RJ Snell is currently a visiting lecturer at Princeton University and directs the Center on the University and Intellectual Life for the Witherspoon Institute. Prior to that appointment he was Professor of Philosophy at Eastern University and the Templeton Honors College. He has an insightful essay here entitled “Reason Takes Up Arms; How Best to Face the Total War of the Anti-Culture.”

He argues that Christians need to enage a culture (which is now vociferously seeking to dismantle everything and destroy everything good) with truth and with the spirit of Michael, the powerful archangel who opposes Satan in Scripture.

He begins his argument thus,

“My walk to that first classroom reinforced the mood, taking me past an imposing statue of St. Michael overpowering Lucifer, his sword arm poised to deliver a blow, as Lucifer’s tail, with the head of a snake, struck at Michael’s leg. Michael’s tensed muscles and Lucifer’s snarling face conveyed the drama of rebellion, violence, and the destruction of order.

As I then imagined it, the classroom was no less dramatic, with truth and error, goodness and evil, beauty and ugliness striving to govern hearts and minds. I had a serious obligation, a calling, and much depended on how I comported myself, what answers I had, what texts I chose.“

Snell concludes that we must (figuratively) take up arms and engage the enemy. We do not do this with physical arms . . . but with the light of transcendent truth.

“But it does mean that the tradition needs to be less complacent and adopt more of the spirit of Michael. Certainly, after several generations of sleepy contentment, we need urgently to equip and prepare those happy few who remain committed, especially among the young. And that is no small matter, as we’ve essentially handed over our schools and clubs, families and parishes. The institutions most responsible for the formation of our members appear enervated or complicit, and we face a massive, almost inconceivably difficult task of renewal and creation. And far too many of us have settled into a drowsy indolence. We have not catechized, we have not taught, we have not studied—we are, or far too many of us are, woefully unprepared. 

This will not do. Our easy comforts must be set aside and our wills must be steeled as we set to the task. This is a moment calling for a great and long struggle, an apostolic commitment, likely for generations. Apostolic souls are unfortunately rare, and we had best support those we have.“

Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, articulated the same thing in Ephesians 6:10-20. Until we recognize where the real war is (in the spiritual realm), we are tilting at windmills. We must take up the arms that Paul elaborates on. Not physical arms, but arms that are infinitely more powerful . . . the only arms that the enemy greatly fears. And only Christ’s church is equipped and empowered to take up those arms.