The Household and the War for the Cosmos (C. R. Wiley)

The Household and the War for the Cosmos

Recovering a Christian Vision for the Family

Your household is not just a shelter from a war zone; it is the command center from where you launch your attacks. It’s this vision of the world, with the Christian family at the heart, that modern parents desperately need to recover.

In this truly original book, C. R. Wiley shows that, although the family has become dislocated and pushed to the side by modern society, this wasn’t always the case. At one time, the world was not seen as a random assortment of time and matter, but as an ordered whole—as a Cosmos.

Because people saw themselves as part of an ordered whole, they also believed that they had obligations to the people around them. They were not just autonomous individuals, but members of households with unique duties to past and future generations. Words like “piety” and “religion” did not refer to what you did in your quiet time, but were more like the seemingly obsolete values of “duty” and “honor.”

C. R. Wiley illustrates these ancient values through the Roman Aeneas, and shows how this founding myth inspired people to things we need. However, he also shows how this myth failed and it was succeeded by a greater myth—the myth of Abraham and His God’s war for the cosmos.

Endorsements

“It’s easy to see how the household as a foundational institution is crumbling, and Wiley puts forth a robust macro-level vision for why it’s worth saving. He dissects words—their origins, implications, and context within history and Scripture—like piety , duty , cosmos , and household . Put together, a picture emerges of the family not as a personal lifestyle choice, but as a microcosm with interconnected duties and dependencies intended to reflect how the Church—the household of God—operates. This book has encouragement for fathers, for family enterprise, and for weary, modern parents in need of restored vision.” — WORLD Magazine

“Today the true revolutionaries are not feminists, homosexual activists, or other progressives but those who are seeking to halt any further erosion of the family, and even reverse the process—families who are intentionally working to restore at least some of the traditional functions of the household.” — Nancy Pearcey, author of Total Truth and Love Thy Body

Contents

Foreword by Nancy Pearcey

Preface by Anthony Esolen

1. The Deluge
2. Whatever Became of Piety?
3. Aeneas, Abraham, and Pietas
4. Waging Peace
5. Lost and Found in the Cosmos
6. House Stewards
7. The Cosmos 2.0

Epilogue: Guerilla Piety Made Plain

About the Author

C. R. Wiley is a senior contributor to The Imaginative Conservative and a pastor in Vancouver, Washington. His short stories have appeared in The Mythic Circle and Fear and Trembling, and his nonfiction has appeared in Touchstone Magazine, Relevant Magazine, and Modern Reformation. He is also author of Man of the House and The Household and the War for the Cosmos.