Last night my wife came to me upset after having put our little to bed; she’d had an experience that I won’t describe in detail, but suffice it to say that it was eerie. As we talked it over, some thoughts coalesced in my mind.
I think the paradox, of course, is that unknowing is also a type of knowledge: it takes a substantial amount of knowledge to renounce knowledge and evade the Dunning-Kruger trap. Given that ideology is the default fallen human setting, it takes actual mental work to escape it, work premised on the gnosis that ideology is a lie.
This is well said. I encountered a similar ‘prodigal’ moment about three quarters of the way through “Lost Christianity” by Jacob Needleman recently. What started off as a refreshing appreciation for the practice of contemplation and the cultivation of awareness of God, morphed into - largely via the verbosity of one Fr Sylvan (who I think is actually just Gurdjieff in monastic garb) - endless and opaque speculation on the nature of the soul and how one comes to acquire one. I found myself getting more and more frustrated as the complexity mounted. Putting the book down and returning to the simple and yet profound practice of the Jesus Prayer proved to be my return into the arms of the Father.
> Faith is not a system of ideas. The Gospel is not an ideology. The life of the Spirit is not a bureaucracy or a creed or an enchantment.
A number of us -- meaning, me and those astute folks to whom I subscribe on Substack -- are writing about these themes at around the same time. Agree wholeheartedly that there is something higher and better than philosophy, ideology and rationality in which the human soul can participate and explore in this mortal life.
Thanks for bopping me over the head with this one. I need a post like this about every other week it seems.
Being present in my relationships, reverent in my prayer, simple on my walks, joyful in my play, restful in my reading, and attentive to beauty in my writing.
Because they recognize implicitly that there were conditions in the past that called for amelioration, without deepening into a realization that various social conditions were, in their spheres, as destructive of human flourishing as the biophysical woes brought by disease.
I think you're getting too much in the weeds. I chose a dramatic and exaggerated example for effect. I am referring e.g. to Catholic integralists, monarchists, revanchist anti-modernists -- and on my own Orthodox side, Tsarists, romantics of the "Domostroi," etc. Within an Orthodox context, these people don't discuss the depths of the *failures* of the Church and the Tsarist state, the real ignorance, immiseration, and oppression of the Russian people that made them ready to listen to the revolutionaries. The same is true, as I observe, for feminism. The past was not an unproblematic paradise. It changed not just because of the Devil's malevolence, but because really existing evils *called* for change, and whatever its admixture of sin and error, history did deliver positive change.
I think the paradox, of course, is that unknowing is also a type of knowledge: it takes a substantial amount of knowledge to renounce knowledge and evade the Dunning-Kruger trap. Given that ideology is the default fallen human setting, it takes actual mental work to escape it, work premised on the gnosis that ideology is a lie.
The true gnosis!
This is well said. I encountered a similar ‘prodigal’ moment about three quarters of the way through “Lost Christianity” by Jacob Needleman recently. What started off as a refreshing appreciation for the practice of contemplation and the cultivation of awareness of God, morphed into - largely via the verbosity of one Fr Sylvan (who I think is actually just Gurdjieff in monastic garb) - endless and opaque speculation on the nature of the soul and how one comes to acquire one. I found myself getting more and more frustrated as the complexity mounted. Putting the book down and returning to the simple and yet profound practice of the Jesus Prayer proved to be my return into the arms of the Father.
> Faith is not a system of ideas. The Gospel is not an ideology. The life of the Spirit is not a bureaucracy or a creed or an enchantment.
A number of us -- meaning, me and those astute folks to whom I subscribe on Substack -- are writing about these themes at around the same time. Agree wholeheartedly that there is something higher and better than philosophy, ideology and rationality in which the human soul can participate and explore in this mortal life.
For your consideration, my treatment was in two parts, first defending the lesser pursuits ("‘Steelmanning’ Philosophy & Ideology"): https://goodneighborbadcitizen.substack.com/p/steelmanning-philosophy-and-ideology ... and then surpassing them with the better ("From Star Trek to Soul Trek"): https://goodneighborbadcitizen.substack.com/p/from-star-trek-to-soul-trek
Thanks for bopping me over the head with this one. I need a post like this about every other week it seems.
Being present in my relationships, reverent in my prayer, simple on my walks, joyful in my play, restful in my reading, and attentive to beauty in my writing.
That really about does it.
I sympathize with much of what you say. But I wonder if there aren't a few polemical exaggerations. Have you met a "trad" who opposes dentistry?
No, but I think the fact that they don't is an inconsistency.
How so?
Because they recognize implicitly that there were conditions in the past that called for amelioration, without deepening into a realization that various social conditions were, in their spheres, as destructive of human flourishing as the biophysical woes brought by disease.
Hmm. Maybe I need to better understand what you mean by "trad."
I think you're getting too much in the weeds. I chose a dramatic and exaggerated example for effect. I am referring e.g. to Catholic integralists, monarchists, revanchist anti-modernists -- and on my own Orthodox side, Tsarists, romantics of the "Domostroi," etc. Within an Orthodox context, these people don't discuss the depths of the *failures* of the Church and the Tsarist state, the real ignorance, immiseration, and oppression of the Russian people that made them ready to listen to the revolutionaries. The same is true, as I observe, for feminism. The past was not an unproblematic paradise. It changed not just because of the Devil's malevolence, but because really existing evils *called* for change, and whatever its admixture of sin and error, history did deliver positive change.