MY FOUR-PART RESPONSE TO FR. CHAD ARNESON

I can’t leave comments on this post since I’m not a paid subscriber to Patristic Orthodoxy, so I’ve offered responses to Fr. Chad Arneson in the following three notes and one article:

Response 1: substack.com/@robinmark…

Response 2: substack.com/profile/90…

Response 3: substack.com/@robinmark…

Respond 4: robinmarkphillips.subst…

My basic point is that a good story, even if it’s make-believe, will be true to how the world is, showing patterns that lie at the heart of reality. For example, in the real world, monsters can be defeated, there is always hope, and everyone’s true nature is eventually revealed. In the real world, we discover ourselves, not through a process of self-making but through humility, virtue, and the arts of self-limitation. In the real world, selfishness leads to loss and division but virtue leads to restoration. Pride leads to folly but humility leads to wisdom. True love is found not in consuming and devouring but in self-giving and sacrifice. These are inevitable structures of narrative because they resonate with how the world is at a deep primal level. One structure that is particularly significant is sacrifice. Sacrifice is an inevitable feature of narrative structure, a kind of built-in mechanism by which disorder is corrected. Far from undermining the True Sacrifice, this observation reinforces Christ’s work.