Decline and Fall
In the biblical story, we read of empire following empire, each eclipsed by the one that followed; and the Church was planted - and the gospel spread - at the height of the Roman Empire. But like all the others, the Roman Empire didn't last.
Why? Why do all empires seem doomed to fail? 'Pride goes before...a fall', declared the writer of Proverbs (Proverbs 16:18) - words amply born out by the disaster that followed Nebuchadnezzar's hubristic cry: 'Is this not the great Babylon that I have built...by my power and for the glory of my majesty?' (Daniel 4:30).
Arguably, the greatest analysis of the fall of empire was the nineteenth century blockbuster by the historian Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Subsequent historians have shown that Gibbon's thesis was over-simplified, but one clear message comes through: 'The decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principles of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and...the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight.'
Might these words perhaps prove true of Rupert Murdoch's vast media empire, News Corporation? As with Rome, we see pride, ambition and overconfidence; and perhaps also over-extension, with the centre losing control of its outposts. It remains to be seen whether Murdoch's recent statement to a Commons Select Committee, that his appearance before them was 'the most humble day of my life', simply indicates humiliation or the repentance that leads to reform.
Of our own national humiliation the same question must be asked. How did we reach the place where the media, police and politicians cosy up to each other so that they appear to be unable to tell right from wrong? And are we willing to change? We tend to assume that the world will go on much as it is, that the triumph of global capitalism and liberal democracy will prove what Francis Fukuyama in 1992 famously described as 'The End of History'. But has our prosperity 'ripened the principles of decay'? Are we deaf to the cries of the world's poor, and indifferent to the causes of the rise of militant Islam and the extreme Right? Is the West, as we know it, doomed?
Does such an idea fill us with dread? And, if so, might that be because our Christian identity is too much entangled with Western culture? Can we learn, and train our children - even while seeking to promote Christian values in our society - to distinguish what is transitory from what is eternal, from that which 'cannot be shaken' (Hebrews 12:27)?
Helen Parry
Comments
Spot on! - and well said. Rome had hedonism, we have that and consumerism, with all that both imply that is destructive and contra Christian values. But asceticism is not the answer, some bigger vision of God's provision together with changed hearts may be.
Of course the over-Developed and Developing worlds are doomed. They are based on debt interest and majority rule. Christians - purge debt out of your daily life and refuse to believe that Democracy is Godly. Live simply and listen to the lone prophetic voices in this Western wilderness.
Good comment. Just reading Proverbs ch 1 vv20-33, how it speaks to our crazy world. Also have a book from 19th cent called "Do we have a revelation?" A prophetic comment there says, "Mohammedism will be the judicial scourge of Christendom'. Interesting.
Date:
2011-08-05 13:15:24
Author:
Rev Stephen Bazlinton