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

Home
Religious Music and Entertainment
Responsio ad Herr Journalist Polemikerque Rod Dreher Louisianae

Responsio ad Herr Journalist Polemikerque Rod Dreher Louisianae

Last updated on: April 4, 2017 at 9:07 pm by Chase Padusniak

Responsio ad Herr Journalist Polemikerque Rod Dreher Louisianae 2017-04-04T21:07:57-04:00 Chase Padusniak

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.

“Hail Muse! et cetera.” – George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, FRS

“Yeah them my dogs, them my boys.” – Jeffrey Lamar Williams, Not FRS

It is I, Herr Doktorand Chase William Jarid Michael Padusniak, son of Frank and Robyn, likewise grandson of Frances and Chester, Frank and Stephanie, etc.

And I was once a reader of Rod Dreher. More recently, I haven’t visited his page much, but today I returned to find a scathing review of a charitable review of Herr Journalist, Polemiker, etc.’s review of modern society. I stopped reading the gentleman from Louisiana (if I might show deference) about the time I entered graduate school. This is fitting, considering that, if his review and its comments are to be believed, his primary issue with Herr Doktor S. Rocha’s review is its academese, its high expectations for a book of journalistic polemic and general advice.

Perhaps, of course, I am merely a pedant, but this seems very odd to my Chaucer-addled brain. Why?

Why Rod Dreher is So Wise

Wisdom is famously the knowledge of one’s own ignorance, or so quoth the pedant Socrates. In this vein, we must count Mr. Dreher rather wise, for he admits that his book is not intended as an academic work of rigorous analysis. Rather, it is, we are told, polemic. Rare is it that the word “polemic” is used positively, but we shall proceed.

Twilight of Christendom, or How to Philosophize with a Bestseller

Unserer liebe Freund, Herr Dreher, makes it clear that he did not intend to write a commentary on MacIntyre. I defer to his judgment, of course, though it is somewhat odd that MacIntyre (an academic, may we pray for his soul) opined last week at Notre Dame that he grows concerned as more and more is made of a book seeking to philosophize with but a sentence from his magisterial After Virtue.

But fly, little book, fly; thy author is a man of pedantry, whose wisdom is un-wisdom, whose ideas must be made polemical.

In sum:

“Hear me! For I am such and such a person. Above all, do not mistake me for someone else!” – Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Not FRS

Why, then, polemicize?

Why Relativism is a Destiny

I suspect that the gentleman means “popularize.” And this, this is a noble function. We academics, perched as we are atop a limited living after a half a decade plus of training and hours that never end at the office, are bad at speaking to the populus. Yes, culled as we are from the Hispanic charismatics of Texas and the Trump-voting white factory towns of New Jersey, our voices cannot deign to touch the sullied ears of the masses. No, no—for us there is only the intellectual masturbation of the disputatio. Mea culpa, amici, denn mein Leben ist nur academic debate.

And this is true. In the face of a toxic culture we need people to bring the ideas to the people:

Titan! to whose immortal eyes
The sufferings of mortality,
Seen in their sad reality,
Were not as things that gods despise;
What was thy pity’s recompense?
A silent suffering, and intense;
The rock, the vulture, and the chain,
All that the proud can feel of pain,
The agony they do not show,
The suffocating sense of woe,
Which speaks but in its loneliness,
And then is jealous lest the sky
Should have a listener, nor will sigh
Until its voice is echoless.”
– George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, FRS

But I ask (silence, academic brain—you question with no thought for the turba!): is there not danger in popularization? Popularization is most successful when it does as little as possible to malform or otherwise obscure the ideas of its predecessor. Is this not a common complaint? Those disciples of Derrida! Those epigones of Marx! Those apostles of Jesus Christ! Would that they were like their masters; would that they thought!

Popularization is, in short, a necessary, but dangerous, business. The disciples never quite out-class the master, and, at times, do great damage to the intricacies and subtleties of the original. And the devil is, of course, in the details; those subtleties make all the difference. No one can tell the story of Europe in a few hundred pages, and no one can fault der gute Herr for not achieving such a task.

But what if this was not Sam’s gripe?

Why Rod Dreher Writes Such Excellent Books

I ask (humbly, deferentially, my PhD not yet in hand): what if Sam’s issue, as himself a man of color, a man from a poor background, and an orthodox Christian, is with the failure of Mr. Dreher’s popularization? What if all of his questions about MacIntyre, about “options,” and such were actually attempts to reckon with the problem of popularization? Perhaps, what he was asking was merely: “if this is to help us cope with the problems of the age, ought it not seriously treat the emergence of the aforesaid (ah! an academic!) problems?”

Granting this, it would seem the response to the response to the book misses the point. S.R. did not want an academic tome (many of those exist—and I am ashamed for reading them!); what he wanted was a book popular, yet adequate to the problems it faces. Something that, even if briefly, reckons with the fact that lots of research has been done on modernity and modernization since Richard Weaver’s Ideas Have Consequences (and who would believe an academic like Weaver anyway?).

If one sets out to popularize, to polemicize, armed with big ideas made legible for a greater audience, one must, inevitably, cut material; one must simplify. Again (and I hate to invoke more philosophers!), this sounds a bit like Johannes Scotus Eriugena: shadow is matter. In other words, what is absent has a presence all its own. One must be very discerning.

Further, how can good solutions, practices, etc. be expected from simplified historiography? We treat issues based upon their causes; we try to stem them and transform them. Can we (dare I ask) so easily separate a self-professedly simplified historiography from the solutions offered?

What if, then, Sam, by beginning with a sort of glad preamble, was trying to show charity in criticism?

An Attempt at Self-Criticism

Herr Doktor Rocha knows he has come a long way, and such is admitted in the piece. There is something of fraternity and self-criticism in such admission.

Allow me, then, dear reader, to drop the artifice for a moment.

Mr. Dreher, we, as Sam said in his review, agree on very much. We all recognize problems in society, and, I imagine, work in our daily lives to fix them through righteous living. We all know ourselves to fail at times, to misspeak, to—dare I say—academicize. As common ground was affirmed, why did you not do the same?

“People who live in an age of corruption are witty and slanderous; they know that there are other kinds of murder than by dagger or assault; they also know that whatever is well said is believed.” – Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Not (once more) FRS

The American Conservative

The Benedict Option

Previous Post

April 2, 2017

Ideas Don't Have Consequences

Next Post

May 8, 2017 Pope Francis Revisited

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Academia Culture Politics Reviews Theology Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 July 2021 December 2020 November 2020 July 2020 May 2020 April 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 August 2019 July 2019 April 2019 March 2019 December 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 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

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

According to 1 Timothy, what is a trustworthy saying deserving of full acceptance?

Select your answer to see how you score.

God is love Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners The Lord is our shepherd Faith without works is dead