2 April, 2021
COLLOQUIUM 25-26 JUNE 2021 REGISTER HERE
Dear Reader,
A correspondent Simon Kennedy quotes Guardian journalist Van Badham as defining western civilisation in purely negative and derogatory terms: ‘…a racist colonial project to crush, change, enslave, eradicate or genocidally erase other cultures’.
It is difficult to regard a person who could write such a thing as quite sane. Kennedy himself responds powerfully, making much use of our own Christopher Dawson’s insistence that the Christian West is not the exclusive birthright of any one race of people, but that it belongs to the whole of humanity.
The remarkable thing about Christianity, from the very beginning, was its inclusiveness. For many centuries the eastern Mediterranean was its epicentre. All but one of the ancient patriarchates of the Church were in or near what we now call the Middle East, but Islamic expansion tended to push the epicentre westward (a trend that has been tragically continuing in such places as Syria).
North Europeans were relative latecomers to Christianity: the ancestors of those of us who happen to be Anglo-Celtic in origin were themselves adopted into a Culture that has its origins in a rich fusion of Israel, Greece and Rome.
We of the West (in the general sense of that word) are not therefore originators of Western Civilisation, but its beneficiaries and adoptees. When we are accused of trying to ‘colonise’ or ‘civilise’ groups of people, we do well to remind our accusers that we were once in the same position as they. And indeed we still are: think how much western Christians owe today to clergy, evangelists and teachers from so-called ‘third world’ countries.
The most important, indeed the essential component of Western Civilisation, is the Christian Faith. It is the Soul of the West. It is all too apparent as I write this on Good Friday, well sequestered from newspapers, broadcast media and sporting events (all of which maintain their normal schedules) that the West has all but lost its Soul. Faith, it seems, is the last thing we come to, and the first we discard as other interests choke the life out of it.
But no situation is hopeless and lost ground can be recovered by the Grace of God even against seemingly impossible odds. That ‘fusion’ of Israel, Greece and Rome of which I spoke above has given all kinds of precious resources to the whole of humanity. I sometimes think that the greatest of them, after the Faith itself, is the Roman sense of inclusiveness. Now one doesn’t usually associate such virtues as modesty and generosity with Romans, but they did recognize that while their own talents lay in government and law, other nations far surpassed them in science, creativity and the arts of peace. The Romans themselves felt that these lines of Virgil aptly suited them:
‘Others will forge more lifelike bronze statues
…and carve living faces out of marble;
they’ll be better orators, and they’ll plot
the motions of heaven and the setting of the stars:
But you, Roman, remember to rule the peoples with your power
– that is your special skill –
to impose the habit of peace,
to spare those subjected to you,
and in battle to beat down the proud.’ (Aeneid vi, 847.53)
To the extent that Badham’s ungenerous and blinkered critique has some truth in it, we should take stock of our own failings and aim always for amendment. But not to the extent of discounting the precious achievements of the West in science and in the arts, by which the whole world has been enriched.
We wish all our readers strengthened Faith, Peace, Joy and Hope at Eastertide.
David Daintree
‘OFFSHORE CORE’
This super article by James Hankins laments the state of Arts teaching in modern mega-universities and suggests ‘offshore’ institutions (a term he uses to include liberal arts colleges in the US and elsewhere) may become the best alternatives.
EUTHANASIA
Julian Leeser MP delivered this speech in the Australian Parliament on 18 March
SLAVERY
One of the striking things about many so-called activists is their inertia. Everybody’s against slavery, but pulling down statues of people once connected with it isn’t half so useful as fighting the trade that still exists. There are an estimated 40 million slaves in the world today. Here is an organisation that is doing something about it.
RUDYARD KIPLING’S VILLAINY
His well-known poem If was long ago declared unfit. It’s a pity cultural vandals don’t actually read those they defame. If they did they might find this stanza from Recessional:
Far-called, our navies melt away;
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!
Kipling clearly saw the impermanence of all empires.
CULTURAL AMNESIA
Another good piece by a writer mentioned previously. On ‘the militant defence of sexual identity’, review of The Anthropological Roots of Modern Identity Politics by Simon Kennedy.
THE HITLER YOUTH – AND FAILED PARENTING
Mercatornet has posted an extended version of my last newsletter piece here.
BOOK LAUNCH
Senator Claire Chandler will launch Kevin Donnelly’s new collection of Essays Cancel Culture and the Left’s Long March at dinner, 6.00 pm, Thursday 20 May, Hotel Soho, Davey Street, Hobart. BOOK HERE NOW.
COLLOQUIUM 2021
Our annual conference originally scheduled for 2020 will now take place on 25–26 June 2021.
Venue: Jane Franklin Hall, South Hobart.
The theme will be secondary education, with a particular focus on the development of the spiritual and religious dimension of human nature.
Papers will be presented by:
Mr Kenneth Crowther
Dr Kevin Donnelly AM
Mr Fadi Elbarbar
Dr Gerard Gaskin
Dr David Hastie
Ms Cheryl Lacey
Mr Eamonn Pollard
Archbishop Julian Porteous
Rev Dr Peter Robinson
Mr Karl Schmude KSG
Dr Wanda Skowronska
Mr and Mrs Ben Smith
Mr Robert van Gend