Ignorance Is But A Generation Away

 As a present for my recent birthday, one of our sons agreed to read a book of my choosing with me. I selected Chesterton's masterpiece, The Everlasting Man. We're consuming it as an audio book and sharing our reflections as we go. Everlasting Man is Chesterton's response to the atheist analyses of the evolution of Man and the comparative religion studies of his era, circa 1920.

This is my fourth or fifth time through it. It's so dense with wisdom that I learn something new every time. As we were discussing a portion of it a few weeks ago, my son asked me why people didn't know this or that part of it. He asked in a way that was new to me. He does that frequently. His mind thinks in very different ways than mine. I find that delightful.

His question made real to me something I've read, but never truly grasped. Every generation must be taught our culture and faith anew. 

It makes total sense when you think about it. Babies are born knowing nothing and they only learn what we tell them and what they experience. Had you taken my son and raised him in the ancient ways of the Arapaho, he'd know nothing of math or literacy. Instead, he's an electrical engineer with a solid foundation in the classics gained from Catholic schooling. Our children only know what we teach them.

That means that Shakespeare, Dickens and Kipling are only a generation away from obscurity.

I've read quite a bit of theology and philosophy, of military history and biographies. I try to read as much as I can from the primary sources, preferably autobiographies. I'm not very familiar with Shakespeare, but I will take it as a given that he's a genius. I know that Dickens, Kipling and Chesterton are geniuses. That is, their work stands head and shoulders above the rest. There are currently no adequate substitutes for them. If you lose them, that wisdom and artistry will be lost for a very, very long time.

Someone may come along, a century or two from now, who can restate some of what Chesterton said. At that point, a portion of his genius will be available once more if we lose him now. And if we lose him now, his particular brilliance will be lost forever. There aren't many revival movements for now-obscure authors from long ago.

Rudyard Kipling said it well in his poem, Recessional.

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose

   Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,

Such boastings as the Gentiles use,

   Or lesser breeds without the Law—

Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,

Lest we forget—lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust

   In reeking tube and iron shard,

All valiant dust that builds on dust,

   And guarding, calls not Thee to guard,

For frantic boast and foolish word—

Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord!