Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

New Release: Philemon of Gaza Meditates Luke's Gospel

New Release: Philemon of Gaza Meditates Luke's Gospel 

"Turning the the other cheek is not enough: Luke 6:27-38"

The People's Seminary is delighted to announce the publication of the first English translation of 6th Century Philemon of Gaza's mediation on Luke's Gospel. Check out his inspiring reflection on Luke 6:27-38 below.

“To whoever slaps you on one cheek offer him the other.”

When we have received a slap, the first reaction that comes to us is most often to respond, slap for slap, we might say. The action of anger is rapid, so rapid in fact that it is, so to speak, instinctive. Also, what the Lord commands us regarding the slap becomes very difficult because we are to turn the other cheek before even responding to our aggressor. 

There are commandments that we can obey after careful consideration, but this is not the case with this one. We are to turn our cheek spontaneously, without even taking time to think. We barely have time to pray before turning the other cheek, and if we pray, then our prayer must be very brief, spontaneous, instinctive and precede any reflection.

Such rapid and instinctive obedience is not possible without long prior work on our part, without long practice of prayer, without long practice of obedience to the Lord, without such practice that our obedience has become our new nature. Then we can turn the other cheek without anger, without responding slap for slap. Anger is a fire that lights up very quickly; it is like a beast with rapid reflexes. Not responding to a slap requires having tamed anger and being its master. What is then necessary for us is self-control; it is also to have replaced anger with gentleness.

O my soul, you know that meekness and self-control are fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:23). The long preliminary work that we must do in order not to retaliate against a slap is therefore only possible with the help of the Lord and the precious gift of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. You also know that this help is granted to us in response to a long practice of prayer and unfailing obedience to the commandments of the Lord; thus, our obedience to the command on slapping will be spontaneous. 

Only the humble know how to obey in this way, those whose humility has been granted by the Lord along with meekness and self-control. I now understand the apophthegm where we are told that a hermit turned the other cheek and thus chased away an evil spirit, he lived so much in this perfect humility received from the Lord. 

However, after turning the other cheek, we may still not at peace, nor in love towards our aggressor, nor ready to forgive him. Why is that? 

Turning your cheek is not enough! O my soul, I give thanks for the enlightenment given by the Lord to Abba Joseph who explains to us that this absence of peace comes from the fact that our pride has also been slapped. Indeed, not only has our cheek received a slap, but our pride has received one too. So if the fire of our anger was extinguished when we turned our cheek, another fire remains in us, the fire of resentment, a fire maintained by our pride which refuses to forgive and love our aggressor. While anger reacts and retaliates quickly, without even thinking, resentment takes time to reflect and nurture revenge before responding to the aggression. 

This is why, Abba Joseph tells us, we must truly obey the Lord and turn the other cheek, not the left cheek when the right has been struck, but the other right cheek, the inner cheek of our pride. 

This in truth is the deep meaning of the commandment given to us by the Lord. How marvelous! The long work that it is good for us before being attacked is the work of humility which alone chases away pride and resentment and then allows us to forgive our aggressor and to truly love. This humility that is victorious over pride is that which only the Lord can give us, the divine humility which he grants to those who have already walked a long way down the path of human humility. It is this humility received from the Lord which allows us to obey spontaneously, this famous humility which allowed Mark, the disciple of Abba Silvanus, to interrupt the writing of his omega. It is the very humility of Jesus who was slapped several times without ever responding with a slap (Mt 26:7; Mk 14:65; Jn 18:22; 19:3). 

We are never told that he turned the other cheek, because in truth, it was the invisible inner cheek that he turned; this reaction escaped the eyes of men, but not the eyes of the Evil One who was immediately repelled and chased away. The Lord, meek and humble of heart (Mt 11:29), is the only one who can enable us to respond with meekness and humility to an aggressor. He only grants this gift to those who open themselves to it through long interior work in synergy with him. Then we are given to turn our inner cheek with true love to our enemy.

Order your copy of Philemon of Gaza Meditates Luke's Gospel here.

Philemon of Gaza Meditates Mark's Gospel, is now available as an Audiobook here, as is Daniel Bourguet's The Humble Divinity of Jesus in Mark's Gospel, Volume 1 and Volume 2 paperback, e-book and Audiobook versions.

Joonas Sildre's "Between Two Sounds" - Review by Bradley Jersak

Joonas Sildre’s Between Two Sounds: Arvo Pärt’s Journey to his Musical Language (trans. Adam Cullen (Plough Publishing, 2024).

I confess that I had not recalled previously hearing of Arvo Pärt, the subversive Estonian musician and Soviet exile, nor of ‘tintinnabuli,’ the distinctive musical technique he created. It’s unlikely I would have happened upon him were it not for my friends at Plough Publishing, who graciously sent me a beautiful copy of a graphic novel about his work. That led me to a deep dive of reading the book, listening to hours of Pärt’s compositions, digging into his history as a dissident, and studying his technique. What tied it all together for me was his faith and the remarkable story told so creatively by Sildre and his graphics.

Please purchase your copy >> HERE. 

What worked for me so well: first, the 220+ page biography moves quickly because the various sized panels don’t bog down the reader with excessive text. The narrative flows smoothly through the well-written dialogue and clean artwork. The black, white, and greyscale was appropriate to the era and Joonas Sildre is a master of drawing music.    

The story itself caught my attention because of my own heritage—a family of faith that knew the communist era persecutions of Czechoslovakia and their musical resistance to the hammer and sickle with bow strings and brass. It was beautiful to hear how Pärt could proclaim the ancient themes of Emmanuel, the Nativity and the Passion in a new musical language.

When I first sampled Arvo Pärt’s tintinnabuli works, it sounded like a brooding form of classical songwriting. But there’s more to it than that. On one hand, it derives in part from early polyphony and Gregorian chant. On the other, tintinnabuli was truly invented by Pärt in 1976 (in a piano piece titled Für Alina. In a fascinating article, “Tintinnabuli – technique, style or ideology? Music In Movement,” it is defined as

… a distinct technique, which in essence unites two monodic lines of structure – melody and triad – into one, inseparable ensemble. It creates an original duality of voices, the course and inner logic of which are defined by strict, even complicated mathematical formulas…

Tintinnabuli music can also be described as a style in which the musical material is extremely concentrated, reduced only to the most important, where the simple rhythm and often gradually progressing melodies and triadic, so-called tintinnabuli voices are integrated into the complicated art of polyphony, expressing the composer’s special relationship to silence.

In addition, tintinnabuli is also an ideology, a very personal and deeply sensed attitude to life for the composer, based on Christian values, religious practice and a quest for truth, beauty and purity.

In Arvo Pärt’s own words,

I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear; this prism could be the spirit of the listener.

More technically, he adds,

“Tintinnabuli is the mathematically exact connection from one line to another…. the rule where the melody and the accompaniment is one. One and one, it is one – it is not two. This is the secret of this technique.”

For my own part, the graphic novel taught me how to listen (and ‘see’!) the importance and function of silence—both in the musical compositions and in the spirit/Spirit of faith-based resistance (external and internal). I’ll leave you with
a sampling here of Sildre’s art and then Pärt’s music below:

 

Review of Martens & Niskanen's "The Transcendental Mystery of God's Word" - by Ron Dart

John W. Martens and Paul V. Niskanen (eds.), The Transcendent Mystery of God’s Word: A Critical Synthesis of Antioch and Alexandria (Saint Paul Seminary Press, 2024).

There has been, in the history of Christian exegesis, at one level, a consistent yet unhelpful tension, simplification and polarization between the literal, grammatical, historic and linguistic approach to exegesis that Antioch (both as a place and metaphor for a type of exegesis) embodies and the more allegorical, tropological, anagogical and mystical exegetical approach of Alexandria (both as a site and icon) of an alternate approach to exegesis. Needless to say, such an either-or attitude should not dominate—in short, there is plenty of Alexandria in Antioch and Antioch in Alexandria.

I should note, before I comment on this fine book, that it was dedicated to Ben D. Meyer (1926-1995). When I was doing my PHD at McMaster University in the mid-1980s, I was Ben’s TA for a semester. I shall never forget the way he assigned, for a lower level class, Bernard Lonergan’s (1904-1984) Insight: A Study in Human Understanding---we who were his TAs had to interpret Lonergan to students who had not the slightest idea of what Lonergan was saying, doing and why, his opposition to “field specialization-subject specialization”, most young students not mature enough to comprehend. But, Ben’s thinking had been deeply impacted by Lonergan and Lonergan-Meyer were grappling, in a significant and nuanced way, with the challenges of the Enlightenment’s historic, empirical and rationalist approach (that was used by many in their approach to the Bible) and a more classical layered method (that was true to modern methods but also acutely alert to how such approaches both revealed and concealed the motherlode and mystery of the text).

The Transcendent Mystery of God’s Word brings together essays from a conference in June 2022, highlighting eight packed and challenging chapters that engage, in an updated way, layered ways of defining both Antioch and Alexandria and a lively and healthy dialogue between them. Specific texts are chosen from limited passages in the Bible that reflect both Antioch and Alexandria and massage the nature of both “letter” and “Spirit”. The varied approaches of Patristic exegesis and how Psalms can be interpreted and applied are wisely covered just as New Testament texts that reflect on the baptism of Jesus and “the Johannine Farewell Discourse”. Each of these chapters, when read slowly and thoughtfully, reread and sat with for days, walks the attentive reader into a way of reading the Bible in a way that asks of the reader a thoughtful and receptive mind and imagination. A rather dated and, perhaps, irrelevant notion of Antioch versus Alexandria or Alexandria versus Antioch vanishes in such a judicious approach and multiple probes. I have no doubt that Ben Meyer would be amply pleased with those who have been given the torch he once carried and carried it yet further.

The front cover of the book has splendid painting of St. Jerome as a portal of sorts into the sanctuary of insights. It might have been valuable, given the Antioch-Alexandria dialogue to have Origen gracing the cover also. 

Ben Meyer was at McMaster at the same time as the much respected Canadian political philosopher George Grant. Both Grant and Meyer would have agreed with Lonergan’s questioning of “field specialization-subject specialization”--all three would have been committed to multiple methods to approach the more comprehensive whole and mystery of the journey. The underlying vision of The Transcendent Mystery of God’s Word very much reflects such a notion of the deeper concerns and reasons for uniting, in an updated way, Antioch and Alexandria.     

The Bibliography in The Transcendent Mystery of God’s Word is an inviting library in itself and many of the books listed point in directions for those interested that bring to the fore the fuller landscape of the Antioch-Alexandria merging. If understood aright, these approaches can be friends on the journey rather than opponents. John Martens and Paul Niskanen should be offered many a kudo for this 10 bell book that one and all should read and inwardly digest for a mature understanding of Antioch-Alexandria and the transcendent mystery of God’s Word.

Amor Vincit Omnia

Ron Dart                

Review of Diane Kalen-Sukra's "Save Your City" by Ron Dart

Diane Kalen-Sukra, Save Your City: How toxic culture kills community & what to do about it (5^th Anniversary Edition: 2024).

Review by Ron Dart

Cultural, religious, educational, and political wars are not new to our all-too-human journey. Sadly, with the rise of instant media, “cancel culture,” “wokeism,” and simplistic ideological posturing, a rather crude notion of polarization has come to define trendy progressivism and reactionary conservatism. In the process, healthy civic virtues and civility in the midst of the fray have been mostly banished.

The evocative and compelling beauty of the 5^th edition of Save Your City is the way Diane Kalen-Sukra, drawing from the best and wisest of political thought and activism, overcomes the toxic culture that kills community and shows us what can be done about it. In short, this bounty of a missive reflects on our contemporary crises and what, practically, can be done to bring health and healing to local communities again. Needless to say, such insights can also be applied to higher levels of cultural and political life.

Save Your City is both a short yet large book, short in length but a library of information packed into it. The missive is divided into three parts with an “Appendix” worth sitting with for many a lingering moment:

Part 1: “Welcome to Bullyville,” rightly so, walks the curious and attentive reader through the “City Gates” and “Surviving Uncivil Society.”

Part 2: “Journey to Sustainable” points the way out of the malaise in a positive direction to “Sanctuary,” “Join the Renaissance,” and “One Ship, One Destiny.”

Part III: Sustainable Culture” ups the challenge to yet higher and more significant levels, “Global Call for Values Education” and “Love is the Greatest Civic Virtue.”

The timely and timeless Appendix holds the reader and offers a mature path to a “Roadmap To Renewing Civic Culture.”

Is Save Your City a naively optimist manifesto, as some hard realists and cynics might argue (the position of such skeptics leading to impotence and paralysis), or does this book provide a pathway and opening forward to engage the tough issues in a demanding yet thoughtful manner? Diane has been in the thick of the fray for many a decade; hence, Save Your City is acutely aware of the low culture that often dominates much public discourse—she is realistic enough to know if such toxicity continues, communities, in time, will be no more.

So, such a book is realism at its most focused and engaged. Save Your City, for those with a background in Classical education, draws from the lessons learned from such a heritage and the lessons learned both for good and ill of the wisest women and men of the past. History, in short, is replete with many tragic and sad tales, for those who ignore both Cassandra and Tiresias, and Diane knows of what she speaks because of where she sees from. We do well to heed her seeing and speaking, vision, and committed activism.

I would not hesitate, for a moment, to warmly and highly encourage one and all to purchase, inwardly digest, and be shaped and massaged in mind and imagination, soul and body by Save Your City—the future of meaningful civic virtues and public civility hinges on understanding what needs to be understood at a deeper level to overcome toxic culture at many insidious and acrid levels.

Ron Dart
Professor Emeritus
Department of Political Science
University of the Fraser Valley
Abbotsford BC                                                       

Peri Zahnd's Top 5 Books of 2023

My five favorite books of 2023, ranked chronologically as I read them: one fiction, two memoirs, one theology, and one historical fiction:

 

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, a 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner. It is as good as her classic from 25 years ago, The Poisonwood Bible. This is the story of the opioid addiction crisis in Appalachia, told as a modern-day David Copperfield.

 

All My Knotted Up Life by Beth Moore. This was my first Beth Moore book, and it was nothing like what I expected. This woman's life has not been a walk in the park, and the beautiful ending made me cry. Beth has lost a lot of fans in the last few years, but she's gained a new one in me.

 

Re-Enchanting the Text by Cheryl Bridges Johns. I'm also a fan of my friend Cheryl, the theologian and pastor. I knew I needed to read this book as soon as she announced she was writing it. The subtitle, "Discovering the Bible as Sacred, Dangerous, and Mysterious," is a great synopsis. I was reading last May outdoors, under my big sycamore tree, about the Jewish festival of Shavuot, which coincides with the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost and how it energizes and brings Scripture to life. Just then, my friend in Tel Aviv texted me to tell me they were celebrating that feast RIGHT NOW at the hotel she was in, a huge spread in the lobby with fruit and cheeses, pastries, champagne, and cocktails. It gave me goosebumps. Scripture did come to life! I plan to re-read this one soon.

 

In My Mother's Footsteps by Mona Hajjar Halaby. Anyone who knows me very well knows my passion for the Holy Land--Israel and Palestine. This is the story of a Palestinian American teacher who spent a year recently in Ramallah, in the West Bank, teaching in an elementary school. She also spent time in Jerusalem, looking for the lost home her mother had grown up in. It is even more poignant in light of what is happening there now. It made me long to visit Ramallah, too, a city I've never seen.

 

Stealing Heaven: The Love Story of Heloise and Abelard by Marion Meade. Heloise and Abelard are forever remembered in history for their ill-fated love affair, but they were both significant figures in the French medieval church and monastic world. Their story made this a page-turner, and the author also made the medieval world come alive.

 

After writing this list, I was surprised to note my top five were all women authors. This was non-intentional; I swear I read books by men sometimes, too! I will, therefore, include a book I am reading right now that would have made my list, except that I've not yet completed it--Malcolm Guite's Waiting on the Word: A Poem a Day for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. I get up every morning excited to read the next one. I read his book, David's Crown, last year--a sonnet for each of the one hundred fifty psalms. It was absolutely wonderful, and I will definitely repeat that experience, but he has others I've not yet read!

 

I've also got a book I've intentionally waited for months to read and will start it right after Christmas. Advent is for waiting! And if it's as good as I hope it will be, it might be on next year's list.

Analytical Review of Jim Forest's "Loving Our Enemies" & "Ladder of the Beatitudes" - Amy Armistad

Introduction

Jesus Christ reconciled everything to himself on the cross and invites us to partake in the Kingdom of God by participating in his work of reconciliation. The Sermon on the Mount is the Jesus Way to bring the Kingdom of God to earth; asking us to journey on our own Golgotha road, to our crucifixion and resurrection for personal transformation and the transformation of our communities and the world.

Individual Transformation

The Jesus Way reflects a cycle of crucifixion and resurrection, ensuring a pattern of life and growth, where we become new creations. We may not experience physical crucifixion on a cross for others’ sake as Jesus did, but He shows us in the Sermon on the Mount how we are to demonstrate that same love. It is a love that requires self-emptying but will result in our transformation.

The Sermon on the Mount, or the Jesus Way, starts with the Beatitudes, “Each of the eight describes aspects of being in the kingdom of God. They are like rungs on a ladder, which Christ has arranged in exact order.…Each step builds on the foundation of the previous step…” (Ladder, 2). We start with the first beatitude cultivating a poverty of spirit as we surrender our will to His. The Sermon on the Mount will reveal our selfishness, envy, fear, and pride as we move up the rungs on the ladder. However, rooting out these vices will put us on the road to recovery, allowing us to mourn for others, be generous, turn the other cheek, and lead a flourishing life. Fasting, prayer, and almsgiving aid this process and deepen our connection with God and those in need (Ladder,147, 127).

It may seem ironic that poverty of heart causes us to pour out to others, but it is the Beatitude blessings and infilling of Jesus’s love that transforms us.  Forest quotes Mother Maria, who worked on behalf of the Jewish people and gave her life for a Jewish prisoner in the gas chamber,

“There is one moment when you start burning with love, and you have the inner desire to throw yourself at the feet of some other human being. This one moment is enough.  Immediately you know that instead of losing your life, it is being given back to you twofold” (Ladder 72).

Like Jesus, who came as servant to all, we must spend our lives in service; living the Sermon on the Mount so that we can impact the community and the world.

A Transformed Community

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are in constant community as the Trinity, and they replicated this model at creation. The Sermon on the Mount is the Jesus Way to reestablish relationships and community. “Christ taught that human beings are God’s children and that to live in peace with each other as God’s children is to live in the kingdom of God” (Ladder, 130). Forest suggests examining the connections we have in our lives - our food comes from farmers, our clothes from factories on the other side of the globe, and so on – to realize the infinite connectedness of our lives, both to the past, present and future (Ladder 44-45).

If we followed Jesus’s program for social renewal, we could protect and restore our relationships. Jesus instructs us to make peace with others before taking the Eucharist rather than hold onto anger; to not commit adultery, even with our thoughts; to love and forgive our enemies; feed the hungry; give to the needy in secret; act generously; judge no one and practice the golden rule. Loving enemies in particular, demonstrates ‘taking up your cross’ as the human inclination to retaliate when attacked or persecuted is strong.  However, like Jesus on the cross, we must react with mercy and love. These actions will transform the world around us and bring the Kingdom of God on earth, as we ask to do in the Lord’s Prayer.

Forest provides several examples of Christians being salt and light by caring for the needy, extending mercy to enemies, forgiving others, and reacting with nonviolence in the face of death. Dorothy Day founded the CatholicWorker hospitality houses for the ‘down and out’ where “each person [was] received as Christ” (Loving, 83). Day lived the Sermon on the Mount in such an integrated way that “nothing one did was at odds with nurturing and saving lives” (Loving, 84).  Day died in 1980 and may be named a saint in the Catholic Church. Forest says,“Whether or not canonization ever occurs, countless people revere her memory and live more adventurous lives of faith because of the example she gave of overcoming enmity in a life of active love and hospitality” (Loving, 86).

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is known for his hunger and thirst for righteousness, manifest in his nonviolent and merciful approach toward his enemies.  After leading a year-long bus boycott resulting in integration, he said,

We will match your capacity to inflict suffering with our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. We will not hate you, but we cannot in good conscience obey your unjust laws… and in winning our freedom, we will win you in the process” (Loving, 114).

Dr. King’s legacy extends to this day and his approach is often emulated.

Father Elias Chacour revitalized a divisive community with forgiveness, starting with his own congregation. One Sunday, he locked the church doors imploring the congregation to forgive each other for long-held hurts, in part he said, “If you will not forgive, then we stay locked in here.  If you want, you can kill each other.  In that case I’ll provide your funerals gratis” (Loving, 80). Eventually, a policeman asked for his brothers’ forgiveness, and a tidal wave of forgiveness began, pouring into the streets and into the community such that people knocked on doors to reconcile with each other. The community is thriving to this day.

André and Magda Trocmé assisted Jews in fleeing the Nazis during World War II, acting in nonviolence, risking persecution and death. At one point, the police detained André and tried to force him to agree to obey the law, which he refused to do, saying, “These people came here for help and shelter. I am their shepherd. A shepherd does not forsake his flock.  I do not know what a Jew is. I know only human beings” (Loving, 68). The Trocmés saved countless lives and continued peace work until their passing.

Forest ends his book with a story of a violent escaped convict, Riley Arzeneaux, who entered an older couple’s house, Nathan and Louise Degrafinried, threatening them with a gun (Loving, 170-1). Louise told Riley to lay down his gun because she did not believe in violence, and the couple proceeded to feed and clothe him and share the love of Christ. When the police arrived, Louise also told them to lay down their guns, and they complied. After Riley’s return to prison, he and Louise kept in touch. Riley became a Christian in prison, and at Louise’s funeral, he shared, “Mrs. Degrafinried was real Christianity,” and he acted as a pallbearer carrying her coffin to her final resting place.

Each of these stories exemplifies people who lived the Sermon on the Mount for the benefit of others, bringing the Kingdom of God to earth and allowing the people they helped to experience the love of Christ.

Conclusion

So what happens if we do not follow the Jesus Way? If we live our lives only concerned with our salvation because the Sermon on the Mount is a difficult and unrealistic journey? After all, not all of us are priests like Father Elias, or have war at our doorstep like the Trocmés, or lead social change like Dr. King.

What happens is that we exclude ourselves from the transforming work of Christ and from bringing his kingdom on earth. Our lives will not produce the fruit that enables us to make a difference in others’ lives. Jesus ends the Sermon on Mount with,

All who listen to my instructions and follow them are wise, like a man who builds his house on solid rock. Though the rains come in torrents, and the floods rise, and storm winds beat against his house, it won’t collapse, for it is built on rock. But those who hear my instructions and ignore them are foolish, like a man who builds his house on sand. For when the rains and floods come, and storm winds beat against his house, it will fall with a mighty crash (Matthew 24-27).

As challenging as following the Jesus Way may be, it will set our lives on a firm foundation. It will transform us and enable us to live Christ-like lives in service to others for the transformation of our communities and the world.

Torbjorn Ekelund's "The Boy and the Mountain" - Review by Ron Dart

Torbjorn Ekelund, The Boy and the Mountain: A Father, His Son, and a Journey of Discovery (Greystone Books, 2023).

The Boy and the Mountain was originally published in Norwegian in 2017 and translated into English in 2023. Ekelund has, thus far, published two fine books that weave, thoughtfully and delicately together, the layered relationship between humans and nature: In Praise of Paths and A Year in the Woods. There is a meditative approach that shapes and defines Ekelund’s writing style, and such a tendency is front and center in The Boy and the Mountain.

There are a variety of suggestive layers at work in The Boy and the Mountain and the interweaving of such layers makes this missive inviting and evocative. There is the story of a young child (six years of age) who wandered from his mother in a backcountry and mountainous in southern Norway (near Kongsberg) in the Skrim area, lost his way, and was found dead---such was the fate of Hans Torske when he disappeared July 8 1894 and was found July 29 1895. It is this mysterious death of Hans that is constantly, like a stream, running through the mind of Ekeland as he takes to the same area with his son (August) for a father and son trek to, in principle, the summit of Styggemann mountain. But, what is the significance of mother and son taking to the backcountry, father in the city, Hans innocently leaving mother, then disappearing, lost in the woods, disoriented, many in the area searching for him, when found a year later dead? This is certainly a tale of poorly prepared trips and treks into nature, a child acting in a spontaneous and creative manner, nature quite indifferent to such a choice, no sense of how to orient or find his way back to his mother, then being lost and nature taking its inevitable toll—certainly no nature romanticism, those unprepared and unaware often victims of nature’s ways and means. So, the tale of Hans is the warning and backdrop to the hike of father and son.

Jan Zwicky's "Once upon a Time in the West" - Review by Ron Dart

Jan Zwicky, Once upon a Time in the West: Essays on the Politics of Thought and Imagination (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023).

I lived for a couple of years in the young 1970s in northern Norway and Switzerland. I spent time in Norway with the mountain Sami—this was a period when Arne Naess (Norwegian mountaineer, Spinoza scholar and founder of deep ecology with Delores LaChapelle) worked closely with the Sami to oppose the large dam projects. Naess lived in Austria from 1933-1935 and was involved, when there, with the Vienna Circle and Wittgenstein. When I was in Switzerland, I took in the Swiss mountaineering tradition and soaked myself in the writings of Renaissance scholar Jacob Burckhardt (complicated history with Nietzsche), Hesse and Heidegger. I have been fortunate to spent time at Heidegger’s Hut in southern Germany  (Todtnauberg) and Nietzsche’s home in Sils Maria. I mention this the simple reason that each of these thinkers were focused and preoccupied with the dilemma of the West and its seeming deterioration and decline, its lemming-like stampede to a cliff’s edge, its hyper and unanalyzed addiction to the vita activa and its opposition to the vita contemplativa—such are the legitimate and focused concerns of Jan Zwicky’s recent probes and beauty of a book, Once upon a Time in the West, “Once”, “Time” and West” the target, the suggestive and classical fairy tale sequence not to miss.    

Once upon a Time in the West is divided into 14 reflective and meditative chapters, the personal and philosophical woven together on a finely textured tapestry of thought and insight. The initial chapter, “Auden as Philosopher: How Poets Think” is the golden key that walks the attentive reader into this bounty of a book, two ways of seeing and the consequences for the West of taking one path or the other: “Auden’s Poetic Epistemology” versus “The Epistemology of Baconian Science.” Bacon was somewhat more sophisticated than his detractors make him out to be but the ‘novum organum,” when pushed too far, conceals much what Zwicky’s read of Auden-Coleridge unconceals—this is a chapter worthy of multiple slow reads.

Carl Truman: Sic et Non - Ron Dart

Carl R. Trueman, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution (Crossway, Wheaton: 2020).

Carl R. Trueman, Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution (Crossway, Wheaton: 2022).

Sic et Non (Yes and No)

Carl Trueman has emerged, in the last few years, as a rather popular thinker and commentator on our late modern and postmodern versions of the ideology of liberalism. A couple of his early books (The Creedal Imperative & Luther on the Christian Life: Cross and Freedom) kept him safely confined in a more insulated religious ethos, but with the publishing of the more demanding The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self (2020) and the more readable version of the larger tome, Strange New World (2022), Trueman has positioned himself well as an interpreter of our contemporary ills and the roots and genealogy of such a cultural disease. How should Trueman’s read of our present malaise be engaged, and how should his read of its origins be accepted or questioned?

The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self is divided into 5 Parts: 1) Architecture of the Revolution, 2) Foundations of the Revolution, 3) Sexualization of the Revolution, 4) Triumphs of the Revolution, and 5) Concluding Unscientific Prologue. Rod Dreher wrote the “Foreword,” and each Part has a handy “Epilogue”. There can be no doubt that the notion of the “self” (and its protean-like meanings and interpretations) has been a focus in the West for the past 500 years (not as Trueman seems to think since Rousseau and tribe forward). Trueman does draw from Taylor’s comprehensive Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (1989) in his approach to the topic, but Trueman lacks the comprehensive breadth and depth of Taylor. There is no doubting the fact, though, that there is, from a certain perspective, a definite and decided inward turn to the subject and inner self within the West as a part of the quest for meaning and the search for a meaningful identity—such is the journey of identity politics. Taylor recognizes in such a turn, there can be an indulgent and narcissistic view of the self, but there are, in such a turn, possibilities for a more authentic self to emerge—how is the difference to be discerned?

Review of Beckett and Ellsberg's "Dearest Sister Wendy" - by Ron Dart

Review of Sister Wendy Beckett and Robert Ellsberg, Dearest Sister Wendy: A Surprising Story of Faith and Friendship (Orbis Books, 2022). Review by Ron Dart.

I have, sitting on my desk before me, Sister Wendy Beckett’s classic visual and textual beauty and must-read of a tome, Sister Wendy’s 1000 Masterpieces (1999). Sister Wendy certainly established herself as one of the most significant art historians (both on BBC and in publishing) in the latter half of the 20^th century and into the early years of the 21^st century. Robert Ellsberg and Orbis Books have established a unique and needful place in the publishing world in the genre of prophetic theology. It is rare that a much-respected nun and art historian and writer engaged in the rigorous field of public theology would dialogue in a meaningful and intimate correspondence, but such is the evocative and compelling mother lode of Dearest Sister Wendy. 

Sister Wendy Beckett was in the late autumn season of her all too earthy journey when the intensive and extensive correspondence began with Robert Ellsberg, the most compact phase from 2016-2018, Sister Wendy crossed the river on December 26, 2018. There is a tender and sensitive combination of letters between Robert Ellsberg and Sister Wendy that, insightfully so, is divided into three historic sections: “The Art of Seeing,” “The Art of Loving” and “The Art of Letting Go”.

The general momentum of the letters has a certain direction, Sister Wendy encourages (she being a contemplative) Robert to slow down and ease up on all his frantic busyness, Robert kindly encourages Sister Wendy to be more honest, transparent, and confessional about herself and her life journey.

"BY WATER: The Felix Manz Story" - A Graphic Novel - Review by Bradley Jersak

"In a city astir with dangerous new ideas, the son of a Catholic priest becomes a leader of a nonviolent revolution." –back cover

Five hundred years ago, Europe was set ablaze by the violence and wars of the Catholic-Protestant schism, where priests and reformers alike aligned with the magisterial powers to attain political and religious dominance over the continent. Reformers such as Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli hived away from the authority of the spiritual corruption of the Pope and his armies, only to employ their own forms of violence and coercion to take control.  

While theological debates over grace vs. works offered a doctrinal smokescreen for church-state powerplays, one had to wonder where, if anywhere, the peaceable kingdom of Christ, described in the Sermon on the Mount, was to be found.  

Enter the "Radicals" (aka the Anabaptists), a third way that proclaimed the prophetic vision of peace, sharing, and freedom. They took the "Jesus Way" of nonviolent revolution of real discipleship as a life-and-death matter, and that great Anabaptist history, The Martyr's Mirror, describe the many thousands who perished by water, fire, or sword at the cruel hands of both Catholic and Reformed "Christian" inquisitors. The blood of these martyrs, who perished without retaliation, became the seed of great networks of communal enclaves and mass movements, many of which survive today (e.g., Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, and as though born out of time, the Bruderhof). Trying to snuff them out proved as useless as taking a hammer to mercury.

But how did it all begin? By Water: The Felix Manz Story is the gripping adventure of the first generation of Anabaptists and their first martyr, Felix Manz. This is the true story of a conflict between a young man and his own spiritual father, Ulrich Zwingli, wrestling with new ideas that finally cross into bold acts of faith and defiance... beginning with a baptismal pledge to follow Jesus, even unto death. Ultimately, Manz's mentor will ironically have him drowned, and church history will never be the same. As Christ said, in this order, "Blessed are the peacemakers, they will be called children of God," which then leads Manz and his company to be among those "Blessed ... who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of God... for so they treated the prophets who came before you."

I have found the current era of politicized religion, from Russia to America, so disheartening that one wonders where The New Radicals will arise with a revolution that doesn't involve the right to bear arms or the religious lust for state-sanctioned power. We desparately need to hear these inspiring stories of peaceable courage, histories that move us and call us to a real heart-change like what we see in Manz.

Plough Publishing, one of the great gifts of the Bruderhof Communities, has produced this stunning story in the form of a graphic art non-fiction, By Water, created by Jason Landsel, Sankha Banerjee, and Richard Mommsen. The script, the art, the colors, and layout represent Plough's typical over-the-top quality in 141 gorgeous pages. The price seems unreasonably low for its exquisite quality, but I'm not surprised given the Bruderhof's track record of high-end generosity. I like leaving my copy where guests will stumble on it and become hooked in short order, engrossed in the storyline, the visuals, and the conversation to follow. Even the most cynical will surely consider Manz's interpretation of Christian faith and its demands compelling.

P.S. This is first of three volumes. Next to come, By Fire.

With gratitude,

Bradley Jersak 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris Green's "BEING TRANSFIGURED: Lenten Homilies" narrated by Boyd Barrett

ORDER THE AUDIOBOOK HERE

David Bentley Hart via Kenneth Tanner

Courage shielded her brother until the rescuers arrived.

This is from David Hart’s moving argument for the gospel’s God, The Doors of the Sea (2005). Read it when you are ready for something beautiful to take hold of your heart forever.

“In the New York Times this morning...there appeared a report from Sri Lanka recounting, in part, the story of a large man of enormous physical strength who was unable to prevent four of his five children from perishing in the tsunami, and who—as he recited the names of his lost children to the reporter, in descending order of age, ending with the name of his four-year-old son—was utterly overwhelmed by his own weeping. Only a moral cretin at that moment would have attempted to soothe his anguish by assuring him that his children had died as a result of God’s eternal, inscrutable, and righteous counsels, and that in fact, their deaths had mysteriously served God’s purposes in history, and that all of this was completely necessary for God to accomplish his ultimate design in having created the world. Most of us would have the good sense to be ashamed to speak such words; we would recognize that they would offer no...credible comfort...

“And this should tell us something. For if we would think it shamefully foolish and cruel to say such things in the moment when another’s sorrow is most real and irresistibly painful, then we ought never to say them; because what would still our tongues would be the knowledge (which we would possess at the time, though we might forget it later) that such sentiments would amount not only to an indiscretion or words spoken out of season, but to a vile stupidity and a lie told principally for our own comfort, by which we would try to excuse ourselves for believing in an omnipotent and benevolent God. In the process, moreover, we would be attempting to deny that man a knowledge central to the gospel: the knowledge of the evil of death, its intrinsic falsity, its unjust dominion over the world, its ultimate nullity; the knowledge that God is not pleased or nourished by our deaths, that he is not the secret architect of evil, that he is the conqueror of hell, that he has condemned all these things by the power of the cross; the knowledge that God is life and light and infinite love...

“[W]e Christian are not obliged (and perhaps are not even allowed) to look upon the devastation of that day—to look upon the entire littoral rim of the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal and upper Indian Ocean strewn with tens of thousands of corpses, a third of them children—and to attempt to console ourselves or others with vacuous cant about the ultimate meaning or purpose residing in all that misery. Ours is, after all, a religion of salvation. Our faith is in a God who has come to rescue his creation from the absurdity of sin, the emptiness and waste of death, the forces—whether calculating malevolence or imbecile chance—that shatter living souls; and so we are permitted to hate these things with a perfect hatred. ...

“...the world remains divided between two kingdoms, where light and darkness, life and death grow up together and await the harvest. In such a world, our portion is charity, and our sustenance is faith, and so it will be until the end of days. As for comfort, when we seek it, I can imagine none greater than the happy knowledge that when I see the death of a child, I do not see the face of God but the face of his enemy... . [W]e are able to rejoice that...God will not unite all of history’s many strands in one great synthesis, but will judge much of history false and damnable; that he will not simply reveal the sublime logic of fallen nature, but will strike off the fetters in which creation languishes; and that, rather than showing us how the tears of a small girl suffering in the dark were necessary for the building of the Kingdom, he will instead raise her up and wipe away all tears from her eyes—and there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain, for the former things will have passed away, and he that sits upon the throne will say, ‘Behold, I make all things new.'"

Bradley Jersak's "Out of the Embers" - Review by Ron Dart

Bradley Jersak, Out of the Embers: Faith After The Great Deconstruction (Whitaker House, 2022)                       

Out of the Embers, like the perennial wise and far-seeing Phoenix, knows the meaning of going to places of death and disappointment, suffering and sadness, and yet, from such places, the resurrection and tears of the Phoenix, brings healing to all whose tears touch the skin of their souls. In short, from the embers and ashes of the great deconstruction, a wise, mature and resurrected life is born and offers tears and discerning insights to others.

Out of the Embers is divided into 3 sections, each section an invitation to journey into the next, deconstruction birthing reconstruction and renovation in the larger culture wars: Part I: Memoirs: Trauma, Purgation, and Liberation, Part II: Memos: Seven Sleepers of Deconstruction and Part III: Provocations: Out of the Embers –Faith after Freefall. 

Part I, as the title suggests, has a personal and confessional bent to it, Brad relating and telling his journey, his journey having much overlap with many who were birthed in varied forms of a conservative evangelical ethos but finding such a family soul suffocating and tomb-like. Needless to say, Brad’s journey does mirror and reflect the initial faith journey of many but such a beginning does need to be grown beyond if minimal depth and thoughtfulness are to be part of the next steps of the pilgrimage through time—in short, such beginnings do need to be critically deconstructed. But, who might be heard, trusted, and consulted in such a needful deconstruction?

Part II, in a creative and engaged manner, draws from an ancient myth of the seven sleepers, such sleepers awakening to bring light and life to dark and troubling times. Brad has called forth seven significant philosophers of the past to aid in the deconstruction process: Moses (and his apophatic line and linage as a means of deconstructing ways of thinking and being that are too certain types of interpretive idolatry), Plato, Voltaire, Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, Nietzsche and Weil-Camus. There are two sections dedicated to Nietzsche and three sections heeding the challenging insights of Dostoevsky. Each of these thinkers-activists are rigorous and no-nonsense master of deconstruction: they have little time or patience for religious silliness or thinness. I was fortunate, when doing my Ph.D., to do translations of Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra and trekked many of the trails Nietzsche did from his home in Sils Maria in the Engadine Valley in Switzerland (there is a scholars in residence program at Nietzsche’s home in Sils). I have also, at the University I have taught for almost 35 years, hosted day-long symposiums on Russian writers, including Dostoevsky—Brad has chosen wisely and well from his seven sleepers. Part II is the longest section of the book and is worthy of many a meditative read—deconstruction and reconstruction ever the challenging and lived tension.

Part III reflects on various and needful approaches of provocation, the emergence, phoenix-like, out of the embers, faith after a painful and for many years erratic and confusing freefalls. Each of the sections in provocations is worth lingering at as pointers to the deeper, fuller and resurrected journey---such is “revenants”. The future way forward is more than hinted at in this final section of Out of the Embers—do read and inwardly digest.

Each of us, probably, has 5-10 books on our shelf as keepers if told we could only take so many to a deserted Island. The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse is in my top 5. The Glass Bead Game is about a community of intellectuals (Castalians) who live in the midst of cultural chaos and fragmentation, shallow journalism, war, multiple amusements and diversions and such Castalians attempt to raise the level of cultural and civilizational thought to a higher and fuller level. The low culture, pop culture, deconstructionist and mediocre culture of the time had led to nihilism, cynicism and tribalism. The battle of ideas and identity waged vigorously at many levels. The head of the order, Magister Ludi, understood the need for grappling with ideas at the highest level, but he realized that those who separated the struggle for the best that had been thought and said from engagement with the public and political realm were themselves in an enclosed matrix of sorts. I have taught in the area of political philosophy most of my teaching vocation and I have often been somewhat concerned about how the glass bead game of ideas, theology, exegesis, liturgy etc is often disengaged from political thought, substantive political theology, political parties, political activism and policy. When this occurs, a subtler form of gnosticism emerges, ideas versus history, theology-philosophy versus politics etc. In short, in this superb book by Brad, I would have liked to see some serious thinking on how “faith after the great deconstruction” faces into the head winds of political philosophy, political theology, political parties, activism and party policies—cynicism and skepticism in these areas is short-sighted and counterproductive. Some of the seven sleepers Brad draws from certainly did rigorous political probes—more attention to these probes might have enriched the book yet further.

In sum, Out of the Embers is a beauty and bounty of tome—more pondering on how the glass bead game of ideas connects with the challenges of public and political life would yet have made for a fuller way of embodying a form of political faith after the serious limitations of the great deconstruction.

Amor Vincit Omnia

Ron Dart          

Bill Morgan's "Thomas Merton & Lawrence Ferlinghetti: and the Protection of All Beings - Review by Ron Dart

Bill Morgan, Thomas Merton & Lawrence Ferlinghetti: and the Protection of All Beings (Beatdom Books, 2022)

As to the U.S. Beats I am more in sympathy with them
but in most cases I do not respond to them fully.

Thomas Merton letter to Stefan Baciu (1965): p.77

I have sitting before me a splendid hard copy edition of Bill Morgan’s The Typewriter is Holy: The Complete Uncensored History of the Beat Generation (2010). I have read the evocative beauty a few times and there can be no doubt Morgan has covered, in readable detail, the varied lives of the Beats in an honest and transparent way. Most of the significant Beats such as Kerouac, Cassady, Ginsberg, Corso, Burroughs, Snyder and Ferlinghetti are covered in a candid way (their opponents are also noted). There can be no doubt Morgan is one of the finest chroniclers of the Beats (as a complex tribe) and individual Beat activists and poets in a thoughtful way and manner. There is, though, more digging that needs to be done on the Beats and the Roman Catholic Beat tradition—such is the initial approach in Thomas Merton & Lawrence Ferlinghetti: And the Protection of All Beings.

I have, in a suggestive way, attempted to reflect on the Beat-Roman Catholic Beats in two books: Thomas Merton and Beats of the North Cascades (2005 & 2008) and Thomas Merton and the Counter Culture: A Golden String (2016). I have also touched on the Beats in the North Cascades (a mountainous area where I live) in “The Beat Generation in the Mountains” Appalachia (Winter/Spring 2012).  But it is Morgan’s fine primer on Merton and Ferlinghetti that needs to be heeded and read attentively.

The subtitle of the missive sums up the main focus of the book. Merton was emerging as a political writer in the late 1950s-early 1960s (most unusual for a Roman Catholic monk mostly known for his writings on the contemplative life). Ferlinghetti was committed to calling forth poets to think and write in a more political (albeit anarchist) manner. The idea was to birth, in 1961, a magazine, The Journal For The Protection Of All Beings. Ferlinghetti sent out many an invitation for contributors but few were those willing to submit an article, poem or other means of facing the dire political issues of the time. Merton and Ferlinghetti both shared a Roman Catholic background, both had political leanings, both were poets and both shared a French European cultural ethos. Morgan covers these similarities in a nuanced way. Merton had written Original Child Bomb: Points For Meditation To Be Scratched On The Walls Of A Cave (a chilling 41-point description of the research, planning and final dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki).  Ferlinghetti thought this anti-poem of sorts would fit perfectly into the Journal. The concern was would the Roman Catholic censors allow such a poem to be published by a monk? A significant part of this timely missive by Morgan covers the correspondence in the late Spring-Summer-Autumn-Winter of 1961 regarding Merton’s contribution to the Journal. There was, though, another poem-anti-poem by Merton that held Ferlinghetti: Chant to Be Used in Processions Around A Site With Furnaces (the theme, of course, the docile attitude of those who mindlessly obeyed orders, Arendt calling this the “banality of evil”—Merton I might add had a significant respect for Arendt). Morgan included both of these creative anti-poems in the book and the confusion about their publishing.

Needless to say, there was more than Ferlinghetti and City Lights interested in Merton’s poems: James Laughlin-New Directions (Merton had published some of his earliest poems with New Directions in the 1940s), Robert Lax- Pax and Dorothy Day-The Catholic Worker were all vying to publish Merton’s prophetic and compact political commentary-Morgan does a superb job of highlighting this reality. The flurry of letters between Merton and Ferlinghetti is well-tracked and traced by Morgan revealing much about both men and the state of publishing at the time.

The inclusion in the book of Ferlinghetti’s “Picturesque Haiti” reflects the obvious gap between the Haiti of the tourist industry and the actual and lived reality of many Haitians in which poverty is their painful lives lived, image and reality not to be confused. Merton approved the lengthy reflection. Merton did face the ire of his censors, but true to form, Ferlinghetti and Laughlin were sensitive to the problem and Laughlin went the extra mile to publish Merton’s yet more political writings, the “Cold War Letters”. Merton’s long letter to Ferlinghetti (December 12, 1961) tells the complex tale (and much else) in substantive depth—this is a letter worth mulling over many times—so much said about many pertinent and timely issues, including Merton’s high praise for the comments by Nez Perce on Chief Joseph’s surrender position, “I will fight no more forever”. Merton did wax hot and cold about some of the contributions to the Journal, though.              

Morgan touched on the use Lenny Bruce made of “Chant”, the language of Chant, of course, a perversion of its deeper religious meaning, Merton in the anti-poem making it abundantly clear, that a form of crude statism had become the new religion, a religion Ginsberg aptly portrayed in Howl. The more intense correspondence period between Merton and Ferlinghetti came to an end by late 1961 but this did not mean an end of their friendship (nor Merton’s interaction with the Beats).

The publication of Merton’s Monks Pond in 1968 included contributions by Snyder and Kerouac (Ferlinghetti welcomed to offer a submission) and it was in 1968 Merton reconnected with Ferlinghetti again. Merton was in search of a hermitage far from Gethsemani, his new Abbot approved of such a search so Merton took to Redwoods, New Mexico and Alaska on such a pilgrimage. Merton and Ferlinghetti met for the 1^st time in May 1968 and Ferlinghetti offered Merton a room for the night above City Lights. A correspondence emerged again between Merton and Ferlinghetti after their meeting in San Francisco (May 29 1968 and June 5, 1968), Morgan, rightly so, threading together these shorter letters.

There was an ongoing interest at the time in Evans-Wentz’s Tibetan Book of the Dead and when Merton travelled to Asia, he met the young Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and the Dalai Lama (who were at odds with one another)—Merton enthused about both, Rinpoche became a guru of sorts to the Beats, Naropa Institute his educational centre (much controversy in the early years) whereas the Dalai Lama was far from such tensions and clashes. But, to return to Ferlinghetti and Merton.

Morgan brings this timely and well-wrought book to an end by highlighting, in a poem, “A Buddha in the Woodpile” his lament about the tragedy in Waco Texas with the Branch Davidians and pondering if the presence of Merton (or other contemplatives) would have prevented such carnage. And, in 2001, Ferlinghetti in a poem, “Mouth” wonders whether he will yet “join the Trappists”.

Morgan began the book by recounting visits with Ferlinghetti, when both were much younger, and Ferlinghetti’s fond remembrance of Merton and as Ferlinghetti near the end of his all too human journey his support of Morgan’s book on Merton and Ferlinghetti—fine bookends, indeed.

I cannot finish this review without noting both the fine cover and the many black and white photographs in the book, many taken by Merton.

The photographs that introduce us to the book are ones of a young Ferlinghetti with “Prayer Room” in a half shadow behind him and Merton in his Cistercian robe with forest and trees in the background. There are other photos of James Laughlin, cover to Original Child Bomb, typed and written letters, cover to Journal for the Protection of All Beings and photo of Rinpoche and Merton-Dalai Lama.

It is an obvious good to see Bill Morgan extending his work on the Beats in the direction of the Roman Catholic Beats, Merton being but one of them, Kerouac and Ferlinghetti obvious affinities although Ferlinghetti more solid and grounded than Kerouac, Kerouac’s slow descent sad and tragic. Hopefully, in time, much more work will be done on the Christian and Roman Catholic Beats (and those with Beat affinities) and the internal points of concord and discord, Dorothy Day, Catholic Worker, Dan/Phil Berrigan, William Everson-Mary Fabilli, Denise Levertov, Mary Norbert Korte and Jim Forest but doorways into such an expansive and catholic vision.

Thomas Merton & Lawrence Ferlinghetti: and the Protection ff All Beings is worthy of many a curious and ample read and Morgan should be generously rewarded for his fine sleuth work.

Ron Dart           

Alan Dennis' "Snow Nomad: An Avalanche Memoir" - Review by Ron Dart

Alan Dennis, Snow Nomad:  An Avalanche Memoir
Friesen Press, 2022

Review by Ron Dart

I have had an ongoing interest, the last few decades, in the life and philosophic vision of Dolores LaChapelle. LaChapelle’s early pioneering work with Arne Naess in deep ecology and her deep powder skiing insights were partially birthed when working with her avalanche legend husband, Ed LaChapelle—such a nomad life of sorts both lived in the snowfields of time and avalanche research set them apart as much respected avalanche mentors for many. Ed LaChapelle is mentioned, with due reverence, a few times, in Alan Dennis’ compelling read of an autobiography of sorts, Snow Nomad: An Avalanche Memoir.

Snow Nomad is a fast-paced, quick read of Dennis’ early novice journey into the demanding world of more mature avalanche work, courses few, hard lessons learned on the job as he gradually rose the ranks to become an avalanche expert in BC and other parts of the world. Many of the photographs, sketches, and text tell an honest and raw tale from the perspective of an insider on the layered and complex world of those who live within the avalanche tribe and, as with most families the internal tensions, clashes, and betrayals. This is no romanticized view of mountaineering, skiing, and avalanche life in Canada or in the various places outside of Canada in which Dennis has lived his avalanche vocation.   

Alan’s initial journey into the ethos of mountaineering was shaped and informed by his experiences with Outward Bound (when it was in Keremeos) in the early 1970s (I have many found memories of being with Outward Bound in the mid-1970s). Such a key in the ignition with Outward Bound was to take Alan into the larger and fuller world of mountain culture and avalanche safety. His time spent in the Yukon, then to the more demanding challenges of Granduc Mine Road and Bear Pass moved Alan’s avalanche apprenticeship to a higher level. But, it was in New Zealand at Milford Road in the early 1980s (avalanche conditions even more perilous and precarious) that the skills learned, intuition elevated and local insights heeded, that more was internalized about the science-art tension of avalanche safety heightened.

The journey back to Canada and Alan’s leadership role from Revelstoke with the Canadian Avalanche Association/Canadian Avalanche Centre from 1991-1998 is worth many a read (chapter 19)--no punches are pulled, his time a difficult one, the inner dynamics of leadership contested, Alan departing in a trying manner, bureaucrats and consultants often hair shirts of sorts ((chapter 20)---such is often the dilemma when different temperaments and reads of how avalanche safety is to be interpreted collide. A significant number of people in Canada and elsewhere are named in positive and negative ways by Alan as he makes sense of his journey with them in the avalanche clan.

The description of Alan’s time with the Scottish Avalanche Information Service (SAIS) from 1999-2004 and 2008-2011 makes for a mesmerizing read (chapter 24). The time spent in Meager Creek, Adanac Moly, and Coeur Alaska from 2004-2007 reveals yet more about the far-flung avalanche family, his time in Veladero (chapter 30) on the border of Chile and Argentina (camping at 3800 metres, high point on the road 4800 metres) a read that remains with the reader as a nail biter of sorts.

There is much in Snow Nomad that is worth sitting with and reflecting on---few have the sheer breadth and wide-ranging experiences in avalanche work both for the purpose of safe skiing, ski touring, and high mountain passes avalanche safety as does Alan. The accumulated wisdom of such diverse experiences and lessons learned about avalanches both near and far makes this evocative book a definitive primer and must-read for those (regardless of the mountain terrain they live, move and have their being in) who ever need to be aware of the ambiguities of avalanche dangers.

The cover of Snow Nomad with two skiers on a high mountain ridge gazing down on layered snow dunes makes it seem that the book might be about skiing and avalanche safety--not so. The broad approach taken in Snow Nomad covers a wide variety of places and methods used in different weather conditions to, as much as possible, anticipate the deadly nature of avalanches and avoid their tragic consequences.

The style of writing in this charmer of a book is lucidly autobiographical, honest and raw regarding people, organizations and tensions in the leadership of avalanche safety but a sane and sensible breadth permeates each chapter, each step of the journey of mistakes learned from, lessons internalized and insights gained, no silver bullet or snake oil a conclusive answer on how to absolutely avoid avalanches. But, no doubt, this is a beauty and bounty of a book that one and all should own, read and inwardly digest if interested in mountain life and the challenges avalanches present to those who spend time in such places. There can be no doubt, though, that the rich and varied life of Alan Dennis has taken him to places and upped the level of avalanche work and awareness far beyond that of the pioneering life and research of Ed LaChapelle and, to a lesser degree, Dolores LaChapelle.

montani semper liberi

Ron Dart                                                     

Bonhoeffer: Pacifism and Resistance Revisited with help from Karl Barth - Roger Newell

How do we reconcile the fact that the same Dietrich Bonhoeffer whose pacifist sympathies are well known and whose intention to travel to India and visit Gandhi are well documented, joined the Resistance conspiracy to assassinate the German head of state? In two recent books, Mennonite scholar Mark Thiessen Nation and fellow minded colleagues cut the Gordian knot by insisting that if contemporary readers are to encounter the real Bonhoeffer, his role in the Resistance must be significantly calibrated downward, amounting to a ruse crafted by his brother-in-law to keep him from military service. In the process, he served as a pastoral counselor to a few of the conspirators.¹ Whether we end up agreeing or disagreeing, Nation raises important questions that invite fresh consideration of Bonhoeffer’s path. This essay will look at some details of Bonhoeffer’s reflections on pacifism and resistance, with special attention to the influence of Karl Barth on his path. I will also look at the implications for our own troubled times as the Church again responds to war in Europe.

Nation’s thesis entails two claims. First, he insists that a close examination of Bonhoeffer’s writings reveals a thoroughgoing commitment to pacifism from which he never departed. Consistent in his reflections on pacifism from 1932, Bonhoeffer made an unequivocal call to peacemaking along with a denunciation of participation in war on the part of Christians. “This sort of witness is typically referred to as pacifism; and Bonhoeffer so labels his own approach.”² The implication is that any serious participation in the Resistance conspiracy would have amounted to a betrayal of his beliefs. Nation ascribes the usual view of Bonhoeffer the conspirator to reading him through the filter of Reinhold Niebuhr, Bonhoeffer’s American teacher. According to Niebuhr’s Christian Realism, a morally honest confrontation with the horrors of Hitler would compel one to do whatever it takes to stop the perpetrator, assassination included.³ However, if, as Nation gradually came to do, one holds the Niebuhr paradigm lightly and weighs far more heavily Bonhoeffer’s own writings, his role in the Resistance amounts to naught. Nation’s other argument (to be discussed later) is that when it comes to the conspiracy and Bonhoeffer’s role, the historiography of Bonhoeffer’s friend and biographer, Eberhard Bethge, is unreliable.

How shall we assess this reappraisal? Straightaway we should note Nation’s alignment with the across-the-board consensus that the Sermon on the Mount was at the center of Bonhoeffer’s understanding of the Christian faith. In letters to family and friends, he repeatedly asserts the Sermon’s centrality to discipleship. He writes his brother, Karl-Friedrich, “But I do believe I am on the right track, for the first time in my life.... I think I think I am right in saying that I would only achieve true inner clarity and honesty by really starting to take the Sermon on the Mount seriously... The restoration of the church must surely depend on . . . a life of uncompromising discipleship, following Christ according to the Sermon on the Mount.”⁴

To continue reading, click here to download the full PDF

Page 1 Foototes

1 Mark Thiessen Nation, et al., Discipleship in a World Full of Nazis. Recovering the True Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. (Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2022), 174, 187. The book includes essays by Stanley Hauerwas and Scot McNight. Cf. also Nation, et al., Bonhoeffer the Assassin? (Baker, 2013)
2 Ibid., 85.
3 Ibid., 3. Here Nation follows Charles Marsh, Strange Glory, (NY: Knopf, 2014), 108. Marsh admits, however, that Bonhoeffer himself never acknowledged any serious theological debt to Niebuhr.
4 Dietrich Bonhoeffer Collected Works, Vol. 13, London: 1933-1935, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), "Letter to Karl- Friedrich Bonhoeffer," Jan. 14, 1935, 284.

Francis Bacon's Five Holy Wars - Ron Dart

Ron Dart explores Francis Bacon's "An Advertisement Touching a Holy War" (edited with commentary by Laurence Lampert)

"Out the Embers" - OTC conversation (Jersak, Young, Fee, Murrell, MacMurray)

My Journey "Out of the Embers" - Nicky Martini

Bradley Jersak's Out of the Embers caught me by surprise. I thought my time to look back was done. At the beginning of this year, over a whole month, I experienced a creative miracle where, by the end, I knew God had healed my PTSD. Within the pages of Bradley's book, I can feel more waves of release and healing. 

 

From the “Prodigal Test” 

 

“God gives us the dignity of finding our own bottom. Once that happens, we might truly come home in a way that the elder brother apparently never did.”

 

It’s taken me days to get through the sections on Nietzsche and Simone Weil. Within those pages, I revisited the worst days of my deconstruction, primarily the grief that had consumed me. 

 

I never said “God is dead” but some nine years ago, the second part of my deconstruction came as what I can only call a wrecking ball. I remember the moment it happened. I was in church, mic in hand, about to blissfully share some grace encouragement. And before I could get a word out, God popped my bubble. It was like I had rose-coloured glasses on... and then I didn’t. All I could see were faces in the pews who were not interested in my wonderful grace words. They were suffering silently in a place where suffering was not allowed, or at least not talked about. Ours was a toxic positivity church of happy grace clappers, and I was one of them. I put the mic down, grabbed my husband and my children, and ran like a madwoman. I never went back.

 

Immediately after, my mum was diagnosed with cancer. She was in Greece with my dad and my brother, so the family flew her and my dad back to Australia. 

 

She survived another six weeks. I prayed for more time with her; I prayed for her healing, and when it became evident that that was not going to happen, I prayed that I would be there with her when she took her last breath. I lay on the floor next to her bed so as to be with her. It was important to me because we hadn’t had a great relationship when I was growing up. I was a terrible teenager. But for years, I had longed to live close to her and to have the opportunity to love on her as she deserved. To make up for lost years. 

 

The moment my mumma took her last breath, she was surrounded by her whole family. Except me. I was on the toilet. 

 

My faith at that moment collapsed. The wrecking ball hit with no mercy. Didn’t we learn in church that "all God’s promises were yes and amen" and that He gives us the desires of our hearts? Not only did God no answer the desire of my heart that I had hoped and prayed for over many years, but He took Mum home while I was on the toilet, shitting. It was like He had taken a knife, jabbed me in my heart, and twisted it to drive it home. I wasn’t angry with God; I was deeply hurt. I felt like the only One who I could trust had hurt me in the worst possible way. I can’t describe the pain in my heart. 

 

One morning after her funeral, I got in my car to go to work, and I said out loud, “God, you and I are done. Don’t talk to me anymore. I won’t be looking to hear from you or to feel you. I won’t be in any relationship with you. I won’t be loving you and certainly won’t be waiting to receive any love from you. You can leave me alone now.”

 

I said it and I meant it. I would repeat this many, many times over the next two years when I was alone. For the first time in my whole life, I stopped talking to God. I didn’t question his existence. I knew He was real and I knew He was with me all the time. But I chose deliberately not to be in relationship with Him. 

 

Still, my mumma’s death was not my rock bottom. It happened over the two years of ripping my heart out day after day. It was the numbing myself and not allowing myself to love and be loved by the God who had once swept me off my feet.

 

My rock bottom came when I had so shut myself off from God out of deep hurt that I could no longer feel Him. I don’t know how to describe living without God except to say I felt dead. I starved myself to death. I went about my days mechanically. No joy; just deep, deep sadness and inconsolable grief for my loss. I cut myself off from whatever few friends I had left because I somehow felt like my darkness would contaminate them, plus there was no room in my despair. 

 

Two years passed. My hubby Brett and I were driving a long distance and he had his music playing on random. What used to be my all-time favourite God song came on: Lifehouse's “Everything.”

 

Find me here and speak to me
I want to feel you, I need to hear you

 

I started to cry and Brett asked what was wrong. I told him that the hardest thing for me, doing this life without God, has been that I’m no longer moved by Him. Every time I used to hear this song, it was like every cell in my body would be caught up into some ecstatic place of joy indescribable but now I am not moved by Him anymore. Brett laughed and said, "Well, that’s an easy fix! You just have to let Him." 

 

And so I prayed, “Lord I miss you, I still feel hurt by you, but Lord, if you never answer a single prayer of mine it doesn’t matter. If I see no miracles but only pain and suffering in this world, nevertheless, I don’t want to do it on my own anymore. There’s no life for me apart from you. I need you, and I want to be moved by you again." And so He did. Once again, I fixed my eyes on the Lover of my soul for no other reason than to be loved and to love.

 

Reading Embers today, specifically Simone Weil's words about coming home, God reminded me of a recurring nightmare I used to have after my mum had passed. In the dream, my mum and I were lost and both of us trying to find our way home. Somewhere in the dream, I would lose her and desperately try to find her so we could find home together. The dream would always end before I found her and before we found home. 

 

Today, God spoke to me about how my mumma suffered from terrible grief in her life, something she never got over. Both my sister and I would say we don’t ever want to be like her, always grieving. For my sister, it stopped her from being able to grieve. And for me, I seemed to grieve immensely. I felt God saying, “Your mumma is home now with me and she no longer grieves. And you know I am always with you, and I am healing this grief." 

 

I think I read somewhere that Out of the Embers is like the healing balm of Gilead. Indeed it is.
I know it will bring much healing to many. 

Donald E. Wagner's "Glory to God in the Lowest" - Review by Ron Dart

Journeys to an Unholy Land (Olive Branch Press, 2022).

Review by Ron Dart

The title of this timely, autobiographical, and not to be missed book tends to confront the reader with a challenge. There is a predictable tendency to think of “Glory to God in the Highest” and, for those interested in the Jews, the Bible and Christian sacred sites in Israel, as “Journeys [often selective] to the Holy Land.” But, Wagner will not allow us such a luxury or indulgence—we are invited, in fact, to visit the lowest, some of the most structurally oppressed in Israel that are often seen by the naïve as the Holy Land. How, though, did Wagner come to the telling and challenging conclusions he did? Such is the pith and core of this finely told and textured book.

Glory to God in the Lowest is a tale told in 6 compelling sections: 1) Beginnings, 2) Moving on Up While Downwardly Mobile, 3) Journeys to the Unholy Land, 4) Doctor, My Eyes Have Seen the Pain, 5) Palestine is Still the Issue and 6) Liberating Your Mind: Zionism, Christian Zionism and Resistance. Each of the chapters tells, in a needful manner, the nature of Wagner’s journey from American conservative evangelical beginnings (none of us decide on our thrownness) with its uncritical, almost hagiographical attitude to Israel, to a seeing of the injustices in the USA to connecting American racial issues with the situation of the Palestinians in Israel. Wagner has made many a trip to Israel, met and worked with many Palestinians, published a few books on the issue, lectured widely on the American-Israeli Zionist connection, worked with organizations that deal with the troubling and persistent dilemma and tells a different resistance story in Glory to God in the Lowest.

Each of the chapters, section by section, unpacks both Wagner’s political faith journey as theological vision turns more in a prophetic direction from a passive and conformist one both within how he understands his origins in the USA and the relationship of the USA (and the many Christians within it) to Judaism and Israel. How does one dare to critique Israel, the oft opposition using the language of anti-semitism when done? Wagner is acutely aware that many religious and secular Jews are opposed to Zionism but many Jews and Christians genuflect to the Zionist ideology. How does one break the spell of Jewish and Christian Zionism, Wagner more, rightly so, concerned with the latter rather than the former (although the two are inextricably intertwined)?

Sections 1-2 in Glory to God in the Lowest prepare the reader (given Wagner’s unfolding journey) for sections 3-6 with their decided focus on certain types of Christianity that merge interpretations of the Bible with pro-Zionist and pro-Israeli conclusions. The final section sums up the needed for a “Liberating Your Mind” counter-cultural approach to the issue. And, not to miss, of course, is the many family photographs at the end of the book, “Endnotes” worthy of a slow internalizing.

Glory to God in the Lowest is an imperative read for those interested in how the mind can be imprisoned by a limited read and application of the Bible to the (Un)Holy Land—if an awakening is needed, if liberation is the goal, then Wagner’s personal yet searching insights in this book are an antidote to a worrisome slumber that breeds much injustice and distorts the meaning of peace.

Ron Dart