Wouldn’t it be unexpected if after five plus centuries of spiritual and intellectual turmoil, “we all” (that is, western society) went back to being Christian Under a Single Universal Church again, the Reformation having failed, Science having failed, Enlightenment having failed, Capitalism having failed, Democracy having failed, Technology having failed, because all the liberties and inventions and efficiencies and marvels don’t add up to a reason for people in general to take heart and have hope and live. (This is somewhat Naptha’s position in Magic Mountain. Michel Houelbec will seem also to argue in that line in Submission.)
Michael Gerson, a couple days before Christmas, on the unexpected quality of hope as seen in the nativity story: the king of the Jews was not a warrior but a child; the real grounds for hope and change were not “secret wish fulfillment,” that the world and my life would be as I’ve wanted it — that I didn’t have cancer, that I was a success — but would reveal we’ve been wishing for the wrong things — would result in a change of heart.
.i`` * ^ / . . . . . ` `~ 