Alexandermen (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} alexandermen) wrote,@ 2007-11-24 09:01:00 |
|
II-13 Necessity of Dialogue +"The Difficult Path to Dialogue: On Graham Greene's Monsignor Quixote"
Two Items (1) a short discussion of the necessity of dialogue
as a way of life and then opening that out
(2) the article "The difficult Path to Dialogue."
Fr Men had made a translation of Graham Greene's "The Power and the
Glory" which he regarded as one, with Cronin's "Keys to the Kingdom"
being the other, of two contemporary key images of the priesthood
and in considering Monsignor Quixote he considers a portrayal of
a priest but this time of dialogue ,with the character of the
Mayor Sancho who is a communist, of Christianity and Marxism
--and Marxism is pretty much gone now in the ashcan of history but--
more broadly of the faith and all others in the world and the need
for this dialogue for the world to endure. This is only a part,
though a very substantial and representative part, but I hope to
offer the whole as time permits.
(1)
Today's world crisis shows that there is no future for hostility,
or defensive isolationism, or eclecticism, but that dialogue can
be fruitful for all participants. The followers of the religions of
the world have something to say to mankind. Christianity brings the
gospels, its service, its love. Of course, it is not so easy to learn
tolerance and openness while remaining true to one's fundamental principles.
Christians, though, have never thought that spiritual life was an easy
matter, but rather an ascetic and heroic deed. The whole earth now needs
this deed. On the eve of the two thousandth anniversary of the foundation
of the Christian church, the world has reached a critical frontier. That
is why dialogue has become not a luxury for intellectuals but
a necessity of life.
---Alexander Men, "Christianity: The Universal Vision,"
in Christianity For the Twenty-First Century.
Ed. Elizabeth Roberts and Ann Shukman (New York: Continuum, 1996).
(2)
The Difficult Path to Dialogue
Trans: Steve Griffin
In Russian religious thought the problem of freedom has been one of
the most important. In particular it played a central role in the
works of Nicholas Berdiaev,whom we have yet to recognize and study.
Berdiaev demonstrated that in the Christian consciousness the idea of
freedom possesses a deeply spiritual character. That idea is not to
be reduced to social egalitarianism. Neither is one to identify
the Marxist hope for a kingdom of peace with the promise of Jesus
"You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" or with
the words of the apostle Paul: "Brethren, you are called to freedom..."
Berdiaev in fact showed that Christian personalism does not regard
human personality as something isolated and self-sufficient. While
it is more than the sum of social relationships ,it can be
manifested and perfected only through social contact and interaction
with other personalities. In other words Christianity as a purely
religious faith encompasses in the final analysis the social
sphere as well. Upholding the value of the individual,it cannot
be indifferent to social injustice.
In truth, Fr Quixote,like many Christians, listened many times to the
rebuke tha tthe Church had done too little for the "suffering and
burdened" throughout its formal rule, but rather preferred to uphold
the powerful of this world. But this rebuke is not entirely just. The
ethical(and consequently social)ideals of the Gospel never became
dead relics, cut off from life and its burning social questions. Already
in the first centuries of Christianity the Church Fathers stood
against social evil. Basil the Great and Jerome of Stirdon regarded
oppression as sin,and referred to wealth as theft from the poor. The Church
Fathers also recognized the importance of rule of law. In his 'City of God'
St.Augustine wrote "In the absence of justice,what is sovereignty but
organized brigandage? what are bands of brigands but petty kingdoms?"
It is now acknowledged by all of us that the Church has not been
inactive in the social realm. She has served to extend charity, dreated
schools, hospitals and shelters, and has often surpassed secular
institutions in her influence on public morality. Without the influence
of Christian ethical principles it would be difficult to imagine not
only the humanism of Dostoevsky or Schweitzer, but even the Marxist
understanding of a just society. After all, the idea of justice is to
a great extent linked to the antithesis of good and evil, which
science does not know.
...It goes without saying that by far not all members of the Church have
measured up to their ethical ideal. In this, however, they have resembled
the followers of all other teachings. Mayor Sancho speaks with
indignation of the authoritarian despotism of Franco, who considered
himself a Catholic, and of the Inquisitor Torquemada and other dark
episodes in the history of Christianity. But the communist mayor
himself senses that in his debate with Quixote his arguments are weak.
One recalls, for instance, how he speaks of 'our poor Stalin'(the
responsiblity ofr such an epithet,as for the ill-considered words that
in Stalin's labor camps people "worked for the future of their people",
lays not with Greene, but with his hero).
Such a "skirimish" could be conducted endlessly, searching for yet another
example. In fact, if atheists enjoy remembering the tragic fate of Bruno
and Gallileo, then their opponents can respond that the lot of Vavilov,
Chayanov, and many others was no easier. In a word each side remains
unchanged and the only end in sight is a dead end.
There is,however,the hope that an alternative exisats. In search of
such an alternative one might recall a half-forgotten word--a word
which Tengiz Abuladze used to entitle his earthshaking film:Repentence!
Greene is aware of this word, and indeed summons one to it. It is as
thought he says that if the party which Lenin founded finds within
itself today the courage to speak openly of the crimes which darken its
past,then for Christians such a turn of events cannot serve as a reason
for malicious joy, but should prompt them to follow the example of
sincere communists, Christian repentance is,after all, not only for
the individual but for the whole Church.
It is true that we in the Orthodox world have had no inquisition. But
this is not to say that we have no need of moral reexamination or a
reassessment of our past. In the Christian East there has been
persecution of heterodox groups, illegitimate merging of religion
with politics,strict censorship, and alliance with forces of repression.
It suffices to recall the persecution of the Paulicinians and Bogomils
in Byzantium, the heretics of Old Russia, the reformers, Old Believers
and sectarians. Yes there were those burned at the stake, tortured,
imprisoned and exiled. All this truly occured, and was conducted under
the shelter of the great teachings of the Gospel, just as terrot in
France was undertaken with the charitable motto "Freedom,Equality,
and Brotherhood."
It is now acknowledged that intolerance and fanaticism(whether
religious or atheistic) are manifestations not so much of faith,
but of the lack of it. When a person doubts the truth of his
belief, or senses the precarious nature of his position, he is
often tempted to advance "might makes right" methods of proof to
convince himslef and to force others to be silent. Intolerance
is the sort of spiritual illness which is capable of perverting
even the most glorious idea.
But fanaticism has a flip side which is no better. We recall the
words of the preacher in The Comedians who spoke of the
sin of indifference, lack of spirituality, or as Berdiaev put it,
"spiritual bourgeois-ness", that creates the obedient and dumb
herd of conformists, about which Pushkin wrote so angrily:
"Graze on, graze on, submissive nation!
You will not wake to honor's call.
Why offer herds their liberation?
For them are shears or slaughter stall."
Spiritless philistinism profanes all that is holy. It is Christianity's
true antagonist, and more of a threat to faith than tyrrany, indeed than
sincere atheism. Monsignor Quixote, prepared to pray for the peace of
Franco's and Stalin's souls, and finding in Marxsism wise thoughts,
loses self-control when he sees a blasphemous religious procession
carrying a statue of the Mother of God covered with bank notes. And
following the example of his predecessor knight, he confronts the battle.
As it turns out, "the spirit of concilliation", to turn a blind eye, is not
in his nature. Compassionate and meek as he is, during a decisive moment
he enters the struggle. He is not detained by the danger that people
will consider him,as they did Don Quixote, insane.
Along a narrow path then, between two precipices--blind fanaticism
and deathly indifference--the difficult path to dialogue is laid
out. It is a path of repentance and witness to one's faith in word
and deed. We, both Cristians and atheists, will understand one
another better if we work and carry out our human duty, while
remaining ourselves. Despite all the differences between our
world views , we have a common field for labor, as well as
common dangers. "Political and economic successes are historically
transient," said Alexander Yakovlev not so long ago in Kazan, "but
humanity is eternal, and its moral values, including its life,joys
and anxieties, hopes and disappointments, faith and doubt--in a
word everything that expresses the essence of human existence--
are intransient." I think that any Christian or believer can
subscribe to these words spoken by a communist of a new
formation.
While friendship with a priest did not make Sancho a Catholic, he
felt that there was formed between them an internal connection
which neither time nor death could destroy. Likewise, by no means
becoming a Marxist, Fr Quixote found in Sancho a true brother who
he believed "is not far from the Kingdom of Heaven". And the symbol
of this faith becomes the invisible chalice, from which the dying
descendant of Don Quixote administers communion to Sancho Panza's
descendant.
The spirit which permeates Greene's novel is emblematic of our stormy
and contradictory century, which is marked by not only violence and
cruelty, but by the passionate desire among people for peace and mutual
understanding. It is now,at the end of the twentieth century, that we
have to begin to think seriously about the direction in which the
exaggerated "image of an enemy" leads.
The history of war between faiths ,ideologies and systems has been
long and dark. But humanity increasingly perceives more clearly the
fact that in cultivating hatred(whether religious political or national)
it tears itself apart, and so begins to perceive that limit where the
spectre of apocalyptic catastrophe looms. It is for this reason that
the question of the relationship between the 'faiths'(to use Greene's
terminology)becomes unusually poignant. Can we, being so different,
live on the same planet? The Universe, Nature, and according to
Christians,Providence, have answered these questions by confronting
humanity with the terrible truth.
If we cannot, we shall surely perish.
Two Items (1) a short discussion of the necessity of dialogue
as a way of life and then opening that out
(2) the article "The difficult Path to Dialogue."
Fr Men had made a translation of Graham Greene's "The Power and the
Glory" which he regarded as one, with Cronin's "Keys to the Kingdom"
being the other, of two contemporary key images of the priesthood
and in considering Monsignor Quixote he considers a portrayal of
a priest but this time of dialogue ,with the character of the
Mayor Sancho who is a communist, of Christianity and Marxism
--and Marxism is pretty much gone now in the ashcan of history but--
more broadly of the faith and all others in the world and the need
for this dialogue for the world to endure. This is only a part,
though a very substantial and representative part, but I hope to
offer the whole as time permits.
(1)
Today's world crisis shows that there is no future for hostility,
or defensive isolationism, or eclecticism, but that dialogue can
be fruitful for all participants. The followers of the religions of
the world have something to say to mankind. Christianity brings the
gospels, its service, its love. Of course, it is not so easy to learn
tolerance and openness while remaining true to one's fundamental principles.
Christians, though, have never thought that spiritual life was an easy
matter, but rather an ascetic and heroic deed. The whole earth now needs
this deed. On the eve of the two thousandth anniversary of the foundation
of the Christian church, the world has reached a critical frontier. That
is why dialogue has become not a luxury for intellectuals but
a necessity of life.
---Alexander Men, "Christianity: The Universal Vision,"
in Christianity For the Twenty-First Century.
Ed. Elizabeth Roberts and Ann Shukman (New York: Continuum, 1996).
(2)
The Difficult Path to Dialogue
Trans: Steve Griffin
In Russian religious thought the problem of freedom has been one of
the most important. In particular it played a central role in the
works of Nicholas Berdiaev,whom we have yet to recognize and study.
Berdiaev demonstrated that in the Christian consciousness the idea of
freedom possesses a deeply spiritual character. That idea is not to
be reduced to social egalitarianism. Neither is one to identify
the Marxist hope for a kingdom of peace with the promise of Jesus
"You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free" or with
the words of the apostle Paul: "Brethren, you are called to freedom..."
Berdiaev in fact showed that Christian personalism does not regard
human personality as something isolated and self-sufficient. While
it is more than the sum of social relationships ,it can be
manifested and perfected only through social contact and interaction
with other personalities. In other words Christianity as a purely
religious faith encompasses in the final analysis the social
sphere as well. Upholding the value of the individual,it cannot
be indifferent to social injustice.
In truth, Fr Quixote,like many Christians, listened many times to the
rebuke tha tthe Church had done too little for the "suffering and
burdened" throughout its formal rule, but rather preferred to uphold
the powerful of this world. But this rebuke is not entirely just. The
ethical(and consequently social)ideals of the Gospel never became
dead relics, cut off from life and its burning social questions. Already
in the first centuries of Christianity the Church Fathers stood
against social evil. Basil the Great and Jerome of Stirdon regarded
oppression as sin,and referred to wealth as theft from the poor. The Church
Fathers also recognized the importance of rule of law. In his 'City of God'
St.Augustine wrote "In the absence of justice,what is sovereignty but
organized brigandage? what are bands of brigands but petty kingdoms?"
It is now acknowledged by all of us that the Church has not been
inactive in the social realm. She has served to extend charity, dreated
schools, hospitals and shelters, and has often surpassed secular
institutions in her influence on public morality. Without the influence
of Christian ethical principles it would be difficult to imagine not
only the humanism of Dostoevsky or Schweitzer, but even the Marxist
understanding of a just society. After all, the idea of justice is to
a great extent linked to the antithesis of good and evil, which
science does not know.
...It goes without saying that by far not all members of the Church have
measured up to their ethical ideal. In this, however, they have resembled
the followers of all other teachings. Mayor Sancho speaks with
indignation of the authoritarian despotism of Franco, who considered
himself a Catholic, and of the Inquisitor Torquemada and other dark
episodes in the history of Christianity. But the communist mayor
himself senses that in his debate with Quixote his arguments are weak.
One recalls, for instance, how he speaks of 'our poor Stalin'(the
responsiblity ofr such an epithet,as for the ill-considered words that
in Stalin's labor camps people "worked for the future of their people",
lays not with Greene, but with his hero).
Such a "skirimish" could be conducted endlessly, searching for yet another
example. In fact, if atheists enjoy remembering the tragic fate of Bruno
and Gallileo, then their opponents can respond that the lot of Vavilov,
Chayanov, and many others was no easier. In a word each side remains
unchanged and the only end in sight is a dead end.
There is,however,the hope that an alternative exisats. In search of
such an alternative one might recall a half-forgotten word--a word
which Tengiz Abuladze used to entitle his earthshaking film:Repentence!
Greene is aware of this word, and indeed summons one to it. It is as
thought he says that if the party which Lenin founded finds within
itself today the courage to speak openly of the crimes which darken its
past,then for Christians such a turn of events cannot serve as a reason
for malicious joy, but should prompt them to follow the example of
sincere communists, Christian repentance is,after all, not only for
the individual but for the whole Church.
It is true that we in the Orthodox world have had no inquisition. But
this is not to say that we have no need of moral reexamination or a
reassessment of our past. In the Christian East there has been
persecution of heterodox groups, illegitimate merging of religion
with politics,strict censorship, and alliance with forces of repression.
It suffices to recall the persecution of the Paulicinians and Bogomils
in Byzantium, the heretics of Old Russia, the reformers, Old Believers
and sectarians. Yes there were those burned at the stake, tortured,
imprisoned and exiled. All this truly occured, and was conducted under
the shelter of the great teachings of the Gospel, just as terrot in
France was undertaken with the charitable motto "Freedom,Equality,
and Brotherhood."
It is now acknowledged that intolerance and fanaticism(whether
religious or atheistic) are manifestations not so much of faith,
but of the lack of it. When a person doubts the truth of his
belief, or senses the precarious nature of his position, he is
often tempted to advance "might makes right" methods of proof to
convince himslef and to force others to be silent. Intolerance
is the sort of spiritual illness which is capable of perverting
even the most glorious idea.
But fanaticism has a flip side which is no better. We recall the
words of the preacher in The Comedians who spoke of the
sin of indifference, lack of spirituality, or as Berdiaev put it,
"spiritual bourgeois-ness", that creates the obedient and dumb
herd of conformists, about which Pushkin wrote so angrily:
"Graze on, graze on, submissive nation!
You will not wake to honor's call.
Why offer herds their liberation?
For them are shears or slaughter stall."
Spiritless philistinism profanes all that is holy. It is Christianity's
true antagonist, and more of a threat to faith than tyrrany, indeed than
sincere atheism. Monsignor Quixote, prepared to pray for the peace of
Franco's and Stalin's souls, and finding in Marxsism wise thoughts,
loses self-control when he sees a blasphemous religious procession
carrying a statue of the Mother of God covered with bank notes. And
following the example of his predecessor knight, he confronts the battle.
As it turns out, "the spirit of concilliation", to turn a blind eye, is not
in his nature. Compassionate and meek as he is, during a decisive moment
he enters the struggle. He is not detained by the danger that people
will consider him,as they did Don Quixote, insane.
Along a narrow path then, between two precipices--blind fanaticism
and deathly indifference--the difficult path to dialogue is laid
out. It is a path of repentance and witness to one's faith in word
and deed. We, both Cristians and atheists, will understand one
another better if we work and carry out our human duty, while
remaining ourselves. Despite all the differences between our
world views , we have a common field for labor, as well as
common dangers. "Political and economic successes are historically
transient," said Alexander Yakovlev not so long ago in Kazan, "but
humanity is eternal, and its moral values, including its life,joys
and anxieties, hopes and disappointments, faith and doubt--in a
word everything that expresses the essence of human existence--
are intransient." I think that any Christian or believer can
subscribe to these words spoken by a communist of a new
formation.
While friendship with a priest did not make Sancho a Catholic, he
felt that there was formed between them an internal connection
which neither time nor death could destroy. Likewise, by no means
becoming a Marxist, Fr Quixote found in Sancho a true brother who
he believed "is not far from the Kingdom of Heaven". And the symbol
of this faith becomes the invisible chalice, from which the dying
descendant of Don Quixote administers communion to Sancho Panza's
descendant.
The spirit which permeates Greene's novel is emblematic of our stormy
and contradictory century, which is marked by not only violence and
cruelty, but by the passionate desire among people for peace and mutual
understanding. It is now,at the end of the twentieth century, that we
have to begin to think seriously about the direction in which the
exaggerated "image of an enemy" leads.
The history of war between faiths ,ideologies and systems has been
long and dark. But humanity increasingly perceives more clearly the
fact that in cultivating hatred(whether religious political or national)
it tears itself apart, and so begins to perceive that limit where the
spectre of apocalyptic catastrophe looms. It is for this reason that
the question of the relationship between the 'faiths'(to use Greene's
terminology)becomes unusually poignant. Can we, being so different,
live on the same planet? The Universe, Nature, and according to
Christians,Providence, have answered these questions by confronting
humanity with the terrible truth.
If we cannot, we shall surely perish.
