John C. Wright's Blog, page 94
July 26, 2013
Daily Dose of Chesterton
A word of explanation. This was written after GK Chesterton was no longer an agnostic, and had lost a good deal of sympathy with the Liberal Party to which he belonged. but long before he joined the Catholic Church. I reprint it here as it has some bearing on some recent articles in this space, and it shed light on the a recurring source of mutual incomprehension I have discovered between Protestants and Catholics which seems the most persistent and most baffling to both sides.
The quote below is from the biography by Maisie Ward:
The Education Bill of 1902, brought in by the Conservatives and giving financial support to Church schools, saw Gilbert in general agreement with the Liberal attacks. He did not yet appreciate the Catholic idea that education must be of one piece and he did not think it fair that the country should support specifically Catholic schools. Parents could give at home the religious instruction they wanted their children to have. But with that fairness of mind which made it so hard for him to be a party man he saw why the Liberal “compromise” of simple Bible teaching for all in the State schools could not be expected to satisfy Catholics. He wrote to the Daily News:
The Bible compromise is certainly in favour of the Protestant view of the Bible. The thing, properly stated, is as plain as the nose on your face. Protestant Christianity believes that there is a Divine record in a book; that everyone ought to have free access to that book; that everyone who gets hold of it can save his soul by it, whether he finds it in a library or picks it of a dustcart. Catholic Christianity believes that there is a Divine army or league upon earth called the Church; that all men should be induced to join it; that any man who joins it can save his soul by it without ever opening any of the old books of the Church at all. The Bible is only one of the institutions of Catholicism, like its rites or its priesthood; it thinks the Bible only efficient when taken as part of the Church. . . . This being so, a child could see that if you have the Bible taught alone, anyhow, by anybody, you do definitely decide in favour of the first view of the Bible and against the second.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
July 23, 2013
Heroic Villains and Villainous Heroes
I recently saw two films and a cartoon, and was puzzled, perhaps even a trifle aghast, and could not puzzle out what it was I was seeing. Then I heard a speech, and the puzzle was solved.
The two films were MAN OF STEEL and DESPICABLE ME 2, and the cartoon was BEWARE THE BATMAN. This is not a review of any of these, but the reader is warned that the surprise ending of at least two are revealed below.
By way of review, I will say only that each was worth the ticket price, each was well done and well written. The speech was by the author of KINDER GARDEN OF EDEN, Evan Sayet. By way of review, I will admit I have not read the book, only heard the author’s description of its main idea, and this idea resolved the puzzle that so bewildered me about the three shows I saw.
Let me describe the puzzle first. I spoil the ending of MAN OF STEEL in the next paragraph, so I urgently beseech any reader who has not seen the film to read no further.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
Wright’s Writing Corner — The Why and Wherefore of World Building
Pundits puzzle over why it should be that fantasy, that nostalgic adoration of swords and sorcerers, elfin mariners whose silver ships breast the winedark starlit seas of myth, and science fiction, that futuristic admiration of lightsabers and Lensmen, space marines whose silver starships soar the starry vacuum of space, attract much the same audience.
At first glance, one would think the two genres opposites. Upon second glance, they seem to be two suburbs of the came city of imagination, so much so that a special names, speculative fiction or SFF, has been concocted to express the mixed group. They are seated next to each other in the bookstore, and certain magazines, most notably the Magazine Of Fantasy And Science Fiction, caters to both.
Science Fiction readers and fantasy reader overlap to a degree greater than those of, for example, fantasy readers and readers of historical novels, whom one would suppose would be a natural overlap. One would suppose it natural after finishing reading Robert Pressman’s GATES OF FIRE or Mary Renault’s THE KING MUST DIE or Sharon Kay Penman’s SUNNE IN SPLENDOR to turn to Robert E. Howard’s tales of Conan the Cimmerian, or to Tolkien’s THE RETURN OF THE KING or to the Lyonesse Trilogy of Jack Vance; but in truth the readers of the deeds of Hyborians, Hobbits or inhabitants of Hybrasil are more likely to have just finished reading about the Slans or Silkie of A.E. van Vogt rather than Centurions or Saxon of Alfred Duggan. But why?
Much ink has been spilled defining science fiction or defending definitions, but one element is at the center of all the disputes. Everything other form of genre work, from detective novels to westerns, take place in what is recognizably this world. Sciencefictioneers build new worlds.
Whatever takes place in a world whose rules and expectations are an invention of the author, and ergo should be explained by the author to the reader, is speculative fiction.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
July 22, 2013
A Universal Apology — Summation
In the preceding articles, I give my reasons for coming to believe the Catholic Church is what she claims to be, the one and true Church, apostolic and universal, founded by Christ and containing all sacred truth.
Readers of a modern frame of mind, as is only natural for those raised in English-speaking hence Protestant cultures, will no doubt be nonplussed that the majority of this argument dwelt on the question of who has the authority to define Christian teaching.
(Readers of a post-modern frame of mind, or non-mind, will have a negative emotional reaction to the word ‘authority’ because it has been associated by their indoctrination with the concept of tyranny and despotism, and they will make squawking noises like a duck in reaction, just as they have been conditioned or programmed to do by their programmers. We need not dwell on the delicate distinction between legitimate versus illegitimate authority, because it is neither necessary nor possible to answer an sentimental reflex with a reasoned argument: all that happens is the post-modern mind will dimly apprehend other words in the argument to which it has a stereotyped and pre-programmed reaction of sentimentality, and again will produce duck-noises, regularly as a dog salivating to Pavlov’s bell. I address no argument to anyone in this frame of mind.)
From even before I was a Christian, I have never sympathized with the argument that one can accept the writings of the Church as authoritative, but reject the authority of the Church that authorized them.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
July 21, 2013
A Universal Apology — A Personal Note: Shooting Oneself in the Foot
By rights, I should explain what might be called my procedural decisions. I did not, for example, demand a sign from the Lord as to which denomination is correct.
My very strong intuition and inspiration, amounting to a personal dogma, is that the Lord of Light is more concerned for whether a man is helping the poor, visiting the prisoner, aiding the widow, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and baptizing the lost, that He is concerned about our opinions about mysteries the human mind is not constructed to be able, in this life, to understand. I am convinced that the Lord regards discussions of the differences between denominations with hatred. I expected no sign.
Nonetheless, thanks to the followers of Christ who ignored and betrayed Christ’s last prayer spoken on Earth, which was for radical unity between His followers, I nonetheless had to choose between the denominations. Staying at home on Sunday and inventing my own personal brand of Christianity, known perhaps as Wrightinanity, was not an option, and departing the house required I either take the road to the left or to the right, since the church buildings of the different denominations lay in different directions. Which way to go?
Not without prayer, I set about to reason my way through the conflicting accounts of history and theology. I knew that I had no formal training in theology, nor any but a smattering of Greek and Latin and nothing of Aramaic or Hebrew, so I knew that revisiting each and every case of every opinion called heretical was beyond my powers. Even to read two or three books on the history of heresies was nearly beyond my powers, or at least my patience. I knew I had no ability to come to an independent yet sound conclusion about the nature of the Filioque controversy, nor to comb through such records as the obliterating gluttony of history had spared of the debates of the councils and synods grappling with that issue.
I decided at once not to heed any argument about non-essentials, that is, arguments which, even if proved true, would not change the verdict on the merits. For example, suppose that the Council of Trent is wrong about the doctrine of the Real Presence, or wrong about the doctrine of justification by faith alone rather than faith and works? Would I in either case refuse to take the Eucharist or refuse to have faith or refuse to do good works? Would anything in my behavior be changed, or anything in my prospects of salvation be changed?
The answer was no.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
July 20, 2013
A Universal Apology Point Fifteen– ON SACRAMENTS
Now I come to a final point, but this is not one which convinced me to join the Catholic Church, for at this point in my search, I had become convinced at first intellectually, and then with my whole soul, that the Catholic Church was what she claimed to be: the one, true, holy, apostolic and universal Church founded by Christ, adorned as His bride, and also forming His mystical body on Earth. This final point is one I discovered only after I entered communion with the Catholics, and which I could have only discovered then.
The final point is the centrality of the sacramental life to the Christian life, and the luminous, supernal reality of the sacraments as a conduit for divine grace.
In a Catholic Church, you do not only praise Christ with your lips, you eat him with your mouth in an act of intimacy shocking alike to the Muslims as to the Gnostic, who regard all matter as evil, and God too good to be incarnate. The shock of incarnation is still alive here, and still offending people.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
July 19, 2013
A Universal Apology Point Fourteen: SLANDERS AND RUMORS
SLANDERS AND RUMORS
The fourteenth point which convinced me of the truth of the Catholic faith was the untruth of the accusations made against that faith. I found out very quickly that nearly any Catholic whom I read or whom I heard knew precisely what various Protestants taught and preached, and that no Protestant I read or heard knew what the Catholics taught and preached, but instead uttered the most outrageous propaganda against the Church.
This awoke my suspicions. I had seen a similar thing in debates between Communists and Economists (I will not here use the word ‘capitalist’ to refer to any man who prefers sound economic principles to bloodthirsty tyranny). The Economists knew the errors of the Communists by chapter and verse, whereas the Communists had no idea whatever of what Economics taught or supported.
No one shoots blanks who has real ammunition. The only reason to resort to misrepresentation as a tactic in debate is when the truth will not serve.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
July 18, 2013
A Universal Apology Point Thirteen: ON LEGALISM
I am recounting the several reasons I have for accepting that the Catholic Church is what she says she is. The thirteenth point which convinced me was the particular character of the Catholic Church. She is preeminently balanced and just in her approach, a type of justice often dismissed as being legalistic or pharisaic. That dismissal is groundless. A balanced and just approach is the only approach: anything else is emotionalism, perhaps fanaticism.
I will repeat here what I have said many times: The Catholic Church is eminently logical. If Vulcans had a religion, they would be Catholic.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
July 17, 2013
News from Nowhere
I was just reading a review of Alan Garner’s classic WEIRDSTONE OF BRISINGAMEN, a novel I strongly recommend to anyone who has not had the pleasure of reading it.
I was not too taken aback to see that the reviewer, an adolescent I presume, thought the book similar to LORD OF THE RINGS. Apparently the child had not been exposed to enough fairy tales to see the Cadellin and Gandalf and Merlin the Magician are all from the same archetype.
Another archetype is Durathor the Dwarf, who dressed and acts like a doomed, grand warrior from a Norse saga, eager for Valhalla.
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
July 16, 2013
A Universal Apology Point Twelve Continued: A SHORT HISTORY OF HERESY
Let us take a short while (or, if need be, a long one) to review some of the heresies of the first ten centuries of the Church. I am confident that even an abbreviated list will make clear the particular nature of heresy:
Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.
John C. Wright's Blog
- John C. Wright's profile
- 449 followers
