History Burning Before Our Eyes: The Tragedy of Notre Dame and the Soul of Modern France

Apr 17, 2019 by Jill

by Albert Mohler:

History burned before our eyes. One of the most important architectural achievements of western civilization endured catastrophic damage from a raging fire. The victim of this great tragedy was Notre Dame Cathedral—a nearly 900-year-old masterpiece in the center of the city of Paris.

Notre Dame’s iconic image is more than a feat of architectural genius; the cathedral stood as an essential monolith of French identity, western civilization, and the central role of Christianity in the development of European identity. This story teems with worldview and theological significance, which will be absent from much of the major media coverage.

[…] Most importantly, the fact that a cathedral like Notre Dame would for centuries dominate the skyline of the city points to the central role of Christianity in providing the worldview that made western civilization possible. The basic structure of Christian thought became the superstructure of European culture, providing its morality, basic truth claims, understanding of the cosmos, and language of meaning.

Yet, when the French Revolution swept through the streets of Paris, it sought to eradicate the Christian heritage of France. On October 10^th, 1793, the revolutionaries marched into Notre Dame and replaced the statue of the Virgin Mary with a statue to the goddess of reason.

A society framed, forged, and entirely founded upon the Christian worldview purged itself of its Christian vestiges. The French Revolution pursued a radical vision of a secular worldview governed not by religious belief, but the Cult of Reason.

But the Cult of Reason was not enough to hold even a revolutionary movement together.

When the French Revolution dethroned God, it plunged French society into utter chaos and confusion. By definition, secularism cannot hold itself together. It is inadequate to establish a civilization and to order a society.

Read here

Read also: Thank God for western values by Tom Holland, Spectator (£)

Let the ghastly Notre Dame fire act as a spark to relight pride in Europe’s Christian values by Quentin Letts, The Sun

A phoenix will rise from the ashes of Notre Dame by Niall McCrea, Rebel Priest