Calling Western Civilization to Its Senses

ARC’s relationship with Christianity, meanwhile, feels like a work in progress, but a potentially meaningful one. (I spotted over a dozen men in clerical garb milling around the conference floor.) The lavish promo video called up ancient beauties of Catholic art to make its case, and many speakers leaned on the great transcendentals of goodness, truth, and beauty to structure their arguments. In her opening remarks, ARC CEO Philippa Stroud lost little time in invoking the imago dei as a cornerstone of the Alliance’s worldview. “We need a better story” was the conference catch-cry; and, of course, in large part, Western civilization grew out of the telling and retelling (in word, in paint, in stone, in music, in drama) of the Christian story and its countless offshoots; the story of creation, fall, incarnation, justice, mercy, death, resurrection, redemption—a story imbued with the kind of teleology of which the modern mind, ARC would contend, is bereft.