Beauty of the Lord, Lewis and Orthodoxy, and Hanukkah for Christians

Before reading today's Microsynaxis, please take one minute to read the next 300 words:

While retail sales are hitting all-time records this holiday season, non-profits are suffering…and closing doors. According to Candid, an information resource for global and U.S. philanthropies, in a worse-case scenario nearly four in ten non-profits could close over the next three years due to COVID-19 related revenue shortages. That’s based on a 35% decrease in revenue that would result in 38% of all nonprofits closing shop. EDI’s revenue for the year is down 31% (a staggering 47% in November), which means Candid’s worse-case scenario seems highly possible.

To avoid that scenario, we need to raise $50,000. We’re hoping to do so by recruiting 100 new members. Amazingly, 42 have already joined the community! Thank you so much for the remarkable response we’ve had thus far.

But we still have a ways to go, especially to reach the amount we need to meet budget. And that means we really need some new pillars. So…

• If you donate $1,000 or more (or $75/month), we’ll send you our new EDI t-shirt, along with our annual winter blend of coffee roasted by our next-door neighbors (Local Roasters), our 10-year locally handcrafted coffee mug (by Lauren Johnson), and our 10-year writing journal. If you are a current pillar, we’ll gladly send you the same goods as our token of appreciation for your faithful support. You can see that new t-shirt here.

• If you join the community as a patron ($500 or $35/month), we’ll send you the coffee and writing journal.

• Every single penny counts and we deeply appreciate every donation. If you can't be a patron or pillar, consider donating $100 or $8/month to be an Eighth Day friend. 

Keep in mind that patrons and pillars receive a 10% discount at Eighth Day Books. Our twelfth annual Feast of the Nativity on January 2 is for members only. Plus pillars attend our featured events for free; patrons receive a 50% discount. Learn all about membership and the three tiers here.

Support cultural renewal today and keep on reading and thinking and learning and being encouraged through Microsynaxis (and Synaxis when you become a member).

In Christ,

Erin “John” Doom

1. Bible & Fathers: 1 Maccabees and “The Fair Beauty of the Lord” by C. S. Lewis

1 Macc. 1:10-15: In those days lawless men came forth from the sons of Israel, and they persuaded many, saying, “Let us make a covenant with the Gentiles surrounding us, for ever since we were separated from them, many evils have found us.” This proposal found favor in their eyes, and some of the people eagerly desired to enter into this agreement. So they went to the king, and he gave them authority to observe the ordinances of the Gentiles. Then they built a gymnasium in Jerusalem according to the customs of the Gentiles, and made themselves as the uncircumcision. So they fell away from the holy covenant, yoked themselves to the Gentiles, and sold themselves to do evil.

One shelf of my books at home holds the books I use for personal study. They include languages (French, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Russian), patristics (currently Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, Dorotheus of Gaza, John of Damascus, Maximus the Confessor, Gregory Palamas, Seraphim of Sarov, and Sophrony of Essex), and the Bible. Most of the books related to the Bible are on the Psalms, of which one is C. S. Lewis’s Reflections on the Psalms. I dip into it only occasionally and include here a sample of an excerpt from one of the chapters I read today:

The Jews were not, like the Greeks, an analytical and logical people; indeed, except the Greeks, no ancient peoples were. The sort of distinction which we can easily make between those who are really worshipping God in church and those who enjoy “a beautiful service” for musical, antiquarian, or merely sentimental reasons, would have been impossible to them. We get nearest to their state of mind if we think of a pious modern farm-laborer at church on Christmas or at the harvest thanksgiving. I mean, of course, one who really believes, who is a regular communicant; not one who goes only on these occasions and is thus (not in the worst but in the best sense of that word) a Pagan, practicing Pagan piety, making his bow to the Unknown—and at other times Forgotten—on the great annual festivals. The man I picture is a real Christian. But you would do him wrong by asking him to separate out, at such moments, some exclusively religious element in his mind from all the rest—from his hearty social pleasure in a corporate act, his enjoyment of the hymns (and the crowd), his memory of other such services since childhood, his well-earned anticipation of rest after harvest or Christmas dinner after church. They are all one in his mind. This would have been even truer of any ancient man, and especially of an ancient Jew. He was a peasant, very close to the soil. He had never heard of music, or festivity, or agriculture as things separate from them. Life was one.

Read the entire excerpt here. And then purchase a copy of the book from Eighth Day Books so you can read the entire excellent book.

2. Books & Culture: Eighth Day Books Catalog and “Asceticism, Sacrifice & Sexual Difference: C. S. Lewis and Orthodoxy in Dialogue” by Louis Markos

Earlier this year the Eighth Day Books Catalog was revived. You can read about that revival and the catalog’s history here. Or, better yet, get a physical copy from Eighth Day Books. One of the changes we made in the new version was to include short essays and essay reviews. And Louis Markos, who will be with us at the Symposium on Jan. 14-16, happened to offer us a great review of an excellent book by our friend Edith Humphrey: Further Up and Further In: Orthodox Conversations with C. S. Lewis on Scripture & Theology. Here’s a bit from the opening of that review:

One of the things I love about being a C. S. Lewis scholar is that it allows me to speak for and interact with churches and groups from every denomination: Baptist to Pentecostal, Presbyterian to Church of Christ, Methodist to Episcopalian, Lutheran to Catholic. I am even invited to address secular groups—conservative and liberal, academic and artistic alike—and to carry on conversations, in person or online, with Mormons and New Agers, Jews and Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. Such is the depth and breadth of Lewis that he seems to connect with nearly all people at some level. But that should not be surprising, since Lewis himself drew from a wide range of philosophers, theologians, and poets, both pagan and Christian, Catholic and Protestant.

This aspect of the self-proclaimed ordinary layman of the Church of England has ensured a steady stream of books about Lewis from authors of every denominational stripe. Still, to this point, there has been one major group of Christians that has not weighed in fully on Lewis’s legacy: the Eastern Orthodox. That is odd since close readers of Mere Christianity will be aware that Lewis was strongly attracted to the Orthodox doctrine of theosis: defined in Athanasius’ On the Incarnation (for which book Lewis wrote a fine preface) as the belief that God became like us so that we could become like him.

Later in the essay Markos dials in on a theme that is hugely important for Christians today:

Humphrey has much more to say on Lewis’s critique of subjectivism and defense of objective reality and morality that needs to be heard today; however, I would like to focus instead on those parts of her book that most engaged me: namely, her original interpretation of Lewis’s strangest and most haunting novel, Till We Have Faces, and her bold reading of Lewis’s view of masculinity and femininity.

Read the rest of the review here. And buy the book from Eighth Day Books. And again, be sure to also get a copy of the catalog!

3. Essays et al: “Hanukkah for Christians” by Dr. Mark Mosley

Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights, is a Jewish holiday that in 2020 began on December 10 and ends this evening of December 18. Our friend Mark Mosley offers a beautiful reflection on this festival. Here’s how he begins:

Hanukkah and the story of the Maccabees hands down an important message for Christians. It is the celebration and remembrance of the re-dedication of the Temple with miraculous oil that lit an eight-day fire which shines, even to this day, to a world that threatens to hold the God of Israel captive to pagan influences.

God’s dwelling place has always been set apart and dedicated to an unadulterated sacrifice which pleases God. God’s glory is a cloud and fire which by grace comes down from heaven to protect and comfort God’s people. In the Old Testament, the high priest (and later the king) is the intermediary whose feet are on earth and whose hands are raised into heaven. The priest is anointed with holy pure oil, as is everything in the place of worship. The whole earth is made sacred through the sacrifice of the high priest on behalf of the people and land.

Christians must “taste and see” that this history and wisdom that is communicated through the tabernacle, and the first and second temple, applies not only to the physical body of Jesus, but also to the Body of Christ which is the Church, both in the midst of her worship in the Christian temple and in her witness to the life of the world.

He goes on to provide history and to eventually tie this festival to the eighth day. The whole essay is beautiful...and poetic. Read it here.

Finally, don’t forget, if you’ve been encouraged, challenged, enlightened, or found any value whatsoever in my labor of love through Microsynaxis (or any of the other many EDI endeavors), please do consider supporting the work of renewing culture by joining the community of Eighth Day Members. Learn more about membership here and/or contribute to our year-end campaign here. Among many other perks, you’ll begin receiving the weekly member’s issue of Synaxis, which this coming weekend will include:

• Liturgy: Daniel the Prophet and the Three Young Men
  
• Fathers: St Ignatius of Antioch
  
• Poetry: “To Hilaire Belloc” by G. K. Chesterton
  
• Books & Culture: “Remembering to Hope: Three Christmas Stories” by Gaelan Gilbert
  
• Essays et al: “A Remaining Christmas” by Hilaire Belloc
  
• Essays et al: Oikophilia: The Love of Home by Erin Doom
  
• Essays et al: Oikophilia Is Iēsouphilia

Thanks so much for considering!