Category: About

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A close-up of author C.S. Hayward

Br. Christos

Classes and Levels:

  • Level 11 Renaissance Man
  • Level 7 Orthodox Mystic
  • Level 1 Orthodox Monastic

Stats and Basic Info:

Race/Template: Human

Gender: Male

Alignment: Lawful Good

Religion / Patron Deity: Orthodox Christian

STR: 12
DEX: 10
CON: 8
INT: 18
WIS: 16
CHA: 8

Hit Points: 76

BAB: +8

Fortitude: 11

Reflex: 13

Will: 22

Renaissance man areas of skill:

Major areas:

Master's degrees bridging mathematics and computers (UIUC) and theology and philosophy (Cambridge)
Anthropology / Cultures
Computer Science / Programming
Linguistics / Languages
Mathematics
Philosophy
Theology
User Experience
Writing

Possessions on person:

  • Black robes.
  • Swiss Army Knife toolchest.
  • Portable computer that is designed for outdoor use in inclement weather and can run any operating system he wants and any programming language he wants.
  • A non-5G iPhone which he would not trade for a new one.

Feats

  • Ambidexterity
  • Craft Wondrous Software
  • Craft Wondrous Writing
  • Dodge
  • Improved Unarmed Strike
  • Toughness
  • Weapon Specialization, Crossbow
  • Weapon Double Specialization, Rifle

Skills

  • Balance: 15
  • Climb: 18
  • Concentration: 18
  • Decipher Script: 19
  • Disguise: 12
  • Diplomacy: 17
  • Handle Animal: 14
  • Heal: 17
  • Hide: 22
  • Knowledge Architecture/Engineering: 20, Geography 20, History 20, Nature 20, Nobility/Royalty 20, Religion 35, Literature: 20
  • Languages: English 22, French 21, Spanish 20, Italian 19, Latin 19, Greek 19, Python 24, HTML5 22, CSS3 21, JavaScript: 23
  • Listen: 17
  • Move Silently: 22
  • Perform: Keyboard 10, Oratory 15
  • Profession: Author 20, Developer 20
  • Ride: 11
  • Tumble: 11
  • Use Rope: 12

Description

Brother Christos is a born renaissance man, with activities from inspired keyboard improvisation to making a four-dimensional maze, from writing A Dream of Light to a Myst-like souvenir from Cambridge, and more.

He has had a lot of being in the right place at the right time, and started his first and now most extensive website at cjshayward.com, within a year or two of the web's founding. His preserved works at the Internet archive are as old as the archive itself.

In recent years he has increasingly focused on being a student of Orthodox patristics, and more specifically asking what is good for man, and more specifically than that, how to navigate a technology-laden maze when many mainstream options are ultimately counter-productive. His magnum opus, called The Luddite's Guide to Technology, looks at the maze and how to navigate it in a many-sided way, and over half of the preferred introduction to his works, C.J.S. Hayward in Under 99 Pages, are pulled from his extensive works on technology and man. Likewise, his autobiography is titled, Orthodox Theology and Technology: A Profoundly Gifted Autobiography.

With years, the transformational nature of the Orthodox spiritual path has helped him to grow, and part of that growth is being deeply calm, a contagious calm that settles on those around him, and has had some people wanting to be with him so that part of the calm will rub off onto them. For them he wrote Calm.

And he always meeting some of his readers, and you are invited to contact him.

A quote:

[Other name changed]

Christos [Puts hand on the shoulder of the father of teenage Adam]: "Adam hurt my feelings."

Adam [confused]: "How did I do that?"

Christos: "Fess up, Adam, and then we'll both know."

Bullies and Reviews: A Note to my Reviewers

A note to my reviewers

Cover for The Seraphinians: "Blessed Seraphim Rose" and His Axe-Wielding Western Converts

For a long time I was really mystified by something: I, as an author, had given out numerous review copies of my books, but I received so few reviews, especially positive reviews.

The mystification came to a head more recently, when I had given several books to a novice at a monastery, and he posted at least three or four reviews. Then yesterday I checked, and only one had not been deleted. The others had been posted and then vanished without a trace. The other novice was mystified at why his reviews were not showing.

Standing up to a bully

In The Seraphinians: "Blessed Seraphim Rose" and His Axe-Wielding Western Converts, I stood up to a gang of bullies. I am aware of at least two five-star reviews of that work by complete strangers who contacted me after their reviews vanished.

What it seems to amount to is this: I stood up to a community of bullies and the bullies are doing what they can to get all positive reviews of my work taken down. A few have stuck, but not terribly many, and one of my books can have a glowing editorial review but only two stars offered to the reader who glances at it. Fr. Seraphim's axe-wielding converts are not satisfied at having a majority of one-star reviews to The Seraphinians; they are also working to get positive reviews from preventably staying up for my other works, too.

Why I'm not upset

In Profoundly Gifted Survival Guide, I described myself as having "fame lite:"

I wrote in another blog post that I believed I had experienced what I would call "fame lite." Leonard Nimoy, in I Am Spock talks about how Hollywood has teachers for all kinds of skills they would need to portray that skill in movies: musical instruments, riding a horse, and so on and so forth. However, there was something that no teachers were to be found in Hollywood: dealing with fame. Nimoy learned, for instance, how to enter a restaurant through the kitchen because there would be a public commotion if Spock walked in through the front door. And on that count, I do not obviously suffer the consequences of real fame. I’ve been asked for my autograph, once. I’ve had someone call out publicly, before I entered Orthodoxy, “That’s Jonathan Hayward!”, once. I have repeatedly had pleasant meetings with people who know me through my website. And since then, the only new tarnish to my claim of undeserved “fame lite” is in recent years when a job opportunity was really a cloak for attempted seduction. If that was because of my website or reputation; I am not sure it was.

Often Christians looking at years past see God's Providence in circumstances they did not like and wished were otherwise, and later on they are grateful they did not get the changes in circumstances they so much wanted at the time. I see God's Providence in God limiting my fame to mostly fame lite, and in keeping with a verse in Proverbs, which says:

30:8 Remove far from me vanity and falsehood:
And give me not wealth or poverty;
But appoint me what is needful and sufficient:

I do not have the kind of income I had when working in IT, but I have enough, being retired on disability, and I get a couple of hundred dollars added per month from book sales, perhaps thanks in part to editorial reviews from Donovan's Literary Services. I have enough to buy my choice of supplements, and God has cared for me. Possibly I would have more problems if I were (more) famous and earned more royalties; too much royalties and I might lose my main income.

Two closing comments:

There are a couple of closing comments I wish to give:

  1. If you have ever written a review for one of my books, thank you! I am grateful for every sincere review I've been given, whether positive or negative, whether it is part of the few that stuck or the many that have been approved and then vanished. I may be stopping my hopes of getting good star ratings and customer reviews, but I am grateful for your review whether or not it stuck like you and I wanted it to.

  2. If you are a fan of my website and my books, I would ask you to perhaps quietly tell your friends about https://cjshayward.com/books/, my "best works" bookshelf, and maybe mention that some of my star ratings may have been doctored to be lower. Even if you are unable to post your review and have it stick, you can let your friends know, or give me links or mention on social media, etc. And please leave a candid star rating even if your review would vanish.

And that's it. Thank you to all you who have tried to show me any kindness.

Very Cordially Yours,
C.J.S. Hayward

A Question about the Classic Orthodox Bible--One That Others May Have, Too!

Own C.J.S. Hayward's complete works in paper!

A visitor contacted me and wrote:

Dear Mr. Hayward,

I just purchased the Classic Orthodox Bible on Amazon because I am an Orthodox Christian and I prefer the King James version. With utmost and profound respect, I desire peace of mind with this Bible and ask you two things please. You are listed as the editor. I am confused and would like to know why this version needs/needed editing and who are you in regards to editing the Holy Bible? Please understand my question is not a personal attack or judgement upon you; I am only trying to learn about this (editor) as I read it... deep areas of concern for me and your answers will absolutely help. I am deeply and sincerely grateful for your time to help.

That's a question that other people may have, too.

I answered:

This is one of the kindest emails I have received in a while, and I thank you for it.

To give one example about what changes I have made (others are more messy), the King James Version of the Bible does not include modern-style quotation marks, and has one paragraph per verse. For instance, Mark 1:1-3 among many examples, reads in the KJV:

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;

2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

In the Classic Orthodox Bible, quotation marks are added:

John: Forerunner of Christ
Mark 1 The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; 2 as it is written in the prophets,

“Behold, I send My Messenger before Thy face,
Which shall prepare Thy way before Thee.
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness,
‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
Make His paths straight.’”

Now not a word of the Biblical text has changed beyond capitalization, as is often the case, but there is a difference.

A very careful reader reading the King James version might notice that the 'B' in 'Behold' and 'P' in 'Prepare' are capitalized, and in fact the King James follows such capitalization when most quotations begin. Nonetheless, it is clearer to the modern reader when quotes begin and end, and it is clearer where there is a nested quote, and for that matter clearer by the italics that this is the New Testament quoting the Old Testament.

Other examples are described at ClassicOrthodoxBible.com. Theosis is in the New Testament texts, but it is treated insensitively by Western translators that I know of. The 'S' is always capitalized when speaking of "the Son of God," but never when it discusses "sons of God," for instance, and even C.S. Lewis did better in his Mere Christianity echoing the Greek Fathers: "The Son of God became a man that men might become the Sons of God." I have never seen this in English translation.

In the Sermon on the Mount, there is one text which has two basic translations, a double meaning being present in the Greek. One version is, "Which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life?" The other version is, "Which of you by worrying can add a single cubit (the cubit is a basic unit of measurement) to his height?" and one of these, not always the same one, gets translated out. But in fact there is value in the double meaning, and I render it roughly as, "Do you think that by worrying you can add a single hour to your span of life? You might as well try to worry your way into being a foot taller!" The payload of the remark is that we might think we can add a lot to our lifespan, but in fact trying to add a single hour to our life is as futile as trying to worry your way into being a foot (and a half, if you want to be specific), taller.

Now regarding your other question as to who I am to be working on it. I am an Orthodox Christian who has told two spiritual fathers "I think I should back away from this, at least until I can grow some more," and had two spiritual fathers say "I want you working on this today." That is the only serious credential I can claim.

My present spiritual father has said that the changes I mentioned, such as having different font sizes for different areas of text (the Gospels are in the largest font size), aren't earth shaking and he asked me to work with him on this. So I am continuing.

Now if you'd like to know more about me, you might read my autobiography on Amazon; I would be truly grateful for any review, positive or negative, as long as it is seeking edification. But my credential is obedience in spiritual direction.

I am grateful for the permission I received to quote the question anonymously as this is a question others may have as well.

You can buy the recommended hardcover here.

Hanging Up My Skates for Now

I have numerous pieces having a certain spark on this site, of which the oldest, perhaps, is Religion Within the Bounds of Amusement, the newest, perhaps, is, Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts, and perhaps the deepest is The Consolation of Theology. (All three are in The Luddite's Guide to Technology.)

This comes not only after that spark has become rarer in my life, but as I am seeking monasticism at some Orthodox monastery. I am looking to enter, not as an author, but as just a novice, God willing on the way to be just a monk.

This Site's New Look: Luddite with a Touch of Steampunk


In preparation for the lecture above, I reread The New Media Epidemic: The Undermining of Society, Family, and Our Own Soul, the closest title I've found to my own The Luddite's Guide to Technology.

During and after reading it, I found myself taking a hard look in the mirror and realizing that some things on my website really need to change.

What needs to change?

In Usability Experts are from Mars, graphic designers are from Venus, Kurt Cloninger writes:

In the usability corner, wearing the blue and purple underlined trunks, weighing in at just under 25K per gig… J-a-a-a-a-a-kob Nie-e-e-e-e-lsen, usability guru extraordinaire, with over 16
usability patents and several "lists of 10"—do’s, don’t’s, thou shalt’s, and thou shalt not’s.

"Blue and purple underlined trunks" is a reference to blue and purple underlined links, which Nielsen stuck to. In more recent years he said said that links just need to be underlined in significantly different colors (preferably with visited links looking dull and used, with unvisited links looking fresh and new), as part of a consensus that includes Steve Krug and WordPress design guidelines. I child themed a WordPress theme when it had no native way to make visited and unvisited links look different. And, despite practice in every official WordPress theme I've spent time with, I retain the opinion that if you want links to be noticed outside of places like menus people expect everything to be links, you should do the basic courtesy of having underlined links with two separate colors for visited and unvisited links.

However, after reading rel="nofollow" rel="nofollow" rel="nofollow" href="https://amzn.to/2MKcZEu">The New Media Epidemic, I have set the main text on articles to normally be black and without underline, just like the surrounding text, unless the link is awfully important and perhaps the reason the page is there in the first place. Download links for software projects, for instance, are links. And there are other changes, including a font change from rounded Verdana (with text looking like this) to a standard print font. But the default policy has me doing almost everything to camouflage most links and not draw them to readers' attention. The links are still there, and will be underlined if you hover over it. For that matter, most italicized book titles are links. However, I have undertaken a striking link hiding project.

The reason for this is simple. People understand text in a linear format, and by peppering my postings with an industry standard dose of links is kind of like stomping feet, blowing whistles and honking horns while my visitors would better read in quiet. Links impose a "cognitive tax" to make visitors stop and think if the page that is linked to is more important than the page you're on.

(And if that costs me my $5 a month in affiliate link income, oh well!)

I also had "You might also like..." links that I have hidden for now. The basic reason is that even if I lose stickiness as a cost, most of my postings are a meal's worth of food for thought, or more, and pages per visit is the wrong thing to maximize (and I know, in the case of one friend, my sticky links encouraged reading in a way that is not helpful).

I retain the beautiful background.

There are further implications. I have also tried to simplify the use of graphical widgets: "The design is complete, not when there is nothing more to add, but there is nothing more to take away.

I am also planning on similar modifications to my ebooks: a stylesheet made to let the book work more like print, and read more gracefully.

Here's to lessons from 19th century print!

(P.S. I invite you to read The Luddite's Guide to Technology!)

Bracing for the Digital Dark Ages

Own C.J.S. Hayward's complete works in paper!

A journey to find eternal treasure

I am trying to reach monasticism and become a monk. I do not know that I will get there, but I am trying.

I expect that if I do arrive and God in his mercy grants my desires, I will be in a place with accommodations so Luddite that hot running water is not available. Whether I may have heating or cooling is unknown to me, although a common monastic preference is to try to avoid both. I will likely be one of very few English speakers around, and for all I know I may be the only American in my monastery. As a novice I will have people deliberately set out to strike my feelings, and above the confession that precedes Holy Communion in Holy Russia, I will be expected to tell my abbot all my thoughts every day.

And please understand that I am saying this neither in the hopes of receiving your admiration nor your pity. Quite simply, these are the terms of the highest privilege the Orthodox Church has to offer.

I yearn for all of this and pray that I may be strong enough, although that is not my point here.

A note on continuity

My point is about continuity of service from the website you are visiting now. I am trying to make arrangements so that my website, and electronic and paper books, will remain available without disruption. However, I do not see why an abbot would necessarily reconnect me to the Internet, or whatever exists then, before my website is long gone. Abbots may come to surprise monks again and again; it would be disappointing if they didn't. But whether I remain a blogger after becoming a monk is well outside my knowledge now, and furthermore not my concern, not if I have the faintest desire of becoming a monk.

Apart from my own spiritual path, there is the question of the materials on this site being available in a historical setting when at least one of my friends talk about the Digital Dark Ages, and techs have already said you should print out the photos you want to be able to keep, and we are decades past the point where technologically sophisticated museum curators have warned that they have information on computers in their museum, and they believe the information to be intact, but the knowhow and technology to actually access that information is already lost and gone forever. The second most Luddite warning about technology I've heard comes from computer programmer folklore: "If builders built buildings the way programmers write programs, the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization." (The first most Luddite statement is from the Sermon on the Mount: "Do not store up treasures on earth.")

Everything I've written that's worth reading is presently available on Amazon, and for that matter a good bit that isn't. The Bible says something about "Put not your trust in princes," and I do not regard my arrangement with Amazon as a permanent arrangement. Already in the Nazification of today's world we have reached a point where you can freely buy and sell Nazi memorabilia on Amazon, but Amazon dropped the Confederate flag faster than a hot potato without a single voice of the left crying out, "Censorship!" I see no reason why, ultimately, Amazon need be squeamish about lumping my work together with the flag of the Confederate States of America as abominations unfit for the present world.

I have tried to systematically collect my works into print form; the result of that is "The Complete Works" (Kindle, $3), with paperback volumes one, two, three, four, five, six, and seven ($20 each); also, The Seraphinians ($7) and the Classic Orthodox Bible ($25 paperback, $7 Kindle). As far as my own opinions about what is worth reading goes, as a rule of thumb, the collections I've considered worth keeping are more or less the ones I've taken the effort to make both a paperback and a Kindle edition. The work I consider the flagship of all the books I have to sell, and the one essential volume, is the flagship collection in The Best of Jonathan's Corner ($25 paperback, $3 Kindle).

Thank you for any purchases.

Acknowledgments

There are a number of people who helped make this website possible. I'd like to thank:

  • Steve Adams for invaluable help in getting hovering JavaScript menus to work.
  • My family, for supporting me as I've been working on this.
  • Anthony Trendl, who encouraged and convinced me to revamp my website the first time.
  • Innes Sheridan, Lester Barker, and Michael Rascia, who took various pictures for my site.
  • IMSA, which was a cool experience, and which hosted my writings for several years.
  • All of the people who have given me awards, or who have taken precious time out of their lives to evaluate my site (even if they didn't give me an award).
  • Tamuril, for giving me the kick in the seat of the pants that I needed, by rejecting my application upgrade and saying in essence, "I've given you as many points as I can without you sprucing up your graphics more," and then offering help and feedback when I asked for it.
  • Those who have helped with my writing, including Suma Ramachandran (The Sign of the Grail).
  • Nicoletta, for suggestions for The Angelic Letters.
  • All of my visitors:
    • Those who link to this website and let other people know about it.
    • Those who just visit—this site was made for you!

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Email CJS Hayward.

What's new?

Friday 28 August, 2015, the Dormition, I posted, QUICK! What Is Your Opinion About Chemistry?

Tuesday 30 June, 2015, following a momentous decision by the Supreme Court, I posted, St. John the Much-Suffering.

Sunday 17 May, 2015, my birthday. I posted, In Celebration of Tribbles (and FurReal Pets).

Sunday 2 May, 2015, the Fourth Sunday of Pascha. I posted, Work-Mystic.

Tuesday 31 March, 2015, the Funeral of my grandmother Jo Myre Hayward. I posted, Profoundly Gifted Magazine: An Interview with Charles Wallace Murry of A Wind in the Door.

Tuesday 17 March, 2015, the Feast of the peace-loving reluctant warrior and prince, St. Daniel of Moscow. I posted, The Orthodox Martial Art Is Living the Sermon on the Mount.

Sunday 22 February, 2015, Forgiveness Sunday. I posted, Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives: Beyond The Secret and the Law of Attraction.

Saturday 12 July, 2014, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. I posted, "Social Antibodies" Needed: A Request of Orthodox clergy.