Church of Geeks

Last updated on: March 6, 2017 at 10:40 pm by Patheos Daily Reflections

Church of Geeks 2017-03-06T22:40:29+00:00 Patheos Daily Reflections

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.

WRITTEN BY MAX LINDENMAN:

Poor Glen Lafantasie. The Civil War historian from Kentucky is freaking out over the sesquicentennial of the war’s declaration. He fears it will trigger a nostalgic frenzy among the amateurs — particularly the reenactors, who seem to him touched by the obsessiveness that’s made sci-fi and comic fanboys such an easy target for stand-up comedians:

Civil War reenactors and buffs seem to have a far greater tolerance level than I do. They live and breathe the war readily, without hesitation, and with a passion that veers close to a religious experience or even sexual arousal. I have a passion for my work, especially my writing and my teaching, but enough’s enough. I lack the hobbyist’s obsession with the war, its players (great and small), and its minutia (which is endless). My job requires me to be an expert about the war, a position I do believe I’ve attained, but I can’t bring myself to devote the entirety of my life to it — and I certainly (unlike some of my academic cohort) have no interest in donning a uniform, firing a Springfield musket, or participating in a battle reenactment under a blazing sun or a dripping sky.

When you think about it, Lafantasie is pretty gutsy for signing his name to this cri de coeur. The bio that appears at the end of the article doesn’t mention that he’s published anything in the popular press, so the “buffs and reenactors” might not make up that great a share of his readership. Still, their goodwill is nothing to treat lightly. He wouldn’t complain about them unless he had good reason to fear that holding his peace would drive him stark, raving mad.

Perhaps thanks to his Southern good manners, there’s a word he hasn’t used, but perhaps should have, since it would spell out the sum of his fears in great red letters. That word is geek. It has dozens of definitions, each delicately shaded to distinguish it from the rest. But Wikipedia offers one that comes closest to describing the type of Civil War enthusiast that so exhausts the professor: “A person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainstream. This could be due to the intensity, depth, or subject of their interest.”

That’s a very fine, and very dignifying definition. It’s not that all geeks, as non-geeks sometimes suppose, lack social skills. They simply have had the bad luck to be consumed by an interest to which no social cachet attaches itself. Golfers famously make widows of their wives in their own lifetimes, but because golf is known as the divertissement of Scottish royalty, retired baseball greats and Tiger Woods, they face nothing like the ridicule reserved for grown-up X-Men fans.

Because a geeklike absorbtion feels like a calling and means exile from the mainstream, there is something of the artist in every geek, but also something of the monastic. One of the most erudite and admirable geeks I ever knew was an historian who studied the lives of young men who’d died in awful ways. These included Aubrey Beardsley, who’d lost his battle with consumption at the age of 26; Tsarevich Aleksei, who was tortured to death by his father, Peter the Great, on a spurious treason charge; and Captain Louis Nolan, whose lungs were shattered by Russian shrapnel at Balaclava. Her interest in these unfortunates exceeded the merely professional, approaching the devotion nuns show toward the Blessed Sacrament. At times it could seem oddballish, even superstitious — “differently alive” was the term she coined to describe her charges. But it was passionate, and in that passion was a real nobility.

Last week, I blogged a piece titled “Which Saints Can’t You Stand?” It got 64 responses: everyone had an opinion on the subject — me, I have dozens. That’s remarkable, in a way: none of the figures under discussion affected people’s lives in so concrete a fashion as, say, their bishops do .The fascination for, attachment to, and in some instances impatience with, these remote, exalted people is as impractical as it is powerful. Therefore, it is the very quintessence of geequerie.

Appealing to the geek within has always been the Church’s secret strength, her best-kept secret. Holy cards existed long before Star Wars cards, and enthusiasts were collecting — and in many cases, manufacturing — relics long before the first autograph books appeared. To those unmoved by the mundane, the everyday, the merely normal, the Church has offered no end of things loftier, weirder, and exquisite in their intricacy.

Protestants in general, and fundamentalists in particular, would claim to have de-geeked religion. Relics, culti of saints — superstition. Canon Law — Roman tyranny. To them I say, let us know when you find Noah’s Ark, guys.

And, hey, we even do our own reenactments. I’ve never heard of a Civil War buff actually taking a minie ball, but it would not be at all hard to find a Catholic who’s had himself scourged during a Good Friday geek-out. (I’ve heard the best of these take place in the Phillipines but I could be wrong.) That’s a little grim for me, but I wouldn’t mind taking part in a mockup of Nicaea, or better, Vatican II. I bet I’d make a better Lefebvre than Lefebvre.

— Max Lindenman

Uncategorized

Next Post

May 9, 2011 Military Religious Freedom A-Ok for Druids, "Meh" for Catholics

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category "Remaking" Ourselves 'Remaking' America 9/10 Mindset 9/11 trials Abortion ACORN Adoration Advent Advent 2008 Advent 2009 Advent 2010 Alternative Energy Alternative Media America American Catholic Church American Church American Genius Ameridolatry ANCHORESS BOOKSHELF Anglican-Roman Reconciliation Answers & Questions Anti_Semitism Archbishop Hilarion Ayn Rand Bad Mass Barack Obama Baseball Benedict Benedict & Islam Benedict in UK Benedict XVI Benedictine Bill Whittle Birth Control Blogs and Blogging Blogs and Blogging Bloodless Coup Bobby Jindal Bookchat Breitbart Bride at every wedding... Bride at every wedding... Buckley Bullies Bush Bad? Bush Good Buster Capitalism Catholic Fiction Catholic Vocations Catholicism Celibacy Chaput Charitable Stuff Chesterton Chile Chris Christie Christians in Exile Christine O' Donnell Christmas Christmas Gift Ideas Church Hates Science? Church hates women Communion of Saints Compline Conclave 2013 Confession Constitutional Stuff Conversion Crisis & Opportunity Critical Thinking Crooks and Liars Crucible of Faith Cuba Culture of Life Culture of Life/Death Culture of Treason? Dancing Death Dialogue re Islam Dick Meyer Divorce and Remarriage DOJ Domestic Terrorism Dominican Order Don't try me too high Dowd Dumb Democrat moves Dumb GOP moves Economic woe Education Egregious Harry Reid Elder Son Elder Son's Sweet Girlfriend Elderly Election '10 Election '12 Election '16 Election 2004 Election 2006 Election 2008 Election 2010 Election 2016 Elena Kagan Elitism Embryonic Stem Cell Research End Times? English language Enhanced Interrogation Erosion of Rights Eucharist Euthanasia Exorcism Extraordinary Synod Facebook Faith Faith and Reason Faith Friday Faith Perspective Faithful Friday Fascism Again Fascism in America Fatima FCC Feminism Film First Things Forgiveness Fr. James Martin Francis and Islam Francis in America Frassati Fred Thompson Free Speech? Freedom of Worship FutureChurch Global Pandemic GOP Congress Haiti Head Covering Health Care Here and Queer Hermits Heroes Hitchens Holy Spirit Holy Week '09 Holy Week '10 Hoo-Hah & BS Hoo-Hah & BS Icons Illegal Immigration In The Arena Interviews Interwebz Iran Uprising Iraqi Christians ISIL ISIS Islamic State Islamification/Islamofascism Islamification/Islamofascism Isra-El It's all about me! Me! ME! James Burke Jerry Lewis Jesus Christ Joblessness John Boehner John McCain John Paul II John XXIII Juan Williams Just Words Katrina/Rita King is a Fink Latin Mass Leadership Lectio Divina Lent Lent '08 Lent '09 Lent 2010 Lent 2011 Limbaugh Listen to Lizzie Litigious Society Liturgy Liturgy of the Hours Mainstream Media Manliness Marriage Mary Media Excess Medical Merton Michelle Obama Mighty John O' Connor Misc. Miss Ella Missionaries Mitt Romney Monasticism My brother S My Irish Aunties Mystic Monks Nanny Statism Nature NEA Neri New Media Newman Noonan Notre Dame NPR Stuff Nun News Obama Bad? Obama Good? Obama White House Oil Spill Online Retreat '08 Online Retreat Days Oratory Orthodoxy Our Hillary! Parenting Passionists Patheos Patheos Book Club Patrons Paul Ryan Penance Penn Jillette Philosophy PJTV Podcasts Poetry Politics-free zone Pop Culture Pope Emeritus Pope Francis Prayer Predictions Priesthood Pro-Life Public Sector Unions Purgatory Questions about Catholicism Quotes of the Day Quoting the News Race in America rants Recipes Remarried Catholics Reposts by request Retreat thoughts Rome Rudy Giuliani Russia Saints Sarah Palin Scandal Scott Brown SCOTUS Scriptural stuff Secularism Send in the clowns Serving up hot links Sexuality Sherrod Shroud of Turin Sisters and Nuns Social Entrepreneurship Social Media Social Security Socialism doesn't work Sports and Faith Stem Cells Strange Gods Suffering Synod Tea Parties Tea Party Terri Schiavo The 9/11 Commission The Catholic Answer The Constitution The Desert The Fourth Estate The Pelosi The Perpetual Adolescents The Rosary Third Party? Timothy Dolan Touch of evil TSA Tsunami TV/Pop Culture/Music TV/Pop Culture/Music Twitter Uncategorized Unemployment Unintended Consequences US Military Vaginal Musings Vatican Vespers video faves Vile Joe Biden Voter Fraud War by Litigation War on Terror War, What it good for? Why can't weeee be ... World Youth Days Year of Faith Year of the Priest

Select a Month August 2016 July 2016 April 2016 March 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who stopped David from taking revenge on Nabal?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Ahinoam Michal Jonathan Abigail