 and 1 John 5:11 and following. I would only add that, in this, we are seeing Biblical prophecy fulfilled before our very eyes: “For the time will come when they will no longer endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and will turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4.
And the last thing that caught my eye was your final sentence about the last 2,000 years, which sounds like a condemnation of Christianity. In fact, all of human history has been a record of repression, war and hate since right after Day One, whenever that was. Not just the last 2,000 years.
Lovin’ your essays, thanks for sending and keeping me engaged.
That is so interesting. I was thinking of the first century after Christ, when women would hold home churches and theFaith was not organized. I read a wonderful book about that time called The Immortality Key, a young lawyer is given free rein in the Vatican library, discovers the drugs that were used then to connect with the divine, the early merging of Christianity with the old religion, and its subsequent “purification”. Christianity keeps reinventing itself by returning to the direct communication between the divine and human. It is what I see in black revivals, and some evangelical churches, that are ecstatic. The old Wasps went through a mannerist phase, all punishment, no virtue and then, arguably, their culture died
Might it be possible that this new movement of which I know little but sort of intuit internally could be a final emergence of the true Christian message. I always thought that absent the obvious atheism there is bit of Buddhism in Christ. Not sure what New Age means but if it is a taking up of more holistic traditions is that outside the realm of the Christian. Might all of it culminate into a completed act of love and is that not the Christian message.
Your comment was excellent by the way.
The true Christian message was the incarnation--Jesus was fully God and fully man who fulfilled the scriptures with his perfect life, death on a tree and resurrection. The Bible was 27 percent prophecy at the time it was written with each one coming true, especially the regathering of Israel in its land. The merging of world religions sets the stage for the Antichrist. Since Satan doesn’t know when the current Church Age will end, he has had an Antichrist candidate in each generation waiting in the wings.
Did Jesus die for the collective greater good? No, he died in your place, suffering the full wrath of the Father so you can stand righteous before the throne.
Yes - they may get the costumes correct (although I am not sure that even that is true) - but they get the society totally wrong. 19th and early 20th century America was dominated by the ethnic that people should try and improve society (not just their own lives), by their own efforts and their own resources. Instead the television series presents a lazy, parasite, ruling class - more like today than the time period it is supposedly set in. Wealthy people of that time period would not just ignore vast numbers of desperate people living on the streets, or chant "the government must spend more money", they would personally try and find out what had gone wrong - and try and improve things, themselves (by their own efforts).
Yes, and that is exactly what they did do. Plus the costumes are ridiculous. All that swathing of fabric on their back ends? That would have been seen as vulgar beyond belief.
When most writers would wind things down after such a brilliant assessment, this one goes into high gear at the end and what a wild, joyous ride.
What incredible insights… both historical and sociological. It’s so true how a woman’s worth was determined by her deeds back then. Look closer and the same is true today. We just assume it isn’t because those good deeds get lost in the noise of shallow, vulgar displays on Tik Tok. I’m surprised Julian Fellows fell for this ruse and was captured by shallow 21st century tropes about wealth, race and class. Has he been captured too because this isn’t the Fellows of Downton Abbey.
The last paragraph is truly virtuosic and so, SO true. That movement is real and its steamrolling over everything. Look what it did to the left-right political divide. It’s dead and buried. Nobody has yet defined it this clearly. Just fantastic and I mean every word!
I have just come upon your writings and find them fascinating. This particular essay is most enlightening. I have studied the Wasp once dominant in the USA and found them to be quite as you describe them. Thank you for taking the time and I will continue to read you for the profundity of your thinking. The disappearance of the WASP has been a tragic lose to the country and has allowed lots of corrosion to occur in the American ideal.
It would be of great interest to me to learn more about your perspective on this emerging Awakening. I sense something here but cannot myself wrap a complete idea around it.