The Essential Guardini

This selection of Guardini's writings will probably result in my future purchase of his 1955 book "The End of the Modern World" which is quoted extensively at the beginning of this book. Though he died in 1968, Guardini's writings are quite relevant now in a world which worships change, "progress" and which is involved in a war against "nature", calling into question the most obvious truths."All life that is determined by spiritual factors has one essential postulate, namely, a submission to truth, the will to do justice to the nature of things. Only on this basis does the eye see correctly ... The world outlook now being born or precisely, the tendencies within that outlook, refuse to venerate nature" (PP. 58,16)"Modern man cuts himself off not only from the community and from tradition, but also from his religious connections. He is indifferent both to the specific, once-authoritative Christian Credo and to religious ideas in general. Things, forces, processes have become 'worldly' - the word stripped of its former religious richness and given a new sense which implies 'rationally understandable and technically controllable.' This means that man as a whole as well as important individual aspects of human life - the defenselessness of childhood, the special nature of woman, the simultaneous physical weakness and rich experience of the aged - all lose their metaphysical worth. Birth is now considered merely the appearance of a new unit of the species Homo sapiens; marriage but an alliance of a man and a woman with certain personal and legal consequences; death the end of a total process known as life. Happiness or unhappiness are no longer providential, but simply lucky or unlucky accidents with which a man must cope as best he can. Things lose their mystery and transparency, becoming calculable forms with specific economic, hygienic and aesthetic values. History no longer bears any relation to a Providence emanating wisdom and benevolence; it is a mere string of empirical processes. The majesty of the state no longer reflects divine majesty; it exists not 'by the Grace of God,' but solely by Grace of the people. ... This process leads straight to a concept whose consequences cannot be overestimated: the idea of universal planning. Under such planning man would control everything before him - not only raw materials and natural energies, but also living man in his entirety. ... Universal planning is being prepared with weighty arguments: political necessity, increased population, limited resources ... the real drives behind it are spiritual rather than practical. They culminate in an attitude which feels it to be its right and duty to impose its own goal upon mankind, and to utilize all that is as material for the realization of its earthly 'kingdom.'" (PP.25, 26)A long quote, I know, but consider all the 2015 and beyond subjects it seems to touch upon: Unbelief. Militant atheism and practical atheism. Abortion, population control, euthanasia, child abuse, the pornification-degradation of women as objects. Divorce, the breakdown of the family, a cold, technological view of life in which technology is not the servant but the master. Environmentalism as a religion,The New World Order, man as God.The aspects of the quote about a dominant, technological view of life at the expense human life makes me think of Pope Francis' encyclical "Laudato Si (On Care For Our Common Home)" which covers similar territory.

Very happy with book, packaging/shipping good, good seller, would deal again

Romano Guardini is a giant in my spiritual life,beginning with The End of the Modern World, which was clearly prophetic, as we see 50 years later. The Lord was a Lenten devotional giant for me. This volume gives a glimpse of his thought in this hurried world -- maybe it will whet your appetite for more.His theology is has decidedly Roman Catholic roots in his elevation of the visible Church, yet his broad understanding of life is deeply Christian across the board -- catholic, not Roman. A great person to know if you are an orthodox Christioan