Sunday, February 19, 2006

The Long Loneliness (83-88)

This section is entilted "Freelancing." Of particular interest to me was the way Day describes moving from a general religious sentiment towards a particular belief. She describes the role of art, particularly Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamozov in this process.

Day describes the recognition of religious longing in a way that reminds me of C.S. Lewis's ideas about myth. It's weird that the 20th century believes in instinct and naturalism more than religion but fails to incorporate man's almost instinctive religious/spiritual drive. Oh, I suppose it describes it intellectually as social conditioning (all those institutions brainwashing individuals) but really, as Day points out, there is a much more primal drive towards religious expression than can be explained as having cause in only political or social roots.