Ross Douthat

La sociedad decadente revela lo que sucede cuando una sociedad rica y poderosa detiene su avance, y cómo la combinación de riqueza y dominio tecnológico con el estancamiento económico, la parálisis politica, el agotamiento cultural y el declive demografico crean una especie de decadencia sostenible. Muchos de los descontentos actuales, asi como el devenir absurdo y erratico que caracteriza a la realidad ?desde los transbordadores espaciales en tierra hasta los villanos de Silicon Valley, desde el cine y la television de insulso reciclaje hasta el escapismo mediante el consumo de drogas o la realidad virtual?, reflejan un sentimiento de futilidad y decepcion, de que los caminos que nos quedan por recorrer llevan unicamente al ocaso. En este escenario tememos a la catastrofe, pero en cierto modo tambien suspiramos por ella, porque la alternativa es aceptar que somos decadentes de forma constante. Oponiendose tanto a los optimistas, que insisten en que cada vez somos mas prosperos y felices, y a los pesimistas, que esperan el colapso de un momento a otro, Ross Douthat aporta un diagnostico esclarecedor de la condicion moderna: como hemos llegado hasta esta epoca turbulenta, cuanto tiempo podria durar la era de la frustracion y como, ya sea mediante el renacimiento o la catastrofe, podria a...

From the New York Times columnist and bestselling author of Bad Religion, a powerful portrait of how our wealthy, successful society has passed into an age of gridlock, stalemate, public failure, and private despair. The era of the coronavirus has tested America, and our leaders and institutions have conspicuously failed. That failure shouldnt be surprising: Beneath social-media frenzy and reality-television politics, our eras deep truths are elite incompetence, cultural exhaustion, and the flight from reality into fantasy. Casting a cold eye on these trends, The Decadent Society explains what happens when a powerful society ceases advancinghow the combination of wealth and technological proficiency with economic stagnation, political stalemate, and demographic decline creates a unique civilizational crisis. Ranging from the futility of our ideological debates to the repetitions of our pop culture, from the decline of sex and childbearing to the escapism of drug use, Ross Douthat argues that our age is defined by disappointmentby the feeling that all the frontiers are closed, that the paths forward lead only to the grave. Correcting both optimism and despair, Douthat provides an enlightening explanation of how we got here, how long our frustrations might last, and how, in renaissance or catastrophe, our decadence might ultimately end.

A New York Times columnist and one of Americas leading conservative thinkers considers Pope Franciss efforts to change the church he governs in a book that is must reading for every Christian who cares about the fate of the West and the future of global Christianity (Rod Dreher, author of The Benedict Option).Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936, today Pope Francis is the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Franciss stewardship of the Church, while perceived as a revelation by many, has provoked division throughout the world. If a conclave were to be held today, one Roman source told The New Yorker, Francis would be lucky to get ten votes. In his concise, rhetorically agileadroit, perceptive, gripping account (The New York Times Book Review), Ross Douthat explains why the particular debate Francis has openedover communion for the divorced and the remarriedis so dangerous: How it cuts to the heart of the larger argument over how Christianity should respond to the sexual revolution and modernity itself, how it promises or threatens to separate the church from its own deep past, and how it divides Catholicism along geographical and cultural lines. Douthat argues that the Francis era is a crucial experiment for all of Western civilization, which is facing resurgent external enemies (from ISIS to Putin) even as it struggles with its own internal divisions, its decadence, and self-doubt. Whether Francis or his critics are right wont just determine whether he ends up as a hero or a tragic figure for Catholics. It will determine whether hes a hero, or a gambler whos betraying both his church and his civilization into the hands of its enemies. A balanced look at the struggle for the future of CatholicismTo Change the Church is a fascinating look at the church under Pope Francis (Kirkus Reviews). Engaging and provocative, this is a pot-boiler of a history that examines a growing ecclesial crisis (Washington Independent Review of Books).

A powerful, thought-provoking and always lively examination of how American Christianity has badly lost its waywith most of what goes by the name of Christianity today being one or another type of heresyby the youngest writer ever appointed as editorial columnist for The New York Times.In a world populated by pray and grow rich gospels and Christian cults of self-esteem, Ross Douthat argues that Americas problem isnt too much religion; nor is it intolerant secularism. Rather, its bad religion. Conservative and liberal, political and pop cultural, traditionally religious and fashionably spiritualChristianitys place in American life has increasingly been taken over, not by atheism, but by heresy: debased versions of Christian faith that stroke our egos, indulge our follies, and encourage our worst impulses.In a brilliant and provocative story that moves from the 1950s to the age of Obama, Douthat explores how bad religion has crippled the countrys ability to confront our most pressing challenges and accelerated American decline.

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS CHOICE In this vulnerable, insightful memoir, the New York Times columnist tells the story of his five-year struggle with a disease that officially doesnt exist, exploring the limits of modern medicine, the stories that we unexpectedly fall into, and the secrets that only suffering reveals.A powerful memoir about our fragile hopes in the face of chronic illness.Kate Bowler, bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason In the summer of 2015, Ross Douthat was moving his family, with two young daughters and a pregnant wife, from Washington, D.C., to a sprawling farmhouse in a picturesque Connecticut town when he acquired a mysterious and devastating sickness. It left him sleepless, crippled, wracked with pain--a shell of himself. After months of seeing doctors and descending deeper into a physical inferno, he discovered that he had a disease which according to CDC definitions does not actually exist: the chronic form of Lyme disease, a hotly contested condition that devastates the lives of tens of thousands of people but has no official recognition--and no medically approved cure.From a rural dream house that now felt like a prison, Douthats search for help takes him off the map of official medicine, into territory where cranks and conspiracies abound and patients are forced to take control of their own treatment and experiment on themselves. Slowly, against his instincts and assumptions, he realizes that many of the cranks and weirdos are right, that many supposed "hypochondriacs" are victims of an indifferent medical establishment, and that all kinds of unexpected experiences and revelations lurk beneath the surface of normal existence, in the places underneath.The Deep Places is a story about what happens when you are terribly sick and realize that even the doctors who are willing to treat you can only do so much. Along the way, Douthat describes his struggle back toward health with wit and candor, portraying sickness as the most terrible of gifts. It teaches you to appreciate the grace of ordinary life by taking that life away from you. It reveals the deep strangeness of the world, the possibility that the reasonable people might be wrong, and the necessity of figuring out things for yourself. And it proves, day by dreadful day, that you are stronger than you ever imagined, and that even in the depths there is always hope.

LOccident est entré dans une ère de stagnation. Pour quelles raisons ? Sagit-il dun affaiblissement ou dun déclin ? Comment en sortir ?Nous vivons une crise unique. Malgré leur prospérité matérielle,

In a provocative challenge to Republican conventional wisdom, two of the Rights rising young thinkers call upon the GOP to focus on the interests and needs of working-class voters.Grand New Party lays bare the failures of the conservative revolution and presents a detailed blueprint for building the next Republican majority. Blending history, analysis, and fresh, often controversial recommendations, Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam argue that it is time to move beyond the Reagan legacy and the current Republican power structure. With specific proposals covering such hot-button topics as immigration, health care, and taxes, Grand New Party shakes up the Right, challenges the Left, and confronts the changing political landscape.

La sociedad decadente revela lo que sucede cuando una sociedad rica y poderosa detiene su avance, y cómo la combinación de riqueza y dominio tecnológico con el estancamiento económico, la parálisis politica, el agotamiento cultural y el declive demografico crean una especie de decadencia sostenible.Muchos de los descontentos actuales, asi como el devenir absurdo y erratico que caracteriza a la realidad desde los transbordadores espaciales en tierra hasta los villanos de Silicon Valley, desde el cine y la television de insulso reciclaje hasta el escapismo mediante el consumo de drogas o la realidad virtual, reflejan un sentimiento de futilidad y decepcion, de que los caminos que nos quedan por recorrer llevan unicamente al ocaso. En este escenario tememos a la catastrofe, pero en cierto modo tambien suspiramos por ella, porque la alternativa es aceptar que somos decadentes de forma constante.Oponiendose tanto a los optimistas, que insisten en que cada vez somos mas prosperos y felices, y a los pesimistas, que esperan el colapso de un momento a otro, Ross Douthat aporta un diagnostico esclarecedor de la condicion moderna: como hemos llegado hasta esta epoca turbulenta, cuanto tiempo podria durar la era de la frustracion y como, ya sea mediante el renacimiento o la catastrofe, podria acabar finalmente nuestra decadencia.