Lukacs wrote his book, "At the End of an Age," in 2002, though for some decades he "was convinced that the entire modern age was crumbling fast." In his view, an age rooted in materialism cannot satisfy man's inherent spiritual inclination. As a result, his "conviction hardened further, into an unquestioning belief not only that the entire age, and the civilization to which I have belonged, were passing but that we are living through – if not already beyond – its very end."

In "After Virtue" (1981), MacIntyre warns that while it is "dangerous to draw too precise parallels between" historical periods, especially between the North American and European West and the decline of the Roman Empire into the "Dark Ages, nonetheless parallels there are."

The Romans, by abandoning their task of supporting and defending the Roman imperium, precipitated a decline of "civility and moral community." However, during the fragmentation of that imperium, men and women "often not recognizing fully what they were doing, (constructed) new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the coming ages of barbarism and darkness."

MacIntyre believes that, we, too, have reached that turning point. What matters now is the need for "the construction of local forms of community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages, which are already upon us. This time, however, the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for quite some time. And it is our lack of consciousness of this that constitutes part of our predicament."

These are pessimistic perspectives indeed. Is this pessimism warranted? Next week, we will look at how we can see the hand of God in history and give a reason for the hope that is in us.

Joseph A. Cannon is editor of the Deseret News.