Daniel Quinn's Ishmael

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51c9PkFculL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_ I've been reading Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn over the past week or so. (Click on the link to find out more about it.) It began when a friend of mine turned me onto this notion of "being a Hobbit". I've always been apolitical. I am conservative on the old sense: I believe in tradition, value in the old way of doing things, and seek to maintain a way of life informed by the wisdom of the Past. I'm Eastern Orthodox because I believe that it preserves the original doctrines and practices of the Apostles. I taught in a classical school and now homeschool my children because I believe that standing on the shoulders of giants is better than chasing the whims of "progress". I'm liberal in the classical sense. I believe …show more content…

In due course, I have been exploring this idea of being a Hobbit in a culture polluted by Isengard and overseen by Barad Dur. Exploration leads to discovery, and my recent discovery is …show more content…

Is there a different way to live? Can we resist the "progress" of consumption and depletion of our resources and the threat of extinction? Quinn's answers to these questions via this fanciful dialog between man and ape are intriguing and challenging--both as a person and a Christian. What Quinn refuses to acknowledge is that any religious answer is necessary. Humans are capable--as products of evolution and their environment--of coming to the answers on their own without prophets. All discussion of sin is verboten. Where I think Quinn hits the mark is that the basic human needs to be Right and the be Secure have thrown us off course. We began farming and enforced agriculturalism on the world. With the security of steady crops and food preservation, the population expanded, so more land was needed to till the earth, and Cain slays Abel again and again as the train of progress moves relentlessly over more and more uncultivated ground. There is a way to make things better, but it cannot be reached without a proper understanding of sin and the human condition. We can do better by the planet, society, our community, and each other; but we can't do it on our own. It's not enough to say that we should live like a part of the world because we evolved like the rest of the world. As Christians, we need a better answer, because humans are bearers of the imago and as such have a deeper responsibility to the planet than just

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