the ugliness of modernism

This quotation really captures the modern cultural man in many, many ways... Speaking of the joy of the liturgy in worship, of meeting the Lord in the place of His Spirit, Alexander Schmemann says this:

.."And it is this joy of expectation and this expectation of joy that are expressed in singing and ritual , in vestments and censing, in that whole 'beauty of the liturgy which has so often been denounced as unnecessary and even sinful. Unnecessary it is indeed, for we are beyond the categories of the 'necessary.' Beauty is never 'necessary', 'functional', or 'useful'. And when, expecting someone we love, we put a beautiful tablecloth on the table and decorate it with candles and flowers, we do all this not out of necessity, but out of love. And the church is love, expectation, and joy. It is heaven on earth.....it is the joy of recovered childhood, that free, unconditioned and disinterested joy which alone is capable of transforming the world. In our adult, serious piety we ask for definitions and justifications, and they are rooted in fear--fear of corruption, deviation, 'pagan influences,' whatnot. But 'he that feareth is not made perfect in love' I Jn. 4:18 As long as Christians will love the Kingdom of God, and not only discuss it, they will 'represent' it and signify it, in art and beauty......." "Evangelical and Modern Christianity are constantly referring to 'modern man' as the one to whom they are directing their 'ministries.' This 'modern man' is the one who uses electricity and computers, who has been shaped by the new technological society and the scientific worldview. He is the one who is stressed out, burned out, and has all these 'needs.' The modern man has come of age as a deadly serious adult, conscious of his suffering and alienation (or constantly being reminded of them) conscious of sex but not of love, of science but not of mystery, of the function of this or that but never of the beauty of this or that...Based on this analysis, 'modern man' needs therapy, money, housing, a job, etc., No mention is ever made of beauty, poetry, art, singing. Damning omissions which condemn the modern technological and therapeutic world-view, for all its 'practicality,' as being a very truncated view of life indeed."