If you're a second generation Pentecostal like me, your parents may also have thwarted satanic plots outlined in books like Devil Take the Youngest[1] by censoring the toybox and kids television time – and thus, a book on “enchantment” may set off alarm bells … of the good kind. Intuitively, younger Australian Pentecostals rail against life confined to church buildings as a weak response to the culture of the world. Within The Work of Enchantment, Charismatic Catholic heavyweight scholar Matthew Del Nevo broaches this topic stating, “…the trouble is that a person can be very religious but totally soulless. Not much theology at all attends to this problem, but it can be a real problem in real communities”[2]. This book bridges philosophy, theology, aesthetics, sociology (building on Weber's notion of disenchantment) and spiritual formation through "a twisted secular metaphysics"[3]. While his insistence that enchantment cannot be "disciplined" may be a drawback for the textbook market, this book models the very thing it advocates, a "knotting between God, man [kind] and world"[4].
Del Nevo considers literary, visual and musical classics in order to access the “childlike” and “otherworldly state” of enchantment. He suggests the methods of reading, listening and gazing. Reading becomes an antidote to hurry, listening an antidote for consumption, and gazing a way of understanding without the need to posses. Consequently, enchantment is "soul-work"[5], "an axe for the frozen sea inside us"[6] and a remedy for people "dead among things"[7]. Del Nevo suggests our inner world can be healed through this soul-ish spirituality.[8] Drawing from reputable scholars such as Adorno, Proust, Rilke and Goethe, he does not deny popular culture. Instead, he declares such investigation will help cultivate "a soul hungry for enchantment" in our everyday lives[9].
He outlines historical factors leading to the disenchantment found in modernism, noting the contribution of the Protestant work ethic and scientific inquiry. He announces that, “the great certainties of modernity are gone, destroyed by our own hand" (referencing Auschwitz and Hiroshima)[10]. And now in post-modernity, flickering images rush across our vision, but fail to elicit emotion within us. The solution cannot be Religious pomp that entertains but does not enchant, or placeless Puritanism that is the same everywhere. Instead he advocates nourishment from an Infinite beyond ourselves, “not a reality projected upon us, but slowly growing within us"[11]. In this way, "true religion" becomes a conversation between our inner life and the world, which “[varies] from place to place and over time"[12]. Carefully addressing the dualism prevalent in Western Christianity he declares, "We are all of us souls as the essence of our human being. Soul is what I am"[13]. And this soul is embodied, with enchantment as "action not attitude"[14]. Those lacking imagination lack soul, and psychopaths take this to the extreme.
Next, Theodor Adorno's social critique provides a basis for Del Nevo’s hopeful future, as he declares, “…despite the culture industries, I do believe that creative individuals and teams of people are able to stand clear of it The culture industries by no means control creativity, nor, I believe, can they contain it.[15] In an enchanted world, humanity again reigns over technology. However, the intention to illustrate enchantment as fundamental to humanity becomes political despite all protests otherwise - if we are to pursue this idea through to its fulfillment, then dull, unimaginative leadership will fail to be enough, and power will shift towards creative and imaginative visionaries.
He presents four vignettes by French novelist Marcel Proust illustrating enchantment at work. The first is Bergotte's fascination with a painting by Dutch artist Vermeer. After comments regarding a little patch of yellow wall are published, Bergotte travels to the museum although weak with sickness to view this yellow patch. Once ascertaining its location, he dies gazing upon the masterpiece[16]. The second vignette outlines the power of words as soul-makers and soul-destroyers, as Swann gazes besotted upon Odette, the one woman who could make a truly great cup of tea. However, with a single phrase Odette crushes Swann by admitting sexual liaisons[17]. In the third vignette, Del Nevo outlines how listening to a sonata by the composer Vinteuil repairs Swann’s soul. A significant turning point is his acquisition of the title of this music, and a discussion on the proper names of things introduces the fourth vignette. Proust allows readers to travel back and forward from Paris to the future (somewhat like the movie Midnight in Paris)[18], and Remembrance of Things Past travels to the fictional town of Combray, traversing the landscape of Normandy and Brittany[19]. Proper names can become enchanting, as Del Nevo demonstrates by listing the towns of his childhood in the Cotswolds, where each name opens up a new world. This contrasts contemporary culture where names serve functional rather than imaginative purposes, and improper names or acronyms and "brand names" are employed for economic profit[20].
Next, from written correspondence between great German lyric poet Rainer Maria Rilke and his former love interest Lou Andreas-Salome, Del Nevo demonstrates how inner enchantment leads to Rilke’s masterpiece, The Elegies.[21] The work of enchantment mirrors sexuality, a "dimension of all relationship", with tensions between self-preservation and self-surrender[22]. Del Nevo outlines the vocational responsibility each of us bear, that of creation. The honest letters between the friends outline a cultural production free of economic intent, where enchantment similarly enchants others as a stone causes ripples in a pond. It is here that Del Nevo's charismatic perspective is most visible, as he states "the song is one breath through life and death", linking the word breath pneuma in Greek to the Latin spiritus, and thus to the Holy Spirit.[23]. Del Nevo’s enchantment is revealed as a spirit-filled existence.
Del Nevo then turns to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Wilhelm Meister’s Apprentice. He declares, "A society is not true if it is out of step with God above, or the earth beneath; these things too need to rise up invisibly within us even as they gain visibility in our actions"[24]. Goethe’s three reverences – God, nature and lovers lost to love – correlate to synergies within artistic, scientific and religious worlds that counter the soullessness of capitalism. Faust’s transformation defies attempts to become enchanted by a deal with the devil Mephistopheles. As a side note, Del Nevo’s chapter on enchanting femininity induced in me strange feelings of exclusion, reading about the power of a woman in a lovely dress. Finally, chapter twelve blurs lines between the living and the dead in the story of a Rabbi racked by grief over his dead daughter – ultimately regaining a joy of living, and thus the story reinforces the point that enchantment is the process of healing the soul.
This book is an encouraging step forward towards reclaiming an earthly culture while committing to a spirit-filled (spirited) existence. It is an excellent gift for an educated non-Christian open to spiritual discussions, and while it may require an encyclopedia at the ready in order to access the various works of music, art and poetry, it is well worth this time, in order to become enchanted.
REFERENCES:
Allen, Woody. 2011. Midnight in Paris. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Pratney, Winkie. 1985. Devil Take the Youngest. Lafayette, LA: Huntington House.
Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. New Brunswick , NJ: Transaction
[1] Pratney, Winkie. 1985. Devil Take the Youngest. Lafayette, LA: Huntington House.
[2] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. New Brunswick , NJ: Transaction. p16.
[3] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 32
[4] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 124
[5] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 6
[6] Kafka in Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 7
[7] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 109
[8] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 23.
[9] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 24
[10] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 30
[11] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 32
[12] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 29
[13] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 23
[14] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 128
[15] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 14
[16] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment 40
[17] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 44
[18] Allen, Woody, 2011. Midnight in Paris. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
[19] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 67
[20] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 72
[21] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 75
[22] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment. 83
[23] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment, 109
[24] Del Nevo, Matthew. 2011. The Work of Enchantment, 128