Abstract

This essay is in response to Arthur Pontynen’s dissection of the ills of Western culture and campaign to revitalize the liberal and fine arts. It endeavors to critically examine Pontynen’s causal basis for the crisis and to elevate and elucidate his sub-level spiritual dimension of the issues, raising it to a central emphasis. For many a serious scholar, criticism of a norm comes sometimes too easily, while constructive criticism with a solution-oriented approach is more daunting. Most readers are likely to agree with Pontynen that our social and intellectual structures in the West, from the perspective of the twenty-first century looking back across history, seem to have failed culture and civilization in the pursuit of truth and wisdom. It is incumbent upon all, especially Christian scholars, to seek redress of the prevailing imbalance favoring a cynical and nihilistic conclusion that nothing has meaning and that humanity is doomed to random chaos.