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Post by maolsheachlann on Dec 19, 2018 11:37:20 GMT
Does anyone have any thoughts on the purpose and value of culture? (Please don't say, "It depends what you mean by culture".)
I mean in a general sense, and also in terms of whether culture is important to the spiritual life.
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Post by hibernicus on Dec 20, 2018 18:56:58 GMT
I would say that culture is important to the spiritual life, because both are based on addressing what it means to be human. The problem is that so much modern culture (both high and mass culture) is nihilist to varying degrees, and that some cultivators of culture as spirituality have a very naive view of the artist as saint and prophet, which elsewhere was severely reconsidered after the events of C20 Europe. (Ex-abbot Mark Patrick Hederman comes to mind.)
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Post by maolsheachlann on Dec 20, 2018 20:08:16 GMT
I would say that culture is important to the spiritual life, because both are based on addressing what it means to be human. The problem is that so much modern culture (both high and mass culture) is nihilist to varying degrees, and that some cultivators of culture as spirituality have a very naive view of the artist as saint and prophet, which elsewhere was severely reconsidered after the events of C20 Europe. (Ex-abbot Mark Patrick Hederman comes to mind.) I really think humanity is the key term. Our society NECESSARILY diminishes our humanity because we have to fill various roles in which our humanity is shrivelled; teacher, student, worker, boss, customer, applicant, etc. Culture is a way in which we can seek to preserve our wholeness. But an interesting question to me is-- what can culture give us that religious practice can't, if anything?
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Post by assisi on Dec 21, 2018 20:16:29 GMT
I would say that culture is important to the spiritual life, because both are based on addressing what it means to be human. The problem is that so much modern culture (both high and mass culture) is nihilist to varying degrees, and that some cultivators of culture as spirituality have a very naive view of the artist as saint and prophet, which elsewhere was severely reconsidered after the events of C20 Europe. (Ex-abbot Mark Patrick Hederman comes to mind.) I really think humanity is the key term. Our society NECESSARILY diminishes our humanity because we have to fill various roles in which our humanity is shrivelled; teacher, student, worker, boss, customer, applicant, etc. Culture is a way in which we can seek to preserve our wholeness. But an interesting question to me is-- what can culture give us that religious practice can't, if anything? Culture can provide a more easily digestible and pleasure oriented form of religious practice. For example devoted football fans can have rituals, songs, displays, passion and a strong sense of belonging and history. Most culture is based upon shared likes, interests and identities as well as socially agreed manners. Religious practice entails, at heart, a request that we transform ourselves from a self centered person to a humble servant, something that is a challenge to all but ultimately rewarding. We really need both. As humans we should enjoy the fruits of the world around us (music, food, companionship etc.) but non-religious culture will only take one so far. It cannot provide ultimate meaning and cannot provide a consistent moral structure for living.
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Post by hibernicus on Dec 21, 2018 22:46:44 GMT
I'm not so sure that our social roles only shrivel our humanity - some may develop and extend it, or at least part of it.
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Post by maolsheachlann on Dec 21, 2018 23:13:16 GMT
I'm not so sure that our social roles only shrivel our humanity - some may develop and extend it, or at least part of it. True...I should have really said limit it, not shrivel it.
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