Mahatma
I take your points about the historical conditions for global capitalism, but totally reject that it has any basis in Scripture. I say its totally man made. See the end of Acts 2 for the first clear example of 'Christian communism' :) go on.. be adventurous.. actually read it. (please)
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=51&chapter=2&version=31

If you give me a specific reference in Weber, a link. I'll read some at least.

I'm glad your honest enough to admit you don't have answers, but your solutions are begging one in terms of social naturalism if I can use the term. "Look at how things are, and analyze them and find a solution in naturalistic terms" it seems.

The problem is, this takes an approach which is clearly at odds with the vast majority of human consciousness and habit. "God aware"

Solomon said it clearly "He has placed eternity in our hearts, but not so as we can know the beginning or the end of it"

You mentioned 'lack of meaning' as a symptom of our contemporary condition. Please have a read of this

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=25&chapter=1&version=31

The 2nd verse says :

"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher.
"Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."

Read on for his exploration of life and the ultimate solution.

I should not 'lose you' as soon as I mention scripture, we should engage on this. Give me equivalent portions of your favorite authors and I'll read.

blessings

Boaz
To borrow something from another forum :-
”All work, no play, no religion, no children, no family, no sense of identity, and of course no sex.... Just great”

Now in our society, families have been decimated, various religions have been decimated, unions have been decimated, and government is becoming more and more remote.

So this leaves people very much alone, isolated, and insular. If they have a problem regards something, who can they turn to?

They can’t turn to a family member, a church member, a co-worker, a union member, or a government member. The problem keeps churning within them, drags them down, and eventually they resort to going to a doctor, or they can be sent to a doctor by someone else.

The doctor cannot be a family member, a church member, a co-worker, a union member, a government member, or even a friend, and the doctor only has a 10 minute appointment time available, so they often prescribe drugs, which may / may not work, and many can have detrimental side affects.

Added to that would be other issues including improper diet, lack of exercise, pollution, consumerism, a disconnection from nature, worries regards bills and loan repayments, too much drug consumption, a barrage from electronic media, job insecurity, long work hours etc, and it’s a wonder society has held up so well to date.

But depression (which is probably like emotional exhaustion) is forecast to be the main illness besetting people in future years (rather understandably), and I think it is starting to become more evident in people at a younger and younger age also.

Timkins

What a thoughtful and interesting post!

I particularly enjoyed your last paragraph.

Cheers
Kay

Tim.. some interesting points.

I want to tackle one point in particular.

"They don't have anyone to turn to"....

Tonight, I'll be heading off to Bible study. The hosts 19 yr old daughter is now 6 months pregnant.. a close relative of theirs aged 15 committed suicide a week back, The host also has a debilitating sickness limiting him mostly to a wheel chair.
Two of our other attendees have broken marraiges, and one other is pretty ok, a great veteran runner, teacher etc and then there is me, where my biggest problem is my spare tyre, which now that the weather is better, I'm working on almost daily.

We are like an extended family, we support each other, encourage, build up, not in place of family, but supplemental to it. We derive strength from Scripture, and yes, we struggle to be all that we know we should be under God. But with all our weakness and failure, there is a sense of love and assurance that meets us in our deepest region. It goes far beyond family, society and health.

The Church in China, began with more graves of missionary kids than converts, but now is many millions strong, grew largely in house churches.

As Kay pointed out, your last paragraph is important -'depression'. If I may venture a theory :) Depression arises for either medical reasons, or more commonly I think, thru all the things you listed, the central one being a lack of hope......

Which leads me to....
Romans5
1Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the HOPE of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Kinda says it all :)

Well said Timkins, thank you, have a great day.

I agree - Timkins, that was a perceptive and even sensitive post. I'm glad to see that your apparent fixation with women and feminism doesn't extend to all areas of your thinking. Perhaps your insights about mental health are related in some way to your personal experiences with the opposite sex?

Boaz - I had a look at your first link, but I'm afraid that 'talking in tongues' and the 'last days' don't cut it for me in terms of addressing contemporary anomie and its relation to mental illness.

As for Weber, I'm mildly astonished that you're not aware of him - considering his huge influence in the fields of political economy and the sociology of religion. His most relevant work in terms of this conversation is probably 'The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism' (1905).

For a precis go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protestant_Ethic_and_the_Spirit_of_Capitalism .

For a full text version, go to http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moriyuki/abukuma/weber/world/ethic/pro_eth_frame.html .

The language is perhaps a little heavy going, but IMHO nowhere near as obscure as the biblical stuff that you post! :)