Oct 30, 2023·edited Oct 30, 2023Liked by Graham Pardun
In some of my writings, I talk about what I call the two modes of imagination: specter and presence. Specter is undead, a hallucination, an abstracted lesser reality—like the fantasies of the Underground Man, or what WIlliam Blake calls the realm of Ulro. But presence is alive; it is a deeper reality, the illuminated water within the clay. In terms of my circle, specter hovers outside the circumference in a no-man's land, but presence is the genuine realization of the area and the center. Sometimes, in a gesture of linguistic subversion, I suggest that "transcendence" is a lie and that immanence is all there is: immanence understood as not mere clay, but rather the deepest spiritual infrastructure of this flesh.
When a caterpillar evolves, it doesn't merely get inside a sack and grow some wings; it digests itself into goo and then becomes recomposed at almost the cellular level. That is pretty wild.
Ah, good eye, Zac -- thank you! Well, I got the quote from Olivier Clement's Roots of Christian Mysticism (p 76), and he indeed cites Gregory Nazianzen's Eulogy of Basil the Great, Oration 43 (which he finds in Patrolia Graeca). I wonder if this is an example of English-language Orthodox culture as a whole acting like chatgpt does with the texts in its training set...maybe Basil the Great didn't say it -- and maybe Gregory Nazianzen didn't even say that Basil the Great said it -- but it's the kind of thing Basil would have said, or should have said -- and that's good enough to have said it? Memory, especially cultural memory -- but even memory in the individual human body -- is definitely not photographic, but kaleidoscopic.
The "animals who have received the vocation to become God" quote from St Basil may possibly be spurious. I looked it up since I had seen many quotes attributed to Saint Basil on similar themes that have no basis in his writings, and the only reference I can find to where this is supposedly recorded is in St Gregory of Nyssa's Oration 43 (his funeral oration for St Basil), however the quote is definitely not found there.
From my understanding, it's a perfectly reasonable thing to say, but probably best not to attribute it to St Basil!
When I saw the Hebrew word cha-bod, I thought of dad-bod. Both weighty. But anyway, the "new" taxonomies of beings within a cosmic hierarchy that the Orthodox vision offers refreshes a mind worn out by the overly technical--and controllable--categories presented in modern thinking. Too much of our modern thought is dominated by reductions that seem to promise comprehensive knowledge-so-called. Bring me back to the ancient mind so I can see like a human sees again. That's what this one did for me.
The abbess reminded me of Samson who when the Spirit came upon him did feats of strength and Elijah running ahead of the chariot of King Ahab when the power of the Lord came upon him.
The resurrection body of Jesus was so solid the walls and locked doors the disciples were hiding behind were immaterial in comparison as he would come and stand among them. In the beginning God created and at the end of this cosmos he will de-create and gloriously re-create a new one even more wonderful. The present New Jerusalem above, the bride of Christ, made of our living stones will be what is carried from this creation to the next. Jesus returned to construction and carpentry after the ascension - John 14:1-4
Mar 31, 2023·edited Apr 2, 2023Liked by Graham Pardun
Graham-
Beautiful. You write of things that some of us often sense at times, sometimes very strongly, but fail to enunciate. I know I can get caught up in endlessly dissecting the looming darkness of our times. As if that will save me. Yours is a much needed antidote. Thank you.
I appreciated the language of spiritual and material as relative terms like high and low. A helpful way of putting it.
You're reminding me that I wrote a term paper in seminary about "the eschatology of the body" using St. Symeon as one of my main sources. I had thoughts at the time of expanding it into a thesis, but for various reasons that never happened. On a related track, do you know Anestis Keselopoulos' "Man and the Environment: A Study of St. Symeon the New Theologian?"
I found myself thinking of another passage from St. Paul: "Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body" (1 Corinthians 6:13). This is an important statement about sexual morality, but it isn't just that. To extract from it a more general principle, we might say: "Your body (and the whole material creation) exists for an infinitely beautiful purpose, but that purpose is not what your fallen desires might make you think it is." The whole Christian ascetic tradition looks like a denial of the body and the material world because our distorted desires make us misconstrue what matter and bodies are for; what looks like a denial of them is just turning them away from the false purposes to which we put them so their real purpose can shine through.
Truly a sunflower of prose that sometimes overflows into poetry. I love the way you dive right into the passage from Simeon so ripe for misreading by our "addicted, reactive, manipulative" minds and give us, instead, a song that vibrates with its still flowing true and vital life. All glory to God and His gift of a tradition and liturgy able to teach us how to see, hear and speak the truth "this world" would deny or hide. Onward!
Truly astounding words. Thank you Graham . It fills me with immense hope. Unhacked Heaven( Paradise ) vs hacked Heaven ( Utopian technocracy ) lies like a fork in the road ahead of us. Is this division of sheep and goats taking place in real time, right now faster than ever? Sounding the alarm with you. Beauty will save the world.
In some of my writings, I talk about what I call the two modes of imagination: specter and presence. Specter is undead, a hallucination, an abstracted lesser reality—like the fantasies of the Underground Man, or what WIlliam Blake calls the realm of Ulro. But presence is alive; it is a deeper reality, the illuminated water within the clay. In terms of my circle, specter hovers outside the circumference in a no-man's land, but presence is the genuine realization of the area and the center. Sometimes, in a gesture of linguistic subversion, I suggest that "transcendence" is a lie and that immanence is all there is: immanence understood as not mere clay, but rather the deepest spiritual infrastructure of this flesh.
When a caterpillar evolves, it doesn't merely get inside a sack and grow some wings; it digests itself into goo and then becomes recomposed at almost the cellular level. That is pretty wild.
Ah, good eye, Zac -- thank you! Well, I got the quote from Olivier Clement's Roots of Christian Mysticism (p 76), and he indeed cites Gregory Nazianzen's Eulogy of Basil the Great, Oration 43 (which he finds in Patrolia Graeca). I wonder if this is an example of English-language Orthodox culture as a whole acting like chatgpt does with the texts in its training set...maybe Basil the Great didn't say it -- and maybe Gregory Nazianzen didn't even say that Basil the Great said it -- but it's the kind of thing Basil would have said, or should have said -- and that's good enough to have said it? Memory, especially cultural memory -- but even memory in the individual human body -- is definitely not photographic, but kaleidoscopic.
The "animals who have received the vocation to become God" quote from St Basil may possibly be spurious. I looked it up since I had seen many quotes attributed to Saint Basil on similar themes that have no basis in his writings, and the only reference I can find to where this is supposedly recorded is in St Gregory of Nyssa's Oration 43 (his funeral oration for St Basil), however the quote is definitely not found there.
From my understanding, it's a perfectly reasonable thing to say, but probably best not to attribute it to St Basil!
When I saw the Hebrew word cha-bod, I thought of dad-bod. Both weighty. But anyway, the "new" taxonomies of beings within a cosmic hierarchy that the Orthodox vision offers refreshes a mind worn out by the overly technical--and controllable--categories presented in modern thinking. Too much of our modern thought is dominated by reductions that seem to promise comprehensive knowledge-so-called. Bring me back to the ancient mind so I can see like a human sees again. That's what this one did for me.
The abbess reminded me of Samson who when the Spirit came upon him did feats of strength and Elijah running ahead of the chariot of King Ahab when the power of the Lord came upon him.
The resurrection body of Jesus was so solid the walls and locked doors the disciples were hiding behind were immaterial in comparison as he would come and stand among them. In the beginning God created and at the end of this cosmos he will de-create and gloriously re-create a new one even more wonderful. The present New Jerusalem above, the bride of Christ, made of our living stones will be what is carried from this creation to the next. Jesus returned to construction and carpentry after the ascension - John 14:1-4
Graham-
Beautiful. You write of things that some of us often sense at times, sometimes very strongly, but fail to enunciate. I know I can get caught up in endlessly dissecting the looming darkness of our times. As if that will save me. Yours is a much needed antidote. Thank you.
-Jack
I appreciated the language of spiritual and material as relative terms like high and low. A helpful way of putting it.
You're reminding me that I wrote a term paper in seminary about "the eschatology of the body" using St. Symeon as one of my main sources. I had thoughts at the time of expanding it into a thesis, but for various reasons that never happened. On a related track, do you know Anestis Keselopoulos' "Man and the Environment: A Study of St. Symeon the New Theologian?"
I found myself thinking of another passage from St. Paul: "Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body" (1 Corinthians 6:13). This is an important statement about sexual morality, but it isn't just that. To extract from it a more general principle, we might say: "Your body (and the whole material creation) exists for an infinitely beautiful purpose, but that purpose is not what your fallen desires might make you think it is." The whole Christian ascetic tradition looks like a denial of the body and the material world because our distorted desires make us misconstrue what matter and bodies are for; what looks like a denial of them is just turning them away from the false purposes to which we put them so their real purpose can shine through.
Truly a sunflower of prose that sometimes overflows into poetry. I love the way you dive right into the passage from Simeon so ripe for misreading by our "addicted, reactive, manipulative" minds and give us, instead, a song that vibrates with its still flowing true and vital life. All glory to God and His gift of a tradition and liturgy able to teach us how to see, hear and speak the truth "this world" would deny or hide. Onward!
Truly astounding words. Thank you Graham . It fills me with immense hope. Unhacked Heaven( Paradise ) vs hacked Heaven ( Utopian technocracy ) lies like a fork in the road ahead of us. Is this division of sheep and goats taking place in real time, right now faster than ever? Sounding the alarm with you. Beauty will save the world.