July 13, 2007
WHICH IS WHY SECULAR EUROPE GENERALLY HATES FAITHFUL AMERICA:
Baiting the devout: Intellectuals who have lost their belief in progress are turning venomously on those who retain a vision of the good society: the religious. (Michael Fitzpatrick, June 2007, spiked review of books)
Readers of these books will learn little about religion; they are much more revealing about their authors’ own insecurities. Lacking much knowledge of religious faith, its contemporary critics focus on its superficial aspects and extreme manifestations (notably, Christian and Islamic fundamentalism). Once-influential radicals, now condemned to the margins of society, tend to exaggerate the importance of religious authorities, who in reality have little more legitimacy than the politicians who patronise them, in the (often mistaken) belief that they provide links to the masses. Having lost their own belief in progress and liberation, secular intellectuals are irked by their encounters with people who, on whatever basis, retain a vision of the good society and a commitment to realising it.
Their rationalist vision failed disastrously while our religious one moves from strength to strength--why shouldn't they be bitter?
Posted by Orrin Judd at July 13, 2007 3:03 PM