That McDermott's source is not Irenaeus himself but—Michael McClymond! tells you all you need to know about his knowledge of the gnostics. It's like learning about jazz from Adorno. And he claims that you dismiss McClymond's book "without argument," as if you hadn't devoted 4000 words to it—several of them specifically against the claim about the Carpocratians—at Eclectic Orthodoxy three years ago. That said, to give this guy any more attention is straining at a gnat.
I would love to read that story of what happened with FT. Thank you for this update.
Apologies for veering off topic, but I just wanted to mention how grateful I was to encounter your remarks featured over at Eclectic Orthodoxy on Universal Restoration and animals. My dog just received a 6 month prognosis and while my heart grieves mightily, I was comforted by the picture you painted of the personal quality of animals and of their place in the kingdom. Again, please excuse me not adhering to the topics raised in this post, but I wanted to express my gratitude somewhere.
I only discovered this website after reading McDermott's article "A Lonely Hart" in FT. And man, did that discovery make my day. I didn't hesitate to subscribe (and I usually avoid even minor monthly payments on anything I don't really need, so consider your work essential reading). I was waiting impatiently for your reply in FT, and had no idea you'd cut ties with the magazine. So I'd say McDermott's warning to keep far away from you has backfired, at least in my case.
If I may, I think the great appeal of your work for many (definitely for me) is the defense of the concept of a God who is loving in the ordinary sense of the word "loving" that we humans are not only taught, but seem to instinctively grasp or intuit. Although I've always had a strong sense of God's presence (even in an embarrassing atheist phase) I've been somewhat of a lazy theological seeker, never satisfied with what the "authorities" have concluded, but not having the mental capacity or motivation to find my own way through the maze (unfortunately, a childhood habit of being extremely bored in church seems to have carried over into my adult spiritual life) . So when I read your book "That All Shall be Saved" I said "Finally! Someone talking sense!" Now I'm paying attention. Keep up the good work!
Dr Hart, regarding whether to write a possible expose on First Things or the sending of another diatribe in the direction of Mr McDermott, my advice to you, as someone who seems to have a great love for the teachings of the Buddha, is that you recall two verses from the Dhammapada:
In this world never is enmity appeased by hatred; enmity is ever appeased by love. This is the Law Eternal. The many who know not this also forget that in this world we shall one day die. They do not restrain themselves. But those who recognize the Law end their quarrels soon. (Dp verses 5-6)
Jesus would agree, I think. How much better, in my blinkered opinion, if you were to use your truly impressive erudition to share what pieces of music you like, and why (with suggested recordings... please?), or write on what delights you about The Wind in the Willows, Pooh, or any of the other "children's books" you have suggested you will share? By the way, I highly recommend Abel's Island, if you've not read it.
In the end each of us has only so much time. While the world has always loved watching dogfights of this sort, I would urge you to leave off with the whole McDermott/FT thing (and I admit that as a non-Christian this might be easier for me to say than for most here) and give us instead new things to stimulate our minds, our hearts, our ears or (dare I say it?) even our taste buds.
I am one of those late subscribers, but I can't recall if it was because of McDermott. I think it was because of your habit of pairing adverbs with adjectives in such a bizarrely inventive way.
I have literally five books on my shelf thanks to your recommendations in this substack and I only subscribed a few weeks ago. I feel like I have accessed an entirely new and unique universe thanks to it. I'm spreading the news far and wide in the hopes you might make some more lists, those things are like crack for me!
It is always such a joy to read these updates. It really is a wonderful way for you to connect with your audience, and I'm glad that audience is growing. I really can't begin to tell you how your writing has helped my own life: professional, personal, spiritual, theological. Thank you for sharing your gifts so prodigally.
As for First Things, I would encourage you to pray about it. Often, it is good to "let it be known" so that the record is clear, especially after relentless personal attacks. At other times, it's good to let what is buried remain so. Careful discernment is key, as I'm sure you know. Thank you again for the update.
I just want to say a huge thank you for your writings. I am just starting to engage more with them, and I find them very thought-provoking. As a conservative who is very opposed to “NatCon” and a disgruntled former First Things subscriber, I would love to hear your story about your departure. They really have kept going downhill since I was last a subscriber in 2016, from what I can tell.
I first started reading First Things a little more than a decade ago. Admittedly I focused more on the political/culture-wars stuff than on the other content. But it struck me as a gay man that a lot of its content was pretty nasty, uncharitable, and callous. I don't mean that its bottom line on those issues was pretty different from mine (it was and is, but that's why I was reading in the first place); but that the tone of the discourse just did not seem very interested in appreciating the human stakes involved or the realities of the lives it casually judged and dismissed. Maybe my judgment was unfair, and it's been long enough that I don't think I'd be able to find and re-evaluate the writing that made me reach this conclusion. But to me its descent into the alt-right seemed something of a piece (which isn't meant to disparage all of its content or contributors, then or even now).
As interesting as I would find a telling of the story, I think I agree with other commenters that it's unnecessary and likely unhelpful. The articles it publishes about you are very bad--but I think reading the articles and the responses to them is a pretty good exposition of their badness, and revealing in its own way about the break.
Sad to say of course but it seems that you may be arguing with someone who suffers some moral privation and well my particular track for such ones is simply to beg off. But I think in this case (and you have already experienced a surge in readership) you should stay engaged in the fight, and not just because everybody loves a fight but because we all need training in how to argue a point intelligently and logically and not just to win the argument but in the end to understand the world we live in and most importantly the God whom has brought all things into existence.
"But it is now obvious to me that the resentment incurred by my departure is not going to subside, so I think I will have to write an article recounting what happened and why, just to make clear what is going on (and on and on). Unless you, kind readers, advise otherwise. (Comments solicited.)"
Only and I mean only, because you asked--Don't. It's beneath you. Past is past; get past it.
My cautious intuition is that FT is not really worth any more of your time and that most of your readers already know enough about your reasons for leaving. The current members of the masthead seem to find it gratifying to provoke you to respond to their attacks, and no doubt your exchanges with your critics there (both in FT and in the hallowed pixels of this Substack) garner them a goodly haul of unearned readers and attention. As a ghost at an air-raid once said,
These things have served their purpose: let them be.
That McDermott's source is not Irenaeus himself but—Michael McClymond! tells you all you need to know about his knowledge of the gnostics. It's like learning about jazz from Adorno. And he claims that you dismiss McClymond's book "without argument," as if you hadn't devoted 4000 words to it—several of them specifically against the claim about the Carpocratians—at Eclectic Orthodoxy three years ago. That said, to give this guy any more attention is straining at a gnat.
I would love to read that story of what happened with FT. Thank you for this update.
Apologies for veering off topic, but I just wanted to mention how grateful I was to encounter your remarks featured over at Eclectic Orthodoxy on Universal Restoration and animals. My dog just received a 6 month prognosis and while my heart grieves mightily, I was comforted by the picture you painted of the personal quality of animals and of their place in the kingdom. Again, please excuse me not adhering to the topics raised in this post, but I wanted to express my gratitude somewhere.
I only discovered this website after reading McDermott's article "A Lonely Hart" in FT. And man, did that discovery make my day. I didn't hesitate to subscribe (and I usually avoid even minor monthly payments on anything I don't really need, so consider your work essential reading). I was waiting impatiently for your reply in FT, and had no idea you'd cut ties with the magazine. So I'd say McDermott's warning to keep far away from you has backfired, at least in my case.
If I may, I think the great appeal of your work for many (definitely for me) is the defense of the concept of a God who is loving in the ordinary sense of the word "loving" that we humans are not only taught, but seem to instinctively grasp or intuit. Although I've always had a strong sense of God's presence (even in an embarrassing atheist phase) I've been somewhat of a lazy theological seeker, never satisfied with what the "authorities" have concluded, but not having the mental capacity or motivation to find my own way through the maze (unfortunately, a childhood habit of being extremely bored in church seems to have carried over into my adult spiritual life) . So when I read your book "That All Shall be Saved" I said "Finally! Someone talking sense!" Now I'm paying attention. Keep up the good work!
Dr Hart, regarding whether to write a possible expose on First Things or the sending of another diatribe in the direction of Mr McDermott, my advice to you, as someone who seems to have a great love for the teachings of the Buddha, is that you recall two verses from the Dhammapada:
In this world never is enmity appeased by hatred; enmity is ever appeased by love. This is the Law Eternal. The many who know not this also forget that in this world we shall one day die. They do not restrain themselves. But those who recognize the Law end their quarrels soon. (Dp verses 5-6)
Jesus would agree, I think. How much better, in my blinkered opinion, if you were to use your truly impressive erudition to share what pieces of music you like, and why (with suggested recordings... please?), or write on what delights you about The Wind in the Willows, Pooh, or any of the other "children's books" you have suggested you will share? By the way, I highly recommend Abel's Island, if you've not read it.
In the end each of us has only so much time. While the world has always loved watching dogfights of this sort, I would urge you to leave off with the whole McDermott/FT thing (and I admit that as a non-Christian this might be easier for me to say than for most here) and give us instead new things to stimulate our minds, our hearts, our ears or (dare I say it?) even our taste buds.
My two cents.
Sherrard was a wonderful man, so it’s pleasant company to keep.
Rutschman looks very much like the real thing.
I am one of those late subscribers, but I can't recall if it was because of McDermott. I think it was because of your habit of pairing adverbs with adjectives in such a bizarrely inventive way.
On "less is more", I typically defer to master logician Yngwie Malmsteen: https://youtu.be/QHZ48AE3TOI
I have literally five books on my shelf thanks to your recommendations in this substack and I only subscribed a few weeks ago. I feel like I have accessed an entirely new and unique universe thanks to it. I'm spreading the news far and wide in the hopes you might make some more lists, those things are like crack for me!
It is always such a joy to read these updates. It really is a wonderful way for you to connect with your audience, and I'm glad that audience is growing. I really can't begin to tell you how your writing has helped my own life: professional, personal, spiritual, theological. Thank you for sharing your gifts so prodigally.
As for First Things, I would encourage you to pray about it. Often, it is good to "let it be known" so that the record is clear, especially after relentless personal attacks. At other times, it's good to let what is buried remain so. Careful discernment is key, as I'm sure you know. Thank you again for the update.
Yes, the FT story please.
I just want to say a huge thank you for your writings. I am just starting to engage more with them, and I find them very thought-provoking. As a conservative who is very opposed to “NatCon” and a disgruntled former First Things subscriber, I would love to hear your story about your departure. They really have kept going downhill since I was last a subscriber in 2016, from what I can tell.
I first started reading First Things a little more than a decade ago. Admittedly I focused more on the political/culture-wars stuff than on the other content. But it struck me as a gay man that a lot of its content was pretty nasty, uncharitable, and callous. I don't mean that its bottom line on those issues was pretty different from mine (it was and is, but that's why I was reading in the first place); but that the tone of the discourse just did not seem very interested in appreciating the human stakes involved or the realities of the lives it casually judged and dismissed. Maybe my judgment was unfair, and it's been long enough that I don't think I'd be able to find and re-evaluate the writing that made me reach this conclusion. But to me its descent into the alt-right seemed something of a piece (which isn't meant to disparage all of its content or contributors, then or even now).
As interesting as I would find a telling of the story, I think I agree with other commenters that it's unnecessary and likely unhelpful. The articles it publishes about you are very bad--but I think reading the articles and the responses to them is a pretty good exposition of their badness, and revealing in its own way about the break.
Dr. Hart, a bit unrelated, but do you have any thoughts on Sri Ramana Maharshi's take on Vedanta?
Sad to say of course but it seems that you may be arguing with someone who suffers some moral privation and well my particular track for such ones is simply to beg off. But I think in this case (and you have already experienced a surge in readership) you should stay engaged in the fight, and not just because everybody loves a fight but because we all need training in how to argue a point intelligently and logically and not just to win the argument but in the end to understand the world we live in and most importantly the God whom has brought all things into existence.
"But it is now obvious to me that the resentment incurred by my departure is not going to subside, so I think I will have to write an article recounting what happened and why, just to make clear what is going on (and on and on). Unless you, kind readers, advise otherwise. (Comments solicited.)"
Only and I mean only, because you asked--Don't. It's beneath you. Past is past; get past it.
My cautious intuition is that FT is not really worth any more of your time and that most of your readers already know enough about your reasons for leaving. The current members of the masthead seem to find it gratifying to provoke you to respond to their attacks, and no doubt your exchanges with your critics there (both in FT and in the hallowed pixels of this Substack) garner them a goodly haul of unearned readers and attention. As a ghost at an air-raid once said,
These things have served their purpose: let them be.
So with your own, and pray they be forgiven
By others, as I pray you to forgive
Both bad and good. Last season's fruit is eaten
And the fullfed beast shall kick the empty pail.