Just finished Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging. A really thought-provoking, short non-fiction book that explores how bankrupt modern society is in meeting our deeper needs for identity, social belonging, and human purpose. Writing from firsthand experience in warfare, he reflects on the paradox of how men actually find hidden blessings in their battlefield “bands of brothers,” only to find the highly fragmented, individualistic society to which they return has nothing to offer them but a complete void. No wonder traumatic events like war and other tragedies, which band people together in a common purpose, actually reduce the incidence of mental health problems or at least mitigate them.
A little more from Wikipedia:
In Tribe, Junger discusses how the human experience is profoundly different in modern society compared to in the small groups (or tribes) in which people have historically lived. While people in tribes were interconnected and dependent on each other, people in modern society, he argues, often feel detached from their neighbors and experience deep fissures along sociodemographic lines. The modern man may go his whole life without needing to put himself at risk to help other people, given the availability of the police, fire department, and other emergency services; despite being surrounded by people, the modern person may also feel incredibly alone and isolated. These observations give rise a central question of Junger’s book: why do veterans often express that they were happier in times of war than at home?
As a caveat, bear in mind that the author is not a Christian and presupposes the theory of evolution in appraising social phenomena.
Also reading the modern classic Fair Sunshine with the family on the Lord’s day. Jock Purves gives compelling accounts of various Presbyterian heroes and heroines from the late 17th century persecutions in Scotland under the cruel tyranny of the Stuarts. Definitely for high school readers and up, both in terms of language level and mature content. The tortures, while not gratuitously explained, are conveyed enough to disturb any reader. But such wounds are sweet, as the are the bearing in the “body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”
One of the most moving things in these accounts are the farewell speeches of these noble martyrs on the gallows. A sample here from Hugh McKail in 1666, when he was only 26 years old:
Now I begin my intercourse with God, which shall never be broken off. Farewell, father and mother, friends and relations; farewell, the world and all of its delights; farewell, meat and drinks; farewell, sun, moon and stars.
Welcome, God and Father; welcome, Sweet Lord Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant; welcome, Blessed Spirit of grace, and God of all consolation; welcome, glory; welcome, eternal life; welcome, death. O Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit; for thou hast redeemed my soul, O Lord God of truth!
Truly, these are such “of whom the world was not worthy.”
I might just add that we have found Douglas Bond’s books written for children about the Covenanters really good. Start reading Duncan’s War with your family, and you’ll likely read the rest!
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