Fear Of A Sheltered Life

Student: I know how you feel about the matter, but I’m thinking about going to a secular college next year.

Gibbs: How come?

Student: I don’t want to live in a bubble. If I don’t go to a secular college, I’m worried I’ll go through my whole life without ever knowing anything about other people’s views.

Gibbs: Huh. You think college is your last chance to encounter “other people’s views”?

Student: Sort of.

Gibbs: What a strange life you must have planned for yourself after college. Be that as it may, I guess I should ask what you mean by “other people’s views”?

Student: I mean, I don’t know anything about Islam. I don’t know anything about Buddhism or Hinduism.

Gibbs: How much do you know about Islam already?

Student: Nothing. Isn’t that crazy?

Gibbs: You’ve never read a Wikipedia article on Islam?

Student: I might have, but I don’t remember it.

Gibbs: How about Buddhism? Hinduism? Atheism? How deeply have you looked into these things already?

Student: Again, I know nothing, that’s why I want to go to a secular college.

Gibbs: If you actually wanted to know about other views, you would have already begun doing a little digging.”

-from my latest for CiRCE

In Case I Get Hit By A Car Tomorrow And Do Not Have Time To Explain This

I had an epiphany this afternoon… I plan on organizing these thoughts into something more coherent over the next several months.

Q. What is the fundamental between the masculine and the feminine?

A. Aristotle proposes four causes: formal, final, efficient, and material. I propose that “the masculine” is the formal and final cause. “The feminine” is the material and efficient cause.

We speak of God as father because He is the formal and final cause. We speak of Church/Earth as mother because it is the efficient and material cause. The formal and final cause is indirect, the efficient and material is direct.

God feels distant to us for the same reason fathers seem distant, namely, because they are both indirect causes. They are “gone all the time.” Their support is indirectly experienced by children. Whereas mothers make our food and care for our wounds, children only vaguely grasp the role fathers play. They leave, they work, they earn money.

God “dwells in unapproachable light,” but the Church is present moment by moment. In the same way it is easier to love man (“whom we have seen”) than God (“whom we have not seen”), the love of mothers comes easier than the love of fathers.

And yet, without direct causes there are no indirect causes, and vice versa, which is why mothers tell children, “Ask your father,” and fathers tell children, “Ask your mother.” This is not shirking duty, but natural, because direct causes and indirect causes cannot exist without one another.

A materialist society cannot help but favoring the feminine. The feminine deals in causes (efficient, material) which a materialist society acknowledges, whereas indirect causes (formal, final) are thought specious. Baconian science inherently diminishes the role of fathers.

Underlying Causes Of Underlying Causes

Tom: It is not enough to punish crimes like theft. You have to look at the underlying causes of theft. You have to ask why people steal. Figuring out why people steal can help prevent theft in the future.  

Harry: And why do people steal?

Tom: Studies show one of the biggest underlying causes of theft is poverty.

Harry: And what is the underlying cause of poverty?

Tom: Often enough, it’s racism.

Harry: And what is the underlying cause of racism?

Tom: Well, racism is simply evil.

Harry: What’s the underlying cause of evil?

Tom: Evil doesn’t have an underlying cause.

Harry: Is theft evil?

Tom: Theft can be prevented.

Harry: Can evil be prevented?

Tom: Yes.

Harry: So how do you prevent racism?

Tom: On second thought, I’d say the underlying cause of racism is ignorance.

Harry: What’s the underlying cause of ignorance?

Tom: Probably poverty, as well.

Harry: So theft is caused by poverty, which is caused by racism, which is caused by ignorance, which is caused by poverty?

-from my latest for CiRCE

We Need More Metaphors For Classical Education

“While I appreciate agrarian metaphors for classical education, I think it better to liken a classical school to a farm than a garden. In the last ten years, gardens have become lifestyle accessories for #intentional social media users. Don’t get me wrong. I keep a little herb garden next to my front door and I love not paying three dollars for half an ounce of rosemary sprigs or a packet of thyme, but these days, it seems like every fellow with a theology blog and a couple tomato plants thinks he’s Wendell Berry. Sure, keeping a twenty square foot garden can put you a little more in touch with nature, and thus a little more in touch with reality, but anyone who thinks a classical education is like a small, low commitment plot of poultry seasoning simply isn’t taking the agrarian metaphor all that seriously.       

What is helpful about agrarian metaphors (cultivating, nurturing) is that they get at the fact a classical education isn’t transactional and thus you can’t force it to work any more than you can coerce a plant into growing. Plant growth requires a very certain environment, which is true of student growth, as well, and so man prayerfully provides the context, but God gives the increase. Agrarian metaphors for education also put some weight back on parents who expect too much of a classical school. Giving a plant eight hours of sunlight, water, and rich soil every day will all be for nothing if the other sixteen hours of the day involve feeding the plant bleach and shoving it in the freezer. A classical school demands a classical home, as well.  

I prefer the farm to the garden (as a metaphor for classical education) because farming is a way of life, while gardening is not. You can forget about a garden in the winter, leave it for a ten-day vacation in the spring, and the thing will still be there for you when you get back. A small garden—the sort which so many Americans have started in the last several years—is an occasional hobby at best and only requires irregular maintenance and care. In short, it’s nothing like classical education. The agrarian metaphor for classical education only makes sense in the light of a more comprehensive, risky compromise with the earth.”

-from Army, Monastery, Manor, Farm: What Is Classical Education Like?