The End of the Modern World: A Search for Orientation

The End of the Modern World, by the Italian-German priest Romano Guardini, is a somber, even dire, treatise on the future of modernity. Written in the aftermath of the Second World War, it argues that the modern world has emerged from the values of the medieval world, while rejecting the faith that gave rise to those values. For Guardini, we now inhabit a world unhinged and untethered, where ideology and materialism have replaced the meaning and certainty found in Christ. As Frederick Wilhelmsen states in his introduction, "Instead of piercing a finite world in order to reach the Infinite, modern man brought the infinite down to earth."

Guardini rejects the notion of the "forward march of progress," and insists that the ancient ideal of the universal man must collapse in the face of modern collectivism. While his work is far from sanguine, he believes the world can be restored through a return to faith, and beyond that, a return to that perfect love displayed on the Cross.