In the course of this past year a tide of ominous and challenging events swept over and through the human family and the planet on which we dwell. Notable among these are: the Covid-19 pandemic, yet to be brought under control and continuing to have severe socio-economic consequences; a contentious US presidential election whose divisive politics tested the institutional order of representative democracy; the increasingly visible impacts, small and large, of climate change; and a growing recognition of the pernicious presence and persistence of structural racism in the prevailing socio-cultural dynamics of American history, as well as those of the Western modernity of which that history is part. These events have unfolded with a high visibility that has tenaciously gripped public awareness across the full spectrum of contemporary information media—in no small measure due to the interruptive power with which these events have altered patterns of what had previously been taken to be ordinary and normal life for many millions of people.