Hegel once wrote in one of his diaries that “Newspaper reading of the early morning is a kind of realistic morning prayer,” and he went on to speculate that it would supplant Christian morning prayer as a kind of routine priority. 

 

Modern men would become more focused on the affairs of this world, less on the hereafter. 

 

No surprise there.

 

In a way, there was a time when Hegel's prediction did seem to capture the trajectory of society---- every household had its Sunday newspaper and read it dutifully--- but this conversation of Unherd attests to a far different reality for digital modernity:

 

The dawn of post-literate society - with Jared Henderson and James Marriott

 

This sub-blog investigates the correlation between declines in literacy and religion and how both trends are in fact related and sourced in the same causes in a dwindling attention span.

 

More to come!