Christendom Lost and Found: Meditations for a Post Post-Christian Era

by Robert McTeigue

Witnessing the cultural collapse in the aftermath of the modern rejection of Christ, Fr. McTeigue offers meditations for the reader to consider what must be retrieved and renewed in order to build Christ-centered cultures in our time. Where were you in the madness of 2020 and the sadness of 2021? When did you begin to suspect that many things have been terribly wrong for a long time? McTeigue spent the long year of 2020 moving between the chapel, his front window, and his computer--wondering at the outburst of madness and the glimmers of hope. In 2021, he struggled with to find "the new normal."

Written as a kind of a war journal during what he calls "the COVID Interruption" and the violent outbursts in numerous cities, McTeigue penned this series of meditations. His observations: Since the time of the French Revolution, the West (formerly known as "Christendom") chose to organize public and private life without reference to Christ. His conclusion: Since 1789 the West has produced much bad art and even more dead bodies--precisely because of the rejection of Christ.

His invitation: Join him in exploring ways to find what must be retrieved and renewed to build Christ-centered cultures and civilizations in our own time. His promise: With thoughtfulness and grace, we can build, not a reconstruction of some mythical "good old days" but rather a new Christendom that does justice to what our ancestors entrusted to us and to what our posterity deserve from us.

Genres: Catholic, Religion

144 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 24, 2022

Reviews

[Sarah Cain · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives an honest appraisal about where we are, as a Church and a culture. It doesn't waste time telling us about how times were once worse and therefore we should just rejoice with blinders on, as many insist. After assessing the dangerous epoch that we are approaching, Fr. McTeigue attempts to guide the reader through the options as to where we ought to go from here. He analyzes popular suggestions, from the Benedict Option to fleeing to the Catacombs, breaking down their strengths, weaknesses, and viability when applied to the modern world. We are compelled to act and not ignore the state of things, but without being rash and impulsive. Fr. McTeigue uses Ignatian spirituality to help teach the readers how to discern their own path in these challenging times.

It's an important book for anyone who takes their faith seriously, along with their duty to defend it.

[David William Parry · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Liberal Catholic priest, LGBT activist and British theatrical, I tend to be suspicious of terms like "Christendom" as well as "faithful remnant" whenever they arise. Indeed, I recall ordering Fr. McTeigue's third book with a sense of suspicion, even though I confess to thoroughly enjoying his previous work "Real Philosophy for Real People" warts and all. However, the clouds of my personal misgivings were very quickly dispelled by this brilliantly insightful, thought-provoking and genuinely pastoral work. Certainly, he refuses to pull his punches, which may deter some Catholic readers from any investigation of this necessary text. Yet, if this is their decision, they will be missing Fr. McTeigue's timely concerns as a seasoned clergyman and philosophy professor. After all, this finely crafted collection of meditations clearly uncovers the spiritual losses of our Christian community, whereas holding a burning torch of religious hope for future generations. As such, his far too slender volume fully deserves a much wider audience of traditionalist and liberal readers alike.

[Art · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author, a Jesuit priest, wrote these meditations during the Covid epidemic. They are a war journal, trying to make sense of the post-Christian world he finds himself in, arguing for resistance and a restoration of Christendom. Instead of some grand plan, he argues, "it may be time, instead, to take the highest Christian aspirations and use modest means to plant holy and humane seeds in local soils." An insightful man, he gives readers an important axiom and corollary to meditate on. McTeigue's Axiom: "Most institutions would rather die than admit anyone made a mistake." McTeigue's Corollary: "Most people have not matured past the age of fifteen and are still desperate to be invited to sit at 'the Cool Kids' Table' at the high school cafeteria." In other words, "Most people are dreadfully desperate for approval." Such conflict-averse people will be of little use in the author's proposed endeavors.

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fr. McTeigue, in the fall of 2019, decided to write some reflections on Christendom. He thought the best way to do this would be a kind of stream of consciousness, so he bought a notebook and a fountain pen, and began writing the reflections that became this book.

Providentially, the bulk of the book was written during COVID lockdowns, which invited deeper reflections about the dechristianisation of society. This is meant not in a political sense, but a social one, since society broadly speaking effectively stopped for several months.

These reflections call for reevaluation of the Christian's role in the world. Fr. McTeigue takes stock of the cultural inheritance that Christendom left to the world, as well as the need to distill parts of that legacy in order to rebuild a more just and more holy Christendom. I think that Fr. McTeigue has made an important contribution to the ongoing discussion about a Christian understanding of politics and society which, if nothing else, gives us a vocabulary with which to describe and debate different issues which confront the Mystical Body of Christ in the year 2023 and beyond.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fr. McTeigue's reflections really spoke to me. He laments modernist/postmodernist influences on the Church without a blind nostalgia for "the good old days" (as he says, there really is no such thing). How, he asks, do we keep moving forward without either forgetting the past or turning it into an idol? It was interesting to see the impact of the COVID pandemic throughout the work. There is no neatly tied-up "how to" manual regarding the revival of the Church here--but there doesn't need to be. Fr. McTeigue gives plenty of food for thought for each Christian to make their own judgment about how to more deeply center their lives around God and how to live in a way that promotes the Gospel in line with tradition.