The Abolition of Man
Hello,
It is easy to critique. It is easy to discover that which is against reason in written work. It is easy to dismiss people’s thoughts because of one thing that struck you as absurd. I am the chief sinner in this, and as a teacher, I am extremely susceptible to training my students to “see through” things. Yet, if we see through everything, there will be nothing left. The end of skepticism is oblivion.
So, how do we recapture a spirit of humility? A spirit that is willing to be a true student again. A spirit that is willing to sift through the absurdities to lay hold of the gold that is in literature. A spirit that is charitable first, second, and third. Then, after charity has been exhausted, after a thought/person/work has been digested properly, understood for what it truly is, only then does it begin to critique.
I believe I will be spending the rest of my life trying to recapture this spirit in myself. Trying to unlearn years of habitual critiquing. Alongside this, I will be searching for the proper pedagogy which will gift this spirit to my students. Unfortunately, those of us in this camp are attempting to burrow upstream in our postmodern world. The thought that everything and everyone is actually dumb permeates our western world’s new ethic. In a society so trained, I believe developing an affection for that which is truly good is crucial.
It starts with reading and understanding what C.S. Lewis is doing in his great work, The Abolition of Man. If you have not read it, I would highly recommend it. It is only 3 chapters (though you may need to reread it a few times to understand what he is saying), yet its message is dearly needed for we who are responsible for training up the next generation. If we are not careful, we may, in our haste to critique and question everything, leave the next generation with the task of building mankind in its own image. Tethered to nothing but the now debunked vision for humanity that has run the world from its outset. So to those who have a voice, read the book, and train your children/grandchildren/students/friends to discover, digest, and be a humble student of the true and beautiful things before allowing criticism its proper place.
-NR
