From Christendom to Americanism and Beyond: The Long, Jagged Trail to a Postmodern Void
by Thomas Storck (Angelico Press, £11.95pb)
Donal Anthony Foley
From Christendom to Americanism and Beyond is a collection of essays written by Thomas Storck, who is a member of the editorial board of The Chesterton Review. In the past Storck has taught history at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, and philosophy at Mt Aloysius College in Cresson, Pennsylvania and Catonsville Community College in Catonsville, Maryland.
His book has a foreword by Joseph Pearce, author of an admired biography of Chesterton, in which he praises Storck because of his insistence that Western civilization can only be comprehended if we understand it as something which has grown out of Christendom, that is, European society as based on the Faith, and that our modern increasingly godless society is largely a revolt against that conception of society and all that it stands for.
Although the title refers to “Americanism” there is actually much of interest to Irish readers in this work, since it deals with general trends in Western society, which affect us all.
The book comprises 21 chapters, and Storck begins by frankly acknowledging the serious state of modern society, with its widespread rejection of God, a situation made more serious because “the voice of the Catholic Church, the true oracle of God, is confused and muted because of the raging dissent, indifference, and turmoil within her ranks”.
This overall situation is not something which happened overnight, but which has grown up over the last five or six centuries in particular, as the world has been convulsed by a series of revolutions, including the Protestant Revolution of the 16th Century, and the French Revolution of 1789.
Storck argues that if we are serious about the business of re-building Christendom, then this means the conversion of our culture so that our institutions and customs reflect the teaching of the Gospel.
This in turn means overcoming the various assaults of liberalism, which have included the overthrow of the Church’s economic teaching and the resulting rise of capitalism; the overthrow of societies favourable to Christian principles; and now what we are currently experiencing, which Storck terms as the “assault on humanity” through such things as divorce, contraception and abortion.
He sees the need for a greater emphasis on the liturgy and the Church’s intellectual and social teaching, and a massive programme of catechesis and education at all levels, as the most likely ways to remedy this sad situation.
Problem
The problem is that we are living in the aftermath of the effects of the 18th Century Enlightenment, which means that society as a whole largely rejects the Christian Revelation as not really worthy of serious consideration.
Regarding Europe, he thinks that an excessive reliance on the principle of toleration in the face of Islamic immigration will prove suicidal, and that there should rather be an emphasis on conversion, as happened in the aftermath of the collapse of the Roman Empire. But demographically Europe is dying, and it is going to take a huge change in thinking and action for that process to be reversed.
As he points out, too, we have all become the victims of modern “myths” – literally the “myths of modernism,” such as the idea that technological progress is inevitable, or that science will solve all our problems. Most Catholics have also accepted these “gnostic” myths.
The book has much historical, philosophical, economic and political material, as well as interesting discussions about art and topics such as post-modernism. While many readers might not accept all aspects of Storck’s thinking and the book is not light reading, it is worth persevering with, since the result of that effort will be a much better understanding of why the world is in such a mess, and of what needs to be done to remedy that situation.