tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251777016037497783.post688474161553372624..comments2023-12-14T20:02:51.470-06:00Comments on The Heavy Anglophile Orthodox: A philosophical fragment on the saintsMatthew Franklin Cooperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15233216128641267240noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251777016037497783.post-28046333700187062622016-12-12T19:26:50.484-06:002016-12-12T19:26:50.484-06:00Hi Cal!
Thanks again for the comment!
I tend to ...Hi Cal!<br /><br />Thanks again for the comment!<br /><br />I tend to take a kinder view of the RadOx folks (Milbank included), in part because their apophatic 'read' on certain elements of virtue-ethical philosophy and its disrelation to the modern world actually led me to seek out truths in Eastern Orthodoxy. <br /><br />And I tend to take a kinder view of the Middle Ages, in part because of the historical witness of Solzhenitsyn, who saw more of that <i>libido dominandi</i> (even in a religious sense, usurping the prerogatives of God over human freedom!) at work in the Renaissance reaction to mediaevalism than in mediaevalism itself. And I think it's even a little bit mistaken to read Dostoevsky himself in such a way. He is speaking (as, later, Solovyov would speak) in a prophetic and apocalyptic way, and using metaphors to do so which would shock the consciences of even a 'humane' European audience.<br /><br />But it's still my gut feeling that there exists the possibility of repentance for a Left following Marx - who never truly rejected the God-man and all that he represented but instead presented, at best, a partial rejection rooted in a heretical materialism - than there is in a Nietzschean Right which, understanding the radicalism of the Incarnation, rejects it in its totality and blasphemes against the Holy Spirit.<br /><br />In any event, thank you for the well-wishes!<br /><br />With kind regards,<br />MatthewMatthew Franklin Cooperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15233216128641267240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4251777016037497783.post-62466714667957496102016-12-06T22:22:33.400-06:002016-12-06T22:22:33.400-06:00While the demoniacs of The Possessed certainly was...While the demoniacs of The Possessed certainly was an interesting take, even forward-looking, on secular radicals (namely the fringes of International Communism), it's hardly interesting anymore. As you've pointed out, we've experienced a generation of Maos and Frankos.<br /><br />But Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor parable sits with me to remind me of the grossest demoniac, the man of God who hates God and agrees with the Devil for the sake of Mankind. In that way, the fear is to abandon the Godman for something else. It's not necessarily arrogance, but a form of pity, a completely twisted logic.<br /><br />So, when I see Milibank on the list, I can't help but cringe. I am not speaking of him personally, but the RadOx romanticization of the Medieval period is highly disturbing. Of course, it's merely an odd aestheticized fetish to wax about a past that never was, but it's that sort of thing that ought to warn us of the possibility of something seriously wrong.<br /><br />The path to Mangodhood is not merely a secular rejection, but the theological rejection of God. It's the warped Cardinal who intends the best for his flock. The theologian is most apt to speak the devil's words before they are repeated by political practice.<br /><br />God have mercy during such dark days<br />calCal of Chelcicehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04274276191242967318noreply@blogger.com