Fr. Paschal Scotti

A discussion with Fr. Paschal Scotti, O.S.B. about reading, or on any single topic, may inevitably open onto many topics. The breadth of his reading is wide, and for him, this is about being challenged to enter more fully into the depth of the Real, the True. In an authentic encounter with an author, through an authentic listening, one is challenged to be changed. Do not expect a discussion of books with Fr. Paschal to generate a collection of dust-collecting tomes to place on a shelf. Don’t look for a “Re-read List,” as if the book read in one moment will offer the same challenges it once did. Reading is about a vibrant enthusiasm, about an interplay of facts and ideas and experience, about an ongoing pursuit of Reality. Perhaps one should not say reading is a way of life, so much as that it opens a way to Life. And it is, for the most part, a difficult path.

History and reading: Knowing Fr. Paschal to be a historian, it seemed pertinent to inquire about his reading in history. Fr. Paschal notes that a strong appeal of reading for the historian is that no matter the book or genre, if fits into the discipline of history.

is that it covers everything. So, there is nothing that is not history. It could be philosophy, theology, even fiction. And to a certain extent, it is really history. And if it is old enough, it gives you illumination into the past. So it all can be very useful. I have a very strong streak of utilitarianism in me. But I also like to see beautiful writing. So, when you see good historical writing, you appreciate it. I think there is a lot of bad historical writing out there – dry, boring, tedious – and it shouldn’t be. It is a piece of literature. It should be, maybe not as dramatic as some things, but certainly it should have color and intensity and depth, beauty. And great historical writing does, I think, have that. It’s beautiful, it is something you might read as a piece of literature, except it’s history.

Fr. Paschal at a monastery reception

“Getting it right”: Despite reading as offering a kind of omnipresence of data for the historian, history is the most difficult of studies: multi-layered, prone to error, and offering woefully few examples of those that “get it right.”

Only if you see how these things were believed and lived can you see the living element of them. And this is really tough. I think history is one of the most difficult of disciplines. Because the contextualization of any event is so precarious. Even with good documentation, really good documentation, every event has multiple layers. And so to get it right is really important and is really good, if you can get it right, and it is actually really interesting. The danger for some people is skepticism: they see how difficult it is and they give up. Or they just accept a two-dimensional sense of reality, maybe because that is the best you can do…

That’s why to me freedom of information is so important. The more information you have on any topic is always better. This idea of censoring information that is negative to you or what you stand for, I think it’s stupid, and destructive. This is why communism or dictatorships often fail, because they can’t take contrary information - even when it’s right. How many people died because Mao could not be told that his programs were killing people? And he’s not the only dictator in history… These people can’t be told what they don’t want to hear. If you are saying things, they don’t want to hear it, and you are disappearing or ending up prison or in a Gulag somewhere. You know, there’s that wonderful novel by Evelyn Waugh about Lord Copper, who owns this massive newspaper and you can never contradict Lord Copper and so when he is wrong, which he often is, you say “Up to a point, Lord Copper.” You can’t say, “You’re wrong, Lord Copper,” so you say, “Up to a point,” so it sounds like you are agreeing. That’s why I love the internet: if you know how to look, if you know where to look, you can put enough sources together and put together a reasonably coherent vision of more or less what’s happening.

“It changes you”: The point of reading for Fr. Paschal, and its great value, is that it offers the possibility of change: “it changes you.” A sincere encounter with an author, even if only partial and incomplete, offers the challenge to the reader to be changed by it. It is an insecurity concerning such a prospect that may deter people from authentic reading.

Every experience of real history changes you. Real realities change you, they make you different. They change your perception of things. They make you approach things differently. A certain naivete has disappeared, a certain maturity has been reached. It is a kind of real sophistication. Not a false one, kind of like Voltaire, who may be witty but still shallow. And the real sophistication is more painful. Because some of these things are hard to know. I’ve been reading this book that Mr. Olen Kalkus gave me by this fairly well-known Czech priest, Tomas Halik, who was secretly ordained in the underground church. He’s been very popular since the fall of communism. Very, very bright. And I have really enjoyed this book which is called… Patience with God: The Story of Zacchaeus Continuing In Us. We all want easy answers, but the best answers – well sometimes they are – most answers are difficult and take a lot of patience and thought and experience to get a grasp on something. And some things are still beyond us. And I think this book shows that very nicely. Reality is complex; reality is often messy. Reality does not offer easy answers.

Fr. Paschal with Cara Gontarz Hume’ 99, alumna and current member of the School’s board (image: 1999)

It’s about Reality. A fundamental theme emerging in his discussion of reading is the real, of a search for truth, and of books as offering access to reality. This is the case even with fiction, though fiction is not his favorite genre, and historical novels are definitely not high on his list.

…I am not a big fan on the whole of fiction. I rarely read fiction at all... It’s all about reality. It’s all about reality: so, history is about reality. I think the best philosophy is the most real, the most true to life. The best theology is true to life. A lot, of course, will be interpretation, elaboration, insight, etc. But even false philosophies, or false theologies are part of history, because people read this or people follow this, and these things affect how you live. Unfortunately, modern philosophy, and modern theology to some extent, have become disassociated from real life, or so it seems. So much of it is purely abstract, mental, etc. In the ancient world, you could never get away with this, because philosophy is a way of life. It is not just something you do in a Ph.D. program; it is nothing you do in classes. It reflects how you live your life, how you see reality. So the best philosophy, the best theology, is real. It reflects reality, it reflects how you live, or try to live, at least.

…I think people want reality most of all. And even if reality ends up in just mystery – we know this but no further, where you can’t penetrate beyond the veil to have total understanding, but you have a certain knowledge of the subject because of the multiple levels of it you have experienced, but some things we are not going to be able to unravel. History is one of the most difficult disciplines to master, because there are a lot of things to do and to really do well, to even begin to get to the first level… But we have an orientation toward the real. Skepticism is counter to our nature – we want to know.

Once is usually enough. Fr. Paschal is not a “re-reader” - it is more often to read once and to move on. And he does not cultivate a “favorites” list, finding reading to be more situational and meaningful in context. But he sees value in encountering a wide range of ideas to discern the truth.

There is the bias that we all have. Everybody wants to find what they want to find, but I think we all want to find the truth. Only the truth can guide you, ultimately, to where you want to go. You might want to hear A, B, C, or D, you know, but you would rather hear, “A is working, but B is not.” Often these things are not set in stone, but there are certain ways to get to a certain end, and so there might be better ways out there. That does take time, and people do like easy answers – I think all of us like easy answers. And sometimes easy answers are the correct ones. But it is better to come to those having gone through the process of seeing what might be different …I don’t read a lot of books more than once. You gain the information you gain, and then you move on. The fact is, the more things you read, the better off you are. You start to modify your thinking – this person has this or that, but you did not know that at the time – nor did he, perhaps, at the time. (For re-reading), there are very few books I can think of.

Reading and Listening. In reading, whether it be through books or through other information sources like the internet, one must listen, as one must in sincerely encountering others, with the courage to overcome insecurities.

… There is always the ideologue out there, the person who doesn’t care if it works better or worse, as long as his way is the way. I think most of us want things to work better and work more efficiently and more successfully, and so at least if you listen, maybe you will prove you are right, “but at least I’ve heard what you have to say and I’ve thought about it, and may conclude,’ No, that does not reflect reality, at least as far as I can see.” If you meet them halfway, then they will say, “Well, okay, at least you were listening, at least you were trying to deal with the issues that bothered me.” There is nothing more infuriating then when people don’t listen to you, or don’t take seriously the criticisms or other things you have… It’s amazing how much people will change or be different if you just listen to them.

There are too many insecure people in this world. The fact is that so many people are so insecure, they don’t want to hear contrary things at all, they really don’t. Even if you want to do this in the spirit of purely helping, to help the situation, they want to hear it their way only. And that is unfortunate. Certainly in leaders, it is deadly. I have seen that so often destroy communities. If people are insecure, they are easily threatened. If they don’t like what you say, all of a sudden you’re on your way to Siberia or something. That’s unfortunate because you can achieve so much if you can just listen.

Fr. Paschal with Stephen Bullivant

Books, to mention a few. Fr. Paschal hesitates to consider a “short list” of formative books but emphasizes the process of being shaped by reading. He did share a couple of influential books, or some current reading, grateful to our library staff for selecting some excellent choices.

There are some great books that were really influential at one time, like Orthodoxy by Chesterton. It is a great book, a magnificent book, but I haven’t read it in years. I still think it is a diamond; the whole thing is a wonderful book, and there is a lot more there than people imagine. Chesterton was no fool. Wilfrid Ward wrote a great review of Orthodoxy in the Dublin Review and pointed out, well this comes from Bishop Butler, this from, etc. The thing is he knew a lot more, read a lot more, than probably he gives the impression. It might be just coming from his intelligence, but I think it might have been the result of massive reading and thought, and then came from his intelligence, as he matured and ripened in his own thought. It is not the kind of “cut-and-paste” that you often see, but is digested so completely, absorbed so completely, it really becomes you. I think all good books change you for the better and increase your perception for the better. …I love history, good history should tell you new things. There is a really good book that just came out that I am reading – The Falls of Rome: Crises, Resilience, and Resurgence in Late Antiquity (Michele Renee Salzman). There is always good stuff coming out.

Usually what happens is recognition, in other words, you see something that you recognize as being true. You may have already thought it was true before, or maybe it crystallized things for you that were already there. But it gave you insight into reality. I think the best books – there are some purely informative books, you know, that tell you facts – take those facts and meld them into something larger. Orthodoxy, for example, is a summation in a sense, often in a paradoxical way, that reflects insight into reality. You say: “Yes, that is so!” Or it may reflect things you already thought, though it put it much better. But then again, if every time you read something you are changed by it, maybe you were more influenced than you thought you were. Things may seem to be just our own thinking now, but maybe had their origins in what we read.