Religion
Picture Books for Adults
This is a delightful piece from Public Books. I especially liked this observation about how medieval monks would read:
This form of reading, de Hamel says, is one reason why so many medieval manuscripts have richly decorated pages. The decorations “helped impress a page visually in the reader’s memory,
These Monks Were on a Search-and-Destroy Mission Against Their Left Hemispheres
It's hard to admit this, but here goes:
Back in my twenties, I decided I wanted to be a mystic.
Such a thing is absurd: The goal is foiled by the goal. You might as well decide you want to be a poor man with money (one of
"He is Interested Only in the Individual Soul Whom He Places Before God"
Advocates from across the political field have claimed Christ for their side: Communists, Socialists, Liberals, Conservatives, Monarchists. They all can find something in Christ's life or his words to support their political vision. It isn't surprising, of course, since every doctrine, no matter how absurd, has
How to Think about the Cell Phone
Weapon of Self-Destruction or Tool of Self-Improvement:
The cell phone. Is it a great thing? A useful thing? An annoying thing? An addicting thing?
A ton of writers have condemned the cell phone on all sorts of grounds. They’re tired of rude talkers who use it in restaurants, parks,
The Nothing Desire
“The poor monk is lord of world.” St. John Climacus
Bruno was a rising star of eleventh-century European culture. A master of the cathedral school (the precursor to the university) of Rheims, he taught grammar, poetry, philosophy and theology. He became head of Rheims by age thirty. The most promising
On words and the Word
Paul Kingsnorth at The Abbey of Misrule
Voodoo and Zombies and the Absurdization of All Religions
Well, far out. Voodoo is back.
Actually, it never left.
Voodoo was originally a pagan African religion that got mixed with Catholicism in Haiti during Spanish and French colonial rule.
Since then, it has always been a religious force on the island and in 2003, it became an officially-recognized Haitian
18 Things You Can Learn from A Monk of the Eastern Church
Mystical. Passionate. Spiritual. Cranky. Monastic. Urban. Greek Orthodox. Catholic. French. English.
Anonymous. . .
. . . Lev (Leo) Gillet.
All of those words describe an unusual man who would become known to readers as “A Monk of the Eastern Church.”
He was born in France in 1893. Shortly before World War I, he became
"On the Heart," by The Pseudo-Macarius
Every sin gushes from a complex soul. The Pseudo-Macarius, a master of intimate theology, described the heart (a term nearly synonymous with soul) as follows:
"The heart itself is but a small vessel, yet dragons are there, and there are also lions; there are poisonous beasts and all the