Archbishop Chaput's "Strangers in Strange Land"

With his new 2017 book, Strangers in a Strange Land: Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World, Archbishop Charles Chaput has brought to the forefront of our minds just how far the liberal atheistic view of life has taken hold in the world, and especially in our own home country, the United States. We have recognized, to be sure, the steady deterioration of Christian life and perspectives in our world, but it was mostly relegated to the back recesses of our mind rather than our recognizing it as to the current depth of its penetration into the daily activities of the world in which we live. 

Archbishop Chaput brings to the forefront the tremendous damage already done to our country, ever since the mid-1960s, and the Second Vatican Council. If one compares the pre-1965 era with the post-1965 era, the effect is almost beyond belief as to the dramatic erosion of what was then a deeply religious country into a new Sodom and Gomorrah, where Christianity is laughed at, ridiculed, and totally dismissed as to its truth claims. Perhaps we are heading into the end times.

The LETTER TO DIOGNETUS, which Archbishop Chaput cites in his penultimate chapter, was a highlight of his book, because it was written about Rome when paganism was strong and Christians were new to the religious scene. We can learn much from this history about how to survive in a post-Christian world.

Archbishop Chaput advocates that Christians need to build the communities, the friendships, and the places where we can joyfully live out our Faith. As Chaput emphasizes: “If we truly love God, we’ll evangelize the world He made, and whose soul, He created us to be. After all, we’re disciples and friends–not just servants but friends–of the Lord of History who died and rose again to save the world.”