Thank you Dougald, for this rich and thoughtful reflection. What resonated with me most is the reminder that lasting change begins not with bigger institutions, but with deeper friendships, generous hospitality, and communities of trust.
Reading this from Ethiopia, I was struck by how naturally Illich's vision resonates with many African traditions, where wisdom and learning grow through relationships and shared life. A timely and inspiring invitation to rediscover the power of belonging, conviviality, and mutual learning. Fr. Kidus, Ethiopia
The last paragraphs, about the thinkeries and the “quest for truth”, indeed reminds me of Lucca this year. A marvelous experience. Not least due the feeling of how that lively collection of characters gathered to “stay with the trouble of Illich’s thinking”, because doing so is beautiful, joyful and vivifying in itself. This in striking contrast to the atmosphere found at all those events people attend just to advance their academic careers, or to push a pre-packaged ideological agenda.
In respect to your point about Illich as proscriptive rather than prescriptive, and offering no precepts. That issue could be the basis for a good collection of articles some day. I agree that his work won’t tell you whether or not you should see a doctor, drive a car, or send your kids to school. But when it comes to the question of holding fast to a certain comportment towards life, two things stand out for me personally: 1) that Illich was perfectly right when he himself said that “the love of friendship, philia, as practicable under the social and symbolic conditions engendered by modern artifacts, has been the constant subject of my teaching”. 2) how, in 1969 he stated and then held to: “I decided long ago to hope for surprises until the final act of my life – that is to say, in death itself”.
Another thing, with some relevance to this. When reading the “powerless church” collection the other day, I was struck by how his early proposal for a de-clericalised church invokes an image that then comes back so much later, in his critique of ecologism.
That is, in 1967: “I foresee the face-to-face meeting of families around a table, rather than the impersonal attendance of a crowd around an altar. Celebration will sanctify the dining room; rather than consecrated buildings, the ceremony”
Then in Ivan Illich in Conversation, envisioning: “A sense of being able to celebrate the present and celebrate it by using as little as possible, because it’s beautiful, not because it’s useful for saving the world, could create the dinner table which symbolizes opposition to that macabre dance of ecology, the dinner table where aliveness is consciously celebrated as the opposite of life”.
In all, I take this not as precepts but as an authoritative commandment that thou shalt have lots of get-togethers with your mates to eat and celebrate and to do whatever. And to drink a lot of wine, of course - how better to induce that openness hospitable to surprise? (Joking, of course, but only in part…).
Thanks Dougald for describing so well the flotilla of Illichian thought and practice. I wonder if Simon Ravenscroft's recent post fits into the archipelago:
Thank you Dougald, for this rich and thoughtful reflection. What resonated with me most is the reminder that lasting change begins not with bigger institutions, but with deeper friendships, generous hospitality, and communities of trust.
Reading this from Ethiopia, I was struck by how naturally Illich's vision resonates with many African traditions, where wisdom and learning grow through relationships and shared life. A timely and inspiring invitation to rediscover the power of belonging, conviviality, and mutual learning. Fr. Kidus, Ethiopia
Hej Dougald,
The last paragraphs, about the thinkeries and the “quest for truth”, indeed reminds me of Lucca this year. A marvelous experience. Not least due the feeling of how that lively collection of characters gathered to “stay with the trouble of Illich’s thinking”, because doing so is beautiful, joyful and vivifying in itself. This in striking contrast to the atmosphere found at all those events people attend just to advance their academic careers, or to push a pre-packaged ideological agenda.
In respect to your point about Illich as proscriptive rather than prescriptive, and offering no precepts. That issue could be the basis for a good collection of articles some day. I agree that his work won’t tell you whether or not you should see a doctor, drive a car, or send your kids to school. But when it comes to the question of holding fast to a certain comportment towards life, two things stand out for me personally: 1) that Illich was perfectly right when he himself said that “the love of friendship, philia, as practicable under the social and symbolic conditions engendered by modern artifacts, has been the constant subject of my teaching”. 2) how, in 1969 he stated and then held to: “I decided long ago to hope for surprises until the final act of my life – that is to say, in death itself”.
Another thing, with some relevance to this. When reading the “powerless church” collection the other day, I was struck by how his early proposal for a de-clericalised church invokes an image that then comes back so much later, in his critique of ecologism.
That is, in 1967: “I foresee the face-to-face meeting of families around a table, rather than the impersonal attendance of a crowd around an altar. Celebration will sanctify the dining room; rather than consecrated buildings, the ceremony”
Then in Ivan Illich in Conversation, envisioning: “A sense of being able to celebrate the present and celebrate it by using as little as possible, because it’s beautiful, not because it’s useful for saving the world, could create the dinner table which symbolizes opposition to that macabre dance of ecology, the dinner table where aliveness is consciously celebrated as the opposite of life”.
In all, I take this not as precepts but as an authoritative commandment that thou shalt have lots of get-togethers with your mates to eat and celebrate and to do whatever. And to drink a lot of wine, of course - how better to induce that openness hospitable to surprise? (Joking, of course, but only in part…).
Mvh,
Oscar
Thanks Dougald for describing so well the flotilla of Illichian thought and practice. I wonder if Simon Ravenscroft's recent post fits into the archipelago:
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/simon-ravenscroft-ivan-illich-how-to-enjoy-life/104142792
I've recently read Carne Ross's "There We Are Human Again" and see that Illich's work features in the Anarchist Library: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/category/author/ivan-illich
Is there something to explore here?
Thanks so much for sharing this, Dougald!
Chris.