Word: secularized
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Much in this world, as Amis redraws it, seems charming. People still have time for long walks in the unspoiled countryside. The unpolluted air they breathe smells of "tallow-fat, bone-stock, horses and humanity." Because secular art has never been officially sanctioned, Western masters from Blake to De Kooning have left a massive catalogue of inspired religious works. Yet Amis inserts frequent reminders that the price of such beauty and serenity is totalitarianism. A rebellious priest who tries to keep Hubert from the surgeon's knife is brutally murdered...
...question who was playing what role. (It was never really that pat, of course, but the idea that it was still sells like crazy at Christmas.) The counters are dominated this year as every year by sentimental, traditional themes: Nativity scenes (though cards have been getting increasingly secular), churches, children, sleigh riders...
...Carter Administration, he felt that his powers would not in fact be enlarged. Until the N.A.A.C.P. job came along, his chief desire was to return to preaching. Accepting the N.A.A.C.P.'s offer required some soul searching, he concedes, but "it does give me a chance, in the secular sense, to deal with my concern for people. At the FCC, I dealt with institutions." Besides, he adds, "the N.A.A.C.P. needs...
...gave new depth to a medieval choral art which in many ways is already dying." The reviews of their performance of contemporary American music (which they sang in Europe to honor the Bicentennial) were equally complimentary. Friday night the group, accompanied by a small orchestra, will plow through non-secular choral masterpieces of yet another period in a concert devoted entirely to Mozart works...
...bereft of these encouragements," he concludes, "how much more horrific the history of these last 2,000 years must have been!" Given Johnson's grim recital of human frailty, that may seem more like faith than history. But, as he disturbingly observes, the first glimpses of a deChristianized secular future are most dismal indeed...