Having begun my next read, The Red Church by C.R. Bilardi, my first taste is the front matter. I LOVE this junk.
There's a particularly touching foreword by Mark Stavish, and when I think about the purpose of foreword material - I realized I didn't know the purpose, only that I love them. So I googled its purpose and since this isn't a reprint and wasn't written by the author themselves, I can't think of a better purpose than to add an asserting or clarifying voice within the field covered by the text, as well as a personable introduction to the author.
This one was really sweet. Stavish points out how needed this book is, how he and the Bilardi shared research, and how much confidence he had in Bilardi's ability to do justice to this very unique and meaningful subject.
Stavish himself is well-published in the field of Western spiritual traditions and I may go back for some of his books when the research itch resurfaces.
Anyway, the glorious grey area of belief… such a beautiful field and so unnerving to so many people! I have a feeling I'm really going to like Bilardi. This introduction is beautifully faceted. The text has footnotes, it's well organized, and he addresses some of the questions a reader coming to this kind of text has, and that are pretty urgent before getting into more intense material.
This kind of structuring and prep material is … well, it's sympathetic to the reader, academic in tradition, and in this case is both personable and insightful. … I feel like someone on Epicurious that is an expert on something bizarre. Like the mustard guy, or the yogurt lady.
Some of the questions - why did you write this and why should I care? What is braucheri? Is it magic or is it Christian practice? Who practices it? What does it do? How did you get into it? What I do need to know about it before beginning?
This guy knows the main views people have, and why they're wrong/right and need to be addressed early.
This is the grey. The grey is the generations of people of various levels of exposure/interest and what they may have heard and from whom. The grey is where people with staunch assumptions live right alongside folks who are academically curious and those who are spiritually curious. The grey is the layers of practitioners where some only feel comfortable righting bewitched gunsights and those who channel higher powers on behalf of the heavily sick.
It be ALLLLL grey all up in there and I LOVE IT. Fascinating.
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