One reason I continue to haunt library book sales is my hope that one day I’ll stumble upon some rare treasure, some bibliophile’s musty castaway that contains a nugget of ancient truth that modern ears need to hear once again. Frederic W. Baue, while pastoring a Lutheran church in Minnesota, made just such a discovery while digging through a box of old books a woman had donated to the church’s library. Tucked away in that box of books was a sociological study that informs much of Baue’s 2001 book The Spiritual Society: What Lurks Beyond Postmodernism? (2001, Crossway Books).

The “intriguing title” Baue fumbled upon was The Crisis of Our Age, a 1941 work by Pitirim A. Sorokin, a Russian-born sociologist who founded Harvard University’s department of sociology in 1930. Although influential in his day, Sorokin’s work is largely neglected by modern sociologists. The professor’s work was steeped in “the older, more prophetic school of sociology,” an approach that relied more on “intuition, prediction, and rebuke” than on statistical analysis and public opinion surveys, Baue notes. The Crisis of Our Age and other writings by Sorokin were “broader and deeper — and more prophetic — than anything I had yet encountered,” Baue explains. “His work, along with independent reading in theology and literature, began to unlock for me an understanding of why the twentieth century had been so turbulent and where our culture might be headed next.”

With The Spiritual Society, Baue describes a future scenario in which the nebulous spirituality already in vogue becomes even more prominent in the culture. He also works hard to  restore Sorokin’s credibility — in 1944, Sorokin lost his Harvard chairmanship to Talcott Parsons, “a rising academic star who expounded the newer, more statistical/descriptive approach to sociology” — by building his book on Sorokin’s theory of cultural dynamics. Sorokin viewed Western civilization as a kind of oscillating progression of two modes: the “Sensate,” periods in which material values predominate, and the “Ideational,” times when spiritual values prevail. The oscillation between the two recurring eras can be seen throughout history. The Roman Empire, for example, with “[i]ts focus ... on practical matters such as efficient systems of government, the military, transportation, communication, sanitation, and so forth,” epitomizes the Sensate culture, while the Christian Middle Ages, with its monastic life, centralized church authority and grand cathedrals, typifies Ideational culture. The Middle Ages eventually gave way to the Sensate period known as the Modern Age, and today that era is giving way to a new Ideational period.

In Baue’s view, what we call postmodernism is not the coming spiritual era. It is the transitional period between the Sensate era of modernism and the coming spiritual period. Such transitional periods occur throughout history, and “are like the shorter transitional seasons of Spring and Fall — partly warm and partly cool — that move us from the longer, more unified seasons of Winter and Summer.” In the same way, Baue writes, we see the Sensate aspects of modernism in our culture today, alongside a growing interest in spirituality. He cites examples from literature and the arts — “cultural change registers first in the arts, and there among the poets before others” — to fortify his position and amplify Sorokin’s view of historical change.

While Baue’s concise analysis of cultural change is enlightening and serves as a good introduction to the issues discussed among postmodernist thinkers, The Spiritual Society includes at least two aspects that may unsettle readers accustomed to a more optimistic view of postmodernism. First, Baue writes from an unabashedly Lutheran perspective. On occasion, you may have to wade through a few sections of rather heavy-handed Lutheran theology, but the end result is worth the effort. Second, if Baue’s conclusions about the coming spiritual society are on the mark, it does not bode well for Christianity. He does, however, offer some suggestions on how the church can prepare for a global spirituality that is hostile to Christianity, and whether or not you agree with the author’s final assessment, it should serve as a cautionary tale for the church. If nothing else, The Spiritual Society should give hope to those of us who haunt library book sales and church bazaars. Perhaps we too will uncover a rare find among the stacks of musty texts.