That time is past; we’ve now moved into a post-Christian culture. And Rieff’s key insight is that post-Christian culture is not the same thing as pre-Christian culture. Nobody has gone back to worshipping Odin or sacrificing their firstborn child to the forest spirits. Post-Christian culture is an attempt to move beyond the Christian vision while still retaining much of its scaffolding. It’s a reaction against Christianity—the West’s rebellious teenager moment. We’re the stereotypical adolescent, kicking against our parents’ authority and railing against all their flaws while still living in
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