homes, and the most prestigious vehicles; it never crosses their selfish minds that these possessions mean nothing in the end when it is all said and done. The things that really count and that a person is remembered by are relationships. In particular, Solzhenitsyn stresses the lack of spirituality in western civilization. Depending on how you look at it, this argument can also be justified. When determining the status of western civilization it is very important that we realize the different perspectives that must be examined. It is far too easy to become completely negative with the status quo. We must come to grips with the understanding that western civilization, by essence, is made up of Christian, Pagan, and other religious world views. It is also necessary to recognize that, just as there is trouble in church and society today, so the pre-Renaissance era also had its share of corruption. In fact, if you explore the troubles and corruption of the church prior to the Renaissance, it becomes quite apparent that their morality and spiritual lives were in as rough, if not rougher, shape than ours today. The spiritual life of the people in the centuries prior to the Renaissance was incredibly artificial. In general, this was not their fault, but the fault of tradition and the church itself. Christianity was something that was crammed down the people's throats. Hayes points out in his book that the church of this era basically served as a department or dependency of the secular governments.2 Through the gradual progress made by western civilization, today there tends to be a division between church and state; therefore people believe because they want to believe, not because they do not know any better and feared persecution from the authorities. The church had so much power and dignity that somehow, in
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