Religion: Unquiet & Anxiety

On the way home last week after six weeks in the U.S., Father Jean Daniélou, SJ.—editor, author and top-rank French intellectual—paused to disagree with some of his U.S.-baiting countrymen.

“There is altogether too much feeling in France,” he said, “that America’s preoccupation is only with material things. What I have seen here makes me think that the U.S. has great possibilities of taking on spiritual as well as material leadership. I think there are signs of a new awakening in the unquiet and anxiety about their spiritual selves which I have found in so many Americans. We in France have scarcely been aware that so many Americans are worried about so many aspects of American life.”