Week 51 (2024)
Marian art & Kristin Lavransdatter, cyborgs, dopamine & demonology, protecting children & the making of men
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to read: books
The Reed Of God — Caryll Houselander — Full of poetic and quotable thoughts. Definitely more meandering and reflective as a devotional-type book. These types are often not my style, but I needed something to wash over me this week so I’m grateful for this one (thanks
and all others who have mentioned it.)
“It is useless to flog a tired mind, useless to reproach a tired heart; the only way to God, when we are tired out, is the simplest wordless act of faith.”
“It is impossible to say too often or too strongly that human nature, body and soul together, is the material for God’s will in us.”
“The one thing that he did ask of her was the gift of her humanity.”
“Christ laid hold of the world with His human hands; He took it to His human heart; with His body He wed Himself to it. Our life is the response of the bride.”
“With faith we are like blind men learning, through the touch of caressing fingers, the features of a Face that we cannot see.”
![The Reed of God [Book]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbefb8907-801e-4072-97ef-222bc23291bc_600x840.jpeg "The Reed of God [Book]")
to read: essays, articles, newsletters
The Bible And Marian Art — Michael Peppard, Commonweal — “…it does signal the biblical typology at work: Mary represents the Church’s role as the beloved of Christ.”
(as they say, Brant Pitre is good on this)
The Inclination Of Snow — Mary M. Brown, Dappled Things —
“…its tacit argument for peace”
Winter Sun — Margo Swiss, Ekstasis — “Wind chills the heart
locked tight holds.
Seen this place before
know it well.”Life In The Cyborg Age: A Conversation With Josh Pauling — Aaron Weinacht, Front Porch Republic — “For me, I’m not so much concerned about apocalyptic scenarios—the chip in your brain, the alignment problem, or renegade AI—I am more concerned about the subtle ways we’ve already bought into the Machine template.”
- , Commonwealth Dispatches — “This restless seeking is not unique to pornography but is, as we have already seen, an increasingly pervasive feature of our increasingly digital lives. Hence the compulsive urges—to open emails or web pages for no particular reason, to pursue long periods of mindless browsing, particularly of images, following link after link of “clickbait,” as we now call it, even when we neither really expect nor really experience pleasure in the process.”
How The Online Pornography Epidemic Is Creating A Generation Of Dopamine Addicts —
, Preserving Our Humanity — “Whereas oxytocin, which we get from real life interactions. That hormone is released from eye contact, physical touch. It's actually the hormone that bonds us to other humans. It bonds mothers to their babies. It bonds husband and wife. It bonds friends because we're interacting and we're experiencing oxytocin when we're in person together with eye contact and physical touch, and it helps create bonds of trust and mutual love and responsibility that we really need to survive and thrive as a civilization. The online world does not produce oxytocin.”Taking The Fight To Big Porn —
, Commonwealth Dispatches — “…the stakes were too high to leave parents to fight this battle single-handed, and in any case, even then, data suggested they were losing it: 25% of children were encountering pornography unintentionally every year. Today, in the aftermath of the broadband revolution, the smartphone revolution, the social media revolution, and now the AI revolution, that proportion has more than doubled, and a significant proportion of children are full-blown pornography addicts, with devastating physical and mental health consequences.”
Related reads:
from Jonathon Van Maren, Freya India, Joshua Heavin, Mary Harrington, Isabel Hogben, John Shelton, Matthew Loftus, Mark Watney, Caleb Morell, research from IFS, Mark Regenerus’ book Cheap Sex, Andy Crouch discussing the online worlds of boys vs. girls, and an example of parents taking The Postman Pledge, shared previously
Related resources:
Fight The New Drug — A “non-religious and non-legislative nonprofit… We aim to decrease the demand for sexual exploitation through education while helping individuals live empowered lives free from the harmful effects of pornography.”
Protect Young Eyes — “We show families, schools, and churches how to create safer digital spaces.”
For Men — Strive21 (from Matt Fradd of Pints With Aquinas), Easy Peasy Method (shared by as a resource he recommends to students) and this book from Ray Ortlund.
For Women — Magdala Ministries (“The need for women to be accompanied in the journey towards healing from addiction has gone sorely unmet, and that’s why we’re here”), this conversation (on sexual sin, including the written erotica women tend to gravitate towards) and this book from Phylicia Masonheimer.
Something Happened By Us: A Demonology — Alan Jacobs, The New Atlantis — “Christians who talk about demonic activity tend to make a distinction between possession and oppression. Those possessed by demons — or, to use the language I here prefer, those who have been absorbed into the demonic realm — lack volition. They feature in a behaviorist puppet show. The more fortunate, though perhaps also the more miserable, are the merely oppressed: The demonic acts on them from without, they feel its force but are capable of resisting it; or perhaps only of desiring to resist it.”
(reupped by Jacobs after seeing thinking along similar lines — and I’m reminded of this conversation of , shared previously)
Of Dragons And Other Creatures — Sr. Carino Hodder, Comment — “‘Kristin has absolutely no idea what’s going on in her own interior life,’ I told my sister on the stairs. ‘I mean, what exactly is it that’s driving her to do all this to herself? What does she want?’”
To Be A Man — R.J. Snell, The Public Discourse — “If only you’ll give up your false freedom, live for something, and allow the demands and responsibilities internal to that form of life to shape your actions, with your actions eventually your virtue, and with your virtue eventually a happy, complete life. No theory is needed here, just a choice to live for someone or something other than yourself.”
(related: ’s Men Only Want One Thing, shared previously)
to watch, listen to
Continuing On:
The Natural Womanhood Podcast with
& Cassondra Moriarty — Season 2, Episode 2 — Reclaiming Authentic Feminism with Leah Jacobson of The Guiding Star ProjectWoven Well Podcast with
— Episodes 22-23 — Menstrual Products & Menstruation and Understanding Blood Sugar & Fertility with Dr. Brittannie Chester
(more resources on female embodiment in the Big Ol' Compilation)
to glean from: tip, product, resource
Wood Nativity Art — We got a nativity scene cut-out from this shop (the specific one no longer available) but it’s so beautifully simple, sturdy, and surprisingly affordable. Recommend any of his other wood cut-out pieces.
Practical Gifts For Postpartum (Or Soon-To-Be) Postpartum Mothers — Thank you for this,
.
I highly highly recommend the resource Fight for Love with Rosie Makinney (website, podcast, book). So many women are silently trapped with abusive porn-addicted husbands, both feeling like they have nowhere to turn for help. Fight the New Drug is good for like, people who’ve never thought about it that hard. But for those truly enslaved, more drastic steps are necessary, much more support for the spouses is necessary, and help IS out there.
Thank you for bringing the demonology + tech discussion in. Jacobs' final paragraphs were so powerful.
I've also been thinking about the dopamine/oxytocin trade-off we've gotten ourselves into with smart phones, but now postulating that, ever since the advent of the home television, we have been sick from it. It certainly applies to pornography, and I thank you for bringing light to that darkness, and all the related resources for support.
I'm willing to venture that the most necessary support we need against such evil is confession and absolution and true brotherly love among local Christians, the intergenerational family of believers. May God build such churches in every place.