Alain de Botton on formation
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
Twice recently I’ve come across items by Alain de Botton on moral formation. It seems that his current project is to take lessons on formation from religious practice and apply them to secular culture.
The first is Does more information mean we know less? which compares modern obsession with information:
The news occupies in the secular sphere much the same position of authority that the liturgical calendar has in the religious one. Its main dispatches track the canonical hours with uncanny precision. Matins have here been transubstantiated into the breakfast bulletin and Vespers into the evening report.
with the approach of religions
Rather than letting us constantly catch up on “news”, religions prefer to keep reminding us of the same old things, according to strictly timetabled routines.
With the implication that secular reading should, perhaps follow religions and return to a smaller number of readings repeatedly (and perhaps we might say liturgically?)
If we lament our book-swamped age, it is because we sense that it is not by reading more, but by deepening and refreshing our understanding of a few volumes that we best develop our intelligence and our sensitivity.
The second is Are Museums our new churches. In which he suggests that museums should be arranged in such away to encourage moral formation based on the artistic works they contain. This he bases on the way churches use art (though, I think he reduces the formation that churches are looking at as purely moral).
Both are worth a look. It is fascinating to see ourselves reflected in someone else’s mirror…
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Addendum
Since writing, I rediscovered the following tweet from de Botton, which says it all…
“Atheists shouldnt denigrate religions, they should steal from them”
A random walk over culture, art, christianity, etc. with occasional photographs...