On January 22, 2021 in partnership with The Institute for Human Ecology, the Harvard Christian Alumni Society, and the Catholic Information Center, we were delighted to welcome author and New York Times columnist Ross Douthat. In Douthat’s book, The Decadent Society, he provides an enlightening diagnosis of our modern condition which, he says, has been characterized by decadence. Douthat argues that many of today’s discontents and derangements reflect a sense of futility and disappointment—a feeling that the future is not what was promised.

Almost a year after its original publication, Ross reflected on what the events of the past year have revealed about our condition and how we might serve as agents of renewal in a divisive and decadent time.

The song is “Tabula Rasa” by Greg LaFollette

This painting is Ville-d’Avray by Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 1865.