"Men and women resist believing that they follow beaten paths. But they really become insufferably proud when they look around and think they leave no tracks."
The true measure of our legacy is the depth of our gratitude, not the shimmer of our moral and technical excellence.
This Issue
Our culture does not know how to deal with legacies. We either treat the dead with some combination of awe and fear, or we think of our forebears as unworthy of remembrance, to be cast behind our own pursuits and discoveries.
Christians, however, can take a different tack. Ours is a historical faith, containing gifts each generation must re-open—some to be treasured, some to be viewed and sent back.
In this issue of Comment, we reject both our tendencies to ignore and to idolize the past. Instead, we seek to draw the good out of legacies, as we acknowledge that all legacies east of Eden will always be, at best, mixed.
How will you respond to the gifts of these legacies in your own life and work?