tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144051388547159240.post3202601745799737545..comments2024-02-19T10:15:55.380+00:00Comments on CAUTE — Making Footprints Not Blueprints: Celebrating Advent without misrepresentation, sentimentalism or parody (and a couple of recommended books)Andrew James Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02693417061963197121noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144051388547159240.post-9951347847406126542009-12-01T19:21:08.006+00:002009-12-01T19:21:08.006+00:00Dear Anon, of course I don't think that faith ...Dear Anon, of course I don't think that faith and philosophy are "all about a cold, intellectual pursuit" BUT neither, to my mind, should they ever be sentimental. Back in 2007 I was thinking a lot about sentimentality and on Remembrance Day I took a direct look at the problem. You can find that address <a href="http://andrewjbrown.blogspot.com/2007/11/remebrance-sunday-accepting-ambiguity.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>. <br /><br />However, here is the most appropriate section:<br /><br /><i>"In his new book, 'Culture Counts - Faith and feeling in a world besieged' [Roger Scruton] observes that: Sentimentality . . . is habit-forming. And those to whom it appeals are frequently unaware of its principal characteristic, which is that it is a pretence. Sentimental words and gestures are forms of play-acting: pretending to noble emotions while in fact being motivated in another way. Thus real grief focuses on the object, the person lost and mourned for, while sentimental grief focuses on the subject, the person who grieves, and whose principal concern is to show his fine feelings to the world. Hence, it is a mark of sentimentality that the object becomes hazy, idealised, observed with no real concern for the truth."</i><br /><br />It seems to me that sentimental forms of Christianity are deeply problematic because they are simply not concerned with truth.Andrew James Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02693417061963197121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5144051388547159240.post-48665064173423965112009-12-01T10:56:21.519+00:002009-12-01T10:56:21.519+00:00What's wrong with a bit of sentimentality?
Is...What's wrong with a bit of sentimentality?<br /><br />Is faith / philosophy all about a cold, intellectual pursuit?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com