Sunday, March 30, 2008


"Snarky" is a new word for me. I'm not sure what it means. Sometimes it seems to mean any public criticism of a person, as in, "If Hillary can't figure out what's happening in broad daylight [at the airport in Bosnia], how [expletive deleted] is she going to know what's happening at three a.m.?" Is that snarky?

Sometimes it seems to mean arguing publicly against another person's belief, or even his unbelief. Is that snarky?

St. Irenaeus did that.


Is that snarky? How about this? Some people consider it downright anti-Semitic. (But it isn't; it's against the Judaizers in the Church.)


St. Photios could be tough, too:

But you still do not wish to perceive over what sort of abyss into which you are cast and into what pits of the soul's corruption you are buried because you are not willing to be persuaded by Christ, or His disciples, or the Ecumenical Synods, or a rational method of reasoning, or by sacred and eloquent testimonies to humble your mind. You are buried. Rather, you reproach the common Lord. You accuse the noble mind of Paul, but you accuse falsely. You incite rebellion against the Holy and Ecumenical Synods. You ridicule the Fathers. You banish the true thoughts and the true intentions of your bishops and Fathers and consign them to the devil. You dismiss any remedy, are dumb to rational thought. Indeed, you completely overwhelm your salvation with dubious and passionate preconceptions. (St. Photios the Great, The Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit, 94)

Is that snarky?

Even the Apostles could write very harsh things. Does this qualify as snarky?


Or this?


How about St. Paul's wish in Galatians, a double-entendre, that those who were demanding Christians be circumcized would "cut themselves off"?

But to encounter snarkiness par excellence, excoriation, condemnation, harshness unparalled, you have to read the letters Bernard of Clairvaux sent to the Pope concerning Peter Abelard. (I can't find them on the Internet, and no wonder. If anybody can, they're choice!)

I don't know. All I know is, whatever "snarky" may mean, he exemplified it. And, today, so do I.


DebD said...

uh oh, have you been getting yourself into hot water on the net lately?

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

Not LATELY, so far as I know.

But often enough, heaven knows.

Kyrie, eleison!