CS Lewis observed that our wishes, no less than our acts, are part of agency. Desires, petitions and prayers are not less futile than works simply because they may not succeed. Longing is legitimate in an interactive world and we should dare to live; dare to pray.
Lewis returns to the theme of the poverty of modern desire in the Weight of Glory; that the limits of modern longing are too often restricted to sex, drugs and consumption. Yet it surprisingly explains the air of grimness prevalent in Woke ideology.
There’s been a sea-change in our zeitgeist, gone in a generation from Freeman Dyson’s observation that the universe was waiting for us to the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement; that we have no right to desire for we are too low for that.
Perhaps the greatest factor in the saga of human survival comes of the stubborn quest for what Lewis calls “our own far off country”. It led us on and on; in closing the door on prayer and longing we can shut off the last glimpse of it, finally grateful for the turn of the key.
The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God’s Holy Warriors by Dan Jones. In this groundbreaking narrative history, Dan Jones tells the true story of the Templars for the first time in a generation, drawing on extensive original sources to build a gripping account of these Christian holy warriors whose heroism and alleged depravity have been shrouded in myth. Jones brings their dramatic tale to life in a book that is at once authoritative and compulsively readable.