Anima Naturaliter CatholicajohncwrightApril 2 2008, 15:45:18 UTC
Ah, my friend! I am sorry that I ever doubted you. For a brief moment, while you were ill, I thought your ability to make luminous insightful comments about history and politics had deserted you. Your comments on Ayn Rand and C.S. Lewis strike me as particularly penetrating.
You have put into words something I have been unable to articulate about modern politics: the modern ideological movements seem madness to me, everyone in jerky flight away from some unnamed core European ideal--and that core is the Catholic Church, the spirit of Christendom, and its life. The concept indeed of an ideology is a modern one: ancient ideas of kingship, law, and empire were not ideologies properly so called. Ideology is a substitute for religion. The religion for which it is a substitute is Catholicism.
Your comment on anarchy is also very well taken. Anarchist Catholicism is impossible to imagine, but an anarchist Protestant is easy to imagine (I know at least one myself).
I ask in all honesty--why allow Jonah Goldberg to dominate the best sellers list? Write your own book to refute him. You owe it to the truth. You write with passion and knowledge, a potent combination.
I am serious: think about your mark on history. Turn this essay into a book: your theme could tie in other things you have written on your livejournal.
JCJW
PS. You once said you meant to do a longer article on Woodrow Wilson, the worse American president ever. I would be curious on your thoughts of his comparison and contrasts with Mussolini.
Re: Anima Naturaliter CatholicafpbApril 2 2008, 16:10:15 UTC
I did not exactly invent the notion that the Catholic church and faith are axial to Western civilization. Christopher Dawson, Eric Voegelin, Hilaire Belloc and GK Chesterton, and, with some modifications, CS Lewis, argued very powerfully for it. The problem is that in order to accept such a viewpoint at all, you have to be well on your way to accepting the Church for what it is, and, by and at large, the intellectual caste is not ready for such a step.
It may be that, in the future, the essays I am currently writing will coalesce into a book of some sort. But I do not see any way I could outsell Mr.Goldberg, who has a ready-made and faithful public.
Wilson has ended up in a very large, half-finished essay on the role of France in modern history. On your encouragement, I will get back to it and see if I can finish and publish it in the near future.
Thanks for the praise, but please, tone it down. I might end up believing it, and then where would we be?
Re: Anima Naturaliter CatholicajohncwrightApril 2 2008, 19:38:42 UTC
"But I do not see any way I could outsell Mr.Goldberg, who has a ready-made and faithful public."
If you take up your pen as a sword on the side of the Christ, His beautiful bride the Church, and all His servants, saints and angels, you might find a ready-made and faithful public also.
Maybe I was lucky enough to get a book published. Or maybe anyone who sets his mind to it can also do it, if just given the right encouragement. So, think of this as encouragement rather than praise.
You have put into words something I have been unable to articulate about modern politics: the modern ideological movements seem madness to me, everyone in jerky flight away from some unnamed core European ideal--and that core is the Catholic Church, the spirit of Christendom, and its life. The concept indeed of an ideology is a modern one: ancient ideas of kingship, law, and empire were not ideologies properly so called. Ideology is a substitute for religion. The religion for which it is a substitute is Catholicism.
Your comment on anarchy is also very well taken. Anarchist Catholicism is impossible to imagine, but an anarchist Protestant is easy to imagine (I know at least one myself).
I ask in all honesty--why allow Jonah Goldberg to dominate the best sellers list? Write your own book to refute him. You owe it to the truth. You write with passion and knowledge, a potent combination.
I am serious: think about your mark on history. Turn this essay into a book: your theme could tie in other things you have written on your livejournal.
JCJW
PS. You once said you meant to do a longer article on Woodrow Wilson, the worse American president ever. I would be curious on your thoughts of his comparison and contrasts with Mussolini.
Reply
It may be that, in the future, the essays I am currently writing will coalesce into a book of some sort. But I do not see any way I could outsell Mr.Goldberg, who has a ready-made and faithful public.
Wilson has ended up in a very large, half-finished essay on the role of France in modern history. On your encouragement, I will get back to it and see if I can finish and publish it in the near future.
Thanks for the praise, but please, tone it down. I might end up believing it, and then where would we be?
Reply
If you take up your pen as a sword on the side of the Christ, His beautiful bride the Church, and all His servants, saints and angels, you might find a ready-made and faithful public also.
Maybe I was lucky enough to get a book published. Or maybe anyone who sets his mind to it can also do it, if just given the right encouragement. So, think of this as encouragement rather than praise.
Reply
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