Remember that you are dust;
And to dust you shall return.

First a note on the Montly Medititation: I said on the 25th that it would be starting up again within two weeks. The reason I said so was that I had purchased a powerful software program that overcame the frustrations of Microsoft Outlook and enabled me to manage this newsletter efficiently. After three days I am overwhelmed by the potential of this software.

Unfortunately, the potential remains unactualized. It seems the programmers may have rushed it to the market before some of the bugs were worked out. I had the joy of spending over three hours trying to communicate with them to explain how to fix the problems. They remain unfixed.

Now, here's the thing: I'm probably already in a better situation just using the parts of the software that work. If so, I will send out a Monthly Meditation by March 10. If they explain to me how to work out the problems, not only will I end up using this software, but I'll almost certainly recommend it to any of you that work for non-profit organizations - like schools, for instance. I love to find resources that can help others, and if this works well and the support is in place it might be priceless.

If they don't get me through this, I'll have to search, regretfully, again for that holy grail of communications management software.

A word on the conference:
The date is confirmed! July 29-31, 2004.
The location is partially set: Memphis, TN.

Westminster Academy is co-sponsoring and hosting this year's conference. I am persuaded that the result will be an even better conference than the last two. Location and registration details will be provided as we work them out.

Ludwig Wittgenstein had a theory about language that he called “language games.” At least part of his idea seems to be that when people speak about religious things they are playing a game. They are using words for an end or purpose, but the words are void of meaning. Such words have an effect. Religious words can inspire, move, encourage, even, given the right setting, fill somebody with that feeling of awe and dread that lies at the root of religious experience.

But, if I am understanding Wittgenstein accurately, he argues that these words, be they never so powerful, have no meaning. That is to say, they are useful, but they don’t refer to anything in reality – anything outside the word-symbol itself.

Since we all know what religious hypocrisy is, we can all understand his basic point. It is indubitably the case that a person can confess the Nicene Creed, for example, without having the foggiest notion what “only-begotten” means. Yet, that very confession can be filled with associations of reverence - standing or kneeling in an ancient pew, bowing before an altar, crossing oneself, chanting Psalms, listening to sermons and readings, singing antique songs – and these associations of reverence can connect the confession to a feeling of holiness that has no necessary connection to the words spoken. For one’s entire life, one could continue to confess the Nicene Creed and be stirred by it without ever investing either the words of the Creed or the word “confess” with any meaning.

Increasingly, this conquest of the word is the path of American piety. Since the late 1800’s words, especially religious words, have slipped the mooring of reality and become the instruments of the speaker, writer, or community. Words, in short, have become instrumental instead of meaningful.

On Sunday, I encountered this reality in my own church. I was confirmed a member of the Episcopal Church USA and I was confirmed by the Bishop of North Carolina. This is another way of saying that I was confirmed into a church that borders on or has crossed the line into apostasy by a Bishop who borders on or has crossed the line into schism. Why I would do such a foolish thing with my eyes wide open is the subject of a later blog – or discussion.

The bishop then gave a sermon. In it he spoke of the unity that we should be seeking in Christ. He pointed out that what all Christians share is Christ as the son of God. That we are called to follow Christ, the son of God. That the gospel is a gospel of forgiveness. That we should be like God in the love we show others.

I could have heard the same sermon in any Baptist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, or Catholic Church. And it might have come across as powerful. This time, I confess, I was agitated. The Bishop was a master of rhetoric, but he was evidently speaking from himself. He was trying to lift the church beyond the controversy of the present moment to create a unity, as he would say, in Christ – a unity that overcomes these petty differences that threaten to divide.

Oh dear.

And indeed, if only the words don’t mean anything we can have a unity around words. We can all rally round the flag of love or tolerance or compassion or any other word you wish to use to justify your love of ease and lack of principled courage. All we need to do is to break the connection between the words and their realities.

Love is not always good. It seduces boatloads to hell.
Tolerance is not always good. It empowers evil when it refuses to resist.
Compassion is not always good. It contorts itself into sentimentality when it feels better for feeling so bad.

It isn’t around words that we are called to unity. We are called to unity in the Word. And the Word calls us to obedience. And that obedience is a meaningful submission to commands – even those that frustrate us and defy our most powerful inclinations. Commands that are both meaningful and instrumental. And the greatest command is to love God. A God who is not a word or an experience, but a covenant maker who rewards and punishes.

The second greatest command is to love our neighbors as ourselves. But that comes second and can only be rightly and wisely done when the greatest is obeyed. Because my neighbor is in the image of the object of the first command.

Love of neighbor begins with worship of God. Love of neighbor is accomplished in submission to the very concrete commands of this very living God – A God who has opinions and has revealed them. he dreads what sin does to his church. So he excludes practicing adulterers, fornicators, homosexuals, idolaters, witches, the wrathful, the seditious, the envious, revelers, and other self-destructive souls from authority in the kingdom of heaven.

Only in this context can the forgiveness of God mean anything. For what are we being forgiven if not from sin? The love of God woos our souls from our self-destroying passions and appetites. He calls us to repent so He can make us whole.

We cannot call ourselves worshippers of the Son of God if we don’t recognize His authority. We cannot proclaim His forgiveness if we do not recognize His law. We cannot speak of love of neighbor if it means tolerating his self-destruction. God’s purpose is to glorify His children, not to satisfy their harmful passions.

How many times I have discussed theological issues with Christians, only to be cut short with the retort, “It’s all about words. You are making a big issue out of disagreements over words.”

Yes.

It’s all about words. It’s all about language. It’s all about the word. Use language or theorize about it in a way that harms it, that undercuts or misdirects its power, and you have become an instrument of evil. Break the connection between Being (He who said “I Am”) and the Word (He of whom it was said, “the Word was with God and the Word was God”) and you break the soul of man and the fabric of the universe.

I fear that I watched a bishop bring judgment on himself for doing so on Sunday. Please pray for his soul.

Within two weeks the CiRCE Institute Monthly Meditation will be back in operation. If you have signed up, keep an eye out. If you haven't and would like to, visit the home page at www.circeinstitute.org. You can sign up there. It's free.

You were promised conference news and I've got some for you. I spent the early part of the week in Memphis, TN, visiting the good folks at Westminster Academy and they have offered to host the conference this summer! The date and specific location are now being finalized. We will either be meeting on July 22-24 or July 29-31, 2004. In addition, we are trying to secure a location that will be warm and intimate, while keeping the costs down.

For me, the highlight of the conference has always been the personal interaction. I love meeting with the people who attend - with most of whom I have been in E-mail communication leading up to the conference. I understand that will diminish as the conference grows, but only so much. I don't envision ever having a CiRCE conference that grows over, say, 300 people. The interaction is just too important. That is why we use college campuses: they are, after all, collegial.

In addition, you can expect to hear an announcement about who will be receiving the Paideia Prize very soon. If you have attended one of the first two conferences, you know that the central event of the retreat is the Paideia Prize-giving banquet. David Hicks received the first prize and Dr. Louise Cowan from University of Dallas received last year's. The Paideia Prize is for Lifetime Contribution to Classical Education. I see the banquet as analogous to the communion service. If you are near Memphis and can't make the conference, look into attending the banquet. But you will want to be there for the whole conference.

Each year we improve our recording system from the previous year. In 2003 we switched from the unreliable analog system of 2002 to to the more reliable digital recording. Now we are working on improving the production quality of the CD's. We have set up a team to look after editing the speeches. With a little good fortune we will be able to reformat some of the 2003 talks. A couple of them have more dead time than is desirable. Also, they are not divided into tracks, so it is hard to get back to the spot where you left off in your last listen. But all the reviews indicate the talks are so good they are worth the inconvenience. We appreciate that, but we still want to do away with the imperfections.

If you would like a set of the 2003 talks, they are available for $119.00 for ALL 30 CD's. If they are as life-changing as some folks have indicated, that's an awfully good deal.

If you would like to pre-order the 2004 set, I'll forewarn you now that we will be offering them at a steep pre-conference discount in the range of $99.00 per set. If you are interested, write us at info@circeinstitute.org or call (704) 321-2929.

The conference theme for 2004 is A Celebration of Justice. We'll be exploring three of the most practical questions anybody ever asked:

1. What is justice?
2. How can I become just?
3. How can I establish it in my setting (home, school, community, church, nation, etc.)?

Yesterday a friend and headmaster wrote me a very insightful E-mail wrestling with the problem of just grading. Maybe this isn't a question you have explored, but can we be justified in giving unjust grades? And what qualifies a just grade?

Another question I've been rolling around in my mind is the issue of classroom management. Why are we so concerned about management and so indifferent to justice? Of course, the question isn't accurage. We aren't indifferent to justice. We just don't spend much time learning how to institute it because we are so busy managing our classrooms. But are we creating a need by our very solution? Is this an instance of The Law of The Catastrophic Continuum?

Learning is self-discovery. Learning goes beyond the so-called real world we are supposedly preparing our students to enter. Learning reminds us that this realm isn't all there is. Ancient words carry a wisdom that modern ambition and pragmatism cannot perceive. Learning, as God intended it, is a window to the eternal.

Math patterns the permanence of truth.
Languages order the mind to perceive the realities with which language is concerned.
History makes us grow up by helping us understand ideas in a broader context than one's own mind and by multiplying our options when seeking solutions.
Literature is the real source of learning. The story comes first. (For more on this, you may be interested in a speech I gave at the Education Policy conference two weeks ago. It is called The Transforming Power of Story. E-mail me if you are interested).
Music is the doorway from the sensual to the spiritual world. Music is the sonic imitation of the movements of the soul. Self-knowledge is impossible apart from sound understanding of music.
Natural Science reveals the instability of human theory and discovery while filling the soul with awe at the works of the creator.

Without the elemental experience of a direct encounter with an idea (in a text, performance, artifact, etc.), the bright student will catch on - and latch on - to whatever the commentator on the text says. Nobody is easier to lead about by the nose (to quote Goethe's Faust) than the bright student eager to please.

Give me ponderers. Give me students engaged in the Romance of Reason! Give me the student who blows away my lesson plan because he is so desperate to experience an idea (but not for any other reason). Give me students eager to learn.

Early in Canto 26 of the Inferno, Dante says,

"more than usual, I curb my talent,
that it not run where virtue does not guide;
so that, if my kind star, or something better
has given me that gift, I not abuse it."

This is the same canto from which I quoted Ulysses' words on February 5. No duty could persuade Ulysses to curb his talent. He wanted experience and he would use his rhetorical skills to persuade others to assist him in his quest - even to their death. Dante, on the other hand, would not let his talent "run where virtue does not guide."

Dante is straining to make a point here, as evidenced by that fact that the theme carries through multiple cantos. later, in canto 28 the pilgrim Dante meets Mohammed among the sowers of dissension and scandal. When Mohammed asks who the pilgrim is, Virgil, Dante's guide through the inferno, answers

"Death has not reached him yet, nor is it guilt that summons him to torment; but that he may gain experience."

The poet has created a deliberate tension between his own quest for experience and that of Ulysses. Why is Dante in hell in order to gain experience, while Ulysses is in hell for trying to gain experience?

The clues are spread through the three cantos. Dante's words, quoted above, are one clue. He submitted to the guidance of virtue. A second clue is found negatively in Ulysses'words quoted on Feb 5:

"neither my fondness for my son nor pity
for my old father nor the love I owed
Penelope, which would have gladdened her,
was able to defeat in me the longing
I had to gain experience..."

Ulysses' quest for experience was at the expense of both natural affection and natural duty.

And what experience did Ulysses seek?
"experience of the world
and of the vices and the worth of men."

This seems noble enough. Certainly Dante gains just such an experience "of the vices and the worth of men" as he travels through the afterlife. But why did Ulysses want this experience? And what was he willing to do to gain it?

When he gives his motivational speech to his crew, he appeals to them to take note of "this brief waking-time that still is left to your senses," in recognition of which "you must not deny experience of that which lies beyond the sun, and of the world that is unpeopled." The quest to cram as much experience into "this brief waking-time" drives them. After death their senses won't be able to gain experience any more. And here we approach the heart of Ulysses' folly.

He doesn't understand man. He is rooted in a confusion that sees the body as both not to be resurrected and yet the source of all experience. Neither of these premises are healthy. The senses will operate forever, though they seem to go through a temporary period of uselessness prior to the resurrection. But even so, they are not the source of all experience.

As Dante travels through purgatorio and then paradiso, we will see increasingly the inadequacy of his sensual perceptions. Experience will transcend what the body can discover. The physical sciences are compelled to bow before a knowledge they cannot attain. They will recognize and operate within their boundaries.

And this brings us to still another clue to the different types of experience Dante and Ulysses are seeking. The latter had said he wanted to experience that which "lies beyond the sun, and of the world that is unpeopled." In another place he says,

"I and my companions were already old and slow, when we approached the narrows
where Hercules set up his boundary stones."

There's the word: boundaries. The unlimited quest for experience without boundaries is the folly of Ulysses and the plague of the western mind since the rise of nominalism and, especially, the enlightenment. In canto 27 a new character appears. His name is Guido Da Montefeltro. Unlike Ulysses, when he reached old age (a central theme of the last two circles of hell), he wanted to "gather in [his] sails and gather in [his] ropes" but he was deceived by the pope into treachery. He insisted that his fame had reached the "boundaries of the world" for his cleverness in council. Now he wanted to stop sinning and be a friar. Perhaps he hoped that he could trick God. Instead he was tricked by God's vicar. And he gave council that went beyond the boundaries of the moral law with words that went beynd the boundaries of just meaning.

For what is sin but transgression of the law, and what is transgression but going beyond the boundaries. The lust for experience without boundaries has brought us to the brink of many calamities: AIDS, world hunger, terrorism, deconstructionism, moral relativism, legal relativism, teen suicide and pregnancy, abortion, etc. etc. etc. Experience, especially sense experience, cannot bear the weight of human society and the human soul. It must be guided by virtue, bounded by duty, and instructed by law. The intensity of your yearning is irrelevent. It may simply be the kiss of Francesca.

Better prude than crude!

I won't apologize for thinking the Superbowl blew it, for stating that MTV is vile and should be censored, for insisting that Janet Jackson conducts herself in a sub-human manner, for declaring that Justin Timberlake is bestial, and that these forces combine to damage souls.

The childish delusions of the dying baby boom are over. We now consciously choose the path of death or we repent and choose the path of life. We now have the empirical data to prove that sexual immorality kills people, divides churches, raises insurance rates, impoverishes families and communities, threatens national security, and, as an afterthought, makes fools of its practicioners. The baby boomers have experienced everything. They wouldn't listen to reason or experience. They ignored ancient traditions and the lessons of history. Soon they will join Ulysses in Canto 26 of the Inferno.

"neither the sweetness of a son, nor compassion for my old father, nor the love owed to Penelope, which should have made her glad,

could conquer within me the ardor that I had to gain experience of the world and of human vices and worth;

... there appeared to us a mountain, dark in the distance, and it seemed to me higher than any I had seen.

We rejoiced, but it quickly turned to weeping; for from the new land a whirlwind was born and struck the forequarter of the ship.

Three times it made the ship to turn about with all the waters, at the fourth to raise its stern aloft and the prow to go down, as it pleased another,

Until the sea had closed over us."

At an Education Policy conference held in St. Louis last weekend I learned these distressing facts: 25 years ago, there were two STD's. Now there are 25-30. 85% of the people who have STD's show no symptoms. 95% or more cases of cervical cancer are, if I heard this right, caused by extra-marital sex, particularly among teen-agers. An STD time bomb may be lingering under the surface of our adolescent culture.

Maybe Janet Jackson did us a favor. Her artificial mammary gland may have alerted us at last to the fact that MTV is out of control, that we are losing our minds (that's what STD's often do, right?), and that a culture without restraint is a culture without life.

In the not too distant future, adolescent minded journalists will begin the orchestrated comeback against censorship and other ways societies regulate the sick people in their midst. I hope Dr. Laura will be there to tell them to shut up.