Michael J. Sauter

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Michael J. Sauter has lived his whole life in Western NY, in and around Rochester and the Genesee Valley. He has worked in factories and on dairy farms and in various ministries in the Catholic Church at the Abbey of the Genesee. He currently directs Catholic Campus Ministry at SUNY Geneseo. Along with his friend Michael Martin he hosts a weekly podcast, The Regeneration Podcast, which can be found on Spotify and many other podcast hosting services.

Recent Essays

Deeper than Religion, with Powys and Chesterton

Michael J. Sauter -
Instead of opposing one religion to another, we need the conscience and that humorous raised eyebrow, which Powys described, with feminine overtones, as “that withdrawn, quizzical look which conscience, that tough customer, regards as an invasion of its preserves,” to rend the veil in all of our religious temples: cultural/educational, economic and political.

A Case for the Psychiatric, Part 2: Dostoevsky’s Christianity

Michael J. Sauter -
There is something new in Doestoevsky's insights into the psychology of “the Human Being,” beyond the Church Fathers, or at least that's the case made. If this is true, especially in the light of the complete mental breakdown happening all around us, shouldn't we be redirecting our time and energy toward incorporating this and making it central to our thought and lives?

‘Spiritual but not Religious’ Revisited: An Urgent Case for the Psychiatric

Michael J. Sauter -
Look at our priests or bishops now. Do they seem any more advanced in the cure than anybody else? Some do. But so does the guy who took the snow tires off my car last week, and I don’t know if he’s ever darkened the doors of a Church. I just know that he had an air of spiritual freedom about him, such that somebody might think, “I want what he has. I wonder what makes him tick.” There’s a beginning.

Life Under Sycamores

Michael J. Sauter -
Frank Mulder is preaching the same Gospel. Pictures of Frank Mulder make him look like he could be a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, on a bicycle, planting sycamores instead of apple trees, helping people, one by one, break free from the threefold madness of money, planning, and crowds.

Grail and Anti-Grail Quests

Michael J. Sauter -
"After all, if you are too small to do anything, what need is there to stir!”

A Testament to Friendship

Michael J. Sauter -
Canadian author and broadcaster, David Cayley, who conducted two lengthy radio interviews-turned-books with Illich (in 1988 and 2000) and had a decades-long friendship with him, has written a gripping and unconventional biography of this deeply unconventional man.

Bridging the Gap Between Narrative and Reality: Guido Preparata

Michael J. Sauter -
Modest and hopeful, but backed up by a lot of thought and research, Guido Preparata's work is at least a beginning. Surrounded by lies, it’s high-time we started telling another story.

The Cauldron of Degrowth

Michael J. Sauter -
In a nutshell, Degrowthers make a bold case that a future worth living is not about doing more with less, it’s about doing “less with less,” and it’s not at all hard to sense an idea whose time has come.

Feeling Claustrophobic in the Big Wide Open

Michael J. Sauter -
I worry about our ever-expanding cult of safety and nod in agreement with so much of sociologist Frank Furedi’s description of the “Paradox of our Safety Addiction.” He argues that “the zero risk mentality breeds a culture of anxiety and a hunger for authority.”

Two Cheers for Two Popes

Michael J. Sauter -
In short, we need to rely less on building rigid ideological superstructures and more on our guts, guts kept healthy by a diverse diet of conversation and friendship. We need to have more personal encounters and trust in the general “goodness” of people. In other words, we need to take the seriousness with which we treat this Left-Right stuff down a notch and lighten up!

Heaven Hath Limits

Michael J. Sauter -
The Prior of the Upstate New York Abbey where I work often describes his cloistered life by using the phrase “living within a sonnet.”...

Avoiding “A World Without Women,” or Porches

Michael J. Sauter -
A common and often valid critique of many families in the homeschooling movement is that, because of a lingering obsession on, and invisible competition...
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