Two weekends ago, in conjunction with the 33rd anniversary of Eighth Day Books, we celebrated the Inklings for the seventh year in a row. It was an amazing weekend. If you missed it you really should plan on attending next year. It’s always the weekend after the annual Touchstone conference (either the third or fourth weekend of October).
In light of our recent Inklings Festival, today’s issue of
(Micro)Synaxis is focused thematically on the Inklings and beer. But I’ve also thrown in a preview of one of the readings for the Symposium seminar on “Lust and Lies” (Jan. 12-13, 2022) plus two bonuses: an old piece on why EDI and EDB celebrate the Inklings and a brief report on my sabbatical.
Speaking of the Symposium,
get the details and register here today with your discount code (you should have received your code in the email with the content of this issue of Synaxis). The price for the seminar, which is not applicable for the discount, will increase on Dec. 1. Also, the banquet is only included in the all-access price until Dec 1 when the early bird registration rate ends.
One final announcement: Save the date for this year’s Giving Tuesday on November 30. I’ve got some fun plans in the works for this year that I’ll be announcing next week.
Now dig in.
1. Bible: St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians 4:9-16
Brethren, God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men. We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become, and are now, as the refuse of the world, the off-scouring of all things. I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.
2. Liturgy: Synaxis of the Archangel Michael & the Other Bodiless Powers: Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Salaphiel, Jegudiel, & Barachiel
On Monday, November 8, the Church commemorated the aforementioned angels. Here’s a description of this feast, along with the festal hymns, from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America:
All the Angels, according to the Apostle Paul, are ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation (Heb. 1:14). God set them as overseers of every nation and people, and guides to that which is profitable (Deut. 32:8); and while one Angel is appointed to oversee each nation as a whole, one is also appointed to protect each Christian individually. He commands them to guard them that hope on Him, that nothing should harm them, neither should any evil draw nigh to their dwelling (Ps. 90:10-12). In the Heavens they always behold the face of God, sending up to Him the thrice-holy hymn and interceding with Him in our behalf, seeing they rejoice over one sinner that repents (Is. 6:2-3; Matt. 18:10; Lk. 15:7). In a word, they have served God in so many ways for our benefit, that the pages of Holy Scripture are filled with the histories thereof. It is for these reasons that the Orthodox Catholic Church, wisely honoring these divine ministers, our protectors and guardians, celebrates today the present Synaxis that is, our coming together in assembly for their common feast to chant their praises, especially for the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, who are mentioned in the Scriptures by name. The name Michael means “Who is like God?” and Gabriel means “God is mighty.” The number of Angels is not defined in the divine Scriptures, where Daniel says that thousands of thousands ministered before Him, and ten thousands of ten thousands attended upon Him (Dan. 7:10). But all of them are divided into nine orders which are called Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim, Dominions, Powers, Authorities, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels.
Apolytikion of Synaxis of the Archangels, Fourth Tone: O Commanders of the Heavenly Host, we the unworthy beseech you, that through your entreaties you will fortify us, guarding us in the shelter of the wings of your ethereal glory, even as we fervently bow before you crying: “Deliver us from all danger, as Commanders of the Powers on high!”
Kontakion of Synaxis of the Archangels, Second Tone: Chief Commanders of God; ministers of divine glory; guides for men and leadership of the Incorporeal; as Chief Commanders of the Incorporeal, plead for our welfare and for great mercy.
3. Fathers: "On Lying" by St. Augustine
Our pre-Symposium Seminar on January 12-13, 2022, will explore the theme of “Lust and Lies in the Bible (Ezekiel), the Fathers (St. Augustine), the Liturgy (TBA), and Literature (TBA).”
Here’s a small sample from St Augustine’s treatise “On Lying.”
The Seminar is limited to 10 participants so if you want to join us for an amazing experience of discussing great texts together, a sort of group
lectio divina,
register today here.
4. Poetry: “The Rolling English Road” by G. K. Chesterton
I can’t recall if it was a Symposium or an Inklings Festival, but I do recall Dr. Ralph Wood leading us through this anti-Prohibition poem (originally titled “A Song of Temperance Reform”). Instead of linking directly to the poem, I found a good article on it in
The Guardian, which ends with the full poem.
Check it out here. And you’ll get more on Chesterton’s view on prohibition in the next piece, also by Ralph Wood.
5. Books & Culture:
The Flying Inn by Ralph Wood
At our second annual Eighth Day Symposium, back in 2012, Dr. Ralph Wood gave a great lecture on G. K. Chesterton’s book,
The Flying Inn. The full title for the lecture was “The Flying Inn: Chesterton on Alcohol and the Sacramental Imagination.” Here are two of the opening paragraphs:
Chesterton worried about the way in which the modern world often elevates the minor virtues while flattening the major ones. I think we’re going to wind up banning smoking, for example—we’ve almost done so already. I’m no advocate of tobacco (although my father was a great lover of cigars), and I object to the ruined flavor of food when it must be tasted through tobacco fumes. But the banning of smoking in restaurants, and in many other public places, is too easy a virtue. Like the outlawing of trans-fats from New York eateries, it encourages us to think we have made large moral accomplishments when, in fact, we have dealt only with peccadilloes.
Consider this story from a university professor who returned to his office late one night. As he got out of his car in the parking lot, he saw a sign that read, “This is a smoke-free campus.” He entered his own departmental building, and there he encountered a similar notice: “This is a smoke-free building.” He exited the elevator into the hallway leading to his office, and it too was declared tobacco free: “Smoking is absolutely prohibited.” When at last he arrived at the commons area outside his office, there was a sign affixed to the door. “Please do not disturb,” it read, “we’re having sex.” You can’t smoke anywhere on the campus of a major university, but you can have sex in the commons area of a Humanities department late at night, just don’t disturb.
Later in the lecture Wood suggests that Chesterton’s critique of Islam in
The Flying Inn is an equally relevant critique of our own secular culture. And the heart of that critique is the loss of a sacramental imagination. It’s a brilliant and timely lecture. And it’s a perfect read to prep you for the next piece by Arthur Machen.
You really should read Wood's piece here. And if you haven't read
The Flying Inn yet, be sure to get your copy from Eighth Day Books.
6. Essays et al: “A Plea for Prohibition” by G. K. Chesterton
Now that you’ve hopefully read two pieces of anti-Prohibition literature—a Chesterton poem and an essay on Chesterton’s novel The Flying Inn—here is a hilarious Chesterton essay which also critiques Prohibition, provoked by Chesterton’s study of Prohibition in America. The conclusion is fantastic, a sort of Hall-of-Menish defense of micro brewing and home brewing:
But the private brews differ very widely; multitudes are quite harmless and some are quite excellent. I know an American university where practically every one of the professors brews his own beer; some of them experimenting in two or three different kinds. But what is especially delightful is this: that with this widespread revival of the old human habit of home-brewing, much of that old human atmosphere that went with it has really reappeared. The professor of the higher metaphysics will be proud of his strong ale; the professor of the lower mathematics (otherwise known as high finance) will allege something more subtle in his milder ale; the professor of moral theology (whose ale I am sure is the strongest of all) will offer to drink all the other dons under the table without any ill effect on the health. Prohibition has to that extent actually worked the good, in spite of so malignantly and murderously willing the evil. And the good is this: the restoration of legitimate praise and pride for the creative crafts of the home.
This being the case, it seems that some of our more ardent supporters might well favour a strong, simple and sweeping policy. Let Congress or Parliament pass a law not only prohibiting fermented liquor, but practically prohibiting everything else. Let the Government forbid bread, beef, boots, hats and coats; let there be a law against anybody indulging in chalk, cheese, leather, linen, tools, toys, tales, pictures or newspapers. Then, it would seem by serious sociological analogy, all human families will begin vigorously to produce all these things for themselves; and the youth of the world will really return.
Read the whole essay here.
7. Essays et al: “Let Us Keep the Tavern” by Arthur Machen
Arther Machen, the hero of our 2021 Inklings Festival, is slowly being rediscovered thanks to the hard work of Christopher Tompkins and his Darkly Bright Press. This short piece is an
apologia for the tavern. Here's a short sample:
If a man can discover an old English inn, and in it a hunk of bread, a good cheese, and a pint of honest ale, he may boast truly that he has lunched very well. Provided, of course, in the first place, that the inn or Tavern does not call itself “Ye Olde Red Loin” or “Ye Olde” anything else: “Ye,” it has been observed by the judicious, has a tendency to make the beer too weak and the cheese too strong. But if the tavern be genuine and the food and drink be genuine, then I say that he who lunches thus lunches well.
Read the entire short piece here. And then go to Eighth Day Books and purchase the book in which it is printed:
Dreamt in Fire: The Dreadful Ecstasy of Arthur Machen (Darkly Bright Press, 2021).
8. Essays et al: “Alcohol, Drunkenness, & Drinking” by G. K. Chesterton
Chesterton is the king of quotes on alcohol and beer. If you’ve ever seen any there’s a good chance they come from this piece. Here are a few samples:
1. Let a man walk ten miles steadily on a hot summer’s day along a dusty English road, and he will soon discover why beer was invented. The fact that beer has a very slight stimulating quality will be quite among the smallest reasons that induce him to ask for it. In short, he will not be in the least desiring alcohol; he will be desiring beer. But, of course, the question cannot be settled in such a simple way.
2. All the human things are more dangerous than anything that affects the beast—sex, poetry, property, religion. The real case against drunkenness is not that it calls up the beast, but that it calls up the Devil.
3. For in so far as drinking is really a sin it is not because drinking is wild, but because drinking is tame; not in so far as it is anarchy, but in so far as it is slavery. Probably the worst way to drink is to drink medicinally. Certainly the safest way to drink is to drink carelessly; that is, without caring much for anything, and especially not caring for the drink.
4. I believe that if by some method the local public-house could be as definite and isolated a place as the local post-office or the local railway station, if all types of people passed through it for all types of refreshment, you would have the same safeguard against a man behaving in a disgusting way in a tavern that you have at present against his behaving in a disgusting way in a post-office: simply the presence of his ordinary sensible neighbors. In such a place the kind of lunatic who wants to drink an unlimited number of whiskies would be treated with the same severity with which the Post Office authorities would treat an amiable lunatic who had an appetite for licking an unlimited number of stamps.
Read the whole piece here.
Member Bonuses:
A. From the Archives: “Why Treasure Pipe-Smoking, Beer-Loving Englishmen? An Appreciation of C. S. Lewis & Friends” by Erin Doom
This single paragraph from a piece written six years ago is even more timely today:
Wright’s review singles out one of the “powerful refrains” running throughout Lewis’ book: “faith matters more than feelings; faithfulness to the high and hard standards of Christian behavior matters more than doing what you feel like at the time.” This was penned at a time when, in the words of Wright, “Lewis was swimming against a strong tide of popular romantic existentialism.” It’s only been eight years since Wright’s review and the tide is significantly stronger. It is precisely in this environment that we so desperately need the “high and hard standards of Christian behavior,” what Lewis also calls mere Christianity.
The essay was originally written as a sort of defense for why EDI was organizing the inaugural Inklings Festival.
Read the whole thing here.
B. Director’s Desk: A Brief Report on Director Doom’s Sabbatical
Click here to read this brief report.
