ON HUMILITY

[ursusanglicanus]

Last Monday's walk in the 'desert' was short. A week without heating (replacing the gas boiler with a heat pump system) and the attendant cold, followed by presiding a liturgy of St Basil on Sunday and reading the entire canon carefully in French so that everyone could follow, had left me limited energy.

As I walked, I mused on the way in which

Comments

[corey01]

It seems to me that you advocate towards adult, continuous education in Christian spirituality. Should it be institutionalized? Looking at what exists in a lay world of learnable skills, it seems that most of what institutionalized education can do is introduce one to the field. Beyond that stage, leaving self-education out, professionals dominate with teaching mostly happening within closed teams, being highly specialized at that (please forgive me if I don't sound very clearly). In fact, self-education also falls within that category as one needs to be proficient enough already to be able to self-teach and to get to the next stage.

[ursusanglicanus]

Josephine Quinn

[ursusanglicanus]

Let me try and re-cast, starting from the end. If I am not mistaken, those professionals who dominate teaching in the lay situations you describe are those are at the sharp end, close to the most recent thinking, practice and experimentation. Institutionalized teaching is a generation behind.

In the religious field, what you call ‘adult, continuous education’ is another term for moving as far into God as possible, individually, corporately and, I suspect, in particular, in small informal groups - whose members tell each other what works for them in their practice, what does not, the questions that keep them awake at night …. By definition these people will be on the edges of, or outside the institutional church, and not too concerned for its survival in its current form.

[ekphrasticmama]

Your work and writing are very intriguing. I am writing a novel from the viewpoint of the woman to whom Van Gogh gave his ear; I would like to understand the work of a translator and wonder if you could share some insights, either in a blog post or somehow. If so, many thanks, and either way I will continue to read your work for many other reasons. Blessings, Lor

[ursusanglicanus]

Before I react to your posting, I insist to know a bit who you are. Your LJ profile tells me zero. If you don't want to give too much information publicly, please send me a message.