Yes, but why is 'the West' - this small part of the Europe - the place where this tendency developed so powerfully? It's a question that fascinates me. Possibly you're right that attachment is the key. Eastern Christianity does focus on askesis and 'death to the world' in a way that the Western traditions don't - though even here there i…
Yes, but why is 'the West' - this small part of the Europe - the place where this tendency developed so powerfully? It's a question that fascinates me. Possibly you're right that attachment is the key. Eastern Christianity does focus on askesis and 'death to the world' in a way that the Western traditions don't - though even here there is a long Christian tradition of monasticism and sacrifice. It remains a mystery to me.
I have previously mentioned Fr. John Strickland's series Paradise and Utopia: the Rise and Fall of What the West Once Was. It is written for broader audience (i.e., not academic), and traces this exact theme. The last volume of the series, probably due out later this year, is about our own times, "The Age of Nihilism". The whole series is worth a look.
It seems to me that at some point Western Christianity moved away from askesis and towards something more legalistic. When and where that occurred I don't know -- it seems likely that it happened at different times in different places. But one thing that seems pretty certain is that the Reformation and Counter-Reformation gave the marginalization of asceticism in the West a sizable push.
Along those lines I'd highly recommend Brad Gregory's The Unintended Reformation, which lays out in great detail how some major traits of modernity are traceable as unintended effects of certain key Reformation ideas, while in no sense downplaying the problems in the Catholic Church of the time that prompted the reformers.
I think that what lies at the root of this Western "problem" is a deep-seated difference between Eastern and Western Christianity's respective understandings of the nature of human freedom. Dostoevsky was certainly onto this, but I've yet to come across anything that examines the issue in a systematic way.
Brad Gregory’s The Unintended Reformation is outstanding… let me also push an essay recently recommended by Patrick Deneen that gives a very different reading on the Reformation:
Cavanaugh argues that what we call “The Wars of Religion” were primarily political wars conducted by elites looking to expand their power and not actually wars fought over conflicting Christian beliefs.,
I have long thought that it is the latent Roman Imperial spirit, coupled with the discovery of Aristotle. Hans Boersma, an evangelical protestant, but an unusual one wrote of these philosophical shifts in his book on what I would call 'the unmaking of Creation' (Also to echo Iain McGilchrist). Boersma - who is interested in the work of the ressourcement Catholoic theologians, who renewed Catholic interest in the patristics - listed the rise of nominalism, voluntarism and univocity. The thing that hit me from his account was how the key events - eg the rise of the doctrine of transubstantiation - occurred in the immediate aftermath of The Great Schism, an event he doesn't reference . . . It is as if 'the head' disconnected from 'the heart', or the wider body. In McGilchrist's terms the disconnection between the left and right hemisphere of the brain which led us to Descartes and The Modern World. Or to use a Thomist account, once you believe their is such a thing as 'natura pura', all bets are off and Nietzche is our destination. Apologies as this is incredibly rambling and disconnected, but as an inheritor and indeed a member of the Western Ecclesial Heirarchy, I think I'm qualified to criticise the Western Church :-)
Thanks for this Eric. The more I read, think and experience the more I understand that the Schism - an event I barely even knew about a few years back - was a massive break in our history, and a big reason for our unique course. There is much to ponder on that.
I have a friend a retired bishop. He once wrote a blog post on ‘all the church things that people blame the current state of the world on’. When I told him that he’d missed out my favourite/ The Great Schism - he replied‘What’s that?’ So you’re not in bad company
I’ve been a Christian from birth but only 20 years ago began to wake up to Orthodoxy.
BTW Paul - in answer to your question 'What does Progress want?', I suggest a very simple answer - 'More'. It is indeed the insatiable Spirit of Moloch. As a priest I hear everywhere the unspoken question, 'why is it never enough?'. Two further references and then I'll return to my contemplation :-) First have you come across Scott Alexander's extended 'Meditation on Moloch'? Worth a look in this regard. Second - Progress - The Timbered Choir by Wendell Berry . . . The pursuit of 'The objective' is a journey form nowhere to nowhere. There are no reference points - every love unloved etc. Blessings on your day!
Yes, but why is 'the West' - this small part of the Europe - the place where this tendency developed so powerfully? It's a question that fascinates me. Possibly you're right that attachment is the key. Eastern Christianity does focus on askesis and 'death to the world' in a way that the Western traditions don't - though even here there is a long Christian tradition of monasticism and sacrifice. It remains a mystery to me.
I have previously mentioned Fr. John Strickland's series Paradise and Utopia: the Rise and Fall of What the West Once Was. It is written for broader audience (i.e., not academic), and traces this exact theme. The last volume of the series, probably due out later this year, is about our own times, "The Age of Nihilism". The whole series is worth a look.
It seems to me that at some point Western Christianity moved away from askesis and towards something more legalistic. When and where that occurred I don't know -- it seems likely that it happened at different times in different places. But one thing that seems pretty certain is that the Reformation and Counter-Reformation gave the marginalization of asceticism in the West a sizable push.
Along those lines I'd highly recommend Brad Gregory's The Unintended Reformation, which lays out in great detail how some major traits of modernity are traceable as unintended effects of certain key Reformation ideas, while in no sense downplaying the problems in the Catholic Church of the time that prompted the reformers.
I think that what lies at the root of this Western "problem" is a deep-seated difference between Eastern and Western Christianity's respective understandings of the nature of human freedom. Dostoevsky was certainly onto this, but I've yet to come across anything that examines the issue in a systematic way.
Brad Gregory’s The Unintended Reformation is outstanding… let me also push an essay recently recommended by Patrick Deneen that gives a very different reading on the Reformation:
http://www.jesusradicals.com/uploads/2/6/3/8/26388433/wars-of-religion-and-the-rise-of-the-state.pdf
Cavanaugh argues that what we call “The Wars of Religion” were primarily political wars conducted by elites looking to expand their power and not actually wars fought over conflicting Christian beliefs.,
Yeah, that's a great essay. Cavanaugh later expanded its argument into a book, 'The Myth of Religious Violence.'
Thank you for the new book recommendation!
Thanks for these. I wrote about Deneen's book, and Gregory's, in some previous essays. I agree that they really fill in some gaps.
I have long thought that it is the latent Roman Imperial spirit, coupled with the discovery of Aristotle. Hans Boersma, an evangelical protestant, but an unusual one wrote of these philosophical shifts in his book on what I would call 'the unmaking of Creation' (Also to echo Iain McGilchrist). Boersma - who is interested in the work of the ressourcement Catholoic theologians, who renewed Catholic interest in the patristics - listed the rise of nominalism, voluntarism and univocity. The thing that hit me from his account was how the key events - eg the rise of the doctrine of transubstantiation - occurred in the immediate aftermath of The Great Schism, an event he doesn't reference . . . It is as if 'the head' disconnected from 'the heart', or the wider body. In McGilchrist's terms the disconnection between the left and right hemisphere of the brain which led us to Descartes and The Modern World. Or to use a Thomist account, once you believe their is such a thing as 'natura pura', all bets are off and Nietzche is our destination. Apologies as this is incredibly rambling and disconnected, but as an inheritor and indeed a member of the Western Ecclesial Heirarchy, I think I'm qualified to criticise the Western Church :-)
Thanks for this Eric. The more I read, think and experience the more I understand that the Schism - an event I barely even knew about a few years back - was a massive break in our history, and a big reason for our unique course. There is much to ponder on that.
I have a friend a retired bishop. He once wrote a blog post on ‘all the church things that people blame the current state of the world on’. When I told him that he’d missed out my favourite/ The Great Schism - he replied‘What’s that?’ So you’re not in bad company
I’ve been a Christian from birth but only 20 years ago began to wake up to Orthodoxy.
BTW Paul - in answer to your question 'What does Progress want?', I suggest a very simple answer - 'More'. It is indeed the insatiable Spirit of Moloch. As a priest I hear everywhere the unspoken question, 'why is it never enough?'. Two further references and then I'll return to my contemplation :-) First have you come across Scott Alexander's extended 'Meditation on Moloch'? Worth a look in this regard. Second - Progress - The Timbered Choir by Wendell Berry . . . The pursuit of 'The objective' is a journey form nowhere to nowhere. There are no reference points - every love unloved etc. Blessings on your day!