Some of the "rewards" of posting on dotCom are the behind-the-scenes encounters and exchanges that never appear in the "comments" section. Through one such I was introduced to the esays of "Spengler," the anonymous columnist for Asia Times. Now his true identity is revealed ... by himself: David Goldman, a new associate editor of First Things.Mr. Goldman has a fascinating piece, "Confessions of a Coward" on the First Things site. Here is a sample that captivated me:

Around 1985, the ugly awareness that I had spent almost a decade in a gnostic cult coincided with a dark time in my personal life. Deeply depressed, I sat at the piano one night, playing through the score of Bachs St. Matthew Passion, and came to the chorale that reads: Commend your ways and what ails your heart to the faithful care of Him who directs the heavens, who gives course and aim to the clouds, air and wind. He will also find a path that your foot can tread. For the first time in my life, I prayed, and in that moment, I knew that my prayer was heard. That was a first step of teshuvaof return.

And further:

Still, it was not until I began to study Franz Rosenzweigs The Star of Redemption during the early 1990s that I was able to reconcile my experience of prayer with my sense of the sacred in music. By then I had published academic articles on Renaissance music theory, including a 1989 study in the Vaticans music journal about Nicholas of Cusas contribution. Studying the origins of Western classical music also helped me put religious things in perspective. Magnificent as it is, music remains a human construct, with a hint of divine inspiration in some cases, but not a substitute for God. The great works of Western classical music are not revelation, but they are perhaps the next best thing. Next best, however, no longer seemed good enough.

The rest is here.