Sunday, 1 February 2026

HOW BEAUTY CREATES A HUNGER FOR TRUTH

'The beautiful, almost without any effort of its own, acquaints us with the mental event of conviction, and so pleasurable a mental state is this that ever afterwards one is willing to labor, struggle, wrestle with the world to locate enduring sources of conviction - to locate what is true.'
Elaine Scarry in Karen Swallow Prior, You Have a Calling, p.118.

TELLING THE TRUTH

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind —

Emily Dickinson in Karen Swallow Prioer, You Have a Calling, p.95.

OVERVALUING CHURCH MINISTRY

'This persistent assumption that church work is higher or nobler than "worldy" work (a form of neomonasticism) is the source of all kinds of evil.'
Karen Swallow Prior, You Have a Calling, p.62.