Friday, December 20, 2024

All the Horrible Ideas of 2024

(Not including the political ones.) With free links to antidotes.

1. "Nonduality" is an entirely Hindu concept. (antidote: The Tree of India)

2. Christian mysticism cannot be visualized. (antidote: That Man of Understanding)

3. Once you become "contemplative" you no longer need to go to church. (antidote: The Skeptical Mystic).

4. The Renaissance left mysticism behind. (antidote: Evagrius in Florence)

5. AI has revolutionized traditional Christian iconography. (antidote: Picturing Aphou)

6. If it's not trad, it's bad. (antidote: The Architecture of Prayer)

7. Dionysius the Areopagite is dead. (antidote: The Chief of Mystics at the Met)

8. The Whitney Biennial was moribund and New York is dead. (antidote: Giving the Whitney Biennial a Chance)

9. Prayer is a sedative. (antidote: Pray like a Cicada)

10. Womb or tomb: Pick one.  (antidote: A New Pro-Life Image

11. Jesus was hot. (antidote: Artistic Humility

12. The best theology is always written. (antidote: A Wedding in London)

13. Jesus may have defeated death but contemporary art was too much for him. (antidote: Art Haters Anonymous)

14. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's ideas should be uncritically adopted or handled like radioactive waste. (antidote: At the Field Museum with Father Teilhard)

15. Queer Theory fully explains the Canadian Cree artist Kent Monkman. (antidote: Missionary Position)

16. Alan Watts is a true sage and Christianity has never really understood Buddhism. (antidote: Hive Mind)

17. Sustained devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary beyond Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy is impossible. (antidote: The Secret of Walsingham).

18. The "end of wokeness" means we don't have to talk about Native Americans anymore. (antidote: Depth Mariology)

19. Emptiness is Buddhist (at best) or nihilist (at worst), and Our Lady of Guadalupe is exhaustible. (antidote: Our Lady of Emptiness). 

Untruths, each of them! May they becloud your mind no more. (if you prefer substack, it's all there too).

Merry rest of Advent and Christmas!