the New Pantagruel

A Manifesto

by Steve Zelt

Being a poetical rendering (or what the kids call a “remix”) of Welcome to the New Pantagruel, which launched this our virtual vessel some months ago.

The pre-modern remnant
        Bless their Souls of
                  The Christian Tradition
Reacts against
          Obviously Exploitative
                    Soul Deadening
          Aspects of Liberalism
It’s true but
          The Overweening Temptation
To get immediately relevant seating
                  At: The Table
          Has inexorably Dragged The Church
Forward towards DEATH of the MASS.

          “A Historic Need and Moment”
                            See:
                    Prophetic Voices
Treat the modernity-induced
          Crisis of the Church Culture
                    Effectively
          That odd cast of mind!
Which allows one to SEE
                    Corruption In Oneself while
Still loving The World
          Joyfully engaging earthly reality
                            Insistant on SEEing
          The Divine Reflection and
                    The Demonic Shadow.

Therefore, we seek the best kinds, those
          Who DO NOT FEEL COMPELLED TO WALLOW
In excessively religious discourse thank God but
          Share a Chestertonian Commitment
                    To a “fully nuanced”
Christian Humanism, I say
                    A Chestertonian Commitment
          To a Christian Humanism
                    Forward-looking but also
                            Post-Liberal
Which can offer cultural-political
          Critique of the stereotypical
          Modern left-right-from-within
          The Christian “Great Tradition”

That is to say: Fundamentally
          Anti-materialist
          Anti-positivist
          Anti-utopian-alleluia

          We will strive then to
                    TAKE HEED
To Chestertonian Comments:
                            The act of defending a Cardinal
          Virtue today has all the exhilaration of a Vice
                    And steer clear
          Of Terminal Earnestness
                    which Dooms so many
          And Debilitating Cynicism
                    Which DOOMS SO MANY OTHERS.