In The Present Storm

By Scott Ferrier, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

Christopher Dawson was a Catholic historian and scholar whose works were keyed by his understanding of history as a grand story with “a beginning, a center, and an end” (Dynamics of World History). Every culture is shaped by its religion and its worship. Unlike the historians who claim there is only a limited, materialist and existential explanation for the events of history, which lack any intrinsic meaning (“just one darn thing after another”), or like Hegel’s dialectical “spirit of the times” as set forth by Karl Marx, Dawson fully embraced St. Augustine’s explanation of history: “Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly city by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly city by the love of God, even to the contempt of self.” 

“It is through history that God works, for the Kingdom of God is not the work of man and does not emerge by a natural law of progress from the course of human history.” History does not simply ‘happen.’ God is working through man who participates and who has a significant role in the Two Cities — the City of God and the City of Man. Like Augustine, Dawson believed that the two cities will not be separated until the Last Judgment. While the two cities do not meet spiritually, they intermingle physically.

Dawson also believed that the Holy Spirit played the key role in our personal lives as well as his vision of history. It is for this that the Church exists — to enlighten and super-naturalize, that is to sanctify, civilization. Grace perfects nature through the “new creation which is the historic Church.” In the current times, however, the ascendancy of the City of Man can be witnessed by the rise of a new and demonic Tower of Babel. There is an attempt being made to herd all people, and especially Christians, into the ‘ghettos’ of this disastrous, man-made, artificial city through fear, oppression, intimidation and deception. 

“For we have not here a permanent city …” (Heb 14:13). As we hope, pray and work for the sanctification of the world, and “by him (Christ) to reconcile all things into himself” (Col. 1:20), reading Christopher Dawson can provide a much-needed ‘anamnesis’ as it helps form our supernatural vision. Just as it functions in the Holy Mass, ‘anamnesis’ is a recollection, a kind of remembrance “made present” to us, the memory of who we are, where we’ve come from, and where we are going. Keeping our eyes, hearts and minds fixed upon the heavenly Jerusalem will protect us from losing our bearings even if we should perish in the present storm.