A Feeble Plant in the Breeze: Personal and Social Forms of Acedia – Prof. Carl Vennerstrom

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Religion &Amp; Spirituality, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 19 November 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Prof. Carl Vennerstrom explores personal and social forms of acedia, tracing its origins from ancient monasticism to contemporary life and illuminating how distraction, restlessness, and identity crisis threaten fulfillment and virtue in the digital age.

This lecture was given on April 11th, 2025, at Dominican House of Studies.

For more information on upcoming events, visit us at thomisticinstitute.org/upcoming-events.

About the Speakers:

Dr. Vennerstrom specializes in eastern patristic theology. Of particular interest are monasticism, scriptural interpretation, and the writings of Evagrius of Pontus. He earned his PhD in Early Christian Studies at the Catholic University of America and teaches courses in church history, theology, and Greek at the Augustine Institute Graduate School in St. Louis, Missouri.

Keywords: Acedia, Desert Monasticism, Digital Distraction, Ennui, Evagrius Of Pontus, Existentialism, Frenzied Activity, Identity Crisis, Noonday Demon, Restlessness In Modernity

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Tomistic Institute podcast.
0:06.2	Our mission is to promote the Catholic intellectual tradition in the university, the church, and the wider public square.
0:13.1	The lectures on this podcast are organized by university students at Temistic Institute chapters around the world.
0:19.5	To learn more and to attend these events, visit us at to mystic institute.org.
0:25.4	Antoine Rakenton is sick.
0:29.6	To be more precise, he is nauseous.
0:32.3	Dizzy with disgust at the world around him,
0:36.1	or rather dizzy with disgust at existence itself, especially his own existence.
0:43.8	The protagonist of Naja, Jean-Paul Sart's first novel, Loath around the parks and cafes and libraries of Booville, or Mudtown, a fictional provincial town on the coast
0:58.5	of France. In his 30th year of life, Antoine has returned from traveling the world and is
1:06.2	partway through writing an historical biography of a minor 18th century figure.
1:11.6	He is no surprise disgusted with his object of study,
1:15.6	whose only purpose is to suspend him, even if only for a little while,
1:20.6	from his feelings of nausea.
1:23.6	He makes little progress.
1:25.6	Antoine lives alone and is alone.
1:29.3	He speaks to no one, gives nothing, and receives nothing.
1:34.3	So Antoine is sick.
1:36.3	He is sick of material things like wet paper and seaside pebbles.
1:41.3	Sick of the passage of time and sick of people.
1:45.0	Okay, so not a pleasant start, but it will get worse.
1:51.0	Naja leaks out of everyday objects, coagulates around him, and drowns him in what he calls
	...

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