Grant Wiley – Holiness (outside reading)


            I just finished the book Holiness by Donald Nicholl. This book explores the topic of holiness in the context of different faiths, but more specifically the Christian faith. It goes through a multitude of topics some of which are interesting, others that aren’t as much. One of the interesting topics that it brings up is the unintended consequences of our industrialized society. There are countless anti-technology or anti-industrial philosophies in the world, but the one described by Nicholl was greatly interesting to me. He brings up the issue with the advent of types of technology like coffee machines, electric lights, and alarm clocks. These things can be of great help to us but can also be detrimental to our time. More specifically, they can be detrimental to our connection to Creation. He describes different faith practices that are based on waking up with the sunrise and going to bed with the sunset. There are also prayer practices that are based on the different seasons and times of day. Nicholl makes the point that we have lost this connection with the industrialization of our society. 

            Before industrialization, you might wake up and go on a walk or watch the sun rise in the distance. Now, our morning rituals are much different. You might wake up to your phone’s alarm and get instantly violated by your many texts, emails, and other useless notifications. You walk into the bathroom and turn on all your lights, brush your teeth and head out to make some coffee. You eat breakfast and drink your coffee while reading and responding to your emails from the day and making another cup of coffee for your thirty-minute commute to work. On your way to work, you listen to music or a podcast so as not to bore yourself. When you get to work, you spend most of your time on social media or news sites staying up to date with everything happening. The questions I must ask are: what are the unintended consequences of this lifestyle? Are we any happier now that we have this technology? How does this effect our relationship to Creation? I think this book by Nicholl fits well into the general conversation that we have been discussing in the course around the relationship between humans and Creation or humans and the Earth. 

-  February 15, 2021

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