OTIUM Travel
IN SEARCH OF BIG MYTHS. Byzantine lessons
The principal theme of the practicum — the theme of overcoming the phenomenon of the crisis of grand historical narratives by personality and society.
The dominant philosophy of postmodernism today teaches us that the epoch of grand narratives has ended and shall never return. Yet evidently, each lives before the face of time, which opens to man in wondrous manner — "what is time? when none asks me of this I know it, yet when asked and entreated to explain — I know not" wrote the Orthodox saint Augustine of Hippo.
One thing is certain, we live before the face of death. We live as men and as languages. And the manner in which this life flows is testimony to language's response to the question of eternity. Time and death create a system of conceptions about what is permissible, what forbidden, and what obligatory — ethics.
For man, life outside his historical myth equals life outside time, that is, non-life. And then absolutely everything becomes permitted and decidedly nothing becomes possible. That one might make decisions before the face of death and possess courage to bear responsibility for them, man vitally requires knowledge of the answer to "when" — or "of what story am I part".
This knowledge precedes any conceivable volume of information and exceeds it. What is said above is no discovery, rather — for the educated man — banality. Even Heraclitus wrote: "man realises himself as man through the good of his own participation in the whole, which transcends his individual being".
Therefore the path of postmodernism is not merely false but radically inhuman and anti-human. Yet the problem it poses is real — the old grand narratives have died. What then shall we do? The answer proposed to you in the practicum aligns with Clive Lewis's insight — "The only salvation from false feelings — true feelings... Hunger for feeling must be satisfied with something, and hardening of heart helps not against softening of brains". The only salvation from the death of false grand historical myths — not renunciation of History, but true myths. And therefore at our meeting we shall learn to feel for these foundation stones in our historical tumbleweeds through the example of the most slandered and forgotten history — Orthodox civilisation in general and the Byzantine Empire in particular.
In the practicum we shall learn:
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To acknowledge the significance of historical myth in our lives.
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To reason about myths simultaneously from meta-position and as their part.
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To understand of which myth each participant forms part.
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We shall grasp the necessity to "know anew" and "choose anew" when interacting with historical narratives self-evident to us
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To communicate with respect combined with steadfastness with other people on historiosophical themes.
In the practicum we shall explore:
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About the role and place of historical myth in human life.
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About the fragility of our habitual ideas concerning such Myths as “the West,” “the East,” “Civilization,” and “Islam.”
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About the depth of the Orthodox historical heritage — and the responsibility borne by those who consider themselves part of it.
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About time and eternity as given to us in images.
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About why the debate over images is the key debate in both philosophy and history.
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About the connection between freedom and purpose in the context of historical myth.
And helping us in our journey into history and overcoming historiosophical indolence — the city of Constantinople, which is Istanbul. A place where time may be touched by hands, and the acuteness of historical duty wounds the very heart. A place where past is future, future is past, and present — haze between sunbeam and mosaic gold.
