{"id":131830,"date":"2024-10-10T12:15:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T16:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=131830"},"modified":"2024-10-10T17:54:28","modified_gmt":"2024-10-10T21:54:28","slug":"fpr-james-clark-instability-and-the-noonday-devil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=131830","title":{"rendered":"(FPR) James Clark–Instability and the Noonday Devil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The pervasiveness of geographical instability in contemporary American society\u2014wherein people often move multiple times during their life\u2014has been observed <\/a>by many <\/a>here, along with the spiritual<\/a> instability that almost invariably accompanies it. What I hope to do is say a few words about the deeper roots of rootlessness\u2014acedia, or as Jean-Charles Nault<\/a> calls it, the noonday devil\u2014so that those who are restless in the place they find themselves, geographic or otherwise, might recover the peace of God they have lost or forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nault writes that the Greek word ak\u00e8dia<\/em>\u2014from which \u201cacedia\u201d is derived in both Latin and English\u2014means \u201clack of care,\u201d but he also notes that \u201cevery time we try to translate this term, we lose a bit of its richness: we speak about languor, torpor, despair, laziness, boredom, or disgust, but ultimately none of these words succeeds in rendering the wealth of connotations of the term ak\u00e8dia<\/em>.\u201d This caveat should be born in mind, but for clarity\u2019s sake it will be helpful to conceive of acedia, using Nault\u2019s phrase, as \u201ca lack of care given to one\u2019s own spiritual life.\u201d Or, to condense the idea even further, we can define acedia the way Reinhard H\u00fctter<\/a> does, as \u201cspiritual apathy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The concept of acedia was first discussed at length by the Desert Fathers, those early \u201cChristians who traveled to the desert so as to lead there a life of prayer and asceticism in solitude.\u201d In particular, Evagrius of Pontus is identified by Nault as \u201cthe one who first presented a coherent doctrine about acedia.\u201d Evagrius speaks of several different manifestations that acedia can take, but the one with which we are concerned here is what Nault calls \u201ca certain interior instability,\u201d which is \u201ccharacterized by the need to move about, to have a change of scenery.\u201d In this manifestation, says Nault quoting Evagrius,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The demon of acedia suggests to you ideas of leaving, the need to change your place and your way of life. He depicts this other life as your salvation and persuades you that if you do not leave, you are lost.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Given that Evagrius was writing to and for fellow monastics in the fourth century, we might wish to believe that the feeling of acute restlessness he describes is not a problem for ordinary people today. Unfortunately, as Nault observes, this experience is confined neither to the past nor to the monastic vocation. Rather, in the present, \u201cThis instability is manifested \u2026 by a constant need to move, to change. To change one\u2019s locality, work, situation, institution, occupation, spouse, friends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p><\/p>

I wrote a brief post on the key points some time ago, for those who'd like to get an idea: https:\/\/t.co\/yb1oe4nGPF<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/BRnKrNW8B6<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/LDpqISskzG<\/a><\/p>— James Clark (@jamesdkclark) October 10, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote>