Contemplation in the Dog Days
A bit of reading material for the final weeks of summer
Alas, the dog days of summer are upon us! We in the Northern Hemisphere are now well past the time when heat was a welcome relief from the months of winter. We have received two or three months’ worth of heightened electricity bills, and the sweaters in our closet would be longing for the warmth of our bodies were those bodies not covered in sweat. (Ironic, as what else is a sweater for?)
The phrase “dog days” has been used for centuries and has its origin in the observation of the heavens. The ancient Greeks gave the title Sirius (meaning “dog”) to what is now scientifically known as Alpha Canis Majoris, the brightest star in the night sky which appears to trail after the constellation Orion like a dog following a hunter. Sirius would rise to prominence in the sky around the hottest time of the summer, and it was believed to be responsible for many of the natural phenomena occurring around that time in the temperate Northern Hemisphere: drought that turned grass brown alternating with fierce storms that arose seemingly out of nowhere.
This is how the long, hot days of summer became known as the “dog days,” a time when one simply wants to sit on the porch with a cold drink and do nothing at all. But thanks to air conditioning, we can now relax in something like comfort even in early August, and when we aren’t watching the Olympics, we might be tempted to read.
I recently returned from my own summer sojourn and had an opportunity to catch up on my Substack reading. Yes, I enjoy reading articles here as well as writing them. It’s part of what makes this site so special. Here are four articles that you will probably enjoy if you like my writing.
“John Donne: Holy Sonnet 18” by Karen Swallow Prior, The Priory
Prior’s trip through John Donne’s Holy Sonnets is a wonderful introduction for those who are unfamiliar with his work, while for those who have already surmised Donne’s greatness, it is like a visit with an old friend. Prior draws on her many years of experience teaching English literature and suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous ecclesiastical fortune to illuminate Donne’s consideration of the nature of the Church.
Read it here.
“The Christian Roots of ‘Woke’” by Joshua Claybourn, Claybourn’s Agora
When billionaire political financier Peter Thiel said in a recent interview that woke ideology was essentially a breakaway sect of Christianity that had maintained original sin but ditched forgiveness, many people made comparison’s to the thesis of Tom Holland’s book Dominion - not least Holland himself, who retweeted the clip. Claybourn offers a brief but helpful analysis of this argument that is growing in popularity among Western intellectuals.
Read it here.
"Where is the Life we have lost in living?" by Alan Noble, Your Are Not Your Own Substack
In this article, Noble begins his consideration of the choruses from T.S. Eliot’s play The Rock. Eliot’s argument that modern man is caught in a relentless cycle of change with no time to rest and contemplate is very close to Noble’s own assertions in his books Disruptive Witness and You Are Not Your Own, both of which I highly recommend. He continues dissecting Eliot’s work and its implications for our engagement with modern society in later articles.
Read it here.
“The Threefold Distortion of Desire” by Matthew Lee Anderson, The Path Before Us
Anderson once again interacts with the writings of Pope John Paul II in this consideration of the Apostle John’s statement, “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.” (1 John 2:16 NASB95) Anderson makes some particularly good observations about how our desires interact with our pridefulness, as well as how deformed desires lead to a deformed view of the world and disconnect from God. Be sure to also read the quote from Rowan Williams at the end, which sheds some light on our current political discord.
Read it here.
Sub-Creations is now on hiatus for a couple of weeks. I look forward to providing more articles soon!