The Seasons of Our Souls, And of The Nations

by Bill Faw June 22, 2025

In November, 2021, I gave a zoom sermon to HUU on “The Seasons of Our Life and of the Soul”.  Irv was also my facilitator that day. Today, I will repeat part of the Seasons of the Soul, in order to then expand the metaphor to seasons of democracy for nations and the world.

PART ONE: SEASONS OF THE SOUL

In her challis reading, Andi set the stage for seeing seasons of the soul as cycles of good and bad experiences in life, through the famous words of Qoheleth, the Teacher, from Ecclesiastes 3. I will be presenting “autumn” and “winter” in pretty negative terms. Please note that my imagery is not about how we like autumn and winter, but what autumn and winter do to perennial plants, so put yourself in a plant’s place, please.

FIRST SEASON: SPRING: We may have several Spring-times of our Soul.         These are times when the ‘taste’ of life is sweet. When our life conditions are good, our health decent, and our spirits light. When life looks promising and exciting.    

These may be times when we fall madly in love with a special person, or with God, or with a cause that almost becomes our god --  and perhaps “find our voice” in a fellowship of like-minded seekers. Perhaps keenly realizing for the first time the gaps between the rich and the poor; or really hearing someone on the other side of racial animosity; or becoming aware of spiraling arms races and international tensions; or of the “borrowed time” that our planet has, if you, personally, don’t rescue it. These are times when we are really passionate for our cause, or really “worship” when we gather to worship.            

SECOND SEASON: SUMMER:  The Summers of our Soul are times when the ‘taste of life’ is salty and savory (“meaty” or ‘beyond meat’ if you are “beyond meat). Times when we have turned ‘passionate love’ into partnership- and perhaps life-time commitments – realizing that these are persons and causes we can really ‘live for’, or if necessary ‘die for’. This is a time to build up, to gather stones together, a time to reap; a time of love, of peace, of embracing.      

THIRD SEASON: AUTUMN:The Autumns of our Soul are the various times in life when the ‘taste of life’ is sour. When we are hanging onto life and commitments -- more out of duty than conviction. We may still read the same peace and justice journals and sing the same hymns, and still sort of believe them, but without our earlier passion.       

FOURTH SEASON: WINTER:The Winters of our soul are the various times in life in which the ‘taste of life’ is bitter. Perhaps our ‘true love’ turns ‘false’ or even damaging to our soul. Or we become disillusioned with the religious or justice commitments we have staked our lives on. Or when important parts of our very self-image and identity become impossible to maintain. Indeed, times to weep and mourn, to break down, to cast away stones, to refrain from embracing, to lose. And, for some whose souls really break: perhaps to hate or even to kill.

FIFTH SEASON:   “BEYOND WINTER”:   

While the winters of the soul – times of hardships and depression – are quite negative, we can live through such times with far greater hope and life if we have a ‘beyond winter’ perspective.       

During a deep psychological depression we believe that there is no tomorrow. The future seems closed off, our hopes and dreams seem dead. We feel like a bush or perennial flower with all its blooms and leaves fallen off, braving the winter like sticks in the ground or bulbs underground: dormant with no visible growth.

           That bush or flower has no awareness that there is anything beyond winter. But when we have weathered a few winters of the soul and have been surprised and pleased by the advent of Spring and new life – we can, perhaps, develop the perspective that beyond such winters lies the new growth of Spring! So, part one: the seasons of our soul.

PART TWO: SEASONS OF OUR NATION AND WORLD

This second part is much less poetic.      Expanding the “seasons” metaphor to our nation and the world: a nation’s “spring-time of democracy” would be when it first becomes democratic – or becomes democratic again. In a nation’s “democracy-summer it becomes a stable, full, so-called “liberal democracy”.          In its “autumn”, it is starting to “auto-cratize – shed parts of its democratic bloom.    In its “winter”, it is autocratic, un-democratic

As many of you know, I have been wrestling, the last few years, with the question as to whether “the arc” of Theodore Parker’s and Martin Luther King’s “moral universe” bends toward justice” or not.

Unitarian pastor, Theodore Parker, in 1853 preached and wrote: “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice”.

Martin Luther King shortened and adopted that in a number of sermons, saying, “I’m convinced that we shall overcome, because the arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice.”

This is a poetic way of saying that history is getting better and will continue to get better; but by no means in a straight ascending line:    history is more like Hwy W-33 right outside our door –  turn left: gradually inclining toward W. Va., but with many ups and downs and zigs and zags along the way – waves within an upward incline!

In my wrestling, I have come across efforts by researchers around the world to rate every country in the world, every year, as to how democratic or how autocratic each country is – and to show world-wide trends toward or away from democracy. I will summarize, here, some of the findings of the Freedom House group in the U.S. and V-Dem(Varieties of Democracies) in Sweden.       

They – and political scientists in general -- talk about three world-wide upward waves of democracy (Samuel Huntington, 1991) since 1820 – with each upward wave followed by a partial decline. Slightly different dates are given by different folks.

FIRST UPWARD WAVE OF DEMOCRACY:   1820-1921:  1 democracy, increasing to 33.     The American constitution in 1789 had only allowed “white men who owned property” to vote and rule. From 1820 we see various voting expansions:  to non-propertied white men, voting breaking out in some European countries;      abolishment of slavery, thus, the voting in America by non-White men (1865), and, eventually, even women voting (1920).

Back in 1853, Theodore Parker had noted this first wave in the U.S. and Europe, seeing such developments as evidence that the moral universe bends toward justice! Thus, modern democracy-trackers are continuing Parker’s search for the bend of the moral universe. 

This first upward wave ended in 1921 with a growth from one to 33 “electoral democracies” in the world; but not a single “liberal democracy”, not even in “Jim Crow” U.S. Liberal democracies have widespread voting, considerable freedom, pluralism, lawfulness, accountability, and institutional strength.

FIRST DOWNWARD REVERSAL: 1922 to 1945:    33 down to 11:    In 1922 Mussolini started turning Italy fascist. A decade later, Hitler turned much of the rest of Europe fascist. By 1945, democracies had dropped from 33 to 11. 

SECOND UPWARD: 1945-1958: 11 up to 52: Hitler, Mussolini, Japan, etc.  lost WWII. Peace, America’s Marshall Plan and the new international organizations   encouraged this great upsurge in Democracies.              

SECOND DOWNWARD: 1958-1975: 52 down to 30: Coup in Pakistan led the way.        

THIRD UPWARD: 1975 to 2006: 30 up to 123: Portugal and Spain in the 1970s led the way of a steady march toward democracies: in the 1980s in Latin America and  Asia-Pacific, and the 1990’s breakup of the Soviet Union -- and a “New World Order”    

In 2000, Freedom House’s report rejoiced “there have never been more democracies in the world, and the average level of human freedom is now the highest ever recorded.” “There is no sign yet that the world has entered “a third reverse wave”.

THIRD DOWNWARD:   2006 to ???:    123 to 88 so far     Since 2006, we have been in a third reversal. On-going repercussions from the 9/11/2001 attack on us,        2008 financial crisis, followed by failed Arab Spring, Chinese Xi dictatorship, Russia getting away with taking Crimea, and growing climate change threats, all seem to be major causes.  

So, in 2023, Freedom House reported “18 years of decline in global freedom.” 

V-Dem’s 2025 report describes “a truly global wave of autocratization….72% of the world’s people now live in autocracies…with fewer democracies (N=88) than autocracies (N=91) for the first time in over 20 years.”       

This 2025 V-Dem report also addresses the U.S. trends. “The scale of what is happening in the US is unprecedented and prompts a closer look at what seems to be the fastest evolving episode of autocratization the USA has been through in modern history…. V-Dem points to bi-partisan “dismantling of constraints on executive power by “executive (orders).”      

But even more to Donald Trump” V-Dem’s U.S. Liberal Democracy Index fell from 0.85 to 0.73 during Trump’s first term, bringing the country back to its 1976 level…, V-Dem then lists things that Trump and others did after losing the 2020 election; and now, what he’s doing in his second term. “Trump ran an openly authoritarian campaign in 2024, pledging to prosecute his rivals, punish critical media, and deploy the army to repress protests…and other classic strategies of auto’cratizers.” “The Supreme Court may be the litmus test for American democracy…. Given the ongoing assaults, is the USA heading towards democratic breakdown, or not?”

PART THREE:     My Conclusions: During each of the first two declining periods, the declines still left the world with as many or more democracies than before its upward wave. The overall running score of 1 up to 33, down to 11, up to 52, down to 30, up to 123, and so-far down to 88 shows an overall massive increase in democracies, despite reversals.      

The question, of course, is whether this third reversal, of the past 19 years, is only the down-swing of an overall upward climb, or whether it represents the moral universe now bending toward injustice? Along with Theodore Parker, we cannot yet tell, for the arc is a long one, our eyes reach but little ways; we cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight.     Meanwhile, I call on us to remember the three democracy upswings, and to have a “beyond-winter” perspective on our nation and