Author Urges Catholics to Embrace the 'Strange' in Their Faith

THE INTERNET — A new book by W. Tyler Allen is urging Catholics to take a second look at the stranger furniture of their own tradition, according to a digest entry on The Anomalist that draws on a review originally published by NCR.

The volume, A Catechism of the Strange: Stigmata, Relics, and the Miracles That Shape the Soul, is described as an effort to reach Catholics and strengthen their bond with the esoteric side of the faith. Among the subjects it takes up, the digest says, are religious relics and stigmata, which are presented as qualities that deepen communion with God through the body.

The book also carries a note of caution. Catholics, the summary says, are warned against thinning out their faith to make it more palatable to outsiders, who may not understand certain traditions or may find them, in the digest's words, unsettling. The digest sums up the argument as a belief that embracing the "deep woo" within Catholicism can only deepen understanding and faith, in a world increasingly grounded in the intellectual workings of the mind.

The same entry points readers to a second matter of the strange. Dr. Russell Moul, in a piece published by IFLScience, asks whether there is something esoteric about artificial intelligence. The piece, as summarized, observes that humans have long tried to bargain with unpredictable otherworldly entities they believed in, and have also tried to make them, before inquiring whether AI is any different.

The digest does not say how either work answers its questions, and readers wishing to judge the matter for themselves are directed to the linked book listing and article.