Ironic or irenic?

In an e-mail, Rick Darby mentioned in passing a conversation he had had recently with a person I’ll call G., who was not the subject of the e-mail. G. sometime ago had angrily attacked me and insulted me because of my criticisms of Darwinism, and I have not had any correspondence with him since then.

I replied:

[…]

P.S. I didn’t know that G. was still on my mailing list. Today he asked me to be removed, in response to my last Darwin post which must have offended him even more than the others, the one with the irenic title, “More Darwinian lies, to be washed down with cheap gin and swelling thoughts of love for Big Brother.”

Rick Darby replied:

Irenic? Is that a word I don’t know or is it a typo for ironic?

I replied:

I did not intend to write ironic. I wrote “irenic,” which means “conducive to peace.” However, you stumbled onto the truth, because I was using irenic ironically.

Terry Morris writes:

Irenic - I too have learned a new word.

With respect to G., if you insulted my God and my religion with those awful hurtful things you’ve said about Darwinism, I’d probably ask you take me off of your email list too.

LA replies:

Irenic is a word sometimes used in a religious context, as when a spokesman of one religious view within a church makes an irenic statement directed at those who disagree with him, trying to find common ground and avoid conflict. I think the first time I saw the word was in Paul Johnson’s History of Christianity, where he was talking about how Paul and the disciples worked out their different views of the Christian mission..

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Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 18, 2009 10:07 AM | Send