The greatest threat to Western Civilisation today is the subtle bifurcation of the Church – not necessarily across denominational lines, but within the life of the individual Christian.
As Christians, we readily engage in scholarship, contemplative prayer, and charitable works, but for too long we have neglected discipline, ascetic militancy, and spiritual warfare.
St Thomas Aquinas argued that “grace does not destroy nature but perfects it” and if we read the story of civilisation through this lens, we understand that the West is the historic fusion of the European spirit and the Christian faith.
The West is this complimentary blend between these two forces of chaos and order, savagery and discipline, vitality and refinement.
We build citadels and cathedrals.
Armouries and monasteries.
Siege-engines and spires.
Ramparts and reliquaries.
Cardinals and cavaliers.
Soldiers and saints.
Western Civilisation cannot have one without the other because truth, goodness, and beauty need courage, order and justice in order to flourish.
Power makes poetry possible.