tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10032287.post2011921194910317681..comments2023-09-08T00:47:50.511-07:00Comments on Naked Reflections: Resignation Letter, P. 1Stevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02549770321948541384noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10032287.post-41198629686969614742007-02-03T18:48:00.000-08:002007-02-03T18:48:00.000-08:00This is lovely and perceptive -- Watts' descriptio...This is lovely and perceptive -- Watts' description of nostalgia.<br /><br />Another word for it is piety. It's the sensibility that faith would be good and virtuous, or retro chic, to have. And you will defend faith against the forces of modernity which threaten to act as a solvent. But you don't actually have faith yourself. And you think that nobody can notice the difference. <br /><br />I think of our friend Bob Godwin who writes polemics in favor of religious tradition and rails against the people he sees as diminishing faith. But he doesn't attend church and there is no reason to think he has any faith himself. <br /><br />This is what Kierkegaard called "Christendom" and it should all be hewn down and cast into the fire. Anytime people are engaged in apologetics or polemics, it's this phony piety or nostalgia that they will be defending.<br /><br />Yet Watt's statement doesn't address my circumstance in which I can say: I love Jesus. I love Mary. I love Mass. I love Holy Communion. I love going to Church. I love prayer. I am nourished by these relationships. I meet many people who are fed like this and I enjoy their company.copithornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08949020666425985657noreply@blogger.com