Fr. Francesco Giordano: The City as Monastery: Cardinal Schuster and the Spiritual Order of Urban Life

Modern Christians often feel that the city is almost impossible to evangelize. The city is fast, distracted, anonymous, commercial, restless, and increasingly secular. It does not seem to lend itself naturally to contemplation. It does not seem to leave much room for silence, liturgy, memory, or prayer.

For this reason, many Christian thinkers have looked with sympathy toward the countryside. Christopher Dawson, reflecting on the origins of Christian culture in Europe, often saw rural life as a more natural setting for cultural and spiritual formation. The countryside preserves memory more easily. It follows the rhythm of nature. It allows family, locality, work, and worship to remain visibly connected. Roger Scruton, in a different but related way, also saw in rural life a privileged place for continuity, inherited affection, and resistance to the fragmentation of modernity. …