Times Are Wretched

We are living through the greatest catastrophe since the fall of the Roman Empire. Western civilization isn’t dying: it’s already dead. Christendom is no more. What we see around us now isn’t Christian. It’s not even a civilization. It’s a walking corpse.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that the West can be reborn someday. We know this because it died once before. Who brought it back? The mystics, the martyrs, and the missionaries. Now they must save the West once again.

In this prescient work, Michael Warren Davis examines just how bad the situation is and how much worse it’s going to get. He weaves together examples from history and literature to illustrate how societies fell and how various saints helped them rise again. Throughout, he reflects on the transformative power and benefits of persecution and suffering to show how Christians can survive ― and indeed flourish ― in the new Dark Age that’s descending.

These penetrating pages will help you move from a ＂Culture War＂ mindset to one of answering the Great Commission. You will learn how to form intentional Christian communities to ward off spiritual isolation and come to understand what St. Augustine, the chief architect of Christendom’s first renaissance, taught about why God allows the City of Man to fall in the first place. Additionally, you will discover:

- The only weapon in your arsenal (can you guess?)

- What role laughter played in the early Church’s victory

- How to attain xenitia, the first stage of spiritual development

- Methods to grow in union with Christ through meditative prayer

- The fruits of street evangelization and your call to go into the vineyard

- How drawing from Eastern Christianity can help renew our culture again

Above all, you will find out how you can respond to the crisis of the early twenty-first century with the wisdom of the ages -- to testify to your Faith, help restore beauty, and cultivate authentic love in the modern world. For, according to Davis, every Christian has a role to play. All are called to share their faith person-to-person to help rebuild the Church, and once again the tears of mystics, the sweat of missionaries, and the blood of martyrs will become the seed of the Church. Despite the darkness, by imitating their witness, you will find unshakable peace and joy in the face of what is to come.

Michael Warren Davis is a contributing editor for The American Conservative and an editor at Sophia Institute Press. He previously served as communications director for the Melkite Church in the United States, editor-in-chief of Crisis Magazine, and U.S. editor of the Catholic Herald of London. His writing has appeared in a variety of magazines from the New York Post to First Things. Follow his newsletter, at theologoumenalia.substack.com.