From cultural criticism to bearded religious men living in caves
Paul Kingsnorth, known for his decades of cultural criticism, is explicitly giving it up — for now at least:
When I started this Substack, a few hundred people read it. Today I have 44,000 readers. The great majority are free subscribers, it must be said, so I don’t know how much they’re paying attention. But most probably got on board to read the ‘cultural criticism’ of my Machine essays. Now they’re getting stories about bearded religious men living in caves.
While I sympathise with their trauma, this is actually less of a wrench than it might seem. My writing life – my published writing life, anyway – extends back three decades now. In that time I have published nine books, only three of which might be described in any way as ‘cultural criticism’ or ‘current affairs’ or the like. The rest were novels, books of poetry and a strange memoir which in retrospect is the story of my being dismembered by God in preparation for something I couldn’t see coming.
Well, that something he was being prepared for came, and it changed him:
The comedian Stewart Lee, in his book How I Escaped My Certain Fate, wrote of how his experimental comedy routines, which largely consist of two hours of complex, interconnected, audience-insulting idea-play, had rendered him unable to do shorter stand-up gigs, formulaic jokes, or the once-simple job of acting as an MC for a roster of other comics. Though he was often asked, he said, he would always say no. ‘I am no longer fit for purpose’ he wrote, only half-jokingly. I feel the same about that ‘cultural criticism’.
Of course, I’m publishing this on a Sunday because the something that came, the something he was being dismembered in preparation for, was Jesus Christ, and specifically in the Orthodox Christian Church. Orthodoxy probably is more congruent with his prior life than other flavors of Christian piety, but it’s not the same, and it’s not the same as the culture he’d been critiquing, either.
So I think his backing away from what had been bread-and-butter publishable writing has got to be scary, but I can readily see how it’s something he needs to do if only to make more time for the things he now needs to do. I wish him well, and remember him daily in my prayers.
A different kind of teacher
Jesus is a teacher who doesn’t just inform our intellect but forms our very loves. He isn’t content to simply deposit new ideas into your mind; he is after nothing less than your wants, your loves, your longings.
James K. A. Smith, You Are What You Love
Net gain?
We have tried to escape the sweat and sorrow promised in Genesis—only to find that, in order to do so, we must forswear love and excellence, health and joy.
Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America
Evangelical clairvoyants
Shortly after his letter appeared, Cal Thomas and Ed Dobson, who had been Falwell’s chief lieutenants in the Moral Majority, published a book questioning not just the efficacy of political action but the righteousness of the enterprise. In Blinded by Might they argued that in the process of trying to win elections conservative Christians had been seduced by the lure of power. What had begun as an effort to restore Christian values to the nation had degenerated into an unbridled partisan struggle, creating an atmosphere in which it was assumed that Democrats could not be Christians and that Bill and Hillary Clinton were the Antichrist.
Frances FitzGerald, The Evangelicals
It’s worth remembering that a few Evangelicals recognized what was happening. I do tend to forget that.
Rolling their own
Nobody came in with substantial theological or pastoral training. They were all making things up on the fly. At the time, they thought this was a good thing, because it helped them think creatively and outside the box.
Jon Ward, Testimony
Here is a quick and generally reliable rule to follow. If people have always said it, it is probably true; it is the distilled wisdom of the ages. If people have not always said it, but everybody is saying it now, it is probably a lie; it is the concentrated madness of the moment.
Anthony M. Esolen, Out of the Ashes
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Tipsy Teetotaler ن 