The "Comment Magazine" interview (free post)
In which Matthew Milliner compels me to lay bare my soul...
About a month ago, I was interviewed (see below) by Matthew Milliner for Comment, and his sharp and penetrating questions elicited from me more revealing information about myself than I’m typically wont to provide. Don’t be taken in by his likening me to Evagrius of Pontus (yes, he really does); all I’ll say to that is that it’s definitely a first.
(Charles Spencelayh (English, 1865–1958), "The Laughing Parson", 1935, Oil on canvas, 49.5 x 39 cm, Grundy Art Gallery)
Topics include my perceived mix of mysticism and “cynicism” (which I redubbed “skepticism”), “Hart family dynamics” (in which I answer the perennial question, “Do I always agree with my brother David?”), a related “hated question,” on whether or not I “go to church,” “the digital terrain” I navigate in curmudgeonly style, spiritual “pitfalls to avoid,” my wife (Solrunn Nes), and ways we can begin to “encounter God.”
It was like going to confession, only a bit more fun.
Here then is the interview, which you can access by clicking here. I hope you enjoy it.
I discovered your work rather late (I've known David since we were both in grad school). A few years ago, I teased him (through a mutual friend) by asking what it was like to have so brilliant a brother.
It's rare to find someone with whom one agrees on just about everything, but I agree with every single thing you say in this interview. And it brings me a great deal of consolation, because it can be hard to think that mystical prayer is at the center of Christian life; that the institutional churches have very often compromised themselves in barely excusable ways; that these same churches are absolutely essential as bearers of the deep traditions of prayer, ascetic discipline, scriptural herrmeneutics, orthopraxis, and so on; that Christianity doesn't hold the truth to the exclusion of all other spiritual traditions; that the heart of the gospel is something truly radical (and not, as others seem to imagine, a comforting affirmation of values supposedly held by "decent people");that "contending with Torah" (a pithy way of talking about skepticism) is right and good and essential; and so forth.
It can be hard, because it can be a bit lonely. I've been a devout Christian (raised Catholic, a convert to Eastern Orthodoxy) my whole life, and yet I daily look around and wonder if I actually am one, given that I seem to hold very few ideas in common with those who seem to believe they are acting on behalf of God.
Which is all my verbose way of saying thank you, Addison. For the interview, and for all that you've written. You may not be Evagrius, granted (who is?), but water in the desert nonetheless.
I feel the same as he does about your work. It's become essential. Great interview!