21 April AD 2024, Good Shepherd Sunday
Dear Godson,
Over these several letters, I mean to discuss the source, the substance, and the spirit of our faith, which is to say, why we believe, what we believe, and how we are to live our belief in practice.
Because myriad confusions surround the matter, let us say what faith is, and what it is not.
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From Instapundit:
ON THIS LEXINGTON AND CONCORD ANNIVERSARY, LET’S RAISE A GLASS TO SAMUEL WHITTEMORE:
On April 19, 1775, British forces were returning to Boston from the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the opening engagements of the war. On their march they were continually shot at by American militiamen.
Whittemore was in his fields when he spotted an approaching British relief brigade under Earl Percy, sent to assist the retreat. Whittemore loaded his musket and ambushed the British grenadiers of the 47th Regiment of Foot from behind a nearby stone wall, killing one soldier. He then drew his dueling pistols, killed a second grenadier and mortally wounded a third. By the time Whittemore had fired his third shot, a British detachment had reached his position; Whittemore drew his sword and attacked. He was subsequently shot in the face, bayoneted numerous times, and left for dead in a pool of blood. He was found by colonial forces, trying to load his musket to resume the fight. He was taken to Dr. Cotton Tufts of Medford, who perceived no hope for his survival. However, Whittemore recovered and lived another 18 years until dying of natural causes at the age of 98.
Allow me to propose that there is something more fundamental than psychology, more fundamental than philosophy, which underpins one’s thought. Something more fundamental than psychology or philosophy influences or determines which worldview, one adopts, and to which one adapts oneself.
This most fundamental of foundations is one’s selfhood and one’s sense of self. It defines the basic anthropology and cosmogony of one’s sense of what man is and what is man’s place in the cosmos.
It is the study of “himselfhood.”
I propose the term eautology (from the Greek εαυτός ) to refer to the study of man’s sense of self, sense of life, sense of the world.
Other terms, such as “meta-psychophilosophy”, would be awkward, and the term “anthropology,” outside of theological discussions, has taken on another meaning.
Why is such a term needed?
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From THE PHOENIX EXULTANT, vol. II of my debut trilogy.
In the far future, where men are as gods, living lives of perfect peace and prosperity, Phaethon of Rhadamanthus discovers all memory of his lifework has been hidden from him. For he is the engineer of the sole starship his civilization has ever produced: the mighty, majestic, and immense Phoenix Exultant. She is a ship to conquer the stars.
But such ambition is outlawed in utopia. Phaethon is a pariah, exiled mentally and physically, denuded of possessions, and cast down among outcasts. His life is sought by sinister agents of the Silent Oecumene: an apocalyptic menace none but he dares see. For in a world where mind or memory can be edited at will, what is truth?
I have heard it the statement spoken with great conviction that when one ideology dominates an art, it is doomed to become mere propaganda.
The conviction is misplaced. It is mere cynicism.
To such a statement I take sharp, if respectful, exception. Like most pointed comments, it is true, but only to a point.
To the contrary, it all depends on the ideology or the philosophy.
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PAST MASTER (1968) is the first published science fiction novel by R.A. Lafferty, nominated for the Nebula and the Hugo, back when those awards were honest and meant well.
R.A. Lafferty is a mad genius.
As with Cordwainer Smith or Gene Wolfe, Lafferty’s work is eccentric in scope and approach, and will not suit conventional tastes. He is, however, quite Catholic, hence his vision is likely to be unappreciated by those who do not share his worldview: it would be easy enough to admire the psychedelic pyrotechnics of his work, while missing the sacred heart.
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A man not named Little Platoon offers the most fascinating, in depth analysis of Frank Herbert’s DUNE and its relation to Asimov’s FOUNDATION, I have ever heard. To me it is utterly eye-opening.
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A reader calls to my attention that I was mentioned by name during an episode of
Called to Communion with Dr. David Anders April 8th, 2024
The question of private revelations or visions is asked at 5:15 and my name is mentioned at 8:06.
For some odd reason, he calls it a near-death experience, which it most certainly was not. I did see the Christ, the Father, the Holy Spirit, and saw and spoke with the Virgin. A month later, I saw separate visions about eternity and other realms, I did not visit heaven nor claim to have.
To be sure, I would not expect a casual readers of my account to remember these distinction. They were only meant for me. I was ordered to speak but little about exactly what I saw, and so misunderstandings are inevitable.
But neither vision was not a “near-death” nor an “out-of-body” experience in the way that term is normally used. It was just an ordinary, run-of-the-mill, inexplicable supernatural experience.
This is a reader review for the UNEXPECTED ENLIGHTENMENT books penned by my beautiful and talented wife. I was proud enough to bust my buttons, so I wanted to pass the kind words along to my readers:
Review for THE UNEXPECTED ENLIGHTENMENT OF RACHEL GRIFFIN
Except this series. I’ve heard good things about it for years, but avoided it – after all, I hate young adult books. On a whim after reading a particularly good review, I just decided to give it a try – and I am really, really glad I did.
I absolutely love the world – and yes, while there are plenty of hat tips to Harry Potter and its influence is undeniable, not only would I say this series stands on its own with a unique world, but I would strongly say I prefer it. Really, I love everything about this series – the characters are unique enough to be memorable, and deep enough for me to really love them – even though I am old, I am getting suckered into a enjoying the 13 year old’s perspective on the world. It is particularly enjoyable to see her deal with conflicts with adults, and remembering having some of them myself. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and would strongly recommend it – even if you are old and hate young adult books like me, these are something special. I am looking forward to watching Rachel Griffin grow up – can’t wait to see where the series goes. And can’t wait to share it with my kids.
From THE PHOENIX EXULTANT, vol. II of my debut trilogy.
In the far future, where men are as gods, living lives of perfect peace and prosperity, Phaethon of Rhadamanthus discovers all memory of his lifework has been hidden from him. For he is the engineer of the sole starship his civilization has ever produced: the mighty, majestic, and immense Phoenix Exultant. She is a ship to conquer the stars.
But such ambition is outlawed in utopia. Phaethon is a pariah, exiled mentally and physically, denuded of possessions, and cast down among outcasts. His life is sought by sinister agents of the Silent Oecumene: an apocalyptic menace none but he dares see. For in a world where mind or memory can be edited at will, what is truth?
Episode 04: A Composition of One
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A Reader with the binary name of The Deuce wrote a post on the self-defeating nature of multiverse arguments. I reprint it here as a guest post.
The biggest problem with the multiverse idea (beyond the fact that it’s simply a post-hoc rationalization to explain away the necessity of an intellect behind the natural world) is that it ultimately has to assume what it’s trying to disprove: Namely that mind is real and irreducible to the action of blind, physical matter.
Conjuring up infinite chance resources to explain things has no limiting principle. The logic that multiverse proponents use to explain away cosmic-fine tuning, the origin of life, the evolution of conscious rational creatures, etc., could in principle be used to explain away *any* observation. Eg. “No, I didn’t steal the cookie from the cookie jar. It’s just that given infinite universes, there had to be infinite ones where the cookie dematerialized at the same time that I entered the kitchen alone, and that’s what happened here.”
Followed consistently, such thinking would be fatal to all empirical inferences of causality and science itself.
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Don’t stare into the sun.
Also, during the eclipse itself is the only moment when the Firelord will be weakened in his firebending powers to allow the young but plucky Avatar to overcome his tyranny! We must all join in the attack!
I wrote a curmudgeonly post on books I could not finish, and it is only fair I write a non-curmudgeonly post on what books are the opposite, that is, books I could not not-finish.
This is a harder question for me to answer. My reading tastes were developed in my youth, when I had an abundance of time to read: so my practice was to read certain books five or ten times over and over again.
But asking what books I could not put down is different from asking which ones I read and re-read, and which are enshrined in my memory in a fane of gold.
So let me answer the question backwards. Instead of saying which books I loved (and anyone familiar with the field can tell from whom I am stealing my ideas and themes) let me list only the books I loved despite their obvious flaws.
I am not going to mention Jack Vance or Gene Wolfe or C.S. Lewis or Ursula K LeGuin or any other author that I can read with undiminished pleasure as an adult whom I first loved as a twelve-year-old.
I am not going to talk about books I could not put down because they hypnotized me, as did VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS, or books I could not put down because I was sure I would never read anything remotely like it again, like THE WORM OROBOROS.
I am only talking about page-turners. These are books which, if I had the taste and good sense of a man of letters, I would be ashamed to like, but, like Belle being attracted to the Beast, I am still swept off my feet despite that my Beau eats venison raw.
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Readers who do not want to read a curmudgeon (me) being curmudgeonly, please go away. This is not a review or a philosophical analysis. No attempt at balance or fairness has been made: the following consists of merely a description of negative reactions.
These are some books I just could not finish.
I am only going to list books that I thought I would like and that I really, really wanted to like, and that I could not finish.
Please note that these reasons are all questions of personal taste and preference, not something the author could have guessed beforehand and written to avoid. Books of this quality do not have flaws; they merely do not reach all audiences. This is a case where the book reached toward me, but my palms were sweaty, and the grip failed to hold.
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