The Sunday Pages | 018

Wisdom is therapeutic

The Sunday Pages is a weekly newsletter for paid subscribers that rounds up five interesting links for the week, recommends a book with highlights of about a dozen meaningful quotes from the book, and includes occasional updates on personal projects.

C.S. Lewis had this book on his top 10 list, and once you read it, it’s easy to understand why.

Reading this 1,500 year old book sort of felt like reading the cheat codes. Obviously, it’s from an entirely different historical context, but it reads like it’s speaking to our day. Specifically in about three ways.

The first is our therapeutic culture. More and more we’re turning to psychiatry and medication to find therapeutic relief in a world that is increasingly difficult to live in. These things aren’t inherently bad. But this book points you to something deep than your mind. It points you to your nature.

The second is power. With an election this week, the kind of people we decide to give power matters. The author of this book was killed in jail for pointing out the moral bankruptcy of the politicians of his day.

The third is the meaning crisis. People are struggling to find meaning in their lives. This book points us to God, wisdom, and our ability to suffer well the difficulties of life to find meaning.

Links Included: a couple of brilliant, long-form conversations, a couple of articles on masculinity, and a reconstruction story.