On the inspiration of guides and sages

In an intriguing and lyrical short poem, the Nobel Prize-winning, Anglo-Irish, Celtic-revivalist poet William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) in The Seven Sages grazes over the passing on of tangible wisdom, humility and narrative from one generation to the next.

In the poem Yeats published in 1933 after the bloody Civil War in Ireland, he sets up a parallel between the greats of Irish-Georgian thought – Edmund Burke, Oliver Goldsmith, George Berkeley (the Bishop of Cloyne) and Jonathan Swift – with the “sages” of Ancient Greece.

For those interested in hunting up the variously shrewd, poetical, brilliant, wily and transcendental thinkers of Greece, they were: Thales of Miletus, Solon of Athens, Pittacus of Mytilene, Chilon of Sparta and Bias of Priene along with, variously, Cleobulus, Periander and sometimes Pythagoras. They are seen as the early founders of later Greek philosophy and culture.

The point that Yeats is exploring in his symbolic verse here is that wisdom is passed on from generation to generation, and this consists in real learning not only of abstraction or programmatic thinking.

For Yeats the mystical, the experiential and the poetic are often conveyed in storytelling, shared time and conversation, as he writes:

“The Third. My great-grandfather's father talked of music, drank tar-water with the Bishop of Cloyne.”

Yeats underscores these evocations with a warning of the upstart-thinker who discards all the insights of “great-grandfathers” with an ideological faith in presentism and individualism. He says of his Protestant Irish fore-sages:

"All hated Whiggery; but what is Whiggery?
A levelling, rancorous, rational sort of mind
That never looked out of the eye of a saint
Or out of drunkard's eye."

Yeats’ celebration of organic growth, intergenerational wisdom and humility came to mind after a particularly busy but satisfying series of events as part of our Thomas More Centre revival.

Our lively but often small hubs are formed from communities made up of people eager to mix and hear from the older generations and, just as importantly, this is true vice versa.

It is so promising to witness the willingness to learn, listen and work between old hands and new minds.

However savvy our younger TMC people are with various technologies, micro-cultures and new methods (and they are very!), they also understand that the fast-food disposability of post-modern consciousness alone is shallow and ultimately frustrating.

This passing on of intergenerational “mastery” and cross-organisational collaboration is really a distinctive element of TMC, and this was particularly successful in the recent TMC endeavours in Victoria, Canberra and Perth.

Tribute to Physicist Fr Stanley Jaki OSB – Geelong

Dr John Long, for 25 years a lecturer in physics and engineering at Deakin University, opened his recent excellent talk on December 8 about the great Hungarian Benedictine physicist Fr Stanley Jaki (Jáki Szaniszló László, 1924-2009) with some reflections on his own life and inspirations.

Fr Jaki reflected a vital, important mentor for him, as he remains for many other scientists who know his work as a philosopher and scientist and who share his Christian faith.

Jaki’s work is amongst the most influential and enduring by a Christian and Catholic scientist in any era. During his life he was a visiting professor at universities on a global scale, a prodigious writer and he delivered the famous Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh.

He was appointed by Pope John Paul II to the Pontifical Academy for Sciences, and he was awarded the Templeton Prize in 1987. In his Templeton Award speech Fr Jaki pointed out that the hunger for truth was shared by both science and by faith:

"Hunger for true love — heroic, self-sacrificing love — remains mankind’s basic hunger. Acknowledgment of this comes on occasion even from those who earned their fame (often their fortunes, too) by preaching salvation through science."

Dr Long noted that while he was a native and graduate from Michigan, U.S.A., his doctoral work in Australia and his formation of a family in Australia had been foundational for him.

Fr Jaki – along with his long-standing friendships with the Mannix College Chaplains (including the legendary Fr Peter Knowles), the Monash Democratic Club and friends in the TMC – had assisted him to navigate a personal devotion to Jaki’s insights and faith and his own vocation as a scientist and educator. John Long is now the Australian representative of the worldwide Jaki Network.

Dr Long pointed out that Jaki had enabled him to trace two extremes of the overly abstract and the overly materialistic that have led scientific thinking in the West astray. (More on John Long’s analysis can be found in two articles in News Weekly.)

John’s talk was accessible, eye-opening and refreshing. He kept the audience of nearly 50 people absorbed. John’s tribute to Fr Jaki included a powerful analysis of the history of “logical positivism” in the West. He also gave very valuable directions for further reading and exploration, and this talk has given rise to a request for a follow-up series of talks and interest in the TMC in the Bellarine/Geelong areas.

Christ the King Festival and the Culture of Life – Perth

Perth has been a fertile base for one hub of the Thomas More Centre’s activities this year, especially because organiser Warwick D’Silva and his assistants have built such strong bonds with the Australian Family Association supporters, with various youth ministries in Perth and with others committed to building up a “culture of life”.

Throughout the year they have participated in such events as the Families for Life conference, and they have initiated a welcoming space for young people keen to witness to the preciousness of human life. This emphasis is an inspiration for TMC WA and it rests on the work of others, such as the late John Barich in this respect. Once again, TMC is a witness to the power of intergenerational collaboration.

On the Feast of Christ the Priest, Warwick and his team ran an engaging stall under the TMC banner at St Mary’s Cathedral, Perth for the Christ the King Youth Festival attended by around 1,500 people. The TMC team organised some games, a special survey, handed out flyers and spoke about the upcoming Democratic Conference in 2025. In gathering names and interest, the TMC Perth team is working to plan a series of talks and events for the region in 2025.

A few more events to go for 2024 this second week of Advent, and then we hope a safe, restorative and happy break for our wonderful TMC team.

Anna Krohn
Executive Director
Thomas More Centre