Collected here are articles and reviews that have appeared in print, as well as a presentation of my books. There are a few interviews and some sound material, notably my reading of the Gospels in Greek, a project that remains work in progress.
It is curious: our intensely body-conscious society in fact takes the body lightly, refusing to see it as significant of identity, supposing that the only selfhood of consequence is the one produced by subjective self-perception, as we construct ourselves in our own image.
Continue reading A conversation held during the New York Encounter touching on the state of the Church, Kafka, Ildefonso Schuster, the signs of the times, gratitude, and the call to holiness.
Continue reading Connectedness is, in my way of thinking, not necessarily positive - one can be connected to a leash, a chain, or a mobile gadget. Belonging on the other hand is dynamic, in movement, an indicator of shared purpose.
Continue reading Easter is the assurance that all the things that condition our lives negatively — sin, disease, enmity, hatred, warfare, mortality — all those things have been overcome, and can still be overcome, insofar as we conduct our lives in Christ and let ourselves be formed by Christian hope.
Continue reading What does it feel like to be created in the image of God? How do we experience it?
Continue reading He, born on Holy Saturday, had once for all anchored his life in the power of Jesus's passion, death, and resurrection. Anyone who has seen him celebrate the sacred mysteries knows how really present this power was for him.
Continue reading At Mass we take part in Christ’s saving sacrifice; we witness the influx of eternity in time; we touch the foundation of the daring prayer the priest prays on our behalf when, in the chalice, he mixes water with wine: ‘May we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.’
Continue reading Be an anarchist this Advent! Don't give in to shopping hysteria.
Continue reading To be a member of the Church is to be a member of Christ. It is also to be a member of a community - we need to make that explicit.
Continue reading One way in which we can contribute constructively to online debate is by making it more reflective and thoughtful. Anyone who constantly shoots from the hip risks misfiring fatally.
Continue reading The law proposal isn't just about a specific ethical matter; it concerns the relationship between state and citizens.
Continue reading The law proposal comes across as a wrestling match with a shadow. Notwithstanding its repeated use of words such as 'protect', 'help, and 'support', it appears peculiarly technocratic and inhuman.
Continue reading ‘Anthropocentrism kills the Church and its life’. These are hard words, but words we need to hear, for we live in a self-centred world.
Continue reading A conversation about music, tradition, fatigue, the contemplative life, the building of community, well-balanced beer, and the time to say 'Enough'.
Continue reading In her correspondence we encounter Edith Stein as a spiritual mother profoundly open to the experiences and needs of those whom she carried in her prayers. To be a mother or a father is precisely about enabling the growth and maturing of others.
Continue reading The challenge of owning oneself as oneself, of making peace, not just with humanity in general, but with oneself as a human specimen, is the first major combat a novice encounters. Anyone who has essayed it knows it can be fierce.
Continue reading A conversation about Catholicism in Norway, about the key role of families in the life of the Church, and about the sense of a Christian call.
Continue reading 'I am struck by the emphasis you place on compassion – and I mean that in the literal sense of being involved in the pathos of another life, of being entangled in other lives, of each man not being an island, but a stitch in a delicate embroidery – an embroidery that will be forever imperfect if a single stitch is extracted'.
Continue reading Christian conversion will gradually take us to a point at which we can say, 'It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me'. At that point our own ego will no longer strike us as overwhelmingly interesting.
Continue reading A conversation about the website CoramFratribus, the importance of reading good literature, the helpfulness and limitations of social media, and the Church's insistence: 'Among the principal duties of bishops the preaching of the Gospel occupies an eminent place' (Lumen Gentium, 25). In Norwegian only.
Continue reading What will help me to be freed from my past in such a way that I can live prospectively, moving forward, while at the same time being reconciled with the past? What is the impact of beauty on our lives, and how can I know my deepest desire?
Continue reading A conversation with John Sjögren held at Bjärka Säby on 18 February, during the course of a symposium on monastic spirituality. We touch on matters of life and death, the vocation of the monk, the provocative nature of Christianity, the tears of God - and the music of Mahler.
Continue reading We have been saddened by recent statements from certain quarters of the Russian Church, which present this war of flagrant aggression as a combat for Christian values. To speak in such terms is to engage in mere rhetoric, to hold moral values hostage to a political agenda.
Continue reading It has ever been the case that true reforms in the Church have set out from Catholic teaching founded on divine Revelation and authentic Tradition, to defend it, expound it, and translate it credibly into lived life — not from capitulation to the Zeitgeist. How fickle the Zeigeist is, is something we verify on a daily basis.
Continue reading For too long we have lived as if prosperity, peace, and good order were necessary consequences of an irresistible evolution - this is not the case. We are fragile beings living in a fragile world, a world in need of salvation.
Continue reading The older I get, the more I see the importance of reading things over again. The books that really nurture us are books we ourselves should nurture.
Continue reading The government's proposal does not only regard pragmatic action in emergencies of public health. It regards the disproportionate intervention of state power in the lives of citizens.
Continue reading Let us not pretend to be pure spirits. We are much better than that - we are children of God.
Continue reading Rarely has literature been at the same time so embodied and so sublime. One thinks of that essential line from the Letter to the Ephesians - ‘anything exposed to the light becomes light’.
Continue reading A conversation with Professor Sarah Coakley about my book 'Entering the Twofold Mystery', touching on a number of key themes.
Continue reading After decades of determined inculturation, the time has come to exculturate ourselves somewhat, to be realigned round faith’s vertical axis, to recover our sense of the timeless, to seek God’s will in listening silence, to let our lives be refashioned by grace — why, to be converted.
Continue reading In a secular world, forgiveness seems absurd. Detached from the narrative that gives forgiveness meaning and allows it to inform shared experience, we revert to pre-Mosaic categories, that is, to the logic of Lamech - ‘If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold.
Continue reading In a time when much academic writing is rushed, polished off quickly to meet the requirements of research assessments, it is good to encounter a text of patient gestation, in which words are weighed and in which, above all, the Word who is the object, not only of enquiry but of desire, is heard.
Continue reading This book lists symptoms of unhealth in the manner of the Desert Fathers, who chartered the vagaries of corrupted passions and showed where, unchecked, they lead. The result is a phenomenology of abuse: a sobering, terrifying, helpful account.
Continue reading What is beautiful does not force itself upon us. It is incompatible with violence (an essay written in Norwegian).
Continue reading On Christmas Day the papers' first page ought to carry a sensational announcement in massive, bold typescript: 'God has become man!'
Continue reading What matters is to be where you are right now, to be as faithful as possible, doing what you have to do as credibly as possible. Then you find that the invisible things can bear fruit in an ample sphere whereas the visible things turn out to be a bit banal.
Continue reading To a large extent, public discourse is a shouting match, even within the Church, wouldn’t you say? I believe, then, in listening out for whispered words from without and from within, for I desire to notice them, whether I find myself alone or in company.
Continue reading A conversation about Norwegian Catholicism, tradition and continuity, the signs of the times, perseverance in faith, true freedom and fresh fish from the Fjord.
Continue reading Ours is a time of navel-gazing, based on the assumption that the the world revolves around us. It is a Copernican revolution of sorts, but not an especially luminous one.
Continue reading Our faith cannot be reduced to a model for a perfect society of justice and peace, to a catalogue of cogent answers to life’s hard questions: our faith is about life transformed in Christ, redeemed from the reign of sin, whose wages is death, life illumined by the hope of resurrection.
Continue reading A conversation with Eivor Oftestad and Aase Cathrine Myrtveit about how Nietzsche's intuition regarding the 'death of god' is seeping into Western consciousness, about the abuse crisis, about human dignity, and about the courage to be seen as ridiculous.
Continue reading A human being reaches maturity by finding a proper place, subjectively, among objective norms; sometimes perhaps by assuming positions that go against the grain of norms. But the cancellation of norms will not resolve the experience of a conflict of identity.
Continue reading Si pudiéramos tan sólo darnos cuenta de la libertad de que disponemos para elegir cuál es nuestra visión del mundo. Si fuéramos conscientes de que nadie tiene por qué ser el prisionero de una determinada cosmovisión o mentalidad, ni siquiera de nuestro propio pasado, por muy traumático y difícil que haya sido: Cultivar la memoria del bien constituye una especie de ascesis, un ejercicio imprescindible.
Continue reading Erik Varden har fortsatt en opplevelse av at Norge er både hjemland og utland, og akkurat det, sier han, er ikke så dumt når man har ansvar for noe så multikulturelt som katolske menigheter i Norge. Det har også noe med det å være kristen å gjøre: Vårt hjemland er i Himmelen.
Continue reading Trofasthet koster. Det finnes ingen snarvei til menneskelig og kristen modenhet, om vi er gifte eller enslige, prester, legfolk, munker eller nonner.
Continue reading Some might ask: Doesn’t a bishop have better things to do than to record the Gospels in Greek? I would answer, without a moment’s hesitation: No!
Continue reading Let us entrust ourselves to God’s freeing possession. Let us run the risk of freedom.
Continue reading In a memorable image, Diadochos speaks of baptismal grace as the divine artist’s monochrome sketch: it is for us in conscious collaboration with the Spirit to fill in the colours. And ‘when the full range of colours is added to the outline, the painter captures the likeness of the subject, even down to the smile’.
Continue reading Det offentlige er visst ikke i stand til, nå, å gjenkjenne gudstjeneste som noe kategorisk særegent, en form for adferd som fortjener særskilte tiltak, særskilt kreativitet. Vi har tapt en dimensjon av tilværelsen: Det transcendente er strøket fra offisielt ordforråd.
Continue reading Det frykteligste ord som er blitt ytret mot vår tid, er dette: Vi har mistet naiviteten.
Continue reading We like to assume that what stands between us and freedom is an accident of sorts; that we were at some point, be it at the moment of our birth, gloriously free, but that something then happened which curtailed our liberty. We spend years of our lives, perhaps, on analysts’ couches trying to identify that moment of destiny, wishing to reclaim what we consider ours by nature and by right.
Continue reading After several weeks in lockdown, my eight-year old goddaughter in Italy told her mother: ‘Mummy, I no longer recognise myself!’ It was wisely said.
Continue reading Oggi ascoltare il soffio è divenuto difficile, perché ci sono tante impressioni, e si impongono quasi con violenza. Per questo serve avere dei sensi abbastanza affinati: ci vuole apertura; uno spazio di ascolto profondo, di attesa.
Continue reading Å komme noen vei i det åndelige liv handler om å ha mot til å ta av seg lag etter lag av den rustningen vi bygger mellom oss og andre, og det andre, for å bli radikalt tilgjengelig og tilstedeværende som den du faktisk er. Hele den monastiske modning går ut på å bli den du er på dypet.
Continue reading Den sorte og hvite munkekutten til biskopen stikker seg ut i bybildet, klosterdrakt og en hvit ulljakke og sandaler med sorte strømper. Ja, det er sånn det er: Det har kommet en ny munk til den gamle klosterbyen Nidaros.
Continue reading Det som er morsomt med den formen for håndverksbrygg er jo at prosessene får lov til å ta tid. At det ikke er noe som er påskyndet, at det ikke er noe kjemiske tilskudd og at ingrediensene er latterlig enkle: alt du trenger er vann, malt, humle, gjær og litt sukker.
Continue reading ‘There are two Ways, one of Life and one of Death, and there is a great difference between the two Ways.’ They may run in parallel for a while, but sooner or later they diverge.
Continue reading Hva gjør du om du overhodet ikke drømmer om å bli katolsk biskop, men Paven velger deg? Hva om du endelig hadde funnet din retning i livet, et kall som fylte tomrommet du hadde båret i deg helt siden barndommen?
Continue reading Vi har glemt dette kollektive å tenke nåden rett og slett som oksygenet vi puster i, som noe ømt og trøstende. Vi tenker oss ofte troslivet som et regnskap hvor nåden er en matematisk kalkulerbar faktor; men det er kanskje ikke helt sånn det er.
Continue reading For 20-30 år siden kunne man oppleve at individer og institusjoner var i opposisjon mot det kristne. Man opplevde dette som en maktinstans, noe knugende totalitaristisk.
Continue reading Possessed of a sharp, analytical mind, Sr Mary David also had a keen sense of poetry. She was always one to go deeper, to probe further, to extend the horizon, dissatisfied with anything that was less han whole - and mindful that the wholeness she sought will tend to exceed what words on their own can express.
Continue reading At mange, ennå idag, møter Merton som en åndsfrende, er i stor grad fordi han så troverdig beskrev sine dykk ned i mørket og det han der fant: mangfoldet, fascinasjonen, også frykten. Sommetider bragte han et enkelt funn—en korall, en sjøstjerne—opp i lyset og åpenbarte dets skjønnhet.
Continue reading Panayiotis Nellas has been described by his friend Kallistos Ware as ‘somewhat stout, with a moustache and wavy hair; by character vivacious, warm and friendly; a generous man, eager to commend and encourage others, a good listener.’ It is fitting that one who inspires such humane accolades should have left a work subtitled, The Nature of the Human Person.
Continue reading I dagens tilstand av kirkelige kriser på så mange plan, i en samtid hvor barbariet overhodet ikke synes fjernt, minner munken Ranulfs ettermæle oss om grunnleggende ting. Skal evangeliet vinne frem, ja simpelthen komme til orde, må vi som forfekter det først og fremst få bukt med det utemmede i oss selv.
Continue reading Ancient monks often prefaced their writings by saying: 'May what I have written be of use to you.' That is my wish also.
Continue reading To call something (an institution, an initiative) ’monastic’ when it is not, is to take away from the possibly genuine newness of what is coming into being while eroding the specificity of a definite charism. What is called for, I’d suggest, is a relationship of complementarity based on conversation and friendship.
Continue reading Snorre gir oss et levende portrett av Olav i eksil når han forteller hvordan kongen satt til bords en søndag og spikket på en trestikke, så oppslukt av tanker at han hverken enset tiden eller selskapet, uvàr at han brøt helgedagsfreden. Var hans tid forbi, eller var hans time kommet?
Continue reading Adam er en far som har fordervet sine barn; hans hustru Eva, hvis navn betyr “Liv”, er likeledes en dødsføderske. Hvorfor skulle vi tilkjenne vi oss dem, et slikt røverpar, som vårt kjødelige opphav?
Continue reading Even the mere dabbler in Mertoniana will have formed a picture of Dom James Fox, abbot of Gethsemani from 1948 to 1967. It is unlikely to be flattering.
Continue reading Popular liturgical debate does not always impress by high metaphysical intent. To speak with Teresa, one sometimes feels closer to the poultry yard than to the silent flight of eagles.
Continue reading Laughter may turn out to be the natural voice of goodness and unselfconscious happiness. It is laughter of this kind we meet in Andreas Reiner’s remarkable portraits.
Continue reading How can a monastic community, conservative by temperament and conviction, integrate the exceptional charism and call of individuals within it? How far can the fabric of community identity stretch without tearing?
Continue reading Women of exceptional intelligence and spiritual gifts lived side by side here during Gertrud’s lifetime. We are shown how the environment moulded and refined the young nun as a scholar and writer, but also as ‘a most sensitive human being, open to all that is beautiful and good’.
Continue reading Having spent several months with this book, reading a letter or two a day, I put it down with a sense of bereavement. Dom Porion is a wonderful correspondent: gracious, concise, engaged.
Continue reading Thomas Merton was born on 31 January 1915. This volume is one of many brought out to celebrate him during his centenary year.
Continue reading Today, in the wake of the so-called death of ideologies (ideologies that have always tried to answer the human heart's quest for happiness), we do not merely find ourselves facing a dearth of more or less convincing answers, or even the utopia of an answer; the questions themselves have ceased. And the loss of questions seems infinitely graver than the loss of answers.
Continue reading The symphony of the saints will be marked by neither tragedy nor pathos, yet all that is truly great in tragedy and pathos will resonate within it, bathed in perfect place, like an immense surge that rises from the bottom of the sea yet spreads upon the surface in gentle ripples.
Continue reading The peccadillos of the higher clergy, including Cistercian abbots, are straightforwardly recounted if they serve the upbuilding of the readers.
Continue reading Fra å si, "Det er allikevel ingenting jeg kan gjøre", til å si, "Det angår allikevel ikke meg", er avstanden kort. Og med ett ligger likegyldigheten og lurer.
Continue reading La tendance à relativiser la spécificité du christianisme sous prétexte de l’universalité du Christ fait de ces essais une articulation réductrice du patrimoine chrétien moyen-oriental. Il y manque une saine réflexion sur l’altérité.
Continue reading Nå i det siste har jeg lest en viktig bok. Den er skrevet av Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz, professor ved universitetet Dresden og en kvinne av dyp kultur med bred kompetanse.
Continue reading 'It seems to me', says Athanasius, 'that [the words of the Psalms] are like a mirror to the one who prays them, letting him contemplate himself and the movements of his soul in them'. The occasional violence of the Psalter, so disconcerting to the uninitiated, here reveals its true, most profound significance: the transgressor no less than the keeper of the Law recognises himself in this book, 'for the Psalms contain the deeds of both'.
Continue reading At rettssaken mot Anders Behring Breivik stiller Norge overfor et nasjonalt trauma, er noe vi hver dag sanner. Det er alment godtatt at saken berører grunnleggende spørsmål innen både strafferett og psykiatri.
Continue reading Lux in arcana er tittelen på en storstilet utstilling som nå pågår i Romas Capitolmuseum. Den latinske overskriften lyder enda mer mystisk når man ser undertittelen, Pavens hemmelige arkiv åpenbarer seg.
Continue reading Vårt fellesskapsliv må preges av ”custodia unitatis”, en vaktsomhet som realiseres nå vi ikke bare ber for helheten, men er rede til å bære den. Munken innser gjennom tid og erfaring at denne form for bæring, forening og forsoning er hans kall og, ved løftene, hans plikt.
Continue reading Selv i en sekularisert verden, skal avisene gjerne ha noen religiøse assosiasjoner i spaltene sånn oppunder Påske. Heldig var det derfor at Pave Benedikt XVI nylig kunne komme i fokus da budskapet ble forkynt oppad og nedad Europa: Den fem-og-åtti-år-gamle pontifex får snart sin helt personlige parfyme!
Continue reading Det fascinerer meg at klosterlitteraturen, for å referere til ”synd”, gjerne bruker ordet πλημμέλημα, med den opprinnelige betydning ”å bomme på notene”, ”å synge falskt”. Vårt egentlige vesen er en liflig musikk for Herren.
Continue reading For en snau uke side, onsdag 1. Februar, døde den store polske dikterinnen Wisława Szymborska, åttini år gammel.
Continue reading Norske media er for tiden ofte svært opptatt av at folk skal be om unnskyldning. I og for seg er det vel og bra.
Continue reading Om et par dager, 18. Januar, begynner den årlige bønneoktaven for kristen enhet.
Continue reading Er det noe vi i våre dager er lite flinke til, noe vi i stor grad har mistet dreisen på, er det å vente. Vår verden er umiddelbarhetens verden.
Continue reading Italiensk politikk har i det siste vært et stormfullt foretagende. Verdenspressen har spekulert høylytt og skråsikkert om årsakene bak tumultene.
Continue reading Inntil ganske nylig var det ikke uvanlig å referere til søndagene i Kirkeåret med en slags kode. Hvis vi leser oppbyggelseslitteratur eller katolsk-inspirerte bøker fra tidlig 1900-tall, kan det hende vi slumper borti henvisninger til Quasimodo-søndag, for eksempel, eller Lætare-søndag.
Continue reading Omkring to hundre og femti år etter Kristi fødsel oppstod det i Egypt en radikal kristen bevegelse. Anno 2011 gir uttrykket oss gåsehud, idet vi forbinder radikal religiøsitet, dessverre ikke ubegrunnet, med flammer, bomber og geværer.
Continue reading Vi lever i en sky av svirrende døgnfluer. Enorme mengder informasjon kringkastes ustanselig gjennom alle media.
Continue reading For få uker siden utga Parisforleggeren Fayard en bok med tittelen Leur Regard perce nos ombres, “Våre skygger gjennombores av deres blikk”. Boken gjengir en samtale i brevfrom mellom to nære venner, som ved første øyekast kan se ut til å ha lite til felles.
Continue reading For få dager siden var det Norgespremière på Nanni Morettis film Habemus Papam. Moretti, forholdsvis ukjent i Nord-Europa, er en frontfigur i italiensk film.
Continue reading Hva var opphavet til kristent klosterliv? Det er et spørsmål hvorom de lærde strides.
Continue reading Årets Nobelprisvinner i litteratur, Tomas Tranströmer, innledet for et halvt århundre siden samlingen 17 Dikter med et ”Preludium” som begynner slik: Uppvaknandet er ett fallskärmshopp från drömmen. Fri från den kvävande virveln sjunker resenären mot morgonens gröna zon.
Continue reading Følelsen av høre hjemme i Kirken er kun blitt sterkere med årene. Som i ethvert hjem, hender det at jeg har lyst til å ommøblere: her og der kunne det være fristende å pusse støv; iblant tenker jeg at det kunne gjøre seg med ny belysning; men denslags er for småplukk å regne.
Continue reading Bérulle's norms for judgement and action in the public domain, his politics of servitude, disregarded the gap between 'sacred' and 'secular' which changing political and religious circumstances were imposing on the European consciousness. His political legacy can only be understood as a function of his theological convictions.
Continue reading Every week the Catholic press writes (The Herald with glee, The Tablet with alarm) about current efforts to recapture ‘tradition’, especially on the part of Catholics born after 1965. What does this tell us?
Continue reading Når det gjelder gjengs norsk holdning til klassiske studier, kan man ha inntrykk av at Alexander Kiellands fordømmende blikk stirrer like inn i vår folkesjel. Vi plages av tanken på Fru Gottwalds Lille Marius, som resiterte sin deklinasjonstabell like inn i døden etter et så altfor kort liv ødelagt av brutalt pådrevet og helt unyttig lærdom.
Continue reading The nature of Benedictine ‘stabilitas’ as fidelity to a faith-reality embodied in a human group, not to an edifice, is examined from various angles throughout the book.
Continue reading To Queen Michol peering from her window, the extravagance of the monastic office - the time it claims from profitable work, the space it occupies in our Rule, its songs and ritual - can seem preposterous. But she was destined to die without progeny.
Continue reading Sacred music, like sacred texts and sacred rites, is a truth-bearer in worship. Mediocrity and compromise should no more be tolerated in this domain than in any other.
Continue reading The ‘demonic’ gaze usurps a divine perspective in presuming to appropriate for its own good pleasure things and beings created to be themselves. Seeking possession rather than communion, the ‘demonic’ grabber upsets a divinely instituted balance; like the king of Babylon, he will sooner or later see the writing on the wall.
Continue reading Surrounded by a self-destructive culture terrified of death, western Christians must face essentials: Do they believe in Christ’s resurrection? If the answer is yes, who knows what might happen.
Continue reading