A couple of fantasy dinner party (or bbq) guests...
First, George MacDonald. Just read (and highlighted almost all of) C S Lewis's anthology of his nuggets. Very fresh. Interesting to see the same kind of insights about soul and self that Rowan draws from Eastern Christianity, and a McGilchrist-like explanation of the value of attention, from a nineteenth century Scottish Congregationalist.
And Australian writer, Tim Winton. Apart from being befriended by his novels, I came across his short piece, Twice on Sundays, in the collection of autobiographical essays, The Boy Behind the Curtain. A lovely, clear-eyed, and honest account of Evangelical churchgoing as a child, teenager, and young adult, and trying (then not-trying) to articulate what being a practicing Christian has meant to him in later life. A bit of tonic in the deconstructing-faith genre. Like MacDonald, homely and in-his-skin, but marked by encounters with grace.
As often happens, I hear a lot of resonances with Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (a guest at my intellectual dinner party!), in the way that [minor spoilers] Piranesi is able to perceive the world around him 'in its simple thereness, resting on nothing but the creative act of God, glowing in its reality'; a contrast to The Other, who is blinded by avarice and cannot see beyond the projection of his own wants and fantasies.
There is also soulfulness in the way he transforms his pain and confinement into something 'beautiful, creative and self-renewing', and such bittersweetness in his tending to the remains of the people he has found, trying to form relationships and community in the most arid conditions.
I hope/suspect you've read it, but thank you for shedding light on one of my favs either way! A very 'fully alive' kind of book I think.
Which presumably would also include the body (I note that in Genesis, when the breath of God breathed on the dust, the human became 'a living nephesh' [soul]). I'm rather allergic to soul/body dualisms, given that what the soul 'is', is surely entirely dependent on the physical activity of the brain.
I’ve recently become obsessed with listening to Rowan Williams! I would say that the’nous’, the instinct for loving what is real and true is what drives artists to create. I think an artist uses a feeling to see where it takes them. We listen to Nina Simone and are captivated because we hear her express music “as it emerges from the hand of God“. Rowan shows us that this kind of authentic communication requires “the skills of living in a way that is faithful to what we most deeply are.”
As a Buddhist of the Mahayana tradition I was reading through your essay and have come to the conclusion that what your current definition of soul, or « what you really are » would be called in our tradition Buddha Nature.
Love your careful exploration of soul and how you weave different sources of influence. My dinner parties are usually frequented by Nietzsche, Martin Luther King, Mingyur Rinpoche, Virginia Woolf and Thomas Merton. Plenty of depth but not a lot of fun.
I’ve always imagined Zadie Smith, Elif Shafak and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at what I call “the dinner table of my mind”. They’re like my mother split in 3, and I am the host
I have also followed the concept used in Genesis that a human being is a living soul. That suggests to me that the soul is everything that we are…body, mind and spirit. What I most deeply am is everything that I am, have been and will be…so that nothing is lost.
I have been wondering lately if all the popular talk of “listening to one’s self” isn’t really just a distortion of a truer, unnamed truth —- that we listen *with* ourselves to a voice from beyond us. Some circles overemphasize the self as listening equipment, placing the message in the individual (as if the voices coming through the radio live inside the radio) Others (including my tribe of American evangelicalism) mistrust the listening equipment entirely (as though the radio itself is black magic) and refuse to use it at all. My sense is that the Orthodox spiritual tradition
Only when inward and outward are seen as separate they seem to contradict, is what I feel. I often think the basic meaning of sin, is just that. Outwardness that has lost its inner. Or going in and forgetting the body, the physical. I seem to find God as much as God finds me. Inner and outer entwined....things are not the product of soul, soul is not the product of things. Soul, to me, is that which holds and is held at the same time.
A couple of fantasy dinner party (or bbq) guests...
First, George MacDonald. Just read (and highlighted almost all of) C S Lewis's anthology of his nuggets. Very fresh. Interesting to see the same kind of insights about soul and self that Rowan draws from Eastern Christianity, and a McGilchrist-like explanation of the value of attention, from a nineteenth century Scottish Congregationalist.
And Australian writer, Tim Winton. Apart from being befriended by his novels, I came across his short piece, Twice on Sundays, in the collection of autobiographical essays, The Boy Behind the Curtain. A lovely, clear-eyed, and honest account of Evangelical churchgoing as a child, teenager, and young adult, and trying (then not-trying) to articulate what being a practicing Christian has meant to him in later life. A bit of tonic in the deconstructing-faith genre. Like MacDonald, homely and in-his-skin, but marked by encounters with grace.
Great stuff!
As often happens, I hear a lot of resonances with Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (a guest at my intellectual dinner party!), in the way that [minor spoilers] Piranesi is able to perceive the world around him 'in its simple thereness, resting on nothing but the creative act of God, glowing in its reality'; a contrast to The Other, who is blinded by avarice and cannot see beyond the projection of his own wants and fantasies.
There is also soulfulness in the way he transforms his pain and confinement into something 'beautiful, creative and self-renewing', and such bittersweetness in his tending to the remains of the people he has found, trying to form relationships and community in the most arid conditions.
I hope/suspect you've read it, but thank you for shedding light on one of my favs either way! A very 'fully alive' kind of book I think.
I have! But now need to reread
You might look here for more on the Buddha nature. https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Main_Page
'My soul is what I am most deeply am'
Which presumably would also include the body (I note that in Genesis, when the breath of God breathed on the dust, the human became 'a living nephesh' [soul]). I'm rather allergic to soul/body dualisms, given that what the soul 'is', is surely entirely dependent on the physical activity of the brain.
I’ve recently become obsessed with listening to Rowan Williams! I would say that the’nous’, the instinct for loving what is real and true is what drives artists to create. I think an artist uses a feeling to see where it takes them. We listen to Nina Simone and are captivated because we hear her express music “as it emerges from the hand of God“. Rowan shows us that this kind of authentic communication requires “the skills of living in a way that is faithful to what we most deeply are.”
As a Buddhist of the Mahayana tradition I was reading through your essay and have come to the conclusion that what your current definition of soul, or « what you really are » would be called in our tradition Buddha Nature.
Ooh thank you
Yes, as a Zen Buddhist I would agree, Margaret!
And Elizabeth, thank you. You've renewed my interest in the wonderful Rowan W.
Love your careful exploration of soul and how you weave different sources of influence. My dinner parties are usually frequented by Nietzsche, Martin Luther King, Mingyur Rinpoche, Virginia Woolf and Thomas Merton. Plenty of depth but not a lot of fun.
Rowan Williams is a gem!
I’ve always imagined Zadie Smith, Elif Shafak and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at what I call “the dinner table of my mind”. They’re like my mother split in 3, and I am the host
Thank you for this piece 🫶🏽
I have also followed the concept used in Genesis that a human being is a living soul. That suggests to me that the soul is everything that we are…body, mind and spirit. What I most deeply am is everything that I am, have been and will be…so that nothing is lost.
Intellectual stars…Keith Ward Stephen Cherry Paula Gooder Amy-Jill Levine Tom Wright ….
I have been wondering lately if all the popular talk of “listening to one’s self” isn’t really just a distortion of a truer, unnamed truth —- that we listen *with* ourselves to a voice from beyond us. Some circles overemphasize the self as listening equipment, placing the message in the individual (as if the voices coming through the radio live inside the radio) Others (including my tribe of American evangelicalism) mistrust the listening equipment entirely (as though the radio itself is black magic) and refuse to use it at all. My sense is that the Orthodox spiritual tradition
…the Orthodox spiritual tradition, at its best, avoids both pitfalls.
Thank you for this, Elizabeth. I am glad for the introduction to Rowan's work.
Only when inward and outward are seen as separate they seem to contradict, is what I feel. I often think the basic meaning of sin, is just that. Outwardness that has lost its inner. Or going in and forgetting the body, the physical. I seem to find God as much as God finds me. Inner and outer entwined....things are not the product of soul, soul is not the product of things. Soul, to me, is that which holds and is held at the same time.