“THREE forms of activity—the consecration of place, the consecration of work, and the consecration of the social bond itself—are the main channels through which religion finds social expression and acquires a sociological form….But our own culture…has been growing progressively more secular….The three main substitutes for religion in the modern age, Democracy, Socialism, and Nationalism…are each of them based on one of these fundamental errors. Democracy bases its appeal on the sacredness of the People—the consecration of Folk; socialism on the sacredness of Labour—the consecration of work; and nationalism on the sacredness of the Fatherland—the consecration of Place. These concepts still arouse a genuinely religious emotion, though the emotion has no basis transcendent in religious values or sanctions. It is a religious emotion divorced from religious belief. Social activities are…as it were consecrated to themselves and elevated into substitutes for the ends to which they were formerly subjected.”
~Christopher Dawson: Prevision in Religion.
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