Notes on Blindess Reminds us of John Hull’s Humanity

John Hull, the great Australian religious teacher and writer, died yesterday.  Among the many things for which he is well known, is the touching and courageous way in which he accepted his blindness soon after his daughter was born in 1983.

Hull made a recording of his diary entries after he went completely blind.  According to The New York Times , Hull sent his recordings to two London film makers who produced the short film above. It premiered at the Sun Dance film festival in 2014 and won the documentary award for short film.

According to the Guardian’s excellent obituary, Hull continued to write about his blindess even as he began to teach theology and criticize the West’s preoccupation with materialism.

Hull’s book, Touching the Rock recounts his years with failing vision. According to one reviewer, the memoir “is… less concerned with the encroachment of the dark than with the acceptance of an unchanging, irreversible calamity.”