Two recommended videos: Erik Varden on chastity, Bernard McGinn on St. Bernard

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One of the best spiritual writers today, whose books are easily accessible, redolent of deep erudition and the Christian ascetical and mystical tradition, hails from right here in Norway and resides in Trondheim. Indeed, that city is the site of his episcopal see. A bishop of the Roman Catholic Church, he’s something of an oddity; I’m fairly certain that he’s the only Trappist monk in our day (formerly Abbot of Mount Saint Bernard Abbey in England) who has been consecrated as bishop. I’m speaking of Erik Varden, with whose books some of you may already be familiar (and if you’re not, I recommend giving them a try; you can read more about Bishop Varden here, and you will find a list of his books here).

His most recent book is Chastity: Reconciliation of the Senses, dealing with a many-faceted subject that — it scarcely needs saying — is of special importance in our time, in which the word’s true, and indeed virile, significance has been all but lost. (You can read an excerpt from the book by clicking here.)

It was this book that provided the catalyst for the discussion between Bishop Varden and journalist Sebastian Morello in the first of the two videos below. Filmed in Trondheim this past spring, it features three conversations, each of which is framed by beautiful photography of this great northern cathedral city and pilgrimage site (I’ve enjoyed the rare visit to Trondheim myself).

The topics covered (the film is about an hour and forty minutes long) have to do with the relationship between eros and mysticism, beginning with Origen and moving on to St. Bernard of Clairvaux and the subsequent tradition, the state of our culture today and what the renewal of the Christian ascetical/mystical heritage offers, the reconciliation of the churches, and much more. (During the last conversation, which was taped in Bishop Varden’s residence, you may spot on the wall one of my wife’s (Solrunn Nes’s) icons of the Theotokos — she, of course, knows him.) I think you will find the video well worth your time if you give yourself to it attentively.

The second video is one I’ve posted on this page before. It is half an hour with the estimable (retired) Bernard McGinn of the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, who ably introduces us to St. Bernard’s Sermons on the Song of Songs, one of the “great books” of Western Christianity and certainly one of the most important texts of its mystical canon. I’ve added it here for obvious reasons: Bernard is cited by Bishop Varden, an inheritor of the Cistercian heritage himself, in the first video. If you have never read Bernard of Clairvaux, perhaps McGinn’s introduction will ignite your interest. (To lay my cards on the table, St. Bernard has had a profound influence on me ever since I first read him in my early twenties, and I continue to return to him frequently.)

Here are the videos.