Young Diognetus in the modern world.

No surprise here, on this blog. This trend been going on for some time.

But the Huffington Post, that internet blog started by Greek expat Ariana Huffington (who in person pronounces her name in a way that sounds, for all the world, like Aweewaana Wuffington), just published on it.  Meaning that the trend is extremely far advanced because by the time the press notices a trend, it's long since ceased being a trend but is a development.

July 11, 2019

behold,
the
millennial
nuns

More and more young women are being called to the religious life, after 50 straight years of decline. What on earth is going on? By Eve Fairbanks

Illustrations by Matt Wisniewski

A couple of weeks ago on a Sunday edition of this blog I ran this item:

Churches of the West: Holy Protection Byzantine Catholic Church, Denver, Colorado.

That item expanded out considerably on the feature on the same church on our companion blog, Churches of the West, and it's at least the fourth here to note a trend towards orthodoxy. And by that we mean small "o" orthodoxy, not Orthodoxy, although, as noted in those posts, that trend very much includes Orthodoxy.  More specifically, it includes, in a major way, the Catholic and Orthodox faiths and, in more minor ways, the the conservative transitional branches of the Lutheran faith, and more particularly, the conservative traditional branch of the of the Episcopal church, with that latter group frequently asserting (nearly always asserting in fact) that they are big "c" Catholics of another type.

I haven't apparently formally coined it yet, but this does give evidence of what will be our Eighteenth Law of Behavior, which is that by the time the media takes note of a trend, it's not longer a trend, it's a development.  And that's what we're seeing here.

I became aware of this news article on the Huffington Post as it appeared on the Twitter feed of a young Millennial Catholic woman who posted it and whom was not surprised.  Don't bother to try to look up "young Catholic woman" or even "conservative young Catholic woman" or "conservative young Catholic", as you'll find far too many and never find the item. There's leagues, including everything from young Catholic laymen to young Catholic nuns (one of whom as a twitter account dedicated to momenti mori) to young Catholic priests.

Moreover, you'll also find that they've moved, way, way, beyond what the news media imagines them to be and, moreover, way, way beyond what Baby Boomer Catholics think them to be.  We're not talking about some mousy young woman here who never gets outside except to attend Mass and whom wears a dress last common in 1946 combined with a mantilla just to go outside.  Not by a long shot.  They're conservative. . .and they're hip, cool, and know a lot more about everything than you do.

And I'm not interjecting hyperbole here. They really are hip. They really are cool. They really are conservative.  They're extremely orthodox. And they know a lot, lot more about absolutely everything than you do, and that would tend to include, if any read this (and I doubt very much any do) many of the aging Baby Boomer priests who went through American seminaries in prior to 1990.  And it certainly includes the now very aging and always a minority, although a very influential one at one time, of Boomer "progressive" or "liberal" Catholics.

And that's why they're Catholic (or Orthodox).

Indeed, leagues of them are converts and most of them came out of secular educations that didn't treat religion kindly whatsoever.  But they are the most educated American demographic ever, and a lot of that education is self education.

In an era in which a lot of the American population has seemingly run around self educating falsely, reading internet baloney about how the South tried to leave the Union as the North tried to ban NASCAR or that World War Two as a conspiracy between Franklin Roosevelt and Hirohito to fix the 1942 World Series, a quiet counter has been going on in which smart, young, people have picked up what amount to post doctorate educations in the Liberal Arts.

And frankly, modern American culture, maybe American culture in general, isn't looking so good to them.  Modern western culture itself isn't either, although what it came out of is, and is deeply understood by them in a way that most English speaking people haven't since the rewriting of history following the Reformation.

And they've reacted.

Now, they're not rejecting all things Western in general, but they've seen up close and personal the wreck of things that prior generations have made.  It's clear to them that the consumer culture brought to a head in the post World War Two American world is lacking.  It's plain to them that the victor in the Sexual Revolution was disease and despair.  They accept science and nature and have rejected the position of the State of Tennessee's position against Skopes which the ignorant eroniously asociate with Christians in general, and in fact have a better grasp on science than any generation prior to them.  Like Chesterton generations earlier they don't confuse that position with Christianity and had the courage to asks what's behind the what's behind.  They've read the Fathers of the Church and know them more deeply than any group of Christians since the 2nd Century.

They're Diognetus in the world.

Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign. 

And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citizens, but labor under all the disabilities of aliens. Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. Like others, they marry and have children, but they do not expose them. They share their meals, but not their wives.  

They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law. Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. They suffer dishonor, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult. For the good they do they receive the punishment of malefactors, but even then they, rejoice, as though receiving the gift of life. They are attacked by the Jews as aliens, they are persecuted by the Greeks, yet no one can explain the reason for this hatred. 

To speak in general terms, we may say that the Christian is to the world what the soul is to the body. As the soul is present in every part of the body, while remaining distinct from it, so Christians are found in all the cities of the world, but cannot be identified with the world. As the visible body contains the invisible soul, so Christians are seen living in the world, but their religious life remains unseen. The body hates the soul and wars against it, not because of any injury the soul has done it, but because of the restriction the soul places on its pleasures. Similarly, the world hates the Christians, not because they have done it any wrong, but because they are opposed to its enjoyments. 

Christians love those who hate them just as the soul loves the body and all its members despite the body's hatred. It is by the soul, enclosed within the body, that the body is held together, and similarly, it is by the Christians, detained in the world as in a prison, that the world is held together. The soul, though immortal, has a mortal dwelling place; and Christians also live for a time amidst perishable things, while awaiting the freedom from change and decay that will be theirs in heaven. As the soul benefits from the deprivation of food and drink, so Christians flourish under persecution. Such is the Christian’s lofty and divinely appointed function, from which he is not permitted to excuse himself.

So missed from the Press, which is focused on the travails of boomer Jeffrey Epstein (1953) and his quest for young skirt, is that story itself merely reflects an aspect of the Boomer assault on the culture that commenced in some ways the year of Epstein's birth.  Epstein merely had the wealth to engage in what Playboy celebrated as a desirable goal.  Up until called on it openly, at some point after it became the battering ram on the existing culture between men and women, it also advocated girls as targets for male desires, often cartoon form, until that was too widely noticed and it was forced to back off.  By that time, however, it had been taken up in entertainment in the form of films and music.  It's backed off some since then, but only because disgust became widespread in the cultural mainstream.

But that doesn't mean that the culture at large isn't badly damaged, and indeed much of it wrecked.

And Millennial's know it.

But those steeped in the culture and fully accepting of the "progress" of post 1945 culture have been unable to grasp that fully, including Millennial's who have not been exposed to anything else.  And the dominant Boomer culture just isn't able to grasp it, as it isn't as well educated as the Millennial's are.

Those who are so educated, and as noted largely self educated, have been able to look back and some have been able to sort through both the Boomer wreckage and the wreckage of earlier, some much earlier, eras.

We've cited the Strauss-Howe Generational Theory here more than once and while reserved in our opinion on it, we've also come to the point of acknowledging that it has a lot of credence to it.  The backers of that theory have maintained that its incapable of being disrupted, except by perhaps as something as radical as a nuclear war or something.  And this looking in another direction we're seeing here supports their theory.

But I wonder if it also gives evidence of a major disruption in it.  If it does, that disruption would be deep education.

And if that's the case, a Counter Revolution of epic proportions is going on.  . and has been for some time.