Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Dostoevsky' Idiot and Holbein's Christ (2) - Brad Jersak

The theologia crucis of George Grant, John Oman and Dostoevsky by Brad Jersak

George Grant on Oman’s theologia crucis

George P. Grant’s PhD dissertation focused on John Oman. And Grant’s theology of the Cross actually bears many of the marks of Oman’s theologia crucis. Both men held the Cross as central to all Christian theology, that faith (not reason) is essential to one’s knowledge of God’s love and forgiveness, and that God’s providence must ultimately remain a mystery. Both believed redemption was accomplished—consummated¹—in Gethsemane and Golgotha. They believed that Christ is risen, but that Easter Sunday did not reverse a Good Friday defeat. The Resurrection was not a fulfillment, but a consequence of the Cross.² Sheila illustrates Oman’s lingering impact on Grant by comparing an analogy common to each.

Oman: “The theologia gloriae sees on the cross ‘the King in rags, who will soon tear off his disguise and show himself in triumph.”

Grant (1976 lectures at McMasters): “There is a ghastly way of speaking about the Resurrection in the modern world which I call the fairy-tale way. A prince is dressed in rags, and everybody scorns him. Suddenly the clothes are pulled off and he appears in his prince’s costume, and everybody treats him well.”³

But Grant also critiques Oman’s theology as insufficient—too simple, triumphant, and voluntaristic for moderns whose faith is shattered by despair. Oman’s vision is beautiful as far as it goes: Grant acknowledges Oman’s Cross as a prophetic revelation of the Father’s love, the Son’s forgiveness, and the call to “find joy in the world by the knowledge that all can be redeemed.”⁴ It also reveals God’s call to an ethic of forgiveness: “Oman’s faith is that Our Lord on the Cross reveals the Father as Love, Who demands from men that they take up their crosses in forgiveness. The Father’s Love and man’s freedom to partake of it are the essence of Christianity.”⁵ But something is missing. By resisting Oman, Grant tells us his own story—how this simplicity is marred by the reality of doubt and despair that comes with extreme affliction. 

To read the rest of this article:  Download Grant Oman Dostoevsky

Dostoevsky Idiot and Holbein's Christ (1) - Barbara Fister

On the Threshold of Representation: The Function of the Holbein Christ in The Idiot - Barbara Fister

            The Idiot is a novel which is frequently characterized as a flawed masterpiece, a grand experiment that doesn't quite come off.  Critics are often drawn by it, yet defeated by its perplexing central character, the "truly good man" Prince Myshkin, who is unable to bring his goodness to bear on society without disastrous results.  The Christ figure is a social misfit who ends his foray into society with a  retreat into idiocy, offering  no hope of resurrection.  His moments of transcendence seem only, to his witnesses, horrifying epileptic seizures; his attempts at redeeming the fallen only drive them into further depths. Why does Dostoevsky offer us a vision of a Christ that is not a redeemer but a failure?  It seems a calculated blow to our belief in goodness.  As Myshkin says of the painting of Christ in the tomb that is frequently referred to in the novel, it is an image that could make one lose one's faith.  I would like to focus on the play of images in the novel, particularly on the Holbein painting, and on its iconography, in order to gain some clues to understanding the Christ figure, Myshkin, and his place in The Idiot.  I plan to contrast that painting’s iconography with the traditions of the Russian icon and its approach to portraying the truly good, and finally to come to some conclusions about how Dostoevsky tries our faith and for what narrative purposes he does so.

To view the rest of this article, CLICK HERE

Good Friday - 1951 - by George Grant

Good Friday [1] 

O dearest word, the very Word indeed,

Breathes on our striving, for the cross is done;

All fate forgotten and from judgement freed,

Call Him then less - Who shows us this - Your Son?

Look it is here, at death, not three days later,

The love that binds the granite into being.

Here the sea's blueness finds its true creator,

His glance on Golgotha our sun for seeing.

Nor say the choice is ours, what choice is left?

Forgiveness shows God's Will most fully done.

There on the cross the myth of hell is cleft,

And the black garden blazes with the sun.

Hold close the crown of thorns, the scourge, the rod,

For in His sweat, full front, the face of God.

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[1] S. Grant, “Grant and the Theology of the Cross” (1996), 248 (citing United Church Observer 13.6 (15/05/1951): 16).

Erasmus and the Bible - Ron Dart

The Way of Jesus in the Beatitudes - by Vanessa Chamberlin

‘What if what you do to survive kills the things you love, fear’s a powerful thing…’

 (Devils & Dust, Bruce Springsteen)

The Maze

The ‘perennial popularity’ of the Sermon on the Mount, both within and beyond the Church, has ensured its subjection (particularly that of the beatitudes contained within it) to unparalleled variations of interpretation.[1]  One can lose their way in unresolved questions: To whom was Jesus primarily speaking, the disciples or the crowds?  Are His proclamations a radical break from tradition, or do they reveal the heart of the Torah?  Is Jesus proclaiming entry requirements for the Kingdom, or describing the true nature of one already in it?  Is this a blueprint for humanity, or is He just addressing ‘mature Christians’?   

The Guide

As a guide through this maze I have in front of me a painting I made by ‘mistake’ a few years ago.  It is of a woman, looking down and full of sorrow. 

For me, she manifests the first three beatitudes: she knows she is poor in spirit, mourns that state, and, therefore, can not help but be meek.  The remaining five then tumble in to place on the back of these: she knows she is empty, so she longs to be filled with that which truly satisfies, and it is this fullness, in turn, which empowers her to live a generous, merciful life, pure of heart, making peace and able to rejoice (or at least to know herself ‘blessed’) in persecution.[2]  Keeping the first three in mind at all times, she does not have recourse to self-congratulation for her behaviour, making these three ‘attitudinal’ beatitudes, for me, foundational (if only it were that easy!).  It is, however, the making of this image that interests me most.  I covered a page in black paint and then, with swift swipes of a small sponge, removed the paint until an image emerged.  As Springsteen says, we cover our selves in layers of protection in order to be ‘safe’: we need to be strong, rich, ‘happy’, satisfied, assertive and respected: in essence self-sufficient.  Yet, ironically, this self-sufficiency obscures, even destroys, the thing we value most: love.  Jesus’s beatitudes are like eight confident swipes with a sponge full of paint stripper: agony.  However, as we see the image emerge, we develop a hunger for more: more of the Real.  He says ‘whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it,’ (Matt 16:25) and it is in line with this consistent message of Jesus’s teaching that The Beatitudes must be read.

To read the rest of the article:  Download Chamberlin - The Beatitudes

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[1] Craig L. Blomberg, “The Most Often Abused Verses in the Sermon on the Mount: and How to Treat them Right.”  Southwestern Journal of Theology 46, No.3, (2004): 1-17, p.2.

 

[2] Most commentators (John Chrysostom, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Charles Price and John Stott to name four) agree that the ordering of the Beatitudes is significant.

Considering the Victim, Judges 19 and Drone Warfare - Bob Ekblad

 

On March 16 I gathered with 25 members of a delegation of Canadian and American Christians to bless the people of Mal Paso, Honduras—a village that Gracie and I have visited and cared for since 1983.  Honduras is currently considered the most violent country in the world—and Mal Paso’s recent history reflects the complexity and nature of much of violence wracking this impoverished country and our unique role.

Kingdom of God Parables in Matthew 13 - by Paul Green

Disruptive Kingdom

The question came directly after the shock that he had been supernaturally healed: “So how can heaven and earth be here together?” This was a great question coming from someone who had rejected religion but was willing to receive a quick prayer for back pain while waiting for a transatlantic flight. I explained that healing was to do with God and his kingdom breaking into our present reality. Fortunately he had seen movies about parallel realities such as ‘The Matrix’, ‘Avatar’ and ‘Minority Report’ so the idea quickly took root.

Probably Jesus would have used similar analogies if he were talking about the kingdom of heaven today. His themes reflected everyday life but the Jewish culture seemed unused to new concepts. To help, Jesus used parables to introduce his ‘disruptive kingdom’.

This phrase draws a contemporary analogy with ‘disruptive innovation’: taking what already exists but structuring something radical that changes both attitudes and the way we live.1 Technology examples might include: horse – car; cash – credit card; string – adhesive tape. The old version does not disappear but the new is transformational.2

So how does Jesus introduce his disruptive kingdom in Matthew chapter 13? 

To view the rest of this article:  Download Kingdom in Matt 13 Paul Green

Review of C. D. Marshall's 'Compassionate Justice' - by Wayne Northey

Book Review of Compassionate Justice: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue with Two Gospel Parables on Law, Crime, and Restorative Justice, Christopher D. Marshall, Eugene Oregon: Cascade Books, 2012.

At the first national teleconference in the United States on Restorative Justice (in 1991 I believe), a woman asked the panel about the Christian roots of Restorative Justice.  She was assured by a panelist that there were none, and no one on the panel said differently.  Christopher Marshall’s first book in this field, Beyond Retribution: A New Testament Vision for Justice, Crime and Punishment, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001, and The Spiritual Roots of Restorative Justice, New York: SUNY Press, 2001, published ten years later, demonstrated otherwise.  So does this second book by Marshall.

Christianity not only played the essential role in the development of the Western legal tradition (for good or for ill) as shown for instance in Harold Berman’s magisterial Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition,  Boston: Harvard University Press, 1983, Christianity centrally gave rise to the recent worldwide development of Restorative Justice programs and theory.

To read the rest of this review:  Download Book Review of Compassionate Justice

Blind Faith? (Mark 10:46-52) - Andy Shaw

BLIND FAITH? “YOUR FAITH HAS HEALED YOU” IN THE HEALING MINISTRY OF JESUS: THE STORY OF BLIND BARTIMAEUS (MARK 10:46-52).

Introduction

One of the key features of the ‘kingdom of God’ inaugurated by Jesus of Nazareth is the visible sign of victory over the forces of darkness in the form of physical healing. The gospel of Mark has 11 such healing stories, two of which include the enigmatic saying of Jesus: ‘Your faith has healed you’¹.

At face value, the story of Blind Bartimaeus is a simple healing story demonstrating Jesus’ compassion for the poor and oppressed. Closer inspection reveals a pericope loaded with historical, pastoral and theological significance leading many scholars to view it as a post-Easter invention articulating tenets of Early Church dogma. Bultmann² saw its ‘novelistic’ quality leading to this conclusion and modern authors such as Joel Marcus read into it an early baptismal rite played out in dramatic fashion³. 

So read the rest of this article, click:  Download Your Faith Has Healed You

The Reign of God in the Parables - Martin Little

The Reign of God in the Parables of Matthew 13

‘What shall we look for and what shall we see?’ asked Frodo, filled with awe.

‘Many things I can command the mirror to reveal’, she answered, ‘and to some I can show what they desire to see.  But the Mirror will also show things unbidden, and these are often stranger and more profitable than things which we wish to behold.  What you will see, if you leave the Mirror free to work, I cannot tell.  For it shows things that were, and things that are, and things that yet may be.  But which it is that he sees, even the wisest cannot always tell.  Do you wish to look?’[1]

Interpreting the ‘kingdom’ parables of Jesus can feel like peering into Galadriel’s mirror.  Do we project onto them our own conception of the kingdom of God/heaven, seeing merely ‘what we desire to see’?  What timeframe can we discern - do we see past, present, future or something else?  This essay is one look into the mirror.  It hopes to suggest some unbidden-yet-profitable insights into Jesus’ message of the kingdom and our response to it.

To read the rest of this article, click here: Download

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[1] J.R.R. Tolkein, The Fellowship of the Ring, (London: Grafton, 1990), 469.

Erasmus and the Oxford Reformers - by Ron Dart

Pope Francis - Lenten Letter (as Cardinal Bergoglio)

Cdl. Bergoglio's Lenten Letter, 2013

And rend your hearts, and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, patient and rich in mercy, and ready to repent of the evil. (Joel 2:13)

Little by little we become accustomed to hearing and seeing, through the mass media, the dark chronicle of contemporary society, presented with an almost perverse elation, and also we become [desensitized] to touching it and feeling it all around us [even] in our own flesh.  Drama plays out on the streets, in our neighborhoods, in our homes and -- why not? -- even in our own hearts.  We live alongside a violence that kills, that destroys families, that enlivens wars and conflicts in so many countries of the world.  We live with envy, hatred, slander, the mundane in our heart.

The suffering of the innocent and peaceable buffets us nonstop; the contempt for the rights of the most fragile of people and nations is not so distant from us; the tyrannical rule of money with its demonic effects, such as drugs, corruption, trafficking in people -- even children -- along with misery, both material and moral, are the coin of the realm [today].  The destruction of dignified work, painful emigrations and the lack of a future also join in this [tragic] symphony.  

Meeting Christ in Abu Ghraib - Joshua Casteel

Hindsight as Foresight - by Henry Smidstra

Last Summer Grace and I took a leisurely road trip through the western United States heading up through the New England coast to the Maritimes, returning through Quebec and Ontario. We enjoyed wonderful weather for sightseeing, taking as many secondary roads as possible soaking up the scenery and local sights. Both of us being interested in history, stopped at many historical markers along the way and were conscious of the fact that beneath the modern road surfaces lay the trails and road beds on which many had traveled before, journeys representing hopes, dreams, and fantasies, as well as trails of heartbreak, tears, and the trauma of death or conquest in war.  We followed in the footsteps of prospectors in quest of gold; in the tracks of settlers in search of land. We crossed the trail of the Nez Pierce men women and children, being chased through Yellowstone Park by “machine” gun wielding US army soldiers. We stopped at the hill where Custer made his last stand, and at Wounded Knee where hundreds of mostly defeated and defenceless aboriginal families were massacred by US army guns in the freezing cold on December 31st 1890. Even at the venerated rock at Plymouth Massachusetts there were historical markers, reminders of broken promises and of King Phillip’s war. Here too exploitation and injustice by settlers from England had occurred; wrongs done to the original inhabitants of the land.

Simone Weil: Awaiting God -- Review by Ron Dart

Simone Weil: Awaiting God (Freshwind Press: 2013), Intro. by Sylvie Weil, Trans. by Bradley Jersak

There are many thoughtful thinkers who hold Simone Weil as high as the Holy Eucharist. There are others who think Weil lost her way in a distorted notion of inner and outer asceticism. Then there are those who truly take the time to heed and hear Weil, to welcome her probes into the depths of the soul, who weigh, in a judicious manner Weil’s insights and aberrations. Simone Weil: Awaiting God brings together some classical essays and letters by Weil, and a thoughtful and probing essay by Weil’s niece, Sylvie Weil. Brad Jersak’s Preface is more than worth the read as is his creative translations.

Most who read Simone Weil know little about her living niece, Sylvie Weil, but Sylvie Weil’s evocative and probing missive, At Home with Andre and Simone Weil (2010), brings into thoughtful dialogue fruitful and engaging reflections (with some surprising speculations) by Sylvie about her controversial aunt. Sylvie neither idealizes nor demonizes Simone Weil, but she does question some of her aunt’s dubious conclusions on a variety of topics. The article in Awaiting God by Sylvie Weil, “Simone Weil and the Rabbis: Compassion and Tzedakah”, is pure gold-----Sylvie certainly held her own against her demanding aunt in her many probes into the depths of the Jewish Tradition.

I mentioned above that Brad Jersak had done some innovative translations of Weil in the best tradition of dynamic equivalence. The essays Brad chose are quintessential Weil, and Weil’s Waiting for God was the well the essays were drawn from. The letters Brad has used reflect the unrelenting nature of Weil’s quest and the tough questions she insists on asking and pushing to their limits. The letters were from 1942 (when Weil was nearing the end of her life) and the final letter, “Letter to a Priest” is a must read keeper. 

Simone Weil: Awaiting for God is a plough to soil book. Weil did have her limitations, but the good she offered should be gratefully received by one and all. T.S. Eliot wrote a fine Preface to Simone Weil’s The Need for Roots, and, in many ways, Eliot was a broader, deeper and subtler thinker than Weil, but he knew the makings of saint when he saw one, hence his generous Preface.

There can be no doubt Brad has been deeply impacted by Simone Weil, and his interactions with Sylvie Weil have enriched his understanding of Simone Weil. Simone Weil: Awaiting God is a book about what it means to be still, to await, to be receptive at a level few dare go. It is to such awaiting places that Weil points and the curious cannot help but travel.

Ron Dart

The Virtual Papacy Of Benedict XVI by Tony Bartlett

The Virtual Papacy Of Benedict XVI

I know I seem like a dog with a bone, but I really have to go back to this. It's still big news, and at the end of my last post I included a link which had some fascinating content and I didn't have the chance to follow it further.

It was Benedict XVI's farewell address to the clergy of the Roman diocese. The audience took place in the middle of February and was noteworthy both for its elegaic tone and for a case of straightforward scapegoating of the media.

The pope gave personal reminiscences of the preparations and work of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), when "We were full of hope, enthusiasm and also of good will." He recalled the development of the various doctrinal statements. He concluded by drawing the following distinction. "There was the Council of the Fathers - the true Council - but there was also the Council of the media... And we know that this Council of the media was accessible to all. So, dominant, more efficient, this Council created many calamities, so many problems, so much misery, in reality: seminaries closed, convents closed liturgy trivialized ... and the true Council has struggled to materialize, to be realized: the virtual Council was stronger than the real Council." (my italics)

Come on now, could the pope really read my book and not honestly cite it! This distinction repeats precisely the central idea I developed in Virtually Christian: the existence of virtual Christianity in popular culture outside the official institutions. Only the pope saw as negative what I saw as positive!

New Books on George Grant and Red Toryism

These new publications on George Grant and Red Toryism are now available in paperback and kindle. They include essays in political theology, political science and philosophy, exploring Grant's engagement with Nietzsche, Heidegger, Weil and much more.

RED TORY, RED VIRGIN: ESSAYS ON SIMONE WEIL AND GEORGE GRANT by BRAD JERSAK

Simone Weil and George P. Grant were among the 20th century's top political theologians. Weil, a philosopher-activist-mystic from France, was the Christian mystic who refused to join the Church but nevertheless, influenced the Vatican II popes with her radical openness. George Grant, one of Canada's top three thinkers, once said that next to the four Gospels, Weil was his highest authority. This book is a series of essays in political theology, exploring some of their key themes and how their work inter-relates. This book explores in depth, for the first time, how their 'theology of consent' informs their political philosophy and a public ethic of the Cross.

Table of Contents Preface / 1 Part 1 – SIMONE WEIL: RED VIRGIN 1. Simone Weil: George Grant’s Diotima / 5 2. Stages of Weil’s Mystical Ascent / 19 3. Competing Conceptions of God in Biblical Religion / 49 Part 2 – GEORGE GRANT: RED TORY 4. Grant and the Matrix: Complex of Ideologies / 71 5. Grant and the Matrix: Dialogue Partners / 75 6. Finding His Voice: Conversion to Lament / 83 Part 3 – DIVINE CONSENT 7. Wrath and Love as Divine Consent / 109 Abbreviations / 123 Bibliography of Sources Consulted / 127

GEORGE P. GRANT: MINERVA'S SNOWY OWL by Brad Jersak

George P. Grant (1918-88) was one of Canada's premier political philosophers and stands as the benchmark for the Red Tory Tradition. He can also be credited with introducing the thought of Nietzsche, Heidegger and Simone Weil to Canada, critically analyzing their work seriously for the first time. Grant's Red Toryism has been revived and modified in the UK, but for a look at the essential thought of its chief architect, this book is a must read. Included in this work are essays in political theology, along with previously unpublished letters and classnotes that are critical to an understanding of Grant's 'primacy of the Good' vis-a-vis the 'primacy of freedom-as-mastery.' Especially important is the analysis of his theological relationship to Simone Weil and an appropriation of his work to rise above the culture wars of left and right.

Table of Contents Preface / 1 Part 1 – CONVERSION 1. George Grant’s Conversion Accounts / 5 2. Simone Weil’s Encounter with Christ in Marseilles / 13 3. Grant’s McMaster Sermon / 17 Part 2 – THE RISE OF MODERNITY 4. Sprouts of Modernity in Medieval Theology / 23 5. Blooms of Modernity in the Reformation and Calvinist Puritanism / 37 6. The Autonomous Subject: Knowing as Willing in Descartes, Bacon and Kant / 49 Part 3 – MYSTICAL EPISTEMOLOGY 7. Etymology of Nous / 65 8. Heidegger’s Eckart / 81 9. Weil’s Mystical Ascent / 85 Part 4 – GRANTEAN THEOLOGY 10. God the All-Powerful, All-Powerless / 111 11. Consent as Coercion / 123 Part 5 – GRANTEAN JUSTICE 12. Grant’s Rhetorical Method / 131 13. Christ at the Checkpoint / 141 Part 6 – PRIMARY SOURCES 14. Previously Unpublished Letters and Journal Entries / 151 15. Reading Simone Weil: Unpublished Excerpt / 199 16. Dalhousie Classnotes on Plato / 201 17. Robin Mathews: The Wave of the Future / 211 18. Grant’s References to Martin Luther’s Thesis 21 / 213 APPENDICES 19. Grant’s Readings in Weil: French and English / 219 20. Beyond Dualism: Correspondence with Radical Orthodoxy / 221 Abbreviations / 227 Bibliography of Sources Consulted / 231

 

Simone Weil's 'Awaiting God' - Now available in paperback

At long last, the hard copy of my Brad Jersak's new translation of Simone Weil's 'Awaiting God' is now available for purchase at the following link: https://www.createspace.com/4183960
On that page there is also a description. Why get the book?

1. Sylvie Weil (Simone's niece) has included a 13-page introductory essay entitled 'Simone Weil and the Rabbis: Compassion and Tsedekah.' 

2. It's the best primer available for those who want to start reading Weil, in that it combines her famous 'Waiting for God' with her 'Letter to a Priest' in a single, freshly translated volume.

Endorsement

There are those who hold Simone Weil as high, almost, as the Holy Eucharist.
There are others who place Weil, almost, in Hades.
Then, there are those who sift wheat from chaff in the life and writings of
Simone Weil -- such is the judicious approach of Brad
Jersak's Simone Weil: Awaiting God. The Introduction by Sylvie Weil
(Simone's niece) adds a tender touch, also.

Ron Dart
Department of Political Studies/Philosophy/Religious Studies
University of the Fraser Valley
Abbotsford BC