First of all, we are seeing in Russia
the collapse of a generally-believed ideology that underlies society and keeps
it going. The beginning of religious awakening in Russia
is invariably accompanied by a loss of trust and faith in Communism—Communism
not first of all as a political and economic system, but as a faith.
This is natural, because the first article of Communist faith is atheism,
the "state religion" of the USSR,
which makes sense only as a substitute for faith in God. Belief in God
naturally is bound up with disbelief in atheism and Communism, and that is why
the religious awakening in Russia
today is not merely something personal, but takes on the character of a national
movement.
In the West, our situation is really not so
different from this as it might seem at first sight. In the West we are
also seeing the collapse of the generally-believed ideology of progress,
democracy, and so-called "enlightenment"—a secular religion which
until the mid-20th century was accepted without question by almost everyone in America
and Western Europe. The "Beat" and
"Hippie" movements of the '50's and '60's were only the beginning of
an attitude of disillusionment that is now widespread in Western society—so
much so that a spokesman like Solzhenitsyn can freely tell the West that we
have lost the will to fight Communism, not having deep enough faith in our own
system.
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