Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Grant and Nietzsche-Heidegger: aus-einander-setzuni - Ron Dart

Grant and Nietzsche-Heidegger: aus-einander-setzung

I spend a great deal of life reading Heidegger. He is the greatest philosopher of the modern era… He is, of course, an ultimately modern philosopher & if I can summon the courage I would like to write an account of why his criticism of Plato is not true.

George Grant to Peter Self, 1987 

 

Ron Dart at Heidegger's hut

I  The Dilemma

I have had an interest in Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger for many a decade, and I have had the good fortune to spend time at Nietzsche’s home in Sils Maria in the Engadine Valley in Switzerland. I have also lingered at Heidegger’s Hut (where he brought some of his finer students) at Todtnauburg south of Freiburg (where Heidegger taught for many years) in Southern Germany. I have trekked most of the trails Nietzsche did in the mountains in the Engadine and sat where he had his epiphany of the “eternal recurrence of the identical”. I have rambled round the upland ridge above the Hut and walking path where Heidegger often walked with peers and students. I have done my best to read much of Nietzsche and Heidegger’s writings (most in English, some in German) and various commentaries on both men (given their boosters and knockers). I have also been fortunate to read most of George Grant’s published (and unpublished writers) in which he engages Nietzsche and Heidegger and ponders their appeal and limitations. This short article, for the most part, lights down on Grant’s read of Nietzsche and Heidegger and reflects why, by day’s end, he parted paths with them and viewed Plato (and Platonic Christianity) as a sounder waymark and pathfinder than Nietzsche and Heidegger’s read of Classical Greek philosophy, tragic literature and the meaning and ongoing significance of philosophy.    

Paul Young on Oprah re: Lies We Believe about God

The Stance of Fear, the Stance of Faith - by David J. Goa

15 July 2017

The Stance of Fear, the Stance of Faith

David J. Goa

Founding Director

Chester Ronning Center for the Study of Religion & Public Life

University of Alberta

An Open Letter to Christians Who Struggle to be Orthodox.

Earlier this year the monks of St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Monastery in Arizona published The Departure of the Soul According to the Teachings of the Orthodox Church. They flag it as a “patristic anthology” and amass an enormous amount of material to make a simple argument. Chapter seven is titled, “On the Falsifications, Misrepresentations, and Errors of Those Who Oppose the Teaching of the Orthodox Church” and provided a fore piece from Psalm 25:1, “Judge me, O Lord.” Archbishop Lazar Puhalo and Father Michael Azkoul, who have written extensively over many years are the subject of their “analysis.” They devote over a hundred pages to the examination of my friend Vladika Lazar’s writing on the subject in a work that numbers one thousand one hundred and eleven pages.  

            As I read what they had to say and the curious way they went about this enormous effort I was reminded of the long history of apologetics, both theological, philosophical and political in which arguments are carefully and cunningly constructed blind to the intend and purpose of those they are writing against. It is a temptation to address the details in their diatribe but it seems to me, a fruitless exercise inviting one into the Devil’s kitchen. A primary way the Tempter works is to turn us away from the intentions and spiritual purposes at work in those we judge as “our enemies”, turn them into a faceless symbol in which we can bury all our unresolved passions, our desire to judge and banish and extend our passion so it frames how we see the world and all of God’s creation, each human struggler and their challenges. When we do this we mount the high war-horse of self-declared righteousness and engage battles based on fear. 

            Vladika Lazar and I became friends over forty-year ago. We have nurtures our understanding and the depth of Orthodox thought, our understanding of the gifts of the liturgical life and the spiritual disciplines that help us “work out our salvation”, and the needful Word we are called to hear and speak in the life of God’s fragile and wounded world. Countless conversations are one of the treasures of my heart.

            When I read the Prophet Jeremiah and much though not all of the writings of Saint John Chrysostom I see how deeply concerned they were about the dangers lurking when the “Devil nests in the Church” and synagogue. They, like Vladika Lazar, love their liturgical families, grasped the gift of revelation bequeathed to them over the long span of the developing spiritual tradition and sought to call their community back to the centre of the “faith we have received from our fathers and mothers.” They knew in their bones the danger of reframing the faith through the prism of fear, just how cunning the Evil one uses our fear and our desire for purity and appetite for righteousness against the “least of these my little ones.” Like Jeremiah and Chrysostom a central pastoral concern has been at work in all that Vladika Lazar has written on this subject. He has sat with many in the midst of their grief at the loss of a loved one captured by the fear that the dearly departed is on a road of horror, a road governed and controlled by demons with “no one watching out for their soul.” Vladika has been to them like “a minor angel, the kind of angel who would descend with disarming apologies, and of who no sinner would ever be afraid.” He has brought them out of the precincts of fear into the fold of faith in the sure knowledge that the Lover of the World and the ministry of Jesus Christ forgives and cradles their loved one in the lap of divine grace.

            This year is the five hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther’s Reformation. The tipping point for Luther was the work of Johann Tetzel (d. 1591), a Dominican friar and preacher and grand Inquisitor and Grand Commissioner for indulgences in Germany. Tetzel combed the countryside playing on the fears of those who had lost loved ones and were in the grip of fear. He marketed spiritual terrorism. Fear blind to God’s grace trumped the faith proclaimed in the Gospel. Perhaps it is oddly fitting that the legacy of Tetzel should witness a rebirth in presumed Orthodox clothing at the hands of the monks of Saint Anthony’s monastery in the desert of Arizona for the quincententenary. I only wish they would change the name of their monastery since my old friend Saint Anthony resolved his struggles with demons and came to dwell in the grace of God and the kingdom of compassion which knows no end.   

Ron Dart - Contemplative Christianity & Classical Athenian Spirituality (Q&A w/ Brad Jersak)

Ron Dart - Contemplative Christianity and Classical Athenian Spirituality

 

Ron Dart - Q & A with Brad Jersak (see questions below video)

 

Brad's Questions:

1. The fallacy that Greek language and thought are abstractions (vis-a-vis contemplation integrated to ethical and political praxis).
2. The integration of Greek and Hebrew thought in Philo and the New Testament.
3. Misunderstandings about Greek thought applied to early church doctrine (contra the immutability of God's goodness and love).
4. Some great 20th century Christian Platonists (Charles Taylor, CS Lewis, George Grant, Simone Weil).
5. Progressivist Hegelian stumbles in Charles Taylor and Teilhard de Chardin.
6. Issues re: the Torrence brothers' critique of the Greeks.

 

Christian Explorations of Islam: 3 Reviews - by Ron Dart

Gordon Nickel, The Gentle Answer: To The Muslim Accusation of Biblical Falsification. Bruton Gate, Calgary, 2015.                                         

James A. Beverley & Craig Evans. Getting Jesus Right:  How Muslims Get Jesus and Islam Wrong. Castle Quay Books, Lagoon City, Ontario, 2015.

Mark Robert Anderson. The Qur’an in Context: A Christian Exploration. IVP Academic, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2016.                                   

Many significant issues must be substantively faced as we trek ever forward into the 21^st century and there can be no doubt that the issue of Islam is front and centre in such a pressing reality. The 1^st world in North America can no longer ignore such a historic fact.

Canada has a history of pondering the complex nature of Islam, and W.C. Smith (1916-2000), in the 1950s at McGill, was a pioneer in such an approach. I was fortunate, when doing my PHD at McMaster, that W.C. Smith often joined us for seminars classes. Andrew Rippin (1950-2016) was also one of the finest Canadian scholars of Islam. But, in the last couple of years, a few books have emerged from within the evangelical tribe that ponder the relationship between Christianity and Islam.

The Kingdom of God and the Problem of Patriotism — Andrew P. Klager

Canada Day is upon us once again, and this year it’s more noteworthy because we’ve hit a nice round number since confederation — 150 years. And because of this, the pressure to express our patriotism has ramped up proportionately. This is a problem — a problem for any Canadian, but especially for Christians who claim that “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20) rather than any earthly country whose artificial borders we dutifully protect with methods that are antithetical to the Sermon on the Mount.

And it makes sense that the author of this verse, St. Paul, wrote this since he deliberately defied the political jurisdiction of the Roman empire of which he was a citizen by preaching a gospel and rival King that had him arrested and beheaded (a fact that should also temper our reading of Romans 13).

That said, I’ll admit I cheer for Canadian athletes in the Olympics and team Canada at any IIHF tournament, I loved Canadian geography as a kid, I perk up when TV shows and movies mention Canada and point out when an actor or musician is Canadian, and I love the “feel” of Canada, its beauty and expansiveness and diversity and familiarity. It’s home.

But it’s the Canada from my own selective vantage point, and I lament that I get hung up on these superficial distractions. I resonate with perspectives that portray patriotism as a type of psychosis, an unhealthy attempt to fill a void, and an expression of Stockholm Syndrome on a grander scale.

And I’m not alone. Bertrand Russell defined patriotism as “a willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons” and observed, “Patriots always talk of dying for their country, and never of killing for their country.” Oscar Wilde thought that “Patriotism is the vice of nations,” and Albert Einstein scornfully remarked, “Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism — how passionately I hate them!” And for those who try in vain to differentiate patriotism from nationalism too much (despite a limited few honest distinctions), Einstein also commented, “I am against any nationalism, even in the guise of mere patriotism.”

This piece is therefore one part confession and one part working out this issue for myself. If you’re patriotic, don’t worry: I don’t think you’re an inherently bad person — just a bit misguided, even duped (nervously insert happy face emoji here).

There’s a sense that some Christians are first taught to be patriotic from a very early age before gaining the maturity and percipience needed to parse its theological implications, and then they desperately try to fit this square peg of the conventions of patriotism into the round hole of the radical demands of God’s kingdom. We’re the products of a false start; I get that.

But I also see some serious ramifications and important considerations for anyone who claims to follow the one who said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Mt. 20:20).

Click here to read the full article on the Huffington Post.

Reading the Psalms: Thomas Merton, CS Lewis & Bede Griffiths - Ron Dart

Reading the Psalms: Thomas Merton, C.S. Lewis and Bede Griffiths

I

Thomas Merton (1915-1968), C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) and Bede Griffiths (1906-1993) are, probably, three of the most significant Christian writers of the 20^th century. Lewis held Merton in high regard and Lewis- Griffiths had a decades long friendship. Merton thought Lewis was a superb writer and many were his affinities with Griffiths. Each of these men have their loyal followers and, sadly so, some of the disciples know little of how each of the men respected one another. Lewis was a lay Anglican, but he would have read the Psalms once a month as a result of living through Anglican Morning and Evening Prayers, whereas Griffiths and Merton were monks, hence each would have read the Psalms once a week in the Divine Offices. This means that each of the men was thoroughly acquainted with the Psalms and the dilemmas raised by their confessional nature.

The fact that Lewis, Griffiths and Merton meditatively internalized the Psalms meant that they had to, in their faith journey, ponder how to read the Psalter, some psalms being quite uplifting in their vision and description of the inner journey, others being quite graphic in their vindictive attitudes, some being quite noble in their political vision, others being quite warrior like and tribal. It was, therefore, in the reading of the Psalms, in a regular way, that Lewis, Griffiths and Merton, as they attempted to interpret and make sense of their faith journey, struggled with how to read the Psalms. It was in this inner pondering of faith experience of the various writers of the Psalms and Lewis’, Griffiths’ and Merton’s understanding of their Christian journey that, inevitably so, nudged each of the men to write a book on the Psalms.