¶15 It is said that the modern West is Christian, but this is an error: the modern spirit is anti-Christian, because it is essentially anti-religious; and it is anti-religious because, more generally still, it is anti-traditional.1 This is what constitutes its proper character, what makes it what it is. Certainly, something of Christianity has passed into the anti-Christian civilisation of our epoch, whose most ‘advanced’ representatives — as they say in their special language — cannot help but have undergone and still undergo, involuntarily and perhaps unconsciously, a certain Christian influence, at least indirect;2 this is so because a break with the past, however radical it may be, can never be absolutely complete such that it suppresses all continuity.3 We will go even further, and we will say that all that is valid in the modern world has come to it from Christianity, or at least through Christianity, which brought with it all the heritage of earlier traditions, which kept it alive as far as the state of the West permitted, and which still bears within itself the latent possibilities of these;4 but who today, even among those who affirm themselves Christians, still has effective consciousness of these possibilities? Where are there, even in Catholicism, men who know the profound meaning of the doctrine they profess outwardly, who are not content to ‘believe’ in a more or less superficial fashion, and more through feeling than through intelligence, but who really ‘know’ the truth of the religious tradition they consider as their own?5 We would like to have proof that there exist at least a few, for that would be, for the West, the greatest and perhaps the only hope of salvation;6 but we must confess that, up to the present, we have not yet encountered any; must we suppose that, like certain Eastern sages, they keep themselves hidden in some almost inaccessible retreat, or must we definitively renounce this last hope?7 The West was Christian in the Middle Ages, but it is so no longer; if it is said that it can become so again, no one wishes more than we that it should be so, and that this should come about at a day closer than all that we see around us would lead one to think;8 but let there be no mistake: on that day, the modern world will have lived.9
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Summary

Guénon argues that the modern West is not truly Christian, because the modern spirit is anti-Christian, anti-religious, and anti-traditional. He acknowledges that some Christian influence persists indirectly and involuntarily, as no break with the past can be absolutely complete, and all that is valid in the modern world has come to it through Christianity. However, even among those who call themselves Christians, few have effective consciousness of the deeper possibilities of Christian tradition, knowing rather than merely believing. He wishes there were at least some such people, as that would be the West’s greatest hope of salvation, but confesses he has not yet encountered any. The West was Christian in the Middle Ages but is so no longer; if it can become so again, on that day the modern world will have lived.

General notes

  1. esprit moderne antichrétien, antireligieux, antitraditionnel — Rendered as ‘modern spirit anti-Christian, anti-religious, anti-traditional’. Guénon establishes a chain of fundamental oppositions. The modern spirit is not simply ‘non-Christian’ or ‘non-religious’; it is actively hostile (anti-) to Christianity, to religion in general, and more deeply still to all tradition (that is, to any transmission of a truth of supra-human origin). This hostility is constitutive of modernity. ↩︎
  2. influence chrétienne résiduelle dans la civilisation antichrétienne — Rendered as ‘residual Christian influence in anti-Christian civilisation’. Guénon recognises that even the most materialist modern civilisation has been shaped, indirectly, by values and structures derived from Christianity (for example, the idea of linear progress, certain moral conceptions, humanitarianism). But this influence is residual and unconscious; it does not make modernity a Christian civilisation. ↩︎
  3. rupture avec le passé ne supprime jamais totalement la continuité — Rendered as ‘break with the past never completely suppresses continuity’. Guénon states a historical principle: no revolution or rupture is ever absolute. Elements of the past always survive, if only in a degraded or unconscious form. Modernity cannot therefore completely erase its Christian heritage, even if it actively denies it. ↩︎
  4. le Christianisme comme dépositaire de l’héritage traditionnel en Occident — Rendered as ‘Christianity as the depository of the traditional heritage in the West’. Guénon affirms that everything still valid (spiritually, intellectually) in the modern world comes from Christianity, not as a creation of its own, but as a transmission (degraded) of earlier traditions (Judaism, Hellenism, Eastern wisdom). Christianity kept this heritage alive, even if modernity has obscured it. ↩︎
  5. « croire » superficiel vs « savoir » réel — Rendered as ‘superficial “believing” vs real “knowing”’. Guénon opposes sentimental and superficial faith (which is content to adhere to formulas without understanding them inwardly) to real knowledge (intellectual, metaphysical) of the truths of tradition. True spirituality is a ‘knowing’, not a mere ‘believing’. Modern Christians have lost this knowing. ↩︎
  6. espoir de salut pour l’Occident : des chrétiens qui « savent » — Rendered as ‘hope of salvation for the West: Christians who “know”’. Guénon suggests that the West could only be saved by men who possess real (intellective) knowledge of the Christian tradition, and not a mere exterior faith. Without them, salvation is impossible. ↩︎
  7. sages cachés comme en Orient — Rendered as ‘hidden sages as in the East’. Guénon alludes to the Eastern esoteric tradition according to which true sages (the mahātmā, the rṣis) live withdrawn in secret places (the Himalayas, forests). He wonders whether Christians possessing the same kind of secret knowledge might exist in the West, hidden in monasteries or inaccessible retreats. He expresses his doubt. ↩︎
  8. souhait que l’Occident redevienne chrétien — Rendered as ‘wish that the West become Christian again’. Guénon expresses his personal desire to see a return of the West to medieval (traditional) Christendom. But he is realistic: everything he observes around him indicates the contrary. ↩︎
  9. le jour où l’Occident redeviendra chrétien, le monde moderne aura vécu — Rendered as ‘the day the West becomes Christian again, the modern world will have lived’. Guénon affirms that the restoration of an authentic (traditional) Christian order would mean the death of the modern world (materialist, anti-religious, anti-traditional). The two are incompatible. The advent of one is the disappearance of the other. ↩︎