tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post6911714322214721436..comments2024-03-27T02:55:10.109-07:00Comments on Irish Papist: The Dark Side of the MoonMaolsheachlannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-48123305282299856942017-08-05T06:59:50.101-07:002017-08-05T06:59:50.101-07:00To be honest, I don't think I'd ever be in...To be honest, I don't think I'd ever be interested enough to read a whole book about Pugin, but thanks.<br /><br />Happy feast of St. Mary MacKillop, by the way!Maolsheachlannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-2191062773224427302017-08-05T04:05:50.365-07:002017-08-05T04:05:50.365-07:00If GOD'S ARCHITECT by Rosemary Hill published ...If GOD'S ARCHITECT by Rosemary Hill published by PENGUIN in 2007 is in your library, it's a pretty good one on PuginSéamusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-82775314852637617192017-08-05T00:59:54.117-07:002017-08-05T00:59:54.117-07:00Yes, poetry would be more suited for imagination t...Yes, poetry would be more suited for imagination than those encounters of mine I suppose. Doing "both" is perhaps also the archetypal way for Catholics, sharing universal truths from experience so to speak.THOMAEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03710377440062400575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-20532580020574200832017-08-04T16:01:22.808-07:002017-08-04T16:01:22.808-07:00There's also a danger of overthinking it thoug...There's also a danger of overthinking it though. Personally I think you did fine...you made an effort...there's no way of knowing what will work. The point is both of those people had the experience of a convinced Catholic speaking to them about their faith.<br /><br />When I talk about trying to reach people with poetry...I don't really mean replacing more straightforward means of evangelization, I mean supplementing them. I didn't make that clear, though.Maolsheachlannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-73732609577416997552017-08-04T14:06:38.036-07:002017-08-04T14:06:38.036-07:00Interesting point on relating to that spiritual te...Interesting point on relating to that spiritual terrain ("dark, imaginative" etc) in efforts to reach others, especially if you mean some kind of evangelisation. Two examples from my own daily life this week can be loosely connected to the same theme: <br /><br />First I met a man about my own age by chance at a funeral and it turned out he worked at the same place where the widow is a team leader; the only time I had seen that chap before was the last 3 or 4 weeks when I had visited and revisited one of the last second-hand bookshops in my home town and he was there at the same time (this bookshop being open only three hours a week, on Friday afternoons, so nothing uncommon about that), and when I told him that I recognized him, at the gathering with food and coffee after the funeral, I soon heard that he was a typical non-religious person that nevertheless are interested in something supernatural and asked for books by Stephen King, Dean Koontz and "mysteries" like Egyptian pyramids etc; and I tried a little to say something positive about our Catholic parish just in a slight effort to "reach" someone who possibly never had put his foot in a like parish church. He looked a bit surprised and we talked only for a short while, before he sort of drifted away, a bit bewildered perhaps but most likely none the more understanding than the moments before. My most obvious mistake was to simply talk as if he understood some basics of Catholicism even though he most probably never really had much chance to take it in. That was one first small failure in this area.<br /><br />Second, today I had a good long talk with a friend at work who has recently been visiting Japan and had interesting experiences to tell from his visit. This man too is a typical secularist but at the same time a good fellow in any normal human sense. At the end of our long talk, and not related to Japan, I came to mention Portugal and the Fatima jubilee. Here too I failed in making practically understandable an exposition (in two minutes = impossible anyway! but still... half-possible?), while only "succeeding" in making him just a little perplexed for a moment. I tried not to bring up too much of the difficult aspects, but still I suppose his major impression of Catholicism still is more or less: "strange!", and no more besides. <br /><br />Summa summarum: the complexity of speaking about faith today seems multilayered, and maybe it would be better to take your suggestion and make some reference to things like the Pre-Raphaelites or something else that actually is popular already! (rather than making references to reason or logical arguments)THOMAEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03710377440062400575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-10158979804695569162017-08-04T06:38:43.011-07:002017-08-04T06:38:43.011-07:00Sorry, that wasn't clear - I meant the neo-Got...Sorry, that wasn't clear - I meant the neo-Gothic. Perhaps something similar is needed against the illusions and fakery of our own era.<br /><br />Pugin was quite a character: a Catholic convert and immensely talented artist if rather impetuous and caught up in himself (without any thought for finances he asserted his belief that his cathedrals should take centuries to build, just as the existing ones had) who designed (for example) the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament in London. The book is called 'God's Architect: Pugin and the Building of Romantic Britain'. It's a bit of a tome but highly readable. I devoured it in about a fortnight.Dominic Nhttp://some-definite-service.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-80800081543766265442017-08-04T06:22:55.872-07:002017-08-04T06:22:55.872-07:00I know next to nothing about Pugin, although I was...I know next to nothing about Pugin, although I was quite recently at a funeral Mass in a church designed by him.<br /><br />In your last sentence, do you mean the neo-Gothic or the Regendy architecture?Maolsheachlannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09406722311993627528noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7091756463128804432.post-26166673744659746042017-08-04T06:00:13.204-07:002017-08-04T06:00:13.204-07:00Yes. The point about the Oxford Movement reminds m...Yes. The point about the Oxford Movement reminds me of the (closely-related though more widespread) Gothic Revival. Augustus Pugin's father, according to Rosemary Hill's fantastic biography of the architect (that I've been meaning to review for ages), produced illustrations and designs of quite a different style to the Gothic his son was later to champion. Pugin fils rode the crest of a sudden and practically unexpected wave of interest in the Middle Ages, of which there was little sign when he brought out 'Contrasts' (the first of several architectural Credi). <br /><br />Another interesting point is that people (including Bl. J. H. Newman) actually used the word 'reality' to refer to the qualities of the neo-Gothic style, as opposed to the optical illusions and alleged fakery of the Regency period. That, too, suggests that that it had worked through, and then captured, people's imagination.Dominic Nhttp://some-definite-service.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.com