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.
The event with Martin Shaw sounds intriguing. It would be nice to have a bit of it up on youtube at some point. I dearly hope that one day you can make it over here to the "New Country"....or what's left of it. Things are starting to get interesting right about now.
I so hope to hear more about the Wild Christian legacy!!! I live in the US so I couldn’t attend that event, but I would if I could!! That sounds amazing to learn more about that history.
I feel like a sports team fanatic when I see Paul's essays on UnHerd... Hooray for the good team! So gratified to read in the comments how many people appreciate the good sense in his essay.
Coincidentally I made last week more or less the same kind of travel like you did. I visited my Romanian brother-in-law who lives in a city in the north of Romania. We have spend a few days walking in the rural landscapes of Transylvania. The villages, although modernising and depopulating relative quickly, still are very beautiful. Wooden churches, orchards, haystacks, friendly people, forests, and so on. Although changing quickly, one can still find here a beauty, calmness, a link with nature which in my country (Netherlands) is much harder to find. Paul, I would really like to see you writing something about your trip to Romania. I will be waiting for this. Thanks in advance.
What about a Wild Christianity that can live and flourish in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria or Silicon Valley or anywhere at all? A Wild Christianity based on this - “Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive” John 7:37-39
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.
The event with Martin Shaw sounds intriguing. It would be nice to have a bit of it up on youtube at some point. I dearly hope that one day you can make it over here to the "New Country"....or what's left of it. Things are starting to get interesting right about now.
Welcome back!
Please come to big horrible London some time!
I so hope to hear more about the Wild Christian legacy!!! I live in the US so I couldn’t attend that event, but I would if I could!! That sounds amazing to learn more about that history.
I feel like a sports team fanatic when I see Paul's essays on UnHerd... Hooray for the good team! So gratified to read in the comments how many people appreciate the good sense in his essay.
https://unherd.com/2022/07/how-the-left-fell-for-capitalism/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=93be2996dd&mc_eid=786ee8ec87
Looking forward to hearing you give your talk at the Llangwm Lit Fest Paul. :)
Coincidentally I made last week more or less the same kind of travel like you did. I visited my Romanian brother-in-law who lives in a city in the north of Romania. We have spend a few days walking in the rural landscapes of Transylvania. The villages, although modernising and depopulating relative quickly, still are very beautiful. Wooden churches, orchards, haystacks, friendly people, forests, and so on. Although changing quickly, one can still find here a beauty, calmness, a link with nature which in my country (Netherlands) is much harder to find. Paul, I would really like to see you writing something about your trip to Romania. I will be waiting for this. Thanks in advance.
Will the Benburb Priory event be on Zoom / teleconference? I couldn’t quite tell from reading the event page.
What about a Wild Christianity that can live and flourish in the slums of Lagos, Nigeria or Silicon Valley or anywhere at all? A Wild Christianity based on this - “Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive” John 7:37-39
Booked for November and excited to attend. Prayers for the event.