Tea at Trianon: Kanye West, Jordan Peterson, and the Allure of Catholicism

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Kanye West, Jordan Peterson, and the Allure of Catholicism

From Aleteia:

Consider Peterson’s video, the one Kanye was apparently watching. Peterson opens by talking about a painting of the Assumption of Mary at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He goes on to talk about art being “sacred,” a “window into the transcendent,” and part of “the covenant with God”; about the “magnificent and beautiful” art of Europe over 2,000 years; about the balance between light and structure in the Gothic cathedrals; about the Catholic Basilica of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona; and about beauty being a “pathway towards God,” an “invitation to the divine,” and a stumbling toward “the kingdom of God.” If all that weren’t enough, the video itself is extracted from the Abraham portion of Peterson’s lecture series on the Bible.

This is a veritable feast of Catholic language. It’s especially recognizable if you follow the work of Bishop Barron, who has consistently talked about the importance of the beautiful as a gateway into the divine. (Peterson even rails against those who prefer “beige” to the vibrant colors of art, a clear echo of the Bishop’s lament over “beige Catholicism.”) So it’s no surprise that people have asked if Peterson could become a Catholic, or that Bishop Barron has spoken favorably of the Jordan Peterson phenomenon, or that his commentary caught Peterson’s attention.

What’s surprising, though, is that Peterson’s “Catholic connection” is opening many people up to Catholicism who might not otherwise have looked twice at it. One YouTuber commented: “Peterson is the reason I became a Christian. And then a Catholic.” “Peterson to Father Mike Schmitz to Bishop Barron,” another wrote. “That was my path from 20 years agnosticism to becoming a Catholic.” What’s even more surprising is that somehow, some way, Kanye West finds himself in the middle of this whole conversation. As someone pointed out, even his recent interview with Charlamagne could be seen as a kind of reaching out for Catholic ideas. (Read more.)