| 19 August, 2024 Dear Reader, Twenty years ago, as rector of Sydney University’s St John’s College, I interviewed a young woman for admission. In those days it was still acceptable for a Catholic educational body to expect in its students a certain sympathy, at least, for the Christian faith, so I asked her about her views on religion. They weren’t exactly positive: she told me that she thought religion was the opium of the people (yes I know, it wasn’t original, but she was only 18) and she came pretty close to saying that she thought that the clergy should be hanged from lamp posts. ‘Why then,’ I asked her, ‘would you expect me to offer you a place in a Catholic college?’ ‘Oh,’ she bounced back shamelessly, only mildly embarrassed, ‘is this a Catholic college then? I hadn’t picked up on that!’ My would-be student (I did in fact offer her a place) was in fact a very pleasant young woman who taught me a very useful lesson: the gulf between believers and unbelievers has yawned beyond anything we had previously imagined. Perhaps we Christians are over-sensitive, but that’s hardly surprising: the Fatherhood of God is the most important thing in the world to us, for he is our Origin and our End. In the western world, at least, such a view of the reality of existence has been widely discarded by older generations and – what is far sadder – is now virtually unknown to most of the young. They are blind to Great Matters that to us are blindingly obvious. Their lives look utterly meaningless to us – and so do ours to them, and absurd too: St Paul foresaw that clearly when he wrote that if Christ never rose ‘we of all men are the most pitiable’. I have looked at the video of the Olympics parody that so offended Christians. I don’t doubt that it was deliberate. A woman by the name of Barbara Butch (not her birth name, one suspects) played the principal role, and claimed later in an Instagram post that a parody of the Last Supper or at least on da Vinci’s interpretation of it was specifically intended. The post was almost immediately pulled, presumably at the instigation of the IOC. Subsequent attempts by the IOC at damage control were laughably unconvincing. Clearly there was a degree of mischief if not actual malice behind the scenes and the actors must have been fully aware of parallels with the Last Supper, but I still question whether insulting Christians was the primarymotive, or if that parallelism even occurred to the vast majority of its spectators. Am I being naive? Perhaps so, but contemporary ignorance about beliefs that were once almost common to humanity is often astonishingly profound. The chasm between believers and insouciant unbelievers is now so wide that effective communication is impaired. We think we understand each other but haven’t got a clue. Every year when we in Tasmania see MONA‘s three illuminated crosses at the Dark Mofo we can’t help but take them to be an intended mockery of our Faith. But the devastating truth is that words and actions that can deeply hurt us may now mean little or nothing to many of our fellow citizens, and that they simply cannot imagine why we so readily take offence. Rather than be outraged, let’s try harder to give them the benefit of the doubt. Blasphemy can certainly be a quite deliberate act of hatred for God arising from a bitter and angry soul. In modern parlance it can be ‘hate speech’. Or it can be merely an unthinking, insensitive sneer from someone who knows no better. On balance I’m glad that we no longer have laws against blasphemy, because the Law is such a blunt instrument that it cannot readily discern the secrets of the heart. I think it’s true that if any aspect of Islam had been parodied, even accidentally, a fatwa could follow and those responsible might have paid dearly for their insolence. Christians should be glad that, by and large, we can take such things on the chin. Nowadays everybody gets offended by something. Being offended has become a western middle-class pastime – and a big money-earner too because when ‘offence’ is mentioned, ‘compensation’ never seems to lag far behind. For Heaven’s sake let’s not allow ourselves be identified with that mentality. Let’s move on and tell people the Good News, rather than carp at them for not having heard it already. With best wishes to all, as ever, David Daintree SUMMER SCHOOLS BOOK NOW ONLINE MEDIEVAL LATIN and BIBLICAL AND KOINE GREEK 2023 COLLOQUIUM BOOK WOKERY – A WAKE-UP CALL FOR THE WEST, the complete proceedings of last year’s Colloquium, is now on sale. The cost is $35 (postage included). ORDER ONLINE HERE or write to us at director@dawsoncentre.org. FOR FURTHER READING POPE FRANCIS COMMENDS LITERARY STUDIES In a recent letter (4 August) the Pope strongly defended the study of secular fiction and poetry, ‘because books open up new inner spaces and help to face life and understand others.‘ Here is the Vatican report. US academic Anthony Esolen wisely comments here. ‘The study of literature makes you free of the solipsism of the present,’ he writes. Anthony Esolen, by the way, is an extraordinarily gifted conservative commentator. In a recent article Turning on Children he deplores the socially suicidal tendency throughout the West of people not wanting children, and their blindness towards the infinite value of what they so nonchalantly and selfishly exclude from their lives: ‘Compared with the child, the Grand Canyon is a crease in a rock. Compared with the child, the stars are so much powder. The child may be fascinated by the doe, and he may imagine what it might be like to be a deer; the deer cannot return the favour. In the child’s eyes we can see the great metaphysical truth, that the human is greater than the universe, because even a child can go out to meet that universe, while the universe knows nothing of the child.‘ ABORTION – A MARKET IN BODY PARTS? According to Kurt Mahlburg (Mercatornet 16 August) the ‘harvesting and exchange of fetal body parts’ is a feature of the abortion industry in the US. A whistleblower journalist by the name of David Daleiden is facing prosecution over this claim. If you look at Wikipedia‘s entry on Daleiden here you will find his claim stoutly denied and his integrity impugned. There must be misinformation here, but where exactly? It is becoming increasingly hard to discern truth in public affairs. ‘THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANT’ Melanie Phillips accuses Justin Welby of siding with those who have abandoned civilisation for the surrender to barbarism. A PLEA FOR ACADEMIC FREEDOM The New England Journal of Medicine recently published an article urging the ‘stifling of contentious campus debates’. This article by Wesley J Smith takes issue with that. He notes: ‘A hundred German professors wrote a book attacking Albert Einstein’s special theory of relativity. Einstein’s response? If his theory was wrong, it would not take the word of 100 scientists but rather just one fact. Scientific disputes and academic disagreements are properly handled in this way, not by institutional authority but by reason, data, and experimentation. The freedom to speak and disagree is essential to science.‘ TWO MORE ON PARIS 1. ‘SNEERING ATTACK ON CHRISTIANITY’ This piece by Gerard Kennedy finds that Christians have some improbable allies including Jewish journalist Dennis Prager and atheist Richard Dawkins. 2. ‘THE VERY BEST FRANCE HAS TO OFFER’? Spiked writer Malcolm Clark examines the sinister origins of French ‘queer theory’ in this powerful and confronting article. This piece demonstrates shockingly that moves to lower the age of consent and to eroticise young people have been seething beneath the surface in ‘progressive’ western circles for several decades. FURTHER LIST OF ‘CLASSICAL SCHOOLS’ 1. Internationally celebrated (and occasionally maligned) Jordan Peterson has now launched his own Peterson Academy. Peterson has long argued that traditional mega-universities are no longer fit for the purpose of teaching the liberal arts. Here’s his answer to that. 2. Melbourne now has its Independent School of Philosophy. Its upcoming course PHILOSOPHY AND TRAGEDY: SOPHOCLES’ ANTIGONE is worth a close look: ‘We will read and discuss the play carefully to try to form an independent understanding of Sophocles’ intention. We will also consider some excerpts from the philosophical interpretations that see Antigone and tragedy as illuminating the core of human life by Hegel, Aristotle, Nietzsche and Heidegger. ‘Of all the masterpieces of the classical and the modern world…the Antigone seems to me the most magnificent and satisfying work.‘ (Hegel, Aesthetics) ENROLMENTS HERE. they are also offering courses in Ancient Greek languagethis Spring. Enquiries: PhilosophySchool@protonmail.com 3. Thales College and Thales Academy in the US are also worth a look. Both have experienced a huge growth rate since their foundation in 2016. 4. Memoria College, in Kentucky, USA, “exalts Socratic Wisdom—the humble recognition that we all have much more to learn. As such, Memoria College was founded to be a flexible and convenient opportunity to access the Great Books, offering a classical education to any adult who did not formally receive one or who wishes to broaden their education. Courses are intended for teachers, homeschooling parents, and all who wish to immerse themselves in the Great Books and the best that has been thought and said” COLLOQUIUM 6 JULY All talks are now online: Richard Brown Teaching Authentic Humanism in schools – is it possible? An educator’s view Bella d’Abrera Undoing Australia: how the Australian Nation is being Dismantled, One Statue at a Time Natalie Kennedy Cultivating a Posture of Awe and Wonder Anna Krohn Christian Paideia: For the Hearth and Road Lucas McLennan Western Perspectives in the Australian Curriculum Archbishop Porteous T.S. Eliot and the Future of Western Culture Karl Schmude A Transcendent Humanism: Recovering the Vision of Christopher Dawson Fr Matthew Solomon The Salvation of the West: A return to the Enlightenment or the Embracing of Tradition? Anna Walsh Without Hindrance or Fear of Reprisal: the attitudes and experiences of NSW and Victorian doctors with a conscientious objection to abortion Prof Steven Schwartz Authentic Humanism and the Crisis of Culture Closing address at dinner COMING EVENTS BRISBANE CLASSICAL AND LIBERAL SCHOOLS FORUM A one-day event to be held on 24 September. Registration is free. Register here. CHESTERTON SOCIETY ANNUAL CONFERENCE At Campion College, Sydney, on Saturday 2 November. Details Here. DAWSON CENTRE SUMMER SCHOOLS JANUARY 2025 LATE AND ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN Monday 6 to Friday 10 January 2025 Venue: Notre Dame Priory, Colebrook, Tasmania BOOK HERE The Latin school assumes some prior knowledge of the language and leads participants through a selection of important readings in poetry and prose, sacred and secular, from authors such as Augustine, Jerome, Bede, Peter Abelard, Aquinas, the Carmina Burana, and even Dante. In date our selections range from the poet Virgil to the abdication speech of Pope Benedict! There will also be a segment on palaeography when participants can handle real medieval manuscripts. Note that this course does not take any position on the use of Latin in Church, but it recognises that Latin remains the official language of the western Church and acknowledges the insistence of the last four popes that Latin must be preserved! Accommodation may be available on request at the Priory. Enquiries to guestmaster@notredamemonastery.org. BIBLICAL GREEK FOR BEGINNERS Monday 13 to Friday 17 January 2025 Venue: Fr John Wall Memorial Library, 131 Tower Road, New Town, Tasmania BOOK HERE The New Testament and Koine Greek school is for beginners who want to experience the excitement of reading parts of the Bible in the original language. We shall read extracts from the Gospel and Epistles, as well as some important passages from the Septuagint (the ancient Greek version of the Old Testament), as well as some pieces from the early Fathers of the Church and the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom. For all booking details and enquiries, email director@dawsoncentre.org |