Modern Age - Fall 2017 - 132

Modern Age

*

Fall 2017

aimed at a nonbelieving audience but rather a book written to
fire the hearts of the faithful.
Indeed, it will fire many hearts because Esolen's prose is so
delicious that it makes his polemic a page-turner. It is not just
that Esolen, a respected translator of Dante, is a good writer. This
Dante scholar also has the poet's eye for metaphor. He often
rewards the reader with a metaphor that provides genuine
insight, as when he exhorts us to "rip out the plywood." In the
course of explaining how we must "restore a sense of beauty" to
our dwellings, schools, and churches, Esolen recounts that, while
restoring an old rectory, he and his friends removed the moldy
carpeting and found plywood underneath. Expecting to find
only the subfloor, they were delighted by the discovery of "oak
and maple floors, with three-inch-wide strips laid in handsome
patterns, squares enclosing diagonals, and a large diamond
set in the center of the original parlor." This impressive piece of
workmanship was a handsome prize for stripping out the artificial covering that had been tastelessly laid over the original!
"Rip out the plywood" stands as a strong analogy for Esolen's
whole project, which aims to remove the fake and pretentious
coverings that currently distort human nature, and to disclose
the maker's work, patiently awaiting rediscovery underneath.
Esolen's first prescription for restoring the culture is to tell the
truth. He sees original sin as "believing the lie," that is, Eve's willing
self-deception in believing the serpent's lie. Thereafter, it means
either deliberately lying or inadvertently propagating untruth.
Esolen is very much a truth teller, and this is part of what makes
his book palatable only for those who have been consuming
heavy doses of the Esolen treatment for some time. Esolen puts
his finger on the problem in a way that few authors dare.
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Modern Age - Fall 2017

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