HELLO!

Have you heard of Canadian philosopher George Grant? His book, “Lament for a Nation” turned 60 this week, and my alma mater, the University of King’s College, held a symposium on Grant and his legacy. I could not attend Saturday (funeral) or Sunday (church) but I did go on Friday night. I saw several former professors and classmates (they were the clever ones of our Foundation Year Program class of 100, all three became Classics professors). On a side note, despite having seen the other 19 participants recently, none recognized me. I did not speak (you will not believe this, but I never speak at public events I attend unless I am one of the presenters), another reason no one knew me. I loved the anonymity!

If you want to know more about Grant, here is a 60 minute video that explains his POV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtB7SMXpjTs

The four presenters on Friday night explored the philosophical connections between the works of Plato, Simone Weil, and George Grant, focusing on the intertwining of knowledge, love, and the Divine. Grant believed true knowledge is contingent upon Divine love. Grant’s critique of modernity was simple, we have ceased to be concerned with justice and love and turned ourselves entirely to the pursuit of technique, if we can do it, we must do it. “Freedom from the shackles of the past” will always trump “freedom for our neighbour”. Grant lamented this shift.

Grant spent most of his adult life as a vocal critic of modernity. The one alternative he did offer, when he ran the Religion Department at McMaster University in the 60’s and 70’s, was a radical decision to teach students about the great world religions not as objective facts from an academic distance, but rather from practitioners, faith leaders who would share how they came to know truth within their tradition and practices. This did not sit well with academics. A dispute emerged and Grant ended up at Dalhousie, to finish his career. In those later years he discovered the strange writings of Simone Weil, and it was her phrase “the intellect illumined by love” that helped move his thought to the foundations of a positive alternative to the modern age.

Years ago, my brother Scott built me a bookshelf. I have limited my selection to maintaining only as many books as would fit its capacity. Thus, the important of Grant’s thought in my life can be underlined by the fact I own all his works and all books written about him. I am honoured to be among those who are credited in the Introduction of his official biography by William Christian. Ideas matter a great deal to me.

I look forward to sharing some “ideas” that arise from Psalm 46 on Sunday. I hope to see some of you then. Peace, Kevin

PS Kim says no one recognized me because I wore this shirt, I picked up at the Salvation Army ($4, Montreal artist design, "Glow in the dark" yellow).

PPS Here is the livestream link for today’s Fran Wade funeral service: https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZCQrg5Z5JnkxuraN5YfOWDeJ1gwaJlfyLjy