What JD Vance Found in the Church

In the sixth book of his Confessions, St. Augustine relates a story about an encounter he had on the streets of Milan with a seriously intoxicated man. Augustine was being carried on a litter to witness a speech by the emperor, which he himself had composed. Mindful that his own career ambitions had brought him to this high point, he looked with disdain on the pathetic drunk. Then it hit him: Tomorrow morning that man will be sober, but I will still be drunk on worldly ambition. The episode proved to be a turning point on Augustine’s spiritual itinerary. I thought of this scene often as I read through JD Vance’s spiritual autobiography, for the story he is telling has a fundamentally Augustinian arc.