Hello –
At the back of the church we now have a stack of beautiful postcards, designed by Jessica, that promote my January seminar, Transcend Contempt. Not only do I hope you plan to come starting Saturday, January 6th at 8:30am, I hope you invite your neighbors and friends. Those of us who are already handing out these postcards are getting very positive responses.
Here’s my second of the six blogposts I’ll be sharing between now and January 6th:
Session Two: Learning to Be Good: Calling on the Bible, the Declaration of Independence and the Works of Thomas Aquinas
Last week I invited you to join me on Saturday, January 6th for a six-session seminar on Transcending Contempt in 2024. I previewed the sessions’ structure. This structure helped create my second book, With Gladness. With the permission of people who took the seminar, my second book is filled with people’s stories of successful experiences with the practices I suggested, and even some failures too! I then conclude the first session with an invitation to practice WAG – Wonder, Attention and Gratitude. Before kicking off the second session, we’ll spend a few minutes sharing the successes and failures of practicing WAG.
The second session is based on the Bible, the Declaration of Independence. and the works of Thomas Aquinas. In Genesis, the Bible teaches that each human being was “made in the image and likeness of God.” The Declaration of Independence, in antique language, declares that “all men are created equal.” Our struggle against contempt is built on the belief that each human being, regardless of culture, ability, gender, race, or any other outward marker, is of equal worth and dignity.
This class was inspired by one of the most helpful books I read in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd. In On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist It, philosopher David Livingstone Smith, with clear, ethical thinking and voluminous historical examples, shows that contemptuous language of others repeatedly begins a slippery slide toward genocide. Calling Mexican immigrants “rats” and calling fellow Americans “deplorables” are both morally unacceptable.
However, as a secular philosopher, Smith argues that eliminating hierarchy is a key to countering dehumanization. I strongly disagree. In this session, I will argue that it is precisely a strong sense of the hierarchy of the cosmos, as brilliantly presented by Aquinas, that guarantees equality among those of us in the human species. Knowing in our bones that God and the angels are above us and earthworms and dandelions are below us helps ensure our habitual regard toward other individuals as our equals.
Our practice for this week will be rooted in a way of being I call Triple Participation. The Third and only optional Participation is whether we wish to participate in being good, which means being virtuous. In the coming week I will invite us to practice a virtue I believe to be the capstone virtue, magnanimity. I invite us to become people with great hearts.
Please keep reading these posts, which preview the six weekly sessions, to test whether you are called to Transcend Contempt with me beginning in person January 6th. The class is in Duncan Hall at St. Paul’s on 1123 Court Street., San Rafael. Hospitality begins at 8:30am and the sessions are from 9 to 10am.
Blessings, Christopher
p: (415) 456-4842