Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

PaterFamilias Today

Home
Evangelical
Making the Good Life from Home

Making the Good Life from Home

Last updated on: May 8, 2018 at 11:43 am by C. R. Wiley

Making the Good Life from Home 2018-05-08T11:43:06-04:00 C. R. Wiley

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Not my tool belt, but it sure looks like it. (I’ve got that same brand of hammer by the way–that’s a Hardcore Hammer, well loved by framers.

In my advocacy for recovering the productive household, the first question I’m asked is, “Is it possible?” But there is a second, sometimes hiding in first, other times expressed, and it is this: “Is it desirable?”

I think we all live short of the ideals we live for–so failure to fully perfect an ideal doesn’t strike me as a fatal blow. It is the question of desire, is this worth the effort? or, is it even nobel to try? that proves deadly.

The objections raised are inextricably bound up with modern notions of what makes for a good life. And those ideals are so dependent upon modern institutions designed to hide them from view, it is nearly impossible to answer the objections directly without tacitly endorsing the very premises the productive household is calling into question. Not only that, even when challenged, people seem unable to hear, or see the point, ears and eyes apparently lacking.

Disillusionment is needed. For me that’s what did the job. But for most people it seems by all I can see, the liberal ideal of autonomy, you know, freedom from moral and social restraint, and the uninhibited pursuit of sensual pleasure, is just too desirable to doubt. Repeated disappointment just leads to doubling down and trying harder. See my earlier point about failure to achieve the ideal as insufficient to kill an ideal.

So I think the way to proceed here is just to leave off a defense and instead just lay out the ideal of the productive household on its own terms. In the weeks that follow there will be plenty said that will skewer the liberal ideal of the good life. But my purpose is more constructive. I want to discuss the good life and how the productive household does a better job of helping us pursue it than the gargantuan institutions of the modern world.

As I do so I will use a term that may be unfamiliar to you. It is the term “post-liberal”. I wish I had a better term, but I don’t. It is intended to convey a sense of “been there, done that”. Too often people like me are accused of “turning back the clock” or nostalgia, as though we’re unfamiliar with the modern world and its benefits. If you’ve read my book, Man of the House, you know that this isn’t true. The case I make is based on the situation we find ourselves in now. We live among the ruins, not just of the West, but the very institutions we once confidently believed delivered us from the need of a tradition. The welfare state is failing, and globalism seems to work for some people but not for the rest of us. (No, I don’t think cheap goods at Walmart can be said to work for people. They come at the high price of ruined communities.)

Nevertheless I do think we’ve gained important things with modernity, especially when it comes to the treatment and cure of disease and access to information. I don’t want to lose those gains. But paradoxically it is the new world we now live in that makes it possible to recover those features of an earlier way of life that we erroneously believed were the price that had to be paid for the benefits of modernity. What are those?

Now I come to my case for the good life that the productive household can make possible. The following list contains ideals that I will take up and treat in future posts.

Human scale
Integration of life
Ownership/stewardship
Union, aka common good
And something I call, structural, intergenerational interdependency

In case you’re wondering if this will eventually amount to something, yes, I hope so. These themes and others to follow hopefully will form the substance of a sequel to Man of the House. For now I’m calling it, The Rise of the Post-Liberal Household.

The Rise of the Post-Liberal Household

Previous Post

April 23, 2018

Watchful Dragons

Next Post

May 8, 2018 How Big Is Too Big?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advising a Daughter Aristotle Art Atheism Author and Speaking Appearances Beauty Building Working Houses C R Wiley Children Community Creativity Cultural Apologetics Fatherhood Fiction Fidelity in marriage Film Freedom Gravitas H. P. Lovecraft Happiness Household Economy Infant Baptism Inklings Interpreting the Bible Interviews Jack Donovan Liturgy Localism Man of the House Manliness Martial Virtue Medieval Cosmology Metaphysics Mortimus Clay NecronomiCon New Left New Testament Household Codes Nietzsche Nominalism/Realism Politics Poverty Preaching Productive Property Reaching men Science Self-Sufficiency Side Hustles Social Ethics Social Security Spiritual Disciplines Sublime Techno-gnosticism The Pastor's Survival Guide Theology of the Family Tradition Uncategorized Virtue Weird Fiction

Select a Month February 2019 November 2018 October 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which king of Judah burned the scroll of Jeremiah's prophecy?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Zedekiah Hezekiah Jehoiakim Josiah

Books by This Author Books by PaterFamilias Today

See All Titles »

Books by C. R. Wiley

The Purloined Boy (The Weirdling Cycle #1)

C. R. Wiley

Man of the House: A Handbook for Building a Shelter That Will Last in a World That Is Falling Apart

C. R. Wiley