An Interview on Tradition and Apocalypse
…and on Maximus, Traditionalism, Baseball, Frank Robinson…
During the winter months, as a result of my illness of 2014 and after (see Roland in Moonlight, a towering masterpiece among books written by dogs), my lungs are prone to inflammation, so I do not do many interviews. This is one of the few on Tradition and Apocalypse that I am likely to record, at least for a while. I found my interviewers exceedingly amiable and intelligent and I think the conversation—which included some very important observations on the current state of major league baseball—was fairly enlightening.
Praying for your health DBH - thanks for this treat ٩(◕‿◕。)۶
I'm currently reading Stephen RL Clark's Mysteries of Religion and I am seeing that some of his claims there are a bit more irenic towards the traditionalists. He certainly does say that it is a fundamentally irreligious attitude that refuses to follow the truth where it leads since that is tantamount to a refusal to see that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophies. He also says, however, that there are times when we need to maintain hold of a truer ancient vision against the tyranny of passing fads that hold us in thrall to quick dopamine fixes. And he also seems to defend or at least see as reasonable the attempt to resist changes in liturgy and doctrine since familiar and poetically powerful ancient forms conjure in us the right emotions or summon the appropriate gods or angels. The atavistic impulse may not always be a bad one. It is also curious though that traditionalists see attempts to reach back to to the first centuries are seen as modernism. My traditionalist friends, though, tell me that just because something is old doesn't mean it is correct, which seems to be a statement you would also hold. All of this seems to be so confusing to me. It seems to me that there are two equal and opposite errors and virtue lies in the mean. Do you think traditionalists go too far? And, on the other hand, do you also think that progressives can go too far in attempting to refashion the church in modernity's image? Where exactly do we draw the lines and are they as clear as some would suppose? Simple questions, I know.