Her har jeg samlet artikler, anmeldelser og diverse andre tekster som har stått på trykk samt en presentasjon av bøker jeg har skrevet. Du finner også en håndfull intervjuer og noe lydmateriale, deriblant min innlesning av evangeliene på originalspråket, et prosjekt jeg gleder meg til å arbeide videre med i tiden som kommer.
The Fathers would rather be disdained than idealised. We find the same concern alive in modern saints, a test of authenticity.
Les videre To speak of high ideals is delightful. It is easy to assume that by talking of virtues I acquire them, rather the way we might think that by purchasing a book we have read it.
Les videre How silly we make ourselves look when we try to be exalted!
Les videre If there is one thing that strikes us to the point of nausea when we consider famous, once highly esteemed spiritual teachers and founders who, within living memory, have come tumbling down from their pedestals, is it not precisely the lurid nature of their betrayals?
Les videre The monk seems to embody the very type of a pacified human being, whose inward order is outwardly reflected in a grave demeanour and measured movement. What image might such a person use in order to provide a simile apt to render the secret of his consecrated life?
Les videre The Lord who calls us is free to choose whatever means he deems effective to open our hearts, bodies, and minds to this great gift. An infirmity or injury, a serious diagnosis, that may at first make us feel as if we were struck down by destiny can turn out to be, in fact, a provision made by a kind yet nonetheless cross-shaped providence.
Les videre Xenophobia is fear of people who are not locals. Xeniteia is at heart a neutral term indicating the state of living abroad, be it as a trafficked worker or as a wealthy retiree in a comfortable flat on the Costa del Sol.
Les videre The enclosure of philosophy within a narrow framework of technical terms and assumptions was a notable feature of intellectual life in the twentieth century. As a result many women and men take it for granted, now, that philosophy has nothing to say to them - ‘philosophical’ has come to spell ‘useless’.
Les videre Having stood firm through spectacular temptations that had racked him in spirit, body, and mind, Antony was exposed to one last trial utterly concrete and mundane, that of filling his pockets with wonga.
Les videre ‘Your heart’, says the Lord, ‘is where your treasure is.’ It can be mortifying to discover that our treasure, and so our heart, is no longer where we thought it was.
Les videre It happens often enough that people who generally do not cling to material things or comforts, people who do not much mind, are furiously tied to their books.
Les videre It is not the Apostles, it turns out, who are sozzled; it is the world, wearily drunk on its self-sufficiency, pragmatic pleasure-seeking, thrills, and aimless meandering.
Les videre Once again, Jamie and I gather to address questions raised by people who follow the series, questions that impress us by their insight and sincerity.
Les videre Most of us conduct our daily lives within predictable parameters where familiar boundaries steer our behaviour and choices. But what happens when we find ourselves in unfamiliar, unbounded places - is our virtue then reliable and firm?
Les videre God’s concern is not to keep us comfortably undisturbed. His concern is that we should know the truth, which alone sets us free.
Les videre At once dispassionately lucid and shrewd, the Fathers teach us to discern. That is why they could give counsels both sublime and practical.
Les videre Lust confers not vision but blindness. It locks me in myself, making me live in the world as if I were its sole significant subject, subsisting on arousal.
Les videre Great self-control is needed to accept with tact an offering that repels me, and to do it so whole-heartedly that the giver is thrilled.
Les videre There are bad, angry words we should keep from speaking, fighting against them with all our might. There are other words, however, that call out to be spoken - if we keep them shut up in our heart they will poison us.
Les videre ‘I have always liked the phrase “nursing a grudge”’, says the Reverend John Ames in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, ‘because many people are tender of their resentments, as of the thing nearest to their hearts.’ To let resentments go is costly.
Les videre There is a stage at which speech is still potential - a thought has been articulated, the words lie ready on our tongue, but as yet they exist only in our mind. At that moment we exercise sovereign freedom to choose whether to speak or whether to keep silent.
Les videre Hvis Gudsfrykt ikke er angst, men eksistensiell ærefrykt, hvordan forklare det for folk som kun har kjent frykt i form av straff og panikk?
Les videre Things do not always get sorted out; illness is not always healed; sometimes fractured relationships cannot be mended. To trust God is not to assume that I will be alright - it is to know that, whatever happens, sense may emerge from senselessness, redemptive purity from destructive contamination.
Les videre Setter jeg meg fore å korrigere, eller verre, å dømme, et annet menneske på grunnlag av bitterhet, sinne eller motvilje, vil mine ord, om så de lyder iskaldt frommme, knapt gjøre noe godt.
Les videre We may have known times when an action or a word of ours has ruined something precious; when that which, a moment ago, was integral and dear lies at our feet in pieces, mud-splattered - at such times the voice of God resounds in our inner ear, ‘Adam, where are you?’ And we have no answer.
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