We’re All Cooked

Towards the end of Paul Kingsnorth’s new book, he reflects on his first trip to Mt Athos, the monastic republic off the coast of Greece which allows only men to enter so as to temper potential temptation and enable lives of deeper prayer. As a famously disillusioned eco-activist, and recent convert to Eastern Orthodoxy, he knew the mystical lore of the Holy Mountain; and as one given to extremes, the rugged and ascetic spiritual culture of island drew him in, as it does to many modern pilgrims. But then he saw it: out of the pocket of one of the monk’s flowing black robes came not a leather lestovka or a prayer rope, but the black mirror of a smart phone. I mean, if the monks on Mt Athos are scrolling through TikTok these days, let’s be honest, we’re all cooked.