Ramadan begins today. Isn't fasting exotic? Er, no, actually, it isn't.
Nor is structured daily prayer, or setting aside one day in seven, or almsgiving, or pilgrimage, or the global community of faith as the primary focus of personal allegiance and locus of personal identity, or the lesser outward and greater inward struggle, or the need for a comprehensive and coherent critique of both capitalism and Marxism, or the coherence between faith and reason, or a consequent integrated view of art and science.
On the contrary, these are the foundations of our own culture. They meet the basic needs of Man as a spiritual being, built in by the Creator so as to lead us to Him. Man will look for them until he finds them. He readily finds them in Islam. But he should not and must not need to.
How ever did you manage to fall out with Damian Thompson, the noted ascetic?
ReplyDelete