Sponsorships From a posting by Celeste Helene Schantz:
I have some nice news to share: I'm the runner-up for The Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize, judged by Terrance Hayes. I also had a second poem make the editor's pick; "The Woman on Court Street Bridge." Truly, such an honor! https://solsticelitmag.org/content/at-the-department-of-social-services/ Says Hayes about “At the Department of Social Services,” This poet casually explodes Ezra Pound’s well-known poem. The core ‘observe and report’ perspective may be inspired by Pound’s imagist poetics, but this poet infuses the imagery with empathy, immediacy, and color. The final breaking bough resonates powerfully as metaphor and image.” I'm basically blown away right now. : ) One of the poems was written in a workshop made possible with scholarship funds from The Bishop Butler Society. Thanks, David White. ~Celeste Helene Schantz
Smithsonian
The Bp Butler Society Ltd has joined a program for placing the Smithsonian Magazine in schools.
First Thought, Best Thought
Art: My artwork consists mostly of drawings done in Sharpie marker [& often altered in Photoshop]. I am a complete Sharpie addict [though I do love paint & clay]. I switched to Sharpies to stop myself from ruining drawings by going back over them way past the time when I should have stopped “correcting.”
I was being such a perfectionist that I wasn’t even enjoying drawing & what is the point of that? It forced me to go with whatever I laid down, whether it was a mistake or not. There was no going back, no painting over, no erasing. It turned drawing into a lesson in letting go. I knew if I went back over & tried correcting too many things, it would eventually just be a solid, flat color representing nothing. For me, one of the hardest things is knowing what to leave out & when to stop. This helps.
~Marie Starr, librarian to the BpBS
John Wesley “Encounters with John Wesley” JOHN WESLEY set 18th CENTURY BRITAIN ON FIRE with his open air preaching. The Methodist societies he organised and nurtured grew with phenomenal peed. Encounters with John Wesley brings to life the legendary preacher’s search for faith, his tireless travelling, the violent opposition he faced, and his passionate, single-minded drive ‘to do what good I can’ Mark Topping is John Wesley. His father, Frank Topping appears as Joseph Butler, the Bishop of Bristol, Alan Covenay is Charles Wesley and Alan Moore appears as Beau Nash. Filmed on location - including the New Room, Bristol, the oldest Methodist chapel in the world and at Charles Wesley’s House, also in Bristol.
Laura Klinkon. Sept. 2013 published "Trying to Find You"; in 2017, "Kitchen Abrasives" &"Looking Askance". (@Amazon), and in 2018 brought out The Silent Lyre/La Lira Silente, sonnets of Edna St. Vincent Millay, translated to Italian. Laura Klinkon, a member of “The Collision of Art and Philosophy,” has contributed to the Italian Section of the Bishop Butler Study Center. She has translated the only known biography of Albino Babolin from Italian to English, and has translated the article: Barreca, Giuseppe (2007). “Henry Sidgwick e il dissidio tra egoismo ed utilitarismo.” Rivista di Storia Della Filosofia .
Dissertation Peter Xavier Price, University of Sussex ‘Providence and Political Economy’: Josiah Tucker’s Providential Argument for Josiah Tucker, who was the Anglican Dean of Gloucester from 1758 until his death in 1799, is best known as a political pamphleteer, controversialist and political economist. Regularly called upon by Britain’s leading statesmen, and most significantly the Younger Pitt, to advise them on the best course of British economic development, in a large variety of writings he speculated on the consequences of North American independence for the global economy and for international relations; upon the complicated relations between small and large states; and on the related issue of whether low wage costs in poor countries might always erode the competitive advantage of richer nations, thereby establishing perpetual cycles of rise and decline. As a vehement critic of war in all its forms, Tucker was a staunch opponent of Britain’s mercantile system – a pejorative term connoting, amongst other things, the aggressive control of global trade for the benefit of the mother country so as to encourage imperial expansion throughout known parts of the world. Though recognising Tucker to be a pioneer of the anti-mercantilist free trade school, extant Tucker scholarship has tended to concentrate on the perceived similarities and dissimilarities between he and the classical economists, particularly Adam Smith. Yet whilst acknowledging the veracity of these various connections and claims, this thesis approaches Tucker from an alternative perspective. Placing Tucker in his proper historical context, the main purpose of this study is to explore the intellectual, political and theo-philosophical background to Tucker’s economic thought. Its most original and profound contribution consisting in a detailed and critical analysis of Tucker’s links with his ecclesiastical mentor Bishop Joseph Butler, its central concern is to argue the case for Butler’s crucial influence over Tucker’s free trade ideas particularly in the guise of the neo-Stoic, Anglican providentialism that buttressed much of Butler’s own theories in the field of meta-ethics and moral philosophy.
Joseph Butler: Fifteen Sermons and other writings on ethics
Edited by David McNaughton · The only annotated edition · Includes all the sermons and a selection of Butler's other ethical writings · New notes and substantial introduction by a leading moral philosopher
Butler Society
Membership of this one-name society is open to anyone with an interest in the family history or genealogy of any family of the name Butler. The Butler Society was founded in 1967 and has published The Journal of The Butler Society since 1968. A Butler Rally is held every three years in Kilkenny, Ireland. Members come from many countries including Ireland, UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Spain, Argentina and South Africa.
Noted with Pleasure
In Taming a Sea Horse (1986) Robert B. Parker has Spencer trying to locate a prostitute, April Kyle. His search leads him to an interview with Art Floyd, which ends with Spencer quoting Bishop Butler (slightly incorrectly), “A thing is what it is … and not something else.” Floyd looks blank and points Spencer to the door. Parker’s otherwise excellent annotator is innocent of Butler”: “Chapter 18: ‘A thing is what it is...and not something else.’ - This sounds to me like a paraphrasing of what Iago was saying in Othello Act 1, scene 1, but I could very well be wrong. http://www.mindspring.com/~boba4/SeaHorse.html
Books for Sale [FILLMORE, MILLARD] BUTLER, JOSEPH AND WILSON, DANIEL The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature... . Millard Fillmore's Copy Signed by Him New York, Robert Carter, 1848. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo (5-3/4" x 9") bound in publisher's brown blind-stamped cloth, gilt lettering on the spine; 312, [8] pages. SIGNED and dated 22 March 1850 with a price of $1 vertically on the front pastedown by the thirteenth President of the United States while in office. Fillmore has also written the notation F - 1 on the top of the title page, a notation he used on books in his personal library to denote the room and shelf where the book was stored. An especially large and attractive signature. Moderate foxing, some rubbing and staining to the front cover. Very Good Millard Fillmore was an avid reader and book collector. Fillmore established the first White House Library. When he moved from Washington, he relocated his library to Buffalo, NY. After his death in 1874, his large library was sold by his son. Charles Agvent Book number: 018447 USD 1562.50 [Appr.: EURO 1369.25 | £UK 1223.75 | JP¥ 173139]
THE ANALOGY OF RELIGION, NATURAL AND REVEALED, TO THE CONSTITUTION AND COURSE OF NATURE.... Millard Fillmore's Copy Signed by Him Price: $1,250.00
New York: Robert Carter, 1848. First Edition Octavo (5-3/4" x 9") bound in publisher's brown blind-stamped cloth, gilt lettering on the spine; 312, [8] pages. SIGNED and dated 22 March 1850 with a price of $1 vertically on the front pastedown by the thirteenth President of the United States while in office. Fillmore has also written the notation F - 1 on the top of the title page, a notation he used on books in his personal library to denote the room and shelf where the book was stored. An especially large and attractive signature. Moderate foxing, some rubbing and staining to the front cover. Very Good (Item ID: 018447) Millard Fillmore was an avid reader and book collector. Fillmore established the first White House Library. When he moved from Washington, he relocated his library to Buffalo, NY. After his death in 1874, his large library was sold by his son. Charles Agvent Book number: 018447 https://www.charlesagvent.com/shop/agvent/018447.html
Divine Milieu: the Last Confession of Teilhard de Chardin L. John Cieslinski delivers a compelling performance as this twentieth-century philosopher, theologian, paleontologist, and priest. Discouraged by the Vatican's efforts to silence him for his views on evolution and his order's heavy-handedness in dealing with him, Teilhard confides his feelings to a friend. He fights with his frustrations and unwillingness to leave the Jesuits, and only wishes to show the Church that there is nothing to fear from science.
(Watch for additional productions in the future)
John runs the monthly discussion group “Philosophy and Spirituality” and hosts a birthday party for Bishop Butler on or about May 18 each year.
