Icon carver Jonathan Pageau spoke at the inaugural ARC Conference 2023 in London about the importance of perspective in pursuit of the good. 

Using the pandemic response, and the West’s particular preoccupation with ‘safety’, as an example of how a myopic approach can cause widespread damage, Pageau said, “We sacrificed and subjugated all other goods… that provide meaning and purpose for nearly two years in some places.” He added, “Safety is a good… it is simply not a supreme good.”

Pageau reminded the conference that pursuit of stuff and comforts and egoic pleasures never truly fulfill human beings. Rather, he exhorted us to instead lift our gaze beyond the ‘stuff’ to the supreme Good – a concept of ‘goodness itself’ that the religious and irreligious alike can relate with. All the other ‘goods’ must serve the supreme Good to be a generative, healing presence in the world.

You can find more ARC related content here.