Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Baptismal Vow: "Respecting the dignity of every human being.” Kenneth Tanner

Basílica de la Sagrada Família

The Christian’s path in a social media-driven culture is precarious. Contemporary American discourse finds its engine in Facebook and Twitter, and this engine—as fallen humans engage with it—is indifferent to human dignity.

My baptismal vows include “respecting the dignity of every human being.” How does a Christian respect the dignity of Rosanne Barr in a moment like this?

One way is to make clear my opposition to every racist syllable of her tweet storm and stand with anyone harmed by her speech ... and that harm goes well beyond Valerie Jarrett.

White America has not begun to wake up from collective amnesia about our racist past nor our collective denial about our racist present. We do so when we empathize with the victims of racism and by the power of the Spirit, act and speak in ways that exemplify the Cruciform Love into which we are baptized.

Racism is darkness. It has NO future because darkness cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven that is coming to this world. And all who harbor racism will lose that part of themselves in the fire that is coming against all that does not participate in Love.

The harder thing to do is to love Rosanne as you love yourself, to love Rosanne as Christ loves you. This is a command. Christ enables us to keep it.

This love requires empathy with Rosanne in this moment of cultural crucifixion. I am not better than Rosanne. No one is better than Rosanne. Christ alone is good.

The Christian sets a watch over her heart and mind, over his words and actions, so that Cruciform Love is made visible, not only toward victims but toward those who victimize.

If we are not to devour ourselves by yielding to hate, Christians must yield to the Spirit that loves and seeks to loose the chains of the one who is hated and the one who hates.

This requires submission to an imagination greater than fallen human reason and emotion. It requires silence and contemplation. It requires humility.

I’m saddened by what Rosanne said, and some have the right to be angry and hurt, but I am a lot more concerned about the collective state of the American Christian heart and mind because we Christians do not look like salt and light in this moment. We look like everyone else. And the world is suffering because Christ’s body is not present as the leaven that cleanses and heals and sets free and reconciles.

Obadiah - Ron Dart

I have, over the last few decades, been taken and held by the fine life and writings of Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day and Dan Berrigan. I have a lengthy correspondence with Dan’s brother, Phil Berrigan. I have pondered, for decades, the points of similarity yet also difference between Merton, Day and Berrigan. Jim Forest (a friend) and closer friend with Merton, Day and Berrigan (having written biographies of all three) has gone further than most on telling their pilgrimages and highlighting their trail intersections.

Jim’s recent biography of Dan Berrigan, At Play in the Lion’s Den: A Biography and Memoir of Daniel Berrigan (2017) is a tome worth the reading and doing so many times. I was taken, though, by the fact that, for about 20 years (1990-2010) Dan wrote a variety of poetic exegetical books on the Hebrew prophets (minor and major) in the Hebrew Canon or Old Testament. Many who are keen on heeding prophetic literature (and its relevance for our time) often turn to the more academic genre of Walter Wink or Walter Brueggemann. But, Dan Berrigan has potency in his reading and application of the Hebrew prophets that goes beyond Wink and Brueggemann. And, to answer an earlier question, Dan Berrigan wrote much more, in an explicit way, on the Jewish prophetic and historical books than did Thomas Merton or Dorothy Day—this is one area in which they had different commitments.

I have been slowly working through Berrigan’s Minor Prophets, Major Themes (1995) the last few weeks. Berrigan illuminates the writings and insights of the 12 Minor Prophets in varied depth and detail, lingering longer with some, shorter with others. The reading, interpretation and political application of the prophets cannot be missed. There is no doubt that Minor Prophets, Major Themes is a must read for a mature understanding of the prophets from an ethical, historical and political perspective. Obadiah is the shortest of the minor prophetic books but the themes cannot be missed----Edom-Esau is a ruthless and violent nation, injustice rules the realm and God’s people have often been the victims of such cruelty (the tale continues today, the Holocaust the fuller version). But God will rise up, like a warrior, and defend his nation and people, Edom-Esau will be conquered and defeated in a not to be forgotten way: eye for eye, tooth for tooth, pound of flesh for pound of flesh. Obadiah is, in many ways, a forerunner of what we today would call Christian Zionism and a sort of right-wing just war theory. And, God is used by Obadiah to justify such a position. How did Dan Berrigan interact with such a prophet?

Needless to say, Berrigan is ill at ease with Obadiah’s warlike and hawkish tendencies. How does such a position square with the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes? Has Obadiah truly heard and interpreted God aright? Or, like Jonah, does he see the Jewish god as a tribal god who exists for the Jews and to punish those who dare oppose the Jews? Jonah experienced a temporary and transient conversion of sorts but, by book’s end, he has slipped into a pout and pity me party.

There is more to Jonah than Obadiah, but Berrigan’s final paragraph on this thin and single page book is worth the pondering.

     Obadiah, like most of us, is in great need of Bible study.

     He has God all wrong, a God cut to his own cloth, his proclivity to ire,

 his lacerating need of a vindication that borders on vengeance.

     And then his strength.  He knows the principality of empire, and its

 hardly fetching ways, so accurately, so truthfully!

     Shall we say of him—part prophet, part darkness?

Dan Berrigan could be seen as a 20^thcentury Christian prophet. Obadiah is viewed as a minor Jewish prophet. Berrigan has dared to question both text and prophet from a higher ethic, an ethic that transcends ethnicity, nation and land, an ethic that is not about war and violence, vindictiveness and vengeance. Whom shall we hear and why? There are those who heed and follow both trails and tendencies—such pathways do lead to different destinations—one to the God of Jesus Christ (this being Trinity Sunday), the other to a Molech of sorts.

Amor Vincit Omnia

Ron Dart              

The Perisson Podcast: Andrew Klager and Jarrod McKenna interview Brian Zahnd

Andrew Klager and Jarrod Saul McKenna's interview of Brian Zahnd is now up and running on iTunes HERE. 

For those not on iTunes: CLICK HERE

#ThePerissonPodcast

The Perisson Podcast webpage: www.irpj.org/podcast

“In the kingdom of Christ, it’s not obtaining Caesar’s sword in order to do what we think is good with it. It’s a complete renunciation of it.” —Brian Zahnd

Episode 1: In our first episode, we're joined by Brian Zahnd to discuss his pilgrimage into a life that embraces nonviolence and love of enemies. And we look at the dynamic of inner and outer peace, or how the contemplative life and inner transformation informs our peacemaking actions and the way that we work for justice.

Recorded 8 May 2018

Sola Gratia: Which of His children does 'Our Father' abandon? - Brad Jersak

In April 2018, Pope Francis met with children from the parish of St. Paul of the Cross in Corviale, Italy.¹ During a Q & A time, a little boy named Emanuele approached the microphone but became emotional and was unable to ask his question.   

“Come, come, come," said the pope.

"I can't do it," replied the child.

"Come to me, Emanuele and whisper in my ear,” Francis said.

“Is Dad in heaven?’” the boy asked the pope. He replied:

Poppies Bloom at the Judgement Seat - Jessica Williams

Poppies Bloom at the Judgement Seat

Have you ever had a moment that felt so sacred you were afraid to write about it?

This has happened to me a few times and I know it’s a gift. Sometimes I feel like I don’t want to cheapen these holy encounters with words, I feel protective of them, of myself, really – and I think that’s okay. But something happened in my spirit in Corinth and the only way to share it is through stumbling over my words here. So I’ve sat myself down to write – finally.

 

It started on the bus.

On the bus ride out to Corinth our guide (a.k.a. historical genius/major/extraordinaire) spoke of the historic town toward which we travelled. He had a way of bringing these ancient places to life and our group was quite fond of him already.

Today, he spoke of Corinth. He did bring it to life – but, honestly, some of his interpretations landed harshly on my heart. The narrative being used was so familiar to me. The subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways that women were shamed (and continue to be) became apparent. The (misuse) of verses to condemn LGBTQ+ people were pulled to the surface and before I knew it my heart was racing as I tried to control my anxiousness, breathing deep, attempting to self-soothe my tired heart.

Because, really, I’m tired of this.*

 

Julian of Norwich of Norwich: A Theology of Hope -- Melanie Pointon

In 1373 a young woman lies on her bed of sickness receiving her last rites; a crucifix is set before her that she might take comfort therein. Nonetheless, she does not depart from this world and instead, with her eyes turned towards the cross, she embarks on a ‘revelation of love – in sixteen showings.’¹ The woman is known as Julian of Norwich, the name she took on when she went into her anchor hold. What we know of her comes entirely from her book The Revelations of Divine Love, in which she penned her visions, firstly in what is known as the ‘short text’ and then, after twenty to thirty years of contemplation, the ‘long text’ is produced, ‘filled with rich interpretations of what her showings meant.’²   

The fourteenth century was a time of hardship, disease, disillusionment and corrupt power. Julian’s theology of hope went against all that was true of the world around her. Through the years of contemplation of the sixteen showings, she comes to the revelation that there is hope for everyone in every kind of sin. It is not a diminishing of sin and its consequences, but a realisation of the bigness of her God and the greatness of his work on the cross; the power of the blood that was able to reach even into hell.

In this article, I will argue that Julian of Norwich was able to form a theology of hope that was counter to her circumstances. Through these showings she receives revelations of God’s love for her and all humanity; the smallness of creation and the vastness of the Creator, and the complete work of the cross in regards to sin and salvation, all of which radically inform and, at times, transform her theology into one of eternal hope.

Download Julian of Norwich of Norwich – A Theology of Hope

[1]Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love, 2.

[2]Maureen Walsh, “Re-imagining Redemption: Universal Salvation in the Theology of Julian of Norwich,” Horizons39 (2012): 189-207, p. 189.

Abp. Lazar Puhalo w/ Ron Dart in Conversation —Theological, Pastoral, Prophetic & Political

See Table of Contents below for topics and time discussed.

I. Theology (O:01)

• Bulgakov (St. Sergius in Paris, the Sophianists) vs Florovsky (St. Vlads in NA, the Patristic Revival)
• 5:00  Patristic Revival of Liturgy contra the Scholastics, reviving liturgy as a work of the people
• 6:45 Acquaintance with / mentoring under Romanides
• 7:45 Dostoevsky - co-suffering love for the healing of another soul
• 8:15 Metropolitan Khrapovitsky contra Original Sin
• 9:15 Romanides' (and Puhalo's) critique of Augustine
• 10:20  Schmemann (in mold of Florovksy)
• 11:40 Romanides on Ancestral Sin
• 12:15 Khrapivitzky on the Moral Idea of the Dogmas of the Faith contra Kant

II. Faith and Science (12:40)  

• 12:40 Scientific reality/facts and theological truth are not opposed
• 14:45 The moral meaning of Genesis & origins of Judaism in Babylon
• 16:45 Fundamentalist ideology (not faith) vs science
• 18:55 The fall narrative as the birth of ego

III. Pastoral and Theological Collision with the Toll-Houses (20:20)

• 20:45 St. Justin Popović on the Toll-houses
• 21:20 Pastoral backstory: Seraphim Rose' journal series & Williamsville, NY (aftermath of 14-year-old's death)
• 23:00 Encouragement of Holy Transfiguration Monastery (Boston) / proofing by Monastery of Holy Archangels
• 25:15 Orthodox doctrine of the afterlife - St. Mark of Ephesus at Council of Florence refutes Catholic purgatory

IV. Pastoral Response to Transgenderism: Science & Suicide (27:30)

V. Response to Evangelical/Orthodox Trumpism (35:30)

• 35:30 Republicanism from Nixon to Trump 
• 40:50 Trump Republicanism's moral failure
• 41:50 Jerusalem and the deadly Christian mythologies of Israel

Simone Weil on Affliction and the Cross in Awaiting God - Ellie Payne

Photo at Weil's grave by David Watson

Introduction

Suffering is the experience in one’s deepest being of the evil that is everywhere in the world.[1] According to Simone Weil, in the realm of suffering, affliction is set apart as something that grips the soul and marks it to the depths. In her opinion, affliction is inseparable from physical suffering and yet also quite distinct.[2] She describes it as an, ‘uprooting of life, a more or less protracted equivalent to death’. True affliction occurs when an event grasps a life and attacks it directly or indirectly in all its factors; social, psychological and physical.[3]

Simone Weil was a French philosopher who, although she refused to be baptized,  had deep religious insights and a faith which embraced most fundamental Christian beliefs. From an early age, Simone had a strong sense of justice, self-sacrifice and absolute compassion and empathy for those suffering. This manifested itself in extreme generosity and the refusal of any of life’s comforts, she would even send her own meager rations to soldiers in the trenches.[4]She was a very intelligent woman and towards the end of her life she produced some of her finest writings, including ‘Awaiting God’. It is in this book that Simone outlines her belief that, ‘divine love is the perfect model of justice’, and that this divine love can only be understood through attention, affliction, and consent to the absence of God.[5]In this essay I will begin by exploring further Simone’s understanding of this ‘divine love’ and how affliction makes the soul ready to receive it. Exploring her work will take us to her theology of the cross and the suffering of Jesus, where, Simone says, is exactly where those struck by affliction meet God. Throughout the essay, I will access the way in which charismatic theology today views suffering and how Simone’s insights might help us as the Church to support those who are afflicted.

Download Simone Weil on Affliction and the Cross

[1]Margaret A. Agnew, “Suffering,” The Furrow29 (1978)p. 19.

[2] Simone Weil, Awaiting God (Paris: Attente de Dieu, 1951)p. 31.

[3]Weil, Awaiting God p. 32.

[4]Ashlee Cunsolo Willox, “The Cross, the Flesh, and the Absent God: Finding Justice through Love and Affliction in Simone Weil's Writings,” The Journal of Religion 88 (2008)p. 56.

[5]Willox, “The Cross, the Flesh, and the Absent God” The Journal of Religion p. 54.

 

The Use of Scripture and Imagination in the Ignatian Exercises -- Phil Le Cheminant

 

In this article, I will describe and analyze the use of Scripture and imagination in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, paying attention to the role, benefits, dangers and safeguards regarding the use of imagination in prayer. Then I will comment upon the impact of Ignatian exercises as a component of spiritual formation.

Briefly, I will explore the role of pilgrimage in Ignatius’s life. Ignatius refers to himself as “the pilgrim” throughout his autobiography.[1]Ignatius made a physical pilgrimage to Jerusalem which was cut short, and years later, commenced a second trip with a group of fellow pilgrims. John Olin elaborates,

They awaited a ship to the East, but none sailed…Late that year they set out for Rome and …put themselves at the disposition of Pope Paul III. The pope, it appears, urged them to give up any thought of a Jerusalem apostolate and remain in Italy serving the church there.[2]

While Ignatius and his friends never made it to the Holy Land, reportedly Pope Paul III told them, “Italy is a good and true Jerusalem.”[3]Rome, then, became the substitute destination of Ignatius’s pilgrimage, where he established the Society of Jesus.

In Ignatius’s Exercises, the Spiritual Director encourages the participant to behold, with the mind’s eye, the object of contemplation. Ignatius writes, “the composition will be to see with the sight of the imagination the corporeal place where the thing is found which I want to contemplate.”[4]I propose that these contemplations are a form of mental pilgrimage.

Download "The Use of Scripture and Imagination in the Ignatian Exercises" 

[1]John C. Olin, ed., The Autobiography of St. Ignatius Loyola, trans. Joseph F. O’Callaghan (New York, 1974), cited by John C. Olin, “The Idea of Pilgrimage in the Experience of Ignatius Loyola,” Church History48 (1979): 387–397, 387.

[2]Olin, “Pilgrimage,” Church History 392.

[3]Javier Osuna, S. J., Friends in the Lord, trans. Nicholas King, S. J. (London, 1974), cited by Olin, “Pilgrimage,” Church History 392.

[4]Elder Mullan, The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola (Pickerington, OH: Beloved Publishing, 2015), 18.

Download "The Use of Scripture and Imagination in the Ignatian Exercises"

Gregory of Nyssa on Ascent through the Psalter - excerpt from Ronald Heine

Gregory of Nyssa reads the Psalms soteriologically.

Abridged excerpt from Ronald E. Heine, Gregory of Nyssa’s Treatise on the Inscriptions of the Psalms (Oxford, 1995), 43. [note: emphases and brackets mine]

For Gregory of Nyssa, the skopoV[aim] of the Psalter is to lead one to the attainment of blessedness[beatitude], and the latter is further defined as ‘likeness to God.’ What Gregory means when he defines ‘human blessedness’ as ‘like to God’ is the attainment of salvation, which he also calls ‘true being’ or ‘true humanity.’ True humanity bears ‘the imprint imposed on our nature from the beginning.’ Gregory [following the Psalter] contrasts those who are ‘fleshly, earthly and irrational’ with those ‘who are being saved and have an impress of human nature in themselves. Now likeness to the divine is the distinguishing impress of humanity.’ Salvation understood in this way is the goal to which ascent through the five stages of the Psalter leads.

Gregory takes the Psalter as descriptive of the way of salvation for all humanity, for he anticipates the possibility, at least, of ‘the complete return of humanity to the Good. The final division of the Psalter, which represents for Gregory ‘the mountain peak’ of the stages discussed in the Psalter, has for its subject ‘the complete consummation and recapitulation of human salvation. The final achievement of blessedness will occur in the eschatological unity of all creation in praising God when all evil has perished.

From Brad Jersak: 

This passage clarifies how Gregory conceived “ascent” in his Life of Moses and in the ladder of the Beatitudes. The ladder analogy (cf. also John Climacus) often triggers Protestant sensibilities regarding grace alone, concerned as they are that human participation in a soteriological ascent compromises the gospel with works righteousness. But a millennium prior to these worries, the synergism of the Eastern Fathers is perfectly in sync with James (2:22), who says, “You see that [Abraham’s] faith was working together with his works and his faith was perfected by works. [βλέπεις ὅτι ἡ πίστις συνήργει τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἔργωνἡ πίστις ἐτελειώθη].

The Gospel: Not Only Words, but Life & Actions - Abp. Lazar Puhalo

Words are only a part of the Gospel.

The life and actions, and the way Christ treated the outcast and "sinner" is the greater part of the Gospel.

It seems that far too many people see a set of laws and rules in the Gospel, and do not see the light and life in which often, social conventions and rules are simply overturned. Not only is the Parable of the Prodigal at the heart of the Gospel, but something too often overlooked: Under the law, a leper is not only nb outcast who cannot enter the temple precinct, but it is forbidden even to touch a leper.

Christ, however, heals the leper precisely by touching him. Touching the leper is as much a part of the Gospel and any word recorded in it. Indeed, the Gospel of our salvation consists far more in what Christ did than in what He said. The healing of the fallen human nature by taking it upon Himself; calling us out of our alienation by His Incarnation and fellowship with us, delivering us from the bondage to the fear of death; embracing sinners, touching lepers, conversing with a Samaritan woman and making here an Apostle; healing the child of a Canaanite "sinner."

And why did Christ make a habit of eating and drinking with sinners and publicans except to demonstrate to them that He does not leave them in their alienation, but rather, God has come down to them, to find these lost sheep and heal their alienation. Since they could not make it back to God on their own, He comes and takes them by their spiritual hands and leads them out of their alienation: all this is the Gospel. And our salvation appears to rest on our understanding that Matthew 25 is a keystone in that Gospel by demonstrating to us by what means we may know that we have assimilated His Gospel and are ourselves no longer in alienation from God.

(Vladika Lazar)

Christ’s Sonship at the Test for the Salvation of Mankind (Luke 4:1-13) - Nico Deschner

INTRODUCTION

Every great composition of music uses a leitmotif consisting of a short melody or simple rhythm. A leitmotif (i.) binds a work into a coherent whole, (ii.) enables the composer to convey an overarching theme and (iii.) empowers the listener to understand and identify with a specific interpretation within a story. A close study of the temptation of Jesus in Luke 4:1-13, manifests such a leitmotif– a well-known theme that has significance and great implications for a believer’s discipleship today: Christ’s sonship in solidarity with humanity. The devil’s assault on humankind’s identity and mission started at the Garden of Eden, continued by testing the people of God in the wilderness, and in Luke’s account, is issued afresh against the Word made flesh, the Son of God who comes to redeem humanity.

In this paper, I will argue that Luke intentionally develops the leitmotif of “sonship”[1]as it relates to Christ’s solidarity with humanity in His (and our) relationship to God the Father. Luke uncovers the enemy’s purpose: to tempt Christ (as Adam was tempted) to attain by autonomy what is already His through submission, with the goal of bringing division between the Father and Son. Luke’s "sonship" leitmotif emphasizes how, as the second Adam and true Israel, Christ overcame the devil's challenges by submitting to His Father in contrast to the failure of Adam and the people of Israel in the wilderness. First, I will look at the context in which Luke places this passage and work out how “sonship” is the motif leading towards the temptations. Secondly, I will develop the significance of Christ’s solidarity with humanity through the connection to Adam and the people of God in the wilderness. My last argument will highlight the temptations themselves as a challenge of Christ’s relationship to the Father by promoting autonomy rather than submission.

Click HERE to download full text of Deschner's "Temptations of Jesus"

Nico Deschner is Lead Pastor of Via Apostolica in Regina, SK.

Footnotes

[1]“Sonship” in this paper primarily focuses on the relationship between God the Father and God the Son.

David Goa - Genesis 3 - A myth / narrative of how death comes to be.

In this talk, David Goa also refers to the reflections of St. Francis on the "Our Father," and mentions a church column that features both an image of Judas hanging himself and also an image of Christ as Shepherd bearing Judas on his shoulders. The following is that image (at the Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene in Vézelay):

Review of James Karman's "Robinson Jeffers: Poet and Prophet" - by Ron Dart

 

Jeffers room at Deetjen’s Inn in Big Sur

Review of James Karman, Robinson Jeffers: Poet and Prophet (Stanford University Press, 2015).

Lee Masters, Frost and Robinson Jeffers all really have something to say and some real art. – C.S. Lewis, Letter to Bede Griffiths (April 22, 1954)

Robinson Jeffers is, probably, one of the finest poets of the tragic in the American literary canon. My wife (Karin) and I make an annual pilgrimage (usually in April) to the Big Sur area in California when the high ridge and low land flowers are in abundant display and profuse colour. We walk the ridge of Santa Lucia Mountain with the ocean thousands of feet below us, nighttime replete with many lanterns in the sky. It was in Carmel by the Sea (Northern Big Sur) where Robinson and Una Jeffers lived much of their lives. Tor House and Hawk Tower (where the Jeffers’ lived) are sights worth the seeing, perched as they once were on a rock protrusion facing into the varied seasons and temperament of Nature and the foaming ocean waves. Needless to say, Jeffers was no naïve Nature romantic—he was, in fact, a poetic realist about Nature, Humanity, Civilization and Culture.

The publication by one of the finest Jeffers scholars, James Karman, Robinson Jeffers: Poet and Prophet, does Jeffers proud. The biography of sorts tracks Jeffers’ literary and personal life in a chronological way, noting both the waxing and waning of Jeffers and his perennial poetic message (certainly not for the sentimental or faint of heart). Each of the four major sections probes well and wisely into Robinson and Una’s layered journey: 1) Wild Honey: 1887-1915), 2) Tides of Fire: 1915-1930, 3) The Whirlwind’s Heart: 1930-1945, and 4) Eagle and Hawk: 1945-1962. Jeffers had an uncanny way of cutting to the core and centre of the human heart, culture and empires—he saw the rise and fall (like ocean waves) of civilizations and the sheer indifference of Nature to Humanity. This led Jeffers to the notion of “Inhumanism”, that is, a position in which Nature has the final Say. Humanity might build, create, extol and spread the artifacts of the human will and making, but when Nature decides enough is enough, Humpty Dumpty will come tumbling down.

The tough, relentless and rigorous questions that Jeffers raises about theology, the church and God must be faced and pondered with all honesty. The fact that Jeffers heeded well the Greek tragic tradition tends to be rare for Americans who tend to either fawn before the assured results of the American empire or some form of progressivism—Jeffers lingered with the tragic and would not leave such a place. How then can the tragic and hope dwell in the human heart, mind and imagination without one silencing the other? Such was the transparent honesty of Jeffers that he dwelt with these hard and not to be denied questions, tensions and issues.

Karman, to his judicious and faithful decades-long Jeffers research and writing, has offered the reader a superb primer into the life and writing of Jeffers (a must read for those who see the all too human journey in all its layered complexity). Robinson Jeffers: Poet and Prophet has an uncanny way of articulating what it means to be both a fine and mature poet and, also, hints and tendencies towards the prophetic—most rare indeed. It is significant that C.S. Lewis had such a respect for Jeffers.

Ron Dart