Book Signing
Last Thursday evening, I went to a book signing to hear one of my favorite authors, Kathleen Norris (Dakota, The Cloister Walk, Amazing Grace) talk about her new book -- Acedia and Me. "Acedia" is the term the desert monastics used for the spiritual condition of "not caring" (and even not caring that one doesn't care!). An unfamiliar term to most of us, in the monastic literature, acedia is nicknamed "the noonday demon", because monks often experienced it between the hours of noon and 4 p.m. as they were alone in their cells, attending to their daily prayers. According to Norris, when the "8 bad thoughts" of early monasticism evolved into "the seven deadly sins", acedia was folded into the sin of sloth, but a significant distinction remains between the two.
While I enjoyed Kathleen's talk, and look forward to reading her book, the most fascinating part of the evening for me was watching this overtly Christian author stand in a public place, surrounded by 40 or 50 people (presumably not all Christians) and talk about her spiritual journey and the struggles attendant to it. She was respectful of other faiths. She wan't "preachy" or dogmatic. She simply gave witness to the ways in which her faith informed her life -- and the ways in which the Christian community had supported her in her walk with God.
I began to wonder how acedia might be at work within congregations -- particularly congregations in the so-called Mainline denominations. I wondered if the reticence to speak openly of our faith in our daily interactions might be a sign of something more than simply insecurity or a hyper-sensitivity to giving offense to anyone. I wondered if part of the reason Episcopalians are so hesitant about publicly owning their faith, is that they continue to think their faith is a private matter...known only to God and to no one else.
When we forget that Christianity is a communal religion --that we are dependent upon the entire Body of Christ; when we are content to view "church" as something we attend rather than something we are; when we witdraw from each other and hide behind small talk and polite plesantries, are we not opening our congregations to the oppression of "not caring that we don't care" about the world around us?
Last Thursday evening, I went to a book signing to hear one of my favorite authors, Kathleen Norris (Dakota, The Cloister Walk, Amazing Grace) talk about her new book -- Acedia and Me. "Acedia" is the term the desert monastics used for the spiritual condition of "not caring" (and even not caring that one doesn't care!). An unfamiliar term to most of us, in the monastic literature, acedia is nicknamed "the noonday demon", because monks often experienced it between the hours of noon and 4 p.m. as they were alone in their cells, attending to their daily prayers. According to Norris, when the "8 bad thoughts" of early monasticism evolved into "the seven deadly sins", acedia was folded into the sin of sloth, but a significant distinction remains between the two.
While I enjoyed Kathleen's talk, and look forward to reading her book, the most fascinating part of the evening for me was watching this overtly Christian author stand in a public place, surrounded by 40 or 50 people (presumably not all Christians) and talk about her spiritual journey and the struggles attendant to it. She was respectful of other faiths. She wan't "preachy" or dogmatic. She simply gave witness to the ways in which her faith informed her life -- and the ways in which the Christian community had supported her in her walk with God.
I began to wonder how acedia might be at work within congregations -- particularly congregations in the so-called Mainline denominations. I wondered if the reticence to speak openly of our faith in our daily interactions might be a sign of something more than simply insecurity or a hyper-sensitivity to giving offense to anyone. I wondered if part of the reason Episcopalians are so hesitant about publicly owning their faith, is that they continue to think their faith is a private matter...known only to God and to no one else.
When we forget that Christianity is a communal religion --that we are dependent upon the entire Body of Christ; when we are content to view "church" as something we attend rather than something we are; when we witdraw from each other and hide behind small talk and polite plesantries, are we not opening our congregations to the oppression of "not caring that we don't care" about the world around us?
posted by FrGaryB | 7:03 AM
3 Comments:
Things that make you say Hmm..
I usually have too much to say but this one has me hanging up a mirror to take a closer look at what I may need to see.
Here's the thing, though...maybe it's not deep enough in people to even be a private matter...? Maybe it's just something they do but never really understand why. What if Christianity for some folks is so deeply spiritual that doesn't transcend into conscious thought to where they're able to speak of it. I think the Desert Fathers would have understood that little problem pret-ty well.
Is it "not caring that we don't care," or "not knowing that we don't care" that is operative in the congregational context?
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