Yes, it’s come to that time. The time to officially shutter this blog.
I’ve said most of what I have to say, I think, and honestly don’t have much time for blogging any longer due to real life things. I’ve enjoyed the experience very much, and have liked getting to know some of my readers as well, but rather than have a semi-dormant blog creeping along like a husk, I thought it better to officially close the shop.
I’ll still be around — you’ll see me at The Spearhead from time to time, and at various other blogs on my link list. But maintaining this blog at this point is not something I have the time or energy to do, unfortunately.
I wish you all well, and thank all of my readers for their support. It’s been a good journey, and I hope to cross paths with you elsewhere in virtuality.
Just a brief note wishing all of my readers a fine Christmas and New Year season! In the spirit of the season, I thought I would transcribe the following, which are the two principal Christmas hymns in the Eastern Orthodox liturgical tradition:
Troparion of the Nativity of Our Lord (Tone Four)
Your Nativity, O Christ our God,
has shone forth the light of wisdom upon the world;
for therein those who worship the stars
have been taught by a star
to worship You, the Sun of Righteousness,
and to know You, the Dayspring from on high.
O Lord, glory be to You!
Kontakion of the Nativity of Our Lord (Tone Three)
Today the Virgin gives birth to the Trancendent One,
and the earth offers a cave to the Unapproachable One.
Angels with shepherds give glory,
the magi journey with a star,
for our sakes, a young Child is born, Who is Pre-eternal God!
Talleyrand had an interesting post today about Christian morality, and his perception, which is in all too many cases regrettably accurate, that many Christians practice a morality that is rather secular, and in particular Christian women.
I wrote a response which probably merits cross-posting here as a proper post, since comments tend to get lost in the shuffle eventually:
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I think that the issue derives really from the relationship between church and culture in our Western setting, and specifically how this has played itself out over the past several centuries.
Christianity is not, in its essence, misandrist or gynocentric. In our Western culture, it has become so as a result of a quite lengthy process of undoing. The separation between the East and the West eventually led to the Reformation, which in turn led to the Enlightenment which, eventually, led to a desire to approach truth from the perspective of secular reason alone. The problem with this is that there isn’t a solid, consensus basis for “values” based on secular reason — there are merely arguments for and against certain values. Because of that, the Post-Christian West has largely inherited some of the basic moral ideas of Christianity but, importantly, unmoored them from their religious basis — which has enabled a cafeteria approach to them.
To take a relevant example — the notion of fundamental human equality is a very Christian one — all men and women are equal in the eyes of God, and as Paul himself said, among those who are “in Christ” there is no male and female, no Jew and Greek, and so on. This radical, fundamental equality, in spiritual terms, was a true revolution in thought brought about by Christianity — at least in the context of the dominant civilization of that time, and the civilization which was our cultural precursor as Westerners. However, this core reverence for the fundamental equality of human beings did not obliterate differences in sex and station and hierarchy, but rather affirmed these. Hence Paul’s admonitions about husbands and wives and so on, and his writings about authority, and the different talents and stations in the church and so on. This kind of “tension” between fundamental spiritual equality, on the one hand, and, on a more day-to-day level, fundamental difference only seems contradictory to modern minds because modernity has lost a truly Christian worldview. As a result, much of the West has “ditched” those aspects of Christian moral thought (such as the idea that fundamental equality expresses itself also as hierarchy and difference and is not antithetical to this) which it finds contradictory to the rather linear, and therefore misleading, ways and means of human reason.
The fundamental Christian worldview that underlies the harmony of fundamental equality expressed and lived as difference and hierarchy is, of course, the Holy Trinity itself. The persons of the Trinity are true persons, differentiated and unique, yet “one in essence” and hence fundamentally equal in essence and all God. Yet there is a hierarchy within the Trinity — the Father is the monarch, if you will, the fountainhead of divinity, of whom the Son is begotten, and from whom the Spirit proceeds. Father, Son and Spirit are all equally God, yet among them exists both differentiation and hierarchy — neither of which upsets their fundamental equality as God.
Following from a solidly Trinitarian concept of reality, and viewing humanity as being made in the image and likeness of God — that is, in the image and likeness of the Trinity — we can clearly see that humanity is characterized by both fundamental equality and differentiation and hierarchy. Not only do these characteristics not conflict, but rather they reflect, in a fundamental and constitutive way, the underlying nature and proper ordering of human beings. When contemporary “Christians” in our Post-Christian West read Paul to be contradictory when it comes to equality and contemporary notions of appropriate gender relations, this is really only a reflection of how profoundly un-Christian a worldview these “Christians” have. And it’s precisely because of this lack of a Christian worldview — something which has happened with the resurrection of humanistic philosophy in the West — that the moral ideas of Chistianity, which still inform the West even as a ghost to some degree, are hopelessly twisted and teased beyond recognition, in order to “get rid of” those aspects of Christian moral thought that appear contradictory to those who have a humanistic, as opposed to a Christian, worldview.
From Pajamas Media comes a somewhat tongue-in-cheek article with yet much truth contained therein.
A few quotes:
Men, our long twilight struggle with the opposite sex is over. Our victory is total.
Can you believe the way things used to be? Remember when our fathers and grandfathers would drag themselves to mind-numbing jobs every day, having the sole responsibility for the feeding, clothing, and housing of their entire family?
And things were no easier before marriage, when men’s quest for sexual satisfaction was all too often hampered by the widespread moral code which taught women not to give out the “milk” for “free.”
Well, that state of affairs just wouldn’t do. So we men came together and did what we do best — formulate and implement a plan. First step, design the perfect world, the perfect male world. We decided such a world would consist of two things: less responsibility and more — and no-strings — sex.
Brothers, have we succeeded.
Indeed. And he goes on to note:
But that was only a start. To really fix things, we had to root out that old bourgeoisie mentality that had in previous times kept girls frustratingly modest and chaste. And what better way to do that than to convince women that the most reckless elements of our sexuality — the promiscuity — were in fact the correctbehaviors, which had to be imitated in order for them to be “liberated”?
Amazingly, they bought that, too.
Unfortunately, our sister selves are less suited to such behavior, which can cause painful and lasting tears in the feminine soul. But no matter — we were also able to convince them that there was no such thing as a “feminine” soul, any more than there is a “masculine” soul, and that both sexes are equally suited to all things.
(Many of you said that women would never buy this, that the accumulated history of our species speaks to the deep and abiding difference between the sexes, a difference which has benefited both sides from time immemorial. But I was sanguine about our ruse — have I not been vindicated?)
…
No — it is men who now have it all.
Congratulations, brothers. Our day is at last at hand, a day of no responsibility and easy mating access as far as the eye can see. Best of all, women are convinced that they have done this themselves, and for their own good.
Sure, there are downsides. Civilization has now entered into free fall; those masterpieces of art and science and literature, for which men have been almost exclusively responsible, have ceased to issue forth from our minds and hands — and is it any wonder? Such pyrotechnics are no longer necessary to impress women, which, really, was the only reason we bothered. High culture seems a small price to pay, though, for the loosening of morals and duties which has brought our present Sex and the City-fueled bounty.
So sit back, men, and enjoy the slide. It’s Miller time.
Well done, Matt Peterson. Well done.
It’s often struck me that the past 40 or so years have been in many ways an own goal for women. Let’s see what happens next.
As most of my readers know, I haven’t really had all that much time to focus on this blog for quite some time now. I do not expect that this will change much in the months ahead, as work and other life responsibilities are leaving less time for blogging in general.
I will still be posting entries here, and the blog isn’t going away, but I think in the period ahead the focus will be somewhat different from what it has been in the past. I think that with the advent of many quite good men’s-oriented blogs — many of which are located in my link list to the right — as well as the rise of The Spearhead into a true clearinghouse of sorts for men’s issues, an opportunity presents itself to focus on this blog on other sorts of issues that interest me from time to time. I suspect that, in practical terms, this means more articles on some of the other things described in my masthead (philosophy, politics, theology and so on) and less on men’s issues at least on this blog.
I will have to see exactly how this pans out, because of my lower posting availability these days, but in any case it’s likely that you’ll continue to see this blog shift a bit directionally in terms of the kinds of posts it contains.
It’s been a busy few days around Thanksgiving this year. I hope that all of my readers in the United States had a fantastic Thanksgiving, and for those readers outside the United States, I hope that you all have much in your lives to be thankful for as we approach the end of 2009.
Everyone capable of thanksgiving is capable of salvation and eternal joy.
Thank You, O Lord, for having accepted this Eucharist, which we offered to the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and which filled our hearts with the joy, peace and righteousness of the Holy Spirit.
Thank You, O Lord, for having revealed Yourself unto us and given us the foretaste of Your Kingdom.
Thank You, O Lord, for having united us to one another in serving You and Your Holy Church.
Thank You, O Lord, for having helped us to overcome all difficulties, tensions, passions, temptations and restored peace, mutual love and joy in sharing the communion of the Holy Spirit.
Thank You, O Lord, for the sufferings You bestowed upon us, for they are purifying us from selfishness and reminding us of the “one thing needed”: Your eternal Kingdom.
Thank You, O Lord, for having given us this country where we are free to Worship You.
Thank You, O Lord, for this school, where the name of God is proclaimed.
Thank You, O Lord, for our families: husbands, wives and, especially, children who teach us how to celebrate Your holy Name in joy, movement and holy noise.
Thank You, O Lord, for everyone and everything.
Great are You, O Lord, and marvelous are Your deeds, and no word is sufficient to celebrate Your miracles.
Lord, it is good to be here! Amen.
