Hermits: The Insights of Solitude by Peter France, takes a
long, lingering look at religious and philosophical recluses through the
ages. He picks examples that
are, no doubt, close to his heart. There
are chapters on the Desert Fathers of early Christianity, the Startsy of Russia’s
northern forests, Thoreau, Ramakrishna, Merton, and the poet Robert Lax, among others.
The central problem facing all these hermits is the tension between isolation
and society. Overall, these men chose to
live alone not from misanthropy, but from an overriding sense that solitude is the
only way to achieve direct access to G-d.
Yet, there is the other pull, toward society. Often, ironically, people seek hermits; because of their purported purity,
they have always been sought to give advice about matters they have no direct
knowledge of: like marriage and child-rearing. Some hermits became so popular, they had to leave their huts
and seek solitude in new locations!
France’s book is an approachable to a topic that really is
close to the human experience: who does not seek solitude, while at the same
time, yearns for company? This is a dichotomy are the very heart of what we are.
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