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The Awakening of Miss Prim
Awakening Miss Prim - May 2021
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3. A Benedict Option?
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May 02, 2021 01:23PM
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After all both books by Senior where prologued in their Spanish version by Natalia Sanmartín Fenollera.
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lia Sanmartín Fenollera."
I think that's probably right, as well as Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture, by Anthony M. Esolen. Both Senor and Esolen emphasize beauty and culture as the base from which a new Christian society can be built. Echoed by Sanmartin Fenollera in "What beauty will save the world" quoting my second favorite Russian author.
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Solzhenitsyn. Of course I haven't read War and Peace in over 40 years.
Ironically I had just read the Benedict Option before reading Miss Prim. Whilst reading the book of the month I did notice how similar the community in the book is to the propositions posed by the Benedict Option. It’s important to keep in mind, too, that the Benedict Option is based on classical Catholic social teachings such as subsidiarity. Both the Benedict Option and Miss Prim give a picture of what a Catholic community built upon classical education, piety, simplicity, stability, and distributism could look like.
I agree that it looks closer to Senior’s ideas, based on the great books and paintings as the way to learn beauty. The ad at the end of the book also reminded me of “The lost tools of learning “ advocated by Dorothy L. Sayers.
Hints of John Senior are sprinkled throughout the book. One dead give-away was the mention of a visit to Kansas by the Man in the Wingchair. The other was how he carefully selects the sequence of books the children read. John Senior proposed the idea that one has to read a thousand good books in order to be ready for the top one hundred. Notice that in the village there is little modern technology. Senior famously denounced all TV watching. There are no TVs. They have phones, but they only use them to convey short messages, not holding long conversations, such as asking if somebody could come to pick Prudentia up because of the snow. They do use cars. They prefer to write notes and letters, no mention of a computer or cell phone anywhere.
What they all have in common is that personal interaction is the preferred mode of communication. It builds community. Technology is fine as a tool, but it also disassembles community.
Kerstin, I'm not sure I understand the last sentence, "technology ... disassembles community." Technology gives us a different kind of community, this forum for instance.
Faith wrote: "Kerstin, I'm not sure I understand the last sentence, "technology ... disassembles community." Technology gives us a different kind of community, this forum for instance."Oh, I should have been more clear :-)
I was primarily thinking of screens, TVs, computers, kids sitting next to one another and texting instead of talking, etc. We are all wrapped up in our own worlds to the point where real community and interaction is hindered instead of fostered.
Besides Benedict, I couldn't help thinking of the Amish.I find it curious that several unbelievers seem to feel at home in this community or even moved there to be a part of it. Even though the values and way of life is thoroughly founded on Gospel values, I guess it also entails an embodiment of communal human flourishing that has broader appeal.
Kerstin wrote: "Faith wrote: "Kerstin, I'm not sure I understand the last sentence, "technology ... disassembles community." Technology gives us a different kind of community, this forum for instance."Oh, I shou..."
"When the light in most people's faces comes from the glow of the laptop, the smartphone, or the television screen, we are living in a Dark Age . . . We've never seen a Dark Age like this one." (Benedict Option, p. 71)
