Katie van Schaijik

Is it all Hegel’s fault?

Nov. 16, 2011, at 9:50am

In this fascinating segment of Uncommon Knowlege posted at National Review Online today, Peter Robinson asks Hillsdale Professor Paul Rahe what has happened to the American experiment?  How is it that the greatest democratic system in history has been systematically subverted?  His answer, in a word, is "progressivism", and he identifies Hegel as its source.

Thanks to Hegel, says Prof. Rahe, the idea spreads that government should be conducted by "rational administrators"—an elite whose role it is to caretake the rest.  This is of course in direct opposition to the American  ideal of self-government.

The administrative state grows by "offering a helping hand" and "with that helping hand, …

Jules van Schaijik

New translation of the mass: Dashed hopes?

Nov. 16, 2011, at 7:00am

To help prepare the faithful for the new translation of the mass, our parish priests have lately taken some time out of their homilies each week to read part of an official document (I don't know where they got it) explaining what the most significant changes are, and why they were made.

The section read this week included a change made to the words of institution:

The previous translation of the Mass referred to Jesus' blood having redemptive value "for all." The new translation replaces the words "for all" with "for many."

"For many" is apparently closer to the Latin text of the mass, and also in greater continuity with the Tradition. More importantly, it

…remains closer to Jesus' …

Katie van Schaijik

Disposing over my own existence

Nov. 15, 2011, at 9:52am

Last weekend I visited our daughter, Rose, in Steubenville, where she was stage manager for the drama department's production of A Midsummernight's Dream.  As with everything of Shakespeare's, I found the play repleat with personalist significance.

Our professor, John Crosby, who wrote the book on personal selfhood, taught us to think of the "self-possession of the human person" in terms of the right to "dispose over my own existence." (This is not the full "what and how" of personal existence, but it is a defining aspect.)  

Since that phrase is ever in my head when thinking about the nature and dignity of the person, I was particularly struck by an early line of the play:

Egeus is …

Katie van Schaijik

Liturgy and Personality

Nov. 14, 2011, at 12:46pm

Since the Church in the English-speaking world is about to be renewed by the introduction of a new translation of the novis ordo, it seems a good moment to delve into Dietrich von Hildebrand's great classic Liturgy and Personality, which unfolds the unrealized depths and riches in the Liturgy, in the human personality, and in the mysterious relation between the two.

Accordingly, the first four sessions of our newly re-instituted First Friday Reading Circle gatherings for members will be dedicated to it.  If you'd like to participate either by coming to our home on December 2, or by reading along and listening to Jules' introduction to the text via podcast, be sure to become a member.

For …

Jules van Schaijik

True simplicity

Nov. 12, 2011, at 2:35pm

Steve Jobs, whose genius I've long admired and whose biography I've been listening to lately, was well known for his desire to simplify products and make them more user friendly. (There is a friendly and funny spoof on this, by the Onion.) "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication," Apple's first brochure proclaimed. But simple is not to be confused with simplistic. True simplicity, Jobs knew, comes "from conquering complexities, not ignoring them."

This put me in mind of a chapter on "True Simplicity" in Dietrich von Hildebrand's classic work, Transformation in Christ—a context about as far removed from computers as can be imagined. Von Hildebrand makes a similar distinction within the …

Katie van Schaijik

The kindness of strangers

Nov. 12, 2011, at 8:08am

Last night, looking for a mom's potluck dinner, I went to the wrong address.  I knew it must be wrong when I saw so few cars.  But movement at the window gave me the courage to ring the bell.  The woman who answered saw me standing there with a bottle of wine and a doubtful look on my face.  

"This isn't the Swifts, is it?"  

She didn't recognize the name, but she did recognize my perplexity.  She opened her door wider and said, "Come on in.  We'll figure it out."

I had the street number wrong.  But now I was doubting that I was even looking for the right house.  Maybe the party wasn't at the Swift's at all.  I said to her, "If there's no one there, can I come back and use your phone?" …

Katie van Schaijik

Practical wisdom about love

Nov. 10, 2011, at 11:12am

Last night the Personalist Project hosted a lecture in our home by Catholic psychologist and marriage counsellor, Dr. Peter Damgaard-Hansen, titled: "The art of loving your spouse, and what to do when you can't."  We'll be posting it soon for members.  

It was a treasure trove of deep practical wisdom.  One line among many that struck a chord with me was: "It's okay not to be able to love;  It's not okay to be unloving."

For me this resolves a difficulty I experience constantly, especially in parenting my children.  I often feel crushed by the weight of my responsibility toward them and sort of wail inwardly to God, "I can hardly be responsible for myself, morally--what were you thinking …

Jules van Schaijik

The effects of thinking the unthinkable

Nov. 5, 2011, at 6:36am

The idea that there are intrinsically evil acts—acts that are always and everywhere wrong no matter what the circumstances or consequences may be—is often challenged by appeals to extraordinary cases, real or imagined. Killing one innocent person, it is said, though obviously wrong in most cases, may be justified if it is the only way to save fifty others. Or adultery, though morally bad in general, can hardly be considered wrong in the case of Mrs. Bergmeier, for whom it was the only way to get out of prison and rejoin her family.

I have always found such arguments troubling, especially when they are used extensively in the classroom. Rather than nourishing, clarifying and strengthening …

Katie van Schaijik

Frances Chesterton, kindred spirit

Oct. 31, 2011, at 2:11pm

Reading Ian Ker’s biography of G.K. Chesterton this morning, I learned some things about his beloved wife, Frances.  For one, she was prone to depression; grey, wet weather effected her terribly.  Yet her faith was deep and true, and essentially personalistic.

Here is Fr. Ker, quoting from her journal:

Unlike her husband, who enjoyed rain and grey skies, Frances felt like a new person ‘because the sun is shining’, which made her feel ‘warm with the thought of all I have and warmer with the thought of all I am going to have and warmest of all with the thought that Love thought well to include me in his list of favored persons’.

Katie van Schaijik

Public morality and the common good

Oct. 18, 2011, at 1:36pm

Over at the Witherspoon Institute Robert George has a characteristically thoughtful and helpful article on pornography and public morality.

He shows the limits of the distinction (favored by liberals and libertarians) between public and private acts.

Theorists of public morality—from the ancient Greek philosophers and Roman jurists on—have noticed that apparently private acts of vice, when they multiply and become widespread, can imperil important public interests.

(And this is not yet to mention the still deeper moral truth that even my most secret and isolated sinful act has repercussions for others; that every wrong, no matter how small and hidden, proportionately lowers the …

Katie van Schaijik

Validating feelings

Oct. 16, 2011, at 12:01am

In a book on hospice care for the dying called Final Journeys, I came across these lines:

When I first meet people who are adjusting to a terminal diagnosis, I never try to diminish their emotions. “Yes, this is terrible news and it’s very, very sad,” I say. “You don’t need to make excuses for the way you feel. You have a right to feel this way.” These words identify and recognize the struggle the dying person and family are going through. Validation is one of the first and most important tools for opening a different door. [Emphasis added.]

It struck me as a true and beautiful insight, and a typically modern one. It reflects the “turn toward subjectivity” that is a major hallmark of our …

Katie van Schaijik

Choice and borderline personality disorder

Feb. 10, 2011, at 2:26pm

Cleaning off my laptop desktop today, I find this passage from a James Bowman review of the movie My Summer of Love. Good food for thought.

Writing in The Times of London about the Michael Jackson trial, Oliver James, a psychologist, notes that “The thing about people with borderline personality disorder, which I believe Jackson has, is that they have a weak sense of self — as evidenced by the need to change his skin color, his erratic moods and the fact that he thinks he is Peter Pan. They are constantly acting out different personalities, which means that the boundary between fantasy and reality is blurred.” As in other ways, however, in this Michael Jackson stands for so much …

Katie van Schaijik

A personalist approach to Natural Family Planning

Jan. 20, 2011, at 4:12pm

An acquaintance from many years back, in Steubenville, sent a note just now:

I just came across today, by accident as it were, one of the old articles
which you wrote for the university concourse some time ago.

I thought I would write you to let you know that I think your assessment of this matter was “spot on”! It’s too bad that so many people are still tying themselves up in knots trying to figure this one out. I’d encourage you, if you haven’t already done so, to republish this article on the
personalist project web-site. Hope all is well.

I think perhaps I have posted it here before, but, no harm in repetition.

The topic of came up for me again too recently, when my newly engaged …

Katie van Schaijik

Fr. John Courtney Murray

Dec. 29, 2010, at 4:48pm

A good article over at the American Spectator today, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of John Courtney Murray’s book of essays, We Hold These Truths.

Murray had a keen intellect, steeped in the classical and Western traditions once common among Jesuits of his stature. He was comfortable arguing politics, theology, national defense policy and history. He challenged assumptions of both the Left and Right. He offered precise and subtle arguments that have been used and, sometimes, misused by both sides in debates over different issues over the years. But his faith in the inherent reasonableness of God and man is a welcome tonic to the corrosive anti-intellectualism, power politics and relativism of the present age.

Katie van Schaijik

Christmas meditation

Dec. 24, 2010, at 12:55pm

Here is Christmas sermon of Newman’s framed to awaken and deepen our sense of the religious meaning of this feast and the way it tests our hearts and sensibilities. 

When He was born into the world, the world knew it not. He was laid in a rude manger, among the cattle, but “all {252} the Angels of God worshipped Him.” Now too He is present upon a table, homely perhaps in make, and dishonoured in its circumstances; and faith adores, but the world passes by.

Let us then pray Him ever to enlighten the eyes of our understanding, that we may belong to the Heavenly Host, not to this world. As the carnal-minded would not perceive Him even in Heaven, so the spiritual heart may approach Him, …

Jules van Schaijik

Humbug

Dec. 20, 2010, at 9:55pm

In an as yet unpublished essay on William James (the centenary of whose death is this year), John Crosby reminds us of the fact that James “was a man with the mind of a scientist and the heart of a believer.” This gives him special relevance for today’s world in which the harmony between faith and science is once again challenged by the so called “new atheists”.

These new atheists are convinced that an objective and scientific approach to the world inevitably reveals all religion to be mere superstition. But Crosby points out that the very opposite was true for James:

…the empiricism of science is one main source of James’ openness to religion. He absorbed in his early …

Katie van Schaijik

A feast of beauty brought to you by mind-blowing technology

Dec. 19, 2010, at 3:04pm

I have lately been feeling what a cursed temptation the internet is—how easily it ensnares me and lures me further into its endless titillating wastes, devouring all my time and energy.  Some days I feel as if it has become for me that nasty little reptile sitting on one of the torn souls in Lewis’ The Great Divorce—something I must kill in order to get free.  Other times I think rather it is something analogous to sexuality as such (as opposed to a particular perversion): a potent force that I must to learn to curb and master, so that it serves my true good aims.

Whatever it is, there’s no denying its uses and charms.

Consider this virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel—and don’t fail to have …

Katie van Schaijik

Advent souls

Dec. 18, 2010, at 1:54pm

Today we received in the mail a Christmas card from the Dietrich von Hildebrand Legacy Project. Its outside features a painting of the adoration of the magi by Hugo van der Goes:

The inside features a beautiful quotation from von Hildebrand’s Transformation in Christ.

Blessed are the Advent souls, unsatisfied in the world, awakened to the truth that God alone can give us true peace, witnesses to the worlds of St. Augustine, “Restless is our heart until it rests in Thee.”

“Advent souls” is a mystery worth pondering. The coming of Christ into our lives at one and the same time brings deep peace and renders us unsatisfied with the world. How is this? And what does it mean?

Katie van Schaijik

Should we say “no” to facebook?

Dec. 15, 2010, at 2:25pm

Good post with some great links by Michael Knox Beran today at the Corner.

Electronic community has its virtues, but the morbid craving for it evident in the success of Facebook reveals the degree to which actual community has collapsed in much of the West. A multitude of causes have brought the civilization closer to Tocqueville’s prophecy of the last democratic man, shut up in “the solitude of his own heart,” but among these the war a number of our elites have waged against traditional town-square culture is surely not the least.

Personalism is in the air.

Katie van Schaijik

Persons and responsibility

Dec. 15, 2010, at 11:19am

An NRO interview with economist Dierdre McCloskey offers some food for personalist reflection.  Keep in mind a thought from the post below, viz. that pre-modern man did not conceive of himself as a person; “person” was reserved for trinitarian theology.

But, in fact, rhetoric and dignity are rather easily measured, and that is the task of the next book, The Bourgeois Revaluation: How Innovation Became Ethical, 1600–1848. Stay tuned. You can measure the shifting significance of bourgeois words: honesty, profit, responsibility, monopoly, etc., by looking in historical dictionaries and historical texts in all the languages of commerce, from 1600 to 1848. “Responsibility,” for example, …