Such a thoughtful, incisive, and well-researched essay. I too love the invitation to daily practice: touch silence - touch joy - touch grass (or a tree, or moss on a rock). If you haven't already read John Philip Newell's book "Sacred Earth Sacred Soul," I highly recommend it. Ancestral Celtic wisdom is also a worldview that, as you write, honors "the knowing--the genius, the intelligence, the spirit--within each person."
I will definitely check out John Philip Newell, and thanks, Doug, for the recommendation. The Celts of the islands resisted Romanizing; they were never as much a part of the Mediterranean orbit as the Celts in Europe. When I dipped into Celtic history I was amazed to learn that the whole of western Europe was trading products, ideas, culture with the Mediterranean already hundreds of years before the common era. It's such a gift that the insular Celts protected their knowledge, so we have indigenous Celtic wisdom coming down through time to us today.
Doug, I have to let you know—the first thing I clicked on of John Philip Newell is a 2022 interview, and he opens with one of my theological heroes, Pelagius! And with the truth and wisdom born inside each person, which Pelagius championed. I'm only 6 minutes in to the interview and very glad to have found this. Thanks again! Here's the link for anyone interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHHuO0f9CiQ&ab_channel=CenterforContemporaryMysticism For anyone who doesn't recognize the name Pelagius—maybe you don't geek out on religious history!—he was Augustine's chief opposition. He said Augustine was wrong about what's inside us. I'm so fascinated with their argument I wrote about it in KISSED BY A FOX, chap. 4. But the church hierarchy of the time decided that Pelagius was a heretic. Because of course they would—in a time when the church was trying to cement its social power.
Thanks for the link. I watched the video and re-read the first chapter in the book, which is about Pelagius. The only thing I knew about Pelagius before reading this book was that he was dissed by Augustine. I hadn't realized how important the doctrine of original sin was to imperial religion. I'm so grateful to Newell for lifting up the voices of ancestral wisdom in Celtic Christianity.
And original sin tints all the major pieces of our current paradigm, including capitalism and Darwin's synthesis. Because in the 1500s, when the Protestant Reformers decided to ditch the Catholic Church's authority, they did it by recentering Augustine and original sin. The pessimistic view of human nature spread to all philosophers, including nonreligious ones. So Hobbes with his jaundiced view of "natural" life sounds just like Protestant theologians. I trace this lineage through Adam Smith then up to Darwin and how he settled on natural selection as the mechanism for evolution in KISSED BY A FOX (middle chapters). It's in story form there so I hope very readable.
I’ve ordered your book and am looking forward to reading it. Somewhere a long time ago I read that Reinhold Niebuhr once quipped that original sin was the only empirically verifiable Christian doctrine. Paying attention to the evils of the reign of Trump could easily lead me to agree with RN.
Thank you, Mary! So easy to slip into something other than joy, isn't it. I think joy is the fuel, and I think it's the fuel for the best kind of changes, the ones that don't leave residue, the ones that open the widest way ahead.
Thank you Priscilla! I am over the moon that you are working on a book on this topic! It make so much sense, veining your personal history and the themes you have explored academically and spiritually for your whole life! Congratulations on reaching that clarity, and what a gift to the world it will be!
I’m also excited to dive into Wildcat’s teachings. I have felt this so long about Western education, and no one that I am aware of is talking about it. Liberals and progressive keep telling us that we need to have factual conversations with people. It goes so much deeper than that!
Thanks for your good words, Kris! It’s actually the same book I’ve been working on for five years, the contours creeping ever so slowly toward clarity.
I’m with you—the changes we need go so deep, and everyone has a part to play. And I see NOW as a prime time to put deep changes into motion—now when the structures we’ve relied on are getting hacked to pieces. Why go back to what we know, which wasn’t working well at all? Let’s set in motion something better!
Clear and compelling. Thank you for making connections that I haven’t heard fully articulated. I’ll definitely be sitting with this.
And I love the invitation for a daily practice: “Touch silence. Touch joy. And touch grass. Every day, spend a little time with each one.”
Thanks for letting me know you connected, Leah. As you sit with it, please update us on what you learn!
Such a thoughtful, incisive, and well-researched essay. I too love the invitation to daily practice: touch silence - touch joy - touch grass (or a tree, or moss on a rock). If you haven't already read John Philip Newell's book "Sacred Earth Sacred Soul," I highly recommend it. Ancestral Celtic wisdom is also a worldview that, as you write, honors "the knowing--the genius, the intelligence, the spirit--within each person."
I will definitely check out John Philip Newell, and thanks, Doug, for the recommendation. The Celts of the islands resisted Romanizing; they were never as much a part of the Mediterranean orbit as the Celts in Europe. When I dipped into Celtic history I was amazed to learn that the whole of western Europe was trading products, ideas, culture with the Mediterranean already hundreds of years before the common era. It's such a gift that the insular Celts protected their knowledge, so we have indigenous Celtic wisdom coming down through time to us today.
Doug, I have to let you know—the first thing I clicked on of John Philip Newell is a 2022 interview, and he opens with one of my theological heroes, Pelagius! And with the truth and wisdom born inside each person, which Pelagius championed. I'm only 6 minutes in to the interview and very glad to have found this. Thanks again! Here's the link for anyone interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHHuO0f9CiQ&ab_channel=CenterforContemporaryMysticism For anyone who doesn't recognize the name Pelagius—maybe you don't geek out on religious history!—he was Augustine's chief opposition. He said Augustine was wrong about what's inside us. I'm so fascinated with their argument I wrote about it in KISSED BY A FOX, chap. 4. But the church hierarchy of the time decided that Pelagius was a heretic. Because of course they would—in a time when the church was trying to cement its social power.
Thanks for the link. I watched the video and re-read the first chapter in the book, which is about Pelagius. The only thing I knew about Pelagius before reading this book was that he was dissed by Augustine. I hadn't realized how important the doctrine of original sin was to imperial religion. I'm so grateful to Newell for lifting up the voices of ancestral wisdom in Celtic Christianity.
And original sin tints all the major pieces of our current paradigm, including capitalism and Darwin's synthesis. Because in the 1500s, when the Protestant Reformers decided to ditch the Catholic Church's authority, they did it by recentering Augustine and original sin. The pessimistic view of human nature spread to all philosophers, including nonreligious ones. So Hobbes with his jaundiced view of "natural" life sounds just like Protestant theologians. I trace this lineage through Adam Smith then up to Darwin and how he settled on natural selection as the mechanism for evolution in KISSED BY A FOX (middle chapters). It's in story form there so I hope very readable.
I’ve ordered your book and am looking forward to reading it. Somewhere a long time ago I read that Reinhold Niebuhr once quipped that original sin was the only empirically verifiable Christian doctrine. Paying attention to the evils of the reign of Trump could easily lead me to agree with RN.
🤣 Yes, that’s the danger all right! I hope you enjoy the book, and don’t hesitate to contact me with further thoughts.
Loved this! Thank you Priscilla! I love the reminder that joy fuels resistance.
Thank you, Mary! So easy to slip into something other than joy, isn't it. I think joy is the fuel, and I think it's the fuel for the best kind of changes, the ones that don't leave residue, the ones that open the widest way ahead.
Thank you Priscilla! I am over the moon that you are working on a book on this topic! It make so much sense, veining your personal history and the themes you have explored academically and spiritually for your whole life! Congratulations on reaching that clarity, and what a gift to the world it will be!
I’m also excited to dive into Wildcat’s teachings. I have felt this so long about Western education, and no one that I am aware of is talking about it. Liberals and progressive keep telling us that we need to have factual conversations with people. It goes so much deeper than that!
Thanks for your good words, Kris! It’s actually the same book I’ve been working on for five years, the contours creeping ever so slowly toward clarity.
I’m with you—the changes we need go so deep, and everyone has a part to play. And I see NOW as a prime time to put deep changes into motion—now when the structures we’ve relied on are getting hacked to pieces. Why go back to what we know, which wasn’t working well at all? Let’s set in motion something better!