Saint Leibowitz, Pray for Us

"Ignorance is King, not many would profit by its abdication."

Not having any particular gift of the Holy Spirit related to prophesy, I do not claim any infallible vision of the future. But there's enough signs and portents for the layman now-a-days to realize that all is not well. We live in an age that is post-Enlightenment, post-modern, and now post-Christian. Humanism and all manner of relativism has grown from a whisper in past generations to the roaring cacophony of the masses. Man has fastened upon War as a primary means of social intercourse.

Science, initially thought to allow Man to harness Nature, has thrown off its cloak to reveal that Man's baser Nature has harnessed Man. Or rather, some men have enslaved every other man using Nature. We have made machines the means of this warring, and to date have stockpiled a staggering quantity, potency, and variety of weaponry. Traditionally, we have never failed to use a newly synthesized weapon system on other men.

In the public arena, there is no longer discourse. Our "elected officials" argue incessantly, leading every debate down a long road to Morton's fork. We have traded ideology for ideas, policy for morality. In America, somehow we have traded a three-fold division of government (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial) for a two-fold, colluding dysnfunction of Republican and Democrat. History will not be kind.

So, if you feel the same way, read "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller. Also, if you disagree, read "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller. In either event, you will have a chilling, witty, and deeply human account of a fictional history much like our very real present that results in a new Dark Age. This is a great story, with a great message. The tale focuses on one particular order of monks and spans several thousand years as civilization is destroyed, re-discovered, re-built, and destroyed again. Dealing with complex issues in a simple way, the book explores seperation of church and state, science and faith, war, bioethics, monasticism, and a deep understanding of Christian vocation. The monks are tasked with preserving all known literature, both secular and holy. A word of caution, the political machinations used as the backdrop in "Canticle" will be eeirily familiar. Eeirie because the book was published in 1960.

One of the greatest facets of this book is that you could just read it for the story and theme, or grab a dictionary because Miller is above all else a wordsmith. You will learn new words, even in ancient languages, and be the better for it. He does not come off as pretentitious. His style, in fact, is a literary sleight-of-hand. As an example, when I finished it the first time, I said to myself, "Hey! I think that was sci-fi!"

Up next is the challenging "Nicomachean Ethics" of Arisotle and "The Abolition of Man" by C.S. Lewis, to whom I owe much in the early part of this post concerning Man and Nature.

So, take heart! I join all Book-leggers, Memorizers, Sports, and Texarkansans in saying in these dark days, "Sancta Leibowitz, ora pro nobis!"