A British journalist asked Alexander Solzhenitsyn: can free people desire to be slaves? He answered Yes. The West is "full of such people". In this episode, I speak with David Deavel about the book he co-edited with Jessica Hooten Wilson, "Solzhensityn and American Culture: The Russian soul in the West".
We discuss how some of the key themes of Solzhenitsyn apply to our contemporary life, including a critique of materialism, the attraction to modern stoicism, and how it can become infected with utilitarianism and narcissism. We discuss the affirmation of being and how this relates to suffering and redemption. We discuss Solzhenitsyn's Harvard Address, Templeton Prize Address, and several essays in the book including the role of Russian literature and how the Russian experience relates to contemporary American politics, including the tension between globalism nationalism, consumerism, cultural critiques of capitalism, trade-offs, and costs of globalization. We also discuss the issue of atheism and morality, and the problem Solzhenitsyn identified: that we are often embarrassed to talk about truth or good and evil as somehow archaic concepts, but if we want to take injustice and political and social evil seriously, we have to deal with conscience and good and evil in the human heart.
Biography
David Deavel is editor of Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, the Co-Director of the Terrence J. Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law, and Public Policy, and Visiting Professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, and a Senior Contributor at The Imaginative Conservative
David holds a PhD in theology from Fordham and is a winner of the Acton Institute’s Novak Award.
His book, Solzhenitsyn and American Culture: The Russian Soul in the West, co-edited with Jessica Hooten Wilson was published by Notre Dame Press. Dr. Deavel's writing has appeared in many journals, including Catholic World Report, First Things, National Review, and the Wall Street Journal.
Resources
David Deavel Essay on Solzhensityn’s Advice to the Free World
Modern Stoicism: see Ryan Holiday, Tim Ferris
Gary Saul Morson: Among the Disbelievers Essay at Commentary
Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Harvard Addresss
Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Templeton Prize Address
Solzhenitsyn interview with Bernard Levin
Wilhelm Röpke:
Tom Wolfe
Ratzinger—In the Beginning: homilies on creation and the goodness of being
Michael Matheson Miller Essay: on re-divinization/ re-mythologizing tendencies in late secularism
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Girard on Scapegoating —if you scapegoat others, it is a sign that you will most likely scapegoat
Website
Books
University of Notre Dame Press
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
By Solzhenitsyn, Alexander
By Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr
Fathers and Sons (Oxford World's Classics)
By Turgenev, Ivan
Ep. 26: David Deavel Ph.D: What Happiness are We Pursuing? Solzhenitsyn and American Culture