HUMAN DECLINE
James Gollin remembers Cleanth Brooks: “Brooks’ father was a Methodist minister. Brooks himself, an Episcopalian who served for years as senior warden of his parish, belonged to perhaps the last generation of American humanist scholars of which the members could or would openly profess their religious beliefs and make no bones about how these beliefs shaped their views.” The last? Maybe we should note the vanguard in a new situation where explicitness is allowed. In any case, Gollin goes on: “For the Christian, of course, man is fallen man. But modern man, Brooks often seems to be saying in his measured, cheerful prose, is worse than fallen. Denied Eden, but given a beautiful and fruitful home on earth, he is despoiling and fouling it with fearsome speed and at the same time cutting himself off from it. Offered redemption through Christ, contemporary man perversely rejects redemption in favor of a violent, alienated, and hopeless earthly existence. Given the freedom to choose good…
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