Thanksgiving Is Ruined

Thanksgiving Is Ruined

The Personal is Political. The Political is Personal.

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November 26, 2015

a depth analysis of ruination

Our present age has found it to be axiomatic that no theoretical framework can be considered complete unless it comes to grips with "depth." Thus: depth psychology, deep ecology, the deep state, Chomskyian D-structure, the Habermasian Tiefenhermeneutik, and so on.

So might a worthy component of TiR's annual, ruthless interrogation of our namesake proposition be a plunge into the structure of that which could be termed "deep ruin"?

Perhaps. Unfortunately, we see that most previous investigations of this have been mainly undertaken in metaphysical or, worse, theological terms.

For example, the earliest acknowledgment we find is from Richard Allestree's sermon, "Of the Blessedness of Mourners" (1684):

. . . that the sentence of desolation may be irreversible and utter, to see two inundations overflow the Land, two abysses of bloud and guilt, and one deep calling upon another to meet and swallow us and bury us in their graves of sin and deep ruin OF THANKSGIVING . . .

Later sermons show that a veritable mini-obsession with such investigations came into full flower during the mid-19th century.

So we have the Rev. Daniel Lynn Carroll, in "The Enormity of the Sinner's Conduct" (1846):

How he [the Savior] estimated the dangers of the impenitent and the deep ruin of their souls AND THEIR THANKSGIVINGS, none but himself can ever know!

Or the Rev. Capel Molyneux's "The Prodigal Son" (1858):

There is a man running into all sorts of licentiousness, and going down into deep ruin, JUST LIKE HIS THANKSGIVING.

Or C. H. Spurgeon in his "The Dawn of Revival, or Prayer Speedily Answered" (1867):

Brethren, if God intends to give us souls he will prepare us for the honour by causing us to feel the deep ruin of our fellow creatures AND OF THANKSGIVING, and the fearful doom which that ruin will involve unless they shall escape from it, AND BY "IT," I OF COURSE MEAN "THANKSGIVING."

Or William Swan Plumer's "A Call to Piety" (1872, pg. 3):

That soul is worth saving . . . It can sink to low vices, to deep ruin, ALONG WITH THANKSGIVING, yea, to the lowest hell.

[all of the above quotes = reproduced absolutely totes verbatim
we assuuure you]

The lowest hell! You can't get much deeper than that.

posted by TiR at 7:01 AM

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