Marginal Christianity

Jon Miltimore  | September 11, 2017 The idea that hurricanes can be anything other than destructive might sound strange to many people. And the idea that they can be a source of redemption and healing probably sounds downright absurd. But the novelist Walker Percy (1916-1990) believed just that. To Percy, a writer and philosopher from Louisiana, modern man’s great struggle was the absence of great struggle. He believed malaise is the scourge of postmodernity, and violent storms are a respite from the dreary humdrum of our monotonous existence. “I knew a married couple once who were bored with life, disliked each other, hated their own lives, and were generally miserable — except during hurricanes,” a character recalls in the novel  Lancelot . “Then they sat in their house at Pass Christian, put a bottle of whiskey between them, felt a surge of happiness, were able to speak frankly and cheerfully to each other, laugh and joke, drink, even make love.” Read more at...

Now, call into question the unspoken assumption: something is wrong with you. Like Copernicus and Einstein, turn the universe upside down and begin with a new assumption. Assume that you are quite right. You are depressed because you have every reason to be depressed. No member of the other two million species which inhabit the earth—and who are luckily exempt from depression—would fail to be depressed if it lived the life you lead. You live in a deranged age—more deranged than usual, because despite great scientific and technological advances, man has not the faintest idea of who he is or what he is doing. Begin with the reverse hypothesis, like Copernicus and Einstein. You are depressed because you should be. You are entitled to your depression. In fact, you’d be deranged if you were not depressed. Consider the only adults who are never depressed: chuckleheads, California surfers, and fundamentalist Christians who believe they have had a personal encounter with Jesus and are save...

Peter Lawler   So lots of readers (about six) have written me asking for advice on what book they should read to turn their lives around.   Here’s my recommendation:   Lost in the Cosmos  by the philosopher-physician-novelist Walker Percy. It was published in 1983, and I’m one of the very few Americans celebrating the book’s 30th anniversary. Several posts will be required to lay out even the basics about being lost in the cosmos.   This, of course, is the first.   Percy’s Lost in the Cosmos is subtitled “The Last Self-Book.” He said he gave the book that title so that it would end up in the self-help section of bookstores. And it did.   From Percy’s view, our bookstores are mostly filled with two kinds of books—self-help books and diverting or entertaining books about scandal-ridden law firms or extraterrestrials or vampires or a bunch of sexually obsessive shades of grey. Diversions, of course, get your min...

As I was re-reading Walker Percy’s The Thanatos Syndrome this past fall I ran across this remarkable passage. I will quote it at length. It is a conversation between Dr. Tom More and a presumably mad priest, Father Smith. The old priest is now a fire-spotter for the park service and the conversation takes place in the tower he lives in. We pick up the conversation with Father Smith speaking: “Words are signs, aren’t they?” “You could say so.” ”But unlike the signs out there (the trees on fire), words have been evacuated, haven’t they.?” “Evacuated?” “They don’t signify anymore.” ”How do you mean?” . . . The two proceed to spar verbally until Father Smith proposes a word association exercise. “Let me turn the tables on you and give you a couple of word signs and you give me your free associations.” “Fine.” “Clouds.” “Sky, fleecy, puffy, floating, white – “Okay. Irish.” “Bogs, Notre Dame, Pat O’Brien,“ “Okay. Bla...

http://bigthink.com/rightly-understood/did-walker-percy-really-write-the-last-self-help-book?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bigthink%2Fmain+%28Big+Think+Main%29 by Peter Lawler February 24, 2013, 9:20 AM So lots of readers (about six) have written ME asking for advice on what book they should read to turn their lives around. Here's my recommendation:   Lost in the Cosmos  by the philosopher-physician-novelist Walker Percy.  It was published in 1983, and I'm one of the very few Americans celebrating the book's 30th anniversary.  Several posts will be required to lay out even the basics about being lost in the cosmos.  This, of course, is the first. Percy’s Lost in the Cosmos is subtitled “The Last Self-Book.”  He said he gave the book that title so that it would end up in the self-help section of bookstores.  And it did. From Percy’s view, our bookstores are mostly filled with two kinds of b...