Against Doom: On Paul Kingsnorth’s Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity

A few years ago, I attended a Christmastime service at an Orthodox church in Washington, D.C. The liturgy was beautiful and the clergy welcoming and gracious. The icons decorating the church’s interior were indeed evocative, and the long, slender candles parishioners placed in sand added to the atmosphere. As I was walking back home I encountered a young man who had been there too, and explained that he was a convert. “In Orthodox Christianity,” he gushed, his eyes widening, “it’s like the Enlightenment never existed.”

The Incarnationals: On Christine Rosen, Charles Taylor, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty

“If you have heard God calling you in the depths of your heart, in spite of the tumult of the world, then you are indeed most blessed.” A nun named Irene wrote this sentence to me in a letter two summers ago. I had written to her asking for advice, expressing my deep disturbance at a sense of being called to religious life. “You should have no reason at all to be frightened of the possibility that God might be calling you to serve Him,” she continued. “It is the plan of Satan today to keep people well and truly busy and distracted by spending hours on social media at work and home. So few today spend time in prayer and due to the noise in their heads, they are incapable of hearing the gentle whisper.”