Dominion

As I was about to finish my book on the decadence of the Weimar years, I stumbled upon a few reviews of Tom Holland’s new book “Dominion” that made me curious, maybe because I often feel that I spend too much time thinking about things that are really not that important, at least sub species aeternis. As Terry Eagleton puts it in his review:

“Yet what distinguishes the Judeo-Christian idea of love from the romantic, erotic, touchy-feely sense it has acquired in modern times is that it has nothing to do with feeling. Love for the New Testament is a social practice, not a sentiment. How you feel about the person whose place you take in the queue for the gas chambers is neither here nor there. You don’t even have to know him. Only a love of this ruthlessly impersonal kind, which couldn’t care less about the gender, rank, skin colour or personality of whoever needs your help, could prove equal to what St John darkly calls the powers of this world: Trump, Putin, Bolsonaro and their lackeys.”