Modernity

My roommate and I were discussing the similar themes we found between three books we have just read written by females from the generation of women's rights (two were Christian but all were somewhat "liberal" in perspective). Two particular themes were taking care of yourself and despair. The last one surprised me in it's intensity. When the feminist movement took place, it was built on an already philosophical shift to modern thought - which is - a focus on self.

So women started investing in their careers, divorcing their husbands, and making an amazing art out of parenting so that those who did stay home could justify child rearing by turning it into a veritable profession (Nora speaks of this in her book). They were "free" to listen to their wants and act on them. In fact, it was "right" to do this. The contrast can be seen in a recent conversation I had with my roommate. I was tired and exhausted and didn't want to clean the bathroom for our weekend guest. Our conversation went roughly like this:

"Try taking a nap."

"I already did. I still have no energy."

"Try eating"

"I'm about to. I may still not have any energy."

"Then what are you going to do?"

"Pretend like I do have energy and clean the bathroom."

She noted how that line of thought was in contrast with the themes she had just encountered: modern woman saying, 'listen to your body and do what it says'. I was just going to ignore my body and do what needed to be done. (please note: I am not advocating a neglect of your physical needs)

Sadly, that generation is getting old and facing death and what they communicate through books, movies, etc. is despair and denial. The natural outcome of their approach is a huge weight of responsibility on the individual for meaning in life. They spent their days listening to themselves and look back to find nothing and they can't even bear to look forward because they find nothing there either. It's depressing. Nora ends her book going from a paragraph on death to using her favorite bath oil. She comes right up to death but can't bear to go beyond it.

Christianity is shocking in comparison. We die to ourselves. We have hope instead of despair. We look beyond death. Even if our answers don't make sense to a non-Christian, at least they can see we're brave enough to ask. Nora's use of denial is unmistakable and glaring. And so I'm glad - glad that Christianity is shockingly upside down from modernism. My only concern is that this sort of Christianity is becoming much more rare. -never settle-