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| The claims of the soul...often a function of pain. Photo: Zach Dischner |
The tendency of our time is to idealize nature, with its impulses and appetites, not to transcend it. While anthropological discourse since antiquity has dwelt on what sets man apart from other species, there is a strange determination abroad, these days, to evidence that we are no more than animals.
This does not mean, though, that our age is impervious to the Spirit. The claims of the soul are evident for being often expressed negatively, a function of pain.
While moderns are loath to speak of God, they readily admit to feeling trapped in creaturely limitation.
While giving no explicit credence to doctrines of the afterlife, they are consumed with a yearning for more.
While determined to assume their incarnate humanity, they vaguely know that our body points beyond itself, since every apparent satisfaction is but achingly provisional.
From the forthcoming book Chastity: Reconciliation of the Senses by Erik Varden, a Trappist monk, and Bishop of Trondheim, Norway.
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