released 3/27/2020

While many families with young children struggle to adjust to a new state of being constantly (and hectically) home-bound, households with one or two occupants may be perplexed about how to endure a protracted season of solitude. In his 2007 book Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness, Christopher Lane examined the prejudice in favor of gregariousness which led to the medicalizing of reticence and reserve. In this Friday Feature, an excerpt from the Journal interview with Lane (Volume 89) is followed by a reading from theologian Romano Guardini about the necessity of contemplative recollection in sustaining a centered interiority capable of attending to the face of God.

16 minutes

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Related reading and listening

  1. What is lost with labor-saving devices — Romano Guardini on what is lost when cultural pursuits eclipse natural order
  2. Faith that is more than “chemically pure” — Romano Guardini on sustaining a Christian understanding of all of Creation
  3. Recovering the primacy of contemplation — Augusto Del Noce finds in St. Augustine resources to diagnose the fatal flaw in progressivism
  4. Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 162 — FEATURED GUESTS: Mark Noll, R. Jared Staudt, Paul Weston, William C. Hackett, Hans Boersma, and David Paul Baird
  5. Play as a signal of transcendence —
    FROM VOL. 2
    Father James V. Schall reflects upon the importance of play and contemplation in ancient political thought. (7 minutes)
  6. Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 152 — FEATURED GUESTS: Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, Jeffrey Bilbro, Zena Hitz, James L. Nolan, Jr., Bishop Robert Barron, and Jason Blakely
  7. The flickering of the American mind — Diana Senechal on problems of distraction in education
  8. A celebration of introverts — Adam McHugh and Susan Cain explain how an American culture that prizes gregariousness and “selling” oneself ends up marginalizing introverts and the gifts they have to offer, even in the Church. (36 minutes)
  9. Fr. James V. Schall, R.I.P. — Fr. James V. Schall explains how, like contemplation, play engages us in something beyond ourselves and is a delight in itself. (9 minutes)
  10. The power of images — Romano Guardini on the precious potential of limited images to reveal divine realities
  11. From logos to ethos — Romano Guardini on how the modern worship of the will led to the demotion of reason
  12. Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 114 — FEATURED GUESTS: Susan Cain, Brad S. Gregory, David Sehat, Augustine Thompson, O.P., Gerald R. McDermott, and Marilyn Chandler McEntyre
  13. Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 103 — FEATURED GUESTS: Steven D. Smith, David Thomson, Adam McHugh, Glenn C. Arbery, Eric Miller, and Eric Metaxas
  14. That’s why they call them browsers — Collectedness vs. restlessness: thoughts from Romano Guardini and Nicholas Carr.
  15. Mars Hill Audio Journal, Volume 89 — FEATURED GUESTS: Jerome Wakefield, Christopher Lane, Dan Blazer, Fred Turner, Barrett Fisher, and Thomas Hibbs
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