When You’re Strange…
“She read everything…. She was a strange person in that she was extremely devout, but her mind was very capable of listening to other people’s points of view and reading different [things]—y’know—she would read Kafka, and she would read Nietzsche…but none of it rattled her faith in the slightest.”
–Ethan Hawke in an interview with Russell Moore regarding the new Flannery O’Connor biopic, Wildcat.
Hawke’s off-handed remark seems to reveal a good deal about the way the outside world views Christians. Read the quote again. Of all the reasons that a person might say that Flannery O’Connor was strange, what does Ethan Hawke land on? That she remained devout while simultaneously listening to other people’s points of view and reading authors that contested the claims of Christianity.
This is a strangeness that all Christians ought to embrace.
Can we hear opposing viewpoints without getting defensive? Can we listen for the sake of understanding rather than always feeling the need to correct, refute, or get in the last word? Can we read widely and deeply in a way that provides fodder for the Holy Spirit to cultivate the Christian imagination within us and not be swayed by every honeyed tongue? Can we have charitable dialogues in which Truth, Beauty, and Goodness are revealed in the service of loving the person in front of us? Do we recognize the imago Dei in every conversation partner no matter our differences?
This is the strangeness that we work to cultivate at Alcuin Study Center. And it’s a strangeness that others are noticing. I have recently been in several conversations with a wide range of individuals—leaders of the Cardinal Catholic student group, evangelical students who are tired of culture wars, a couple of professors who are skeptical towards orthodox Christianity and a third who is eyeing retirement and wants to get more involved with us in the years to come—all of whom have found our posture refreshing and necessary in this cultural climate.
I often explain our name to people by telling the story of our namesake, Alcuin of York. In a time when the world was in danger of losing much of what was true, good, and beautiful to raiding parties and barbarians, monks like the Venerable Bede and Alcuin of York made it a point to preserve artifacts, manuscripts, and artwork to be sure that the treasures of the past were passed down to the next generation. In a time when people like Charlemagne and, well, everybody else, wanted to chop off each others heads for not believing the right things, Alcuin took a different tack—education and dialogue—and left conversion up the Holy Spirit, not the sword. We believe we live in similar times and so we, too, work to preserve and teach what is good, true, and beautiful through charitable conversations.
And interesting third point regarding Alcuin—he invented (or is at least credited with the invention of) the question mark. And so we try to ask better questions and help others to do the same.
If you’ve read any of O’Connor’s stories, you know that she provokes truth-seeking questions. It seems that the parables of Jesus are much the same in that regard.
Listen to Russell Moore’s conversation with Ethan Hawke here.
Other Suggested Resources:
Interview with John Inazu in Christianity Today:
Live Conversation on Trinity Forum, June 28:
Creativity, Reconciliation & Flourishing: An Online Conversation With Mia Chung-Yee And David Bailey
Mia Chung-Yee is the Executive Director of our sister study center, Octet Collaborative, at MIT.
The Coddling of the American Mind: The Movie
It’s $4.00 to have access to the film for a month. It’s worth it. Invite your friends over. Watch it. Discuss it.
Our staff recently took a retreat to Brown County, Indiana. We spent time considering each phrase in our mission statement (which you can find on this page) and how we might focus our efforts toward fulfilling that mission in the year(s) to come. Keep your eyes on the website and newsletter in the months ahead to see some of the fruit of those discussions.
On a personal note, as Amy and I are facing the reality of an empty nest (our “little boy” is over 6ft tall and entering his senior year) we have spent some time asking ourselves what challenges we might face in marriage when our children are no longer at home. We have been listening to a marriage series by Tim Keller—one sermon each Sunday afternoon (while I rub her feet, of course)—and have found it to be incredibly enriching. This series has sparked much fruitful conversation, and we would recommend it to anyone, even those not (yet?) married. I wished we would have heard these things when we were 20, but perhaps they would not have hit quite as hard until we had a few (er…29) years of experience under our belts. You can find the series here.
As always, Alcuin Study Center needs your support
We cannot do what we do without the generosity of our donors. Thank you! If are not yet an Alcuin Study Center donor, would you consider being one? We are operating under budget at this point, so we ask you to consider making a pledge. If you are unable to pledge ongoing support, but would like to make a one-time gift, that is also of great help. Thank you!
If you can think of anybody who might be interested in the work we do, please pass the link to this newsletter on to them.
By the grace of Christ, in whom all things hold together,
