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Discover more from The Abbey of Misrule
Hello all. I’ve returned from a fortnight wandering through the mountains and monasteries of Romania (I might have something to say about that here soon) and I’m working now on the next essay in my series, which will arrive with paid subscribers in a few days. In the meantime, I want to spread the word about some public events I’ll be doing over the next few months.
* THE ONE I’M MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO is a joint gig in Northern Ireland in November with my old friend Martin Shaw. Like me, Martin recently found himself blinking in shock as he was dragged unexpectedly towards Christianity in midlife, after a career as a storyteller, mythologist and wilderness rites-of-passage guide. Wondering what we can do about our mutual weird journey, we’ve put our heads together to organise a day-long event of stories, talks, workshops and other bits and pieces, aimed at reviving the wild, ancient Christian legacy of the West.
It’s quite a legacy, too. Once upon a time these islands were sprinkled with cave-dwelling monks, forest Christians, old stone monasteries, wandering fools-for-Christ and stories of faith wound deep in the woods and the wild. It’s a deep liturgical, mythological and wild legacy that most of us have forgotten, and we’re going to spend a day and a night talking about it. It’s going to be fun.
You can watch Martin talking about his story and journey here. Our November event, up at Benburb Priory, will consist of two connected events: a day-long session of talks, workshops and conversation, and an evening storytelling event, which will also be open to the wider public. If you’ve not seen Martin tell a story, I can promise you it will be an evening you won’t forget.
Read more about all this, and book tickets for both events, here. Places are limited, so book soon.
* TWO MONTHS EARLIER, in September, I’ll be involved in another event at Benburb Priory. This time, I’ve been invited to take part in a conference called The Meaning Crisis, Modernity and the Christian Way, which these days is very much up my street. I’ll be talking with Paul Vander Klay, Calvin Robinson and Inaya Folarin Iman about the signs of the times and how to approach them. You can read more and book tickets here.
* SIGNS OF THE TIMES will also be in evidence at the Percy French Festival a few weeks from now, on 21st July. This Irish cultural and musical event, in memory of the dramatist and thinker Percy French, is themed this year around the question Does the soul have a future? I’ll be talking about my favourite horrible subject, transhumanism, with a little help from my latest novel Alexandria. Find out more on the festival’s website.
* FINALLY, OVER IN THE OLD COUNTRY, I’ll be appearing at the Llangwm Literary Festival in Pembrokeshire, Wales, in mid-August, to talk about my trilogy of novels, The Wake, Beast and Alexandria, and the themes, tales and influences that tie them together. There are plenty of other fun things happening at the festival too, which is being held in a very beautiful place. Full details on their website.
That’s all for now. I’ll be back with a longer set of words very soon.
- Paul
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Paul, you may have heard of the children's book writer/storyteller Bob Hartman, who lives in Wiltshire. He's an old friend of mine, and I've passed this info along to him in hopes that the two of you might meet up at some point.
Paul, are you aware of any Orthodox authors who seriously criticize technology? All I have found is the corpus of Philip Sherrard and scattered bits in pieces in a few writers, particularly Vladimir Solovyov. There are plenty of writers that criticize modernity, such as Seraphim Rose, but not technology as such. I do hope you can point me in the right direction, as it would be a shocking lack if no one, other than Sherrard, tackled the topic seriously. Certainly there is a strong group of anti-technology, anti-Machine Catholics, such as Georges Bernanos, Thomas Merton, Max Picard, and Ivan Illich just to name a few, but I am hoping to find a particularly Orthodox perspective.
Christianity is a great religion, but I have the feeling there are only a few hundred Christians in the world today. Christianity would solve many of the world's problems; it is truly radical in the mathematical sense of the term, but who is willing to pick up the cross and live in a truly Christian manner? I think most people would prefer to keep their televisions, phones, and leave their Christianity to occasional Sunday masses and painting eggs on Easter. Real Christianity, if we heeded its call would change everything. Just look to the example of the desert fathers: 'We seek any convenient excuse to break off and give up the difficult task. But in these Verba Seniorum we read of Abbot Ammonas, who spent fourteen years praying to overcome anger, or rather, more significantly, to be delivered from it. We read of Abbot Serapion, who sold his last book, a copy of the Gospels, and gave the money to the poor, thus selling “the very words which told him to sell all and give to the poor.”' Can even a few of us become like Abbot Serapion? As for me, I am a universalist, and feel similar to Simone Weil in many respects. So, I am not a Christian, but love Christ, and hope that even when I run away from Christianity in the name of Truth, that I run into Christ's loving hands, or as Weil writes: "For it seemed to me certain, and I still think so today, that one can never wrestle enough with God if one does so out of pure regard for the truth. Christ likes us to prefer truth to him because, before being Christ, he is truth. If one turns aside from him to go toward the truth, one will not go far before falling into his arms."
Hebrews 10:31 states "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God," but as Lawrence adds "But it is a much more fearful thing to fall out of them." ... "Save me from that, O God! / Let me never know myself apart from the living God!" ALL moderns have fallen out of the hands of the living God. The question is whether or not each of us is willing to make the sacrifices needed to come back into those loving hands.