Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

[JHForest AT cs.com]

In a message dated 1/19/2005 7:49:19 AM W. Europe Standard Time, tfa AT brickengraver.com writes: 

> "Science is extraordinarily stupid about people as people and the consequence of this stupidity is going to do us all in if we don't do something about it"
>   Walker Percy


Could someone post the citation for the above quote? It's very timely.

Along these lines, let me mention that there's a book by Thomas Merton, a writer Walker Percy greatly admired, that explores this theme: "Peace in the Post-Christian Era." It was written 40 years ago but the head of Merton's order (he was a Trappist monk) banned its publication. At last it's in print and still quite a fresh read. The publisher is Orbis. The book's foreword is posted at this URL:

http://incommunion.org/forest-flier/jimsessays/foreword-merton/

Jim Forest

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Jim Forest
Kanisstraat 5 / 1811 GJ Alkmaar / The Netherlands
e-mail: jhforest AT cs.com
Orthodox Peace Fellowship web site: http://www.incommunion.org
Jim & Nancy Forest web site: http://incommunion.org/forest-flier/
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The Wormwood File: E-Mail from Hell
At the end of C. S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters (1941), the recipient of those
missives on the art of temptation, the junior demon Wormwood, was in a
pickle -- indeed, might become a pickle, so to speak, for his
uncle-advisor's hellish delectation. Jim Forest reveals that Wormwood
survived and now advises yet-more-junior tempters, including one
Greasebeek, whose first case is the subject of these e-mails. The "client" is
a young married man who, when the correspondence begins, has bought a
Gregorian chant CD. Not to worry, says Wormwood; most who buy such
things "barely listen to what is being sung" and even "give up on
Christianity simply because the music in actual churches doesn't measure
up." Besides, the client disfavors "organized religion": "What a useful
phrase that's been!" Wormwood crows. But, as in Lewis' classic, things go
from bad to better for the client. As they do, Wormwood's comments on
both contemporary spiritual fashions and age-old temptations illuminate
by contrast the strengths of orthodox Christian belief. A worthy sequel to a
perdurable popular-theology masterpiece.
-- Booklist review by Ray Olson

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the introduction and several of Wormwood's e-mails are on the web at:

http://incommunion.org/forest-flier/books/the-wormwood-file-e-mail-from-hell/

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