March Newsletter
Lent, Dystopia, A.I., and the Annunciation of the Lord
Ash Wednesday; the end of Carnival by Carl Spitzweg (1808–1885)
I will admit that there is a part of me that detests Lent.
I quite like the idea of Lent. The seasonality, the interwoven pattern of fasting and feasting, is an idea that I can both emotionally and rationally get behind. It is the practice of Lent that I find detestable.
And, (I must be honest) my practice of Lent is not particularly onerous. I do always strive to fast from something whose absence will sting (at least a little). I try also, following the usual advice in such matters, to commit to some extra prayer or almsgiving. But these are no great burdens. Anyone training for a sporting event would sacrifice more.
The reluctance with which I approach Lent is certainly disproportionate to the sacrifices I make during Lent. And thus, I am forced to conclude, that my dislike of Lent comes from somewhere else.
I suspect my dislike of Lent stems (at least partly) from a spiritual pride. After all, as religious practice declines in Australia, it is easy for us who still occupy a pew of Sunday to feel that we are already doing our bit. From here it is just a short step to resentment when we are asked to do a little more.
It significant that the Gospel reading on Ash Wednesday (Mt 6:1-6, 16-18) warns those fasting, praying, and giving alms against spiritual pride. And there are opportunities for pride in those who reluctantly observe Lent, just as there are for those who do so with too much enthusiasm.
Each year, I aim to fast from both a wholesome (or harmless) pleasure and from a bad habit. The wholesome pleasure helps to makes the Easter feast that much sweeter, while I hope to rid myself of the bad habit for good.
The last couple of years I have tried to moderate my use of technology, the internet and screens in general. My article on the Dawson Society’s blog for this month explains a little bit about why. Also on the theme of technology, Mr. Thomas Gourlay’s article is a prescient and provocative assessment of the A.I. revolution in schools.
On a different note, this newsletter is the twelfth installment since we re-launched the Dawson Society in April of 2024. The support we have received has inspired much of our efforts for the year ahead. If you are able to like and share this newsletter, we would greatly appreciate it.
Upcoming events
WOUNDED BY BEAUTY
The Dawson Society is proud to present ‘Wounded by Beauty’, illustrated talks offering a new way of listening to music. The focus is to discover the very foundation of music, viewed as one of the most sincere and moving expressions of human experience, of the universal human desire for beauty, for happiness, for a mysterious Other who will fulfil the promises of the heart.
This event the third of it’s kind, will feature a performance of Franz Schubert’s piano trio no. 2, op. 110 by Perth acclaimed Chimera Ensemble, with accompanying commentary and lecture by Emeritus Professor John Kinder FAHA, OSI, (UWA).
More information here.
BOOK LAUNCH - WITNESS: THE FUTURE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN AUSTRALIA
The Christopher Dawson Society for Philosophy and Culture warmly invites you to the book launch of Witness: The future Catholic Church in Australia, by Dr. Philippa Martyr.
The book will be launched by Professor Tracey Rowland of the University of Notre Dame Australia, followed by a response from the author.
Books will be available for sale on the night.
Register your attendance online for this FREE event, or buy your copy in advance
CONFERENCE 2025
Home: Family. Place. Economics.
The Dawson Society is very pleased to announce that we will be hosting a multi-day conference 10 - 12 July 2025 on the topic ‘Home: Family. Place. Economics.’
The place of home in our society and culture deserves critical examination. On the one hand our culture is replete with idealised, and perhaps clichéd, notions of home from The Wizard of Oz’s “there’s no place like home” to Elvis Presley’s “home is where the heart is”. Meanwhile in an age of increasing globalism, competition, and crisis, it can often appear that homes and home-life are considered last on the list of priorities, if they are considered at all.
We are delighted to announce that we have secured Dr Marc Barnes, Mrs Anna Krohn OAM, and Emeritus Professor John Kinder OSI FAHA as keynote speakers for this event.
We have issued a call for papers for anyone who would like to present at this conference. Papers will run for 30 minutes and abstracts are due by the 30th of April.
More details can be found here.
New on the blog
The devils are in the walls: Or screentime with Ray Bradbury
by Daniel Matthys
“It was a pleasure to burn”.
Thus, Ray Bradbury’s 1953 Fahrenheit 451 opens. The novel is known as the ‘book-burning’ novel where the firefighters of the future are not tasked with extinguishing fires, but with the burning of outlawed books and the homes where they are found.
It is a dramatic opening. The vivid irony of the fire-starting firemen is not easily forgotten. And this is often reinforced by cover art which cannot resist the image of matches, firemen, and burning books. Thus, Fahrenheit 451 is often placed alongside its fellow twentieth century dystopia 1984 as a warning against censorship and the jackboot of totalitarian government. Big Brother is burning the books.
(read on)
A.I., A.I., Oh: On the necessity, and increasing rarity, of thinking
by Tom Gourlay
30 November 2022 saw the launch of Chat GPT and ever since pundits the world over have filled various commentaries either with starry-eyed praise of these technologies as they proport to usher in the dawning of a new era of peace and progress, or of woeful warnings concerning the immanent of the end of humanity as we know it. Even trying to avoid hyperbole, it is evident that the development and proliferation of Large Language Models, so-called ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (A.I.), does constitute something of a crisis, inasmuch as such phenomena press on precisely what it is that is said to distinguish the human person from other creatures, namely rationality.
(read on)
On our nightstands
Utopia of Usurers by G. K. Chesterton
From the blurb: An engaging work sure to appeal to both scholars and students for the depth of its thought and the freshness of its claims, this is a two-part book by one of the 20th century's greatest writers. The first part is a coherent analysis of the theory, effects, and claims of capitalism. The second is a lengthy collection of articles from Chesterton's vast journalistic output. The author challenges the fundamental tenets of capitalism without favoring socialism or Marxism by providing a philosophical analysis of the pitfalls, drawbacks, and falsehoods regarding capitalism and its inevitability. This is must reading for any serious investigation into anti-capitalist thought. It is also an exemplary text of how Christian principles and thinking apply to the socioeconomic world.
The Tyranny of the Banal: On the Renewal of Moral Theology by David Deane
From the blurb: Catholic positions on contested moral issues are rejected by the majority in the secular West and are increasingly rejected by Catholics themselves. In this book, David Deane argues that there are two main reasons for this. First, the dominance of secular approaches deprives Catholic positions of their claim to coherence. Second, the Catholic positions, Deane shows, have lost contact with the theology on which they were originally based. In response, Deane undertakes a deconstruction of the dominant secular positions, and seeks to restore Catholic positions to their theological roots. The result of this is a moral theology reconnected with the Trinitarian understanding of God and God’s relationship with the world. Restored to its doctrinal foundations, the moral theology that Deane offers is more coherent, more beautiful, and more convincing than has been found in Catholic moral discourse for centuries.
The Annunciation of the Lord, 25 March
The Annunciation (1899), by Henry Ossawa Tanner
The Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord commemorates the announcement of the Angel Gabriel to Mary that she should conceive and bear a son. While the Feast day almost always falls within Lent, since as far back as the 7th century its importance has seen it exempted from Lenten strictures. For Christians, it is this moment that denotes the beginning of the new era of grace.
Fittingly therefore, when the Eastern Roman monk Dionysius Exiguus reformed the calendar, inventing the counting of years from the birth of Christ, he begun the year on the 25th of March or The Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. In England, where the Feast of the Annunciation is also know as ‘Lady Day’ and the old practice of beginning the year on the 25th of March is preserved in the United Kingdom’s fiscal year which begins on the 5th of April (The difference between the two dates is accounted for by the eleven days omitted in September 1752 when the British converted from the Julian to Georgian calendars).
In our own times the liturgical calendar seems to have shrunk to only Easter and Christmas. Yet I hope (for myself and my readers) that the Feast of the Annunciation can celebrated this year with the reverence and festivity it deserves.