Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Lauren Southern and Cloistered Virtues - Ron Dart

I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but  slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat

John Milton
Areopagitica

We are living (nothing new about this) in the midst of yet another series of intense culture wars. The liberal progressives have their Sanhedrin and ruling ideology that brooks little or no opposition. Much of this tribe holds the reins of power at universities, culture, media and political parties of the center-left. This liberal Orthodoxy has a certain way of interpreting history and contemporary events that reflect the ideological premises of liberalism. The conservative clan is often seen as the polar opposite of the liberal tribe and many of the hot button issues in the cultures are held high by them, such a clan, cannon loaded, firing multiple shots across the liberal bow. Needless to say, such opposite positions on virtually most issues can be confusing for those seeking some sort of compass to guide them in the heat of the culture wars, slinking out of the race an indulgent and narcissistic pose and posture—it takes deep courage to remain in the fray when the dust and heat overwhelm the soul, mind and imagination. The treatment of Jordan Peterson, in the last few years, illuminates, in utmost clarity, the nature of the culture wars and treatment of those who go into the lion’s den of liberal orthodoxy—Sanhedrin can be quite vicious, heresy and heterodoxy still very much alive.

There are those who uncritically bend the knee to the progressive left just as there are many who uncritically genuflect to the conservative right. There are many who begin on the left, see the dilemmas of it and turn to the right. There are others who begin on the conservative right, then turn left. Such transitions often still reflect the need to belong to a tribe with some sort of certainty but the content simply shifts even though the need for certainty does not.  William Wordsworth, as a young man, idealized the French Revolution only to distance himself from it when he saw the once oppressed oppressing others (left going right). Martin Buber, when young, for a short period of time, joined Theodore Herzl in his Zionist ideology (right going left) only to part paths with him when he realized powerlessness once attaining power creates other victims. St. Paul, once an aggressive persecutor of Christians, changed his mind and came to see things differently (persecutor becoming persecuted). Wordsworth, Buber and St. Paul once took positions that they came to see as questionable and grew into deeper, more nuanced and thoughtful ways of approaching complex human reality (both the inner and outer life)

Lauren Southern has been on quite a public political journey for the last five years. I have journeyed with her on some parts of such a pilgrimage. The fact that universities, media, higher culture and center-left political parties embody and reflect (often quite uncritically) a programmed ideological agenda that often silences legitimate questions or opposition (and many come to see this) means that, in reaction, many turn to an idealized version of the political right. Jordan Peterson, for example, reflects a perspective that dares to critique liberal orthodoxy (and is caricatured and dismissed regularly and routinely for doing so). This does not mean he is an uncritical fan of the ideological right (alt-new or lite right).  Lauren Southern, in the last five years, has certainly been on the front stage as a significant activist of the far-right and she has seen it for what it is in a way few have or ever will see. The cloistered virtues of those who retreat from the fray or into ideological tribes (of the right or left) were, for a time, Lauren’s temptation and addiction of sorts (Lauren’s bent more to the right). But, like Wordsworth, Buber, and St. Paul (I could mention many others) Lauren has come to see the human journey is more complex than formulas, clichés and slogans that distort reality and reduce political positions to homogenous and sanitized comic book versions of life in which either-or melodramas dominate rather than thoughtful and meaningful human dialogue.

The recent release of Lauren’s “Why I Left, Why I’m Back” sums up, in less than 20 minutes, her reasons for leaving her right of centre commitments and her feeling her way forward to the next step of the journey. The fact Lauren has been much more public than most (certainly no cloistered virtue now of right, retreat or left) means, with this recent video, the progressives are out for her head again and the right feels betrayed by her. But, thoughtful people (unlike brittle ideologues) see and in their deeper seeing, change their minds and in changing their minds, bring greater light and less heat to our culture wars. Do watch this video by Lauren and post reflective comments.

amor vincit omnia

Ron Dart              

Robyn Wrigley-Carr’s "The Spiritual Formation of Evelyn Underhill" – Review by Ron Dart

He footed it well and she answered him handsomely

—Bunyan

Much significant work has been done on the life and prolific writing of Evelyn Underhill (certainly one of the most significant writers on the mystical life in the first half of the 20^thcentury), but the research done on the impact of Baron von Hugel on Underhill has tended to be leaner, thinner and less developed. The sheer beauty and brilliance of this recent book by Robyn on Underhill is the way the close and symbiotic relationship between von Hugel and Underhill is carefully and thoughtfully tracked and traced. The fact that Eugene Peterson wrote a rather lengthy “Foreword” to the book, carefully noting his significant indebtedness to von Hugel, should alert the curious and interested in learning more about von Hugel: both Underhill and Peterson (and many others mentored into greater depths of the faith journey by this multilayered director of sorts).

Robyn, to her well-researched credit (her PhD done on von Hugel), does a chapter by chapter round dance between von Hugel and Underhill, photos of both of them, like welcoming portals, inviting us to see and hear them. This compact and rewarding read of a book is divided into six enticing sections (I read the bounty in two days—hard to turn away from it).  As mentioned above, Eugene Peterson did the incisive “Foreword.” Once done, the plane leaves the tarmac.

1) “Introducing the Baron” makes for a pleasant overview of his engaged and careful life, a life that modeled a broad and truly catholic vision and vocation.

2) “Introducing Evelyn Underhill” answers chapter one handsomely, von Hugel having footed it well in the previous chapter. Those with some background in Underhill’s pilgrimage through time will find this a lovely refresher chapter and those new to Underhill a fine primer.

3) “The Baron’s spiritual formation of Evelyn Underhill” brings the two dancers together, the nature of the eternal dance and steps to be learned and revealed well and wisely.

4) “Motherhood of souls: Evelyn the spiritual director” ponders how Underhill picked up the torch offered her by von Hugel and rethought and restated much of his insights in a more accessible way and manner, Underhill no uncritical devotee of von Hugel, the best of him internalized by Underhill as a mother of souls.

5) “Motherhood of souls: Evelyn the retreat director” moves the discussion from Underhill as a prolific writer on mysticism and directee of von Hugel to the practical and regular giving of retreats by Underhill (something von Hugel never did). The finale or “Afterword” to The Spiritual Formation of Evelyn Underhill brings together (dance steps learned well and wisely) the way Von Hugel, Underhill and Peterson have formed, in many ways, Robyn’s emerging vocation and charism, a variety of passages from Peterson’s books and emails to Robyn from Peterson included to end the book, Robyn being a student of Peterson when she studied at Regent College in the days when Peterson was there. I might also add the copious “Notes” and “References” make this a book worth many a meditative read and inward digesting.

It might have been interesting to ponder, given the years that von Hugel (1852-1925) and Underhill (1875-1941) were alive and active in the English context, how they understood the catholic relationship between contemplation, church, ecclesial ecumenism and substantive public and political issues that Anglican Divines such as F.D. Maurice, Charles Gore, Percy Dearmer and Conrad Noel embodied. I might add that there is a brief but touching correspondence between Underhill and C.S. Lewis, initiated by Underhill in her waning years before Lewis had waxed.

I have been fond of Evelyn Underhill for many decades and read Baron von Hugel also, but this is the best book to date that threads together, in a well-woven tapestry, the impact of von Hugel on Underhill and the way Underhill internalized the best of von Hugel and passed the gift and torch on to others, including C.S. Lewis, Eugene Peterson and Robyn Wrigley-Carr—many thanks to Robyn for such a charmer of a book.

Perhaps a fitting adieu to the review might best be summed by Bob Cratchit’s response to the fine feast his wife prepared for the family Christmas dinner:  “A triumph, my dear, another triumph.”

Ron Dart                            

The Bells of Banff

Gordon Nickel's "The Quran with Christian Commentary" - Review by Ron Dart

The Quran with Christian Commentary: 
A Guide to Understanding The Scripture of Islam
Zondervan Academic, 2020
Gordon D. Nickel

There has been centuries-long engagement between Christianity and Islam, and there have been many ways of both belief-faith traditions doing their best to make sense of one another. There has been the “conflict tradition” in which differences are held high and discord dominates. There has been the “dialogical tradition”, so near and dear to interfaith types, in which some form of unity and concord is the ideological bent (neither side wanting to offend one another in an era and ethos of pluralism). The approach to both traditions can be to focus on the founders or the history of these heritages (and a comparison and contrast between them). There are those on the political right who mostly see Islam as a religion of violence and terrorism. There are those on the progressive left that only seem to see the moderate and peaceful side of Islam. Needless to say, both tribes go cherry-picking with the facts they chose to bring forth as evidence. There is, also, an approach that compares and contrasts the two sacred texts (Bible and Quran). It is this approach that is used by Gordon Nickel in The Quran with Christian Commentary.

The study of the Quran, like a study of the Bible, can be done in two ways: uncritically devotional or textually critical. The textually critical (the Christian Tradition has lived with this approach for a few centuries) can lead to a dismissal of the text as interesting yet irrelevant or illuminate how the text can be read in a more informed and nuanced manner. The devotional approach is often quite uncritical (and when legitimate questions are asked, the questioner is seen as the problem).

Gordon Nickel (who has spent much of his mature life studying both the Quran and Islamic history with some of the best scholars in the world) brings to his study of Islam and the Quran both an appreciative yet critical reading of the 114 Suras. There is a tendency, by Christians, to either focus on the negative verses-suras in the Quran or, as some Muslims and Christians do, ignore and subordinate such verses-suras through the use of “abrogation”. Nickel’s, to his thoughtful and informed credit, walks a judicious middle way, between textual demonization and devotional hagiography. The close reading of the 114 suras (with many thoughtful comments and reflections) highlights contentious texts within the Quran (that Muslims grapple with and attempt to interpret and apply) and those suras-verses in the Quran which seem to deliberately misread and misinterpret both the Jewish and Christian sacred texts. The fact that Nickel’s consciously examines and probes both dilemmas makes The Quran with Christian Commentary a tome worthy of many a meditative and challenging read.

It is only in the last few decades that North America has had to deal with Islam. Most in North America have virtually no understanding of the origins of Islam, the Quran, Islamic history and the diverse forms of Islam in the world today. The fact that Islam is the 2^nd largest religion in the world has a significant presence in the world (increasingly so in North America) means that deliberate ignorance of both the Quran and Islam is a sort of cloistered virtue, a putting of the head into the sand, an ignoring of a growing cultural reality that will continue to be a pressing issue ever more so as we move forward into the future. The fact the Quran is the foundation and authoritative text for Muslims means that any minimal engagement with Muslims means a thoughtful read of the text is imperative. Gordon Nickel has provided both such a text (using the translation by A.J. Droge) and, more importantly, his multiple reflections and commentaries are pure gold. Gordon, as any good thinker should, walks the judicious middle way between a negative approach to the text or a devotional one—the attempt is to truly understand what the Quran is saying and, at times, ask critical questions about what is said (and the implications of it).

The Bibliography at the beginning of this almost 700-page tome is more than worthy of note and significance. Those who are serious and seek to mature in a thoughtful Christian and Jewish engagement with Islam and the Quran will find some of the finest books offered to them in the Bibliography. I might add that Gordon has published a variety of articles and books on Islam, his most recent books being The Gentle Answer to the Muslim Accusation of Biblical Falsification (2015) and Narratives of Tampering in the Earliest Commentaries on the Qur’an (2011). I might add, by way of conclusion, I have had Gordon speak in some of my classes in lower-upper levels of Islam (often more Muslims than any others in the classes). Gordon’s lectures, insights and answers to Muslim queries went step for step with many of the objections of Muslims from both Sunni and Shia backgrounds (none of the students knowing Classical Arabic and the Quran in the depth and detail Gordon did).

There can be no doubt that The Quran with Christian Commentary is a sura by sura thoughtful portal into facing the text and possible interpretations of it. Such an approach is both willing to face the difficult passages but do so in a gentle yet honest and responsible manner. This is a book one and all should have as a mentor of sorts into Quranic studies. If Gordon’s approach were followed, a more meaningful encounter between Christians and Muslims would shape the future dialogue.

Ron Dart          

Our “Spiritual War-Work” in the Age of COVID-19 - Robyn Wrigley-Carr

1st published in "Stimulus"

During World War 2, the British, Anglican, mystical theologian and spiritual director, Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), encouraged a small “Prayer Group” to pray for world leaders, calling it their “spiritual war-work.”[1]

Our current pandemic has often been referred to as a “war,” yet a battle against an invisible enemy that is somehow uniting us all in our common humanity—regardless of nationality, race, gender or sexuality. The language of “war” when referring to COVID-19, has caused me to reflect upon Underhill’s insights—written during our last world war—as a challenge to our Christian response to this current global health crisis.

During World War 1, Underhill contributed to the war effort through writing and translating guide-books for Naval Intelligence. But towards the end of that war, Underhill (in her words) “went to pieces.”[2] The reality of war with the death of two close cousins on the front was too much for her abstracted mysticism. By 1919, Underhill sought the spiritual nurture of Baron Friedrich von Hügel (1852-1925). Underhill tells us that “somehow by his [von Hügel’s] prayers or something,” he “compelled” her to “experience Christ … it was like watching the sun rise very slowly – and then suddenly one knew what it was.”[3] Thereafter, Underhill’s writings became Christocentric and Trinitarian, focusing upon the “spiritual life” and our response to the triune God as the Church.

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Myth, Modernity & Mr. Peterson - Mark Bauerlein with Ron Dart

The latest installment in an ongoing interview series with contributing editor Mark Bauerlein. On this episode, Ron Dart, editor of the recent volume Myth and Meaning in Jordan Peterson, discusses Peterson’s work from a Christian perspective.

 

Ron Dart's (ed.) "Myth and Meaning in Jordan Peterson: A Christian Perspective" - Review by Brad Jersak

Reflective Review of Ron Dart (ed.), Myth and Meaning in Jordan Peterson: A Christian Perspective (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2020), 210 pages.

It may well be that the tide of Dr. Jordan Peterson’s rise as a social phenomenon has crested and begun its wane. After a long career as an academic and therapist, we witnessed this fascinating Canadian become a major media celebrity-villain, uber-selling author, and then recede into treatment to overcome his dependency on prescription medication. While his opponents might wish him the worst, the man is an expert on improving resiliency, so I wouldn’t plan for his exit prematurely.

The truth is, Jordan Peterson is more than a polarizing influence: he’s a living Rorschach test. I learn almost nothing about him by reading his fans or opponents. But I can certainly infer a fair deal about them. And frankly, it got old. One couldn’t even mention him on social media without a firestorm of devolving shitfits. How’s that for a mixed metaphor? Having actually read the man’s books and listened to his lectures, I would argue that Peterson says almost nothing that validates his alt-right sycophants or arms his far-left critics. He did, however, serve to hold the mirror up to fascist groupthink on both ends of left-right spectrum ideology. And, well … yawn.

While his recovery and the pandemic give us a breather from the hyperbolic blowhards, it’s a treat to read a calm and scholarly work that reflects on Peterson’s real thought. Ron Dart has edited a fresh collection of essays titled Myth and Meaning in Jordan Peterson. Ten clear-minded assessments without a hint of slather or anxious body odor.

At the same time, the peace isn’t boring. I’m very intrigued by what Christians make of Peterson’s elusive faith and his non-denial denials thereof. Unlike C.S. Lewis or Tolkien, there’s no chance that the Evangelical tribe will be able to project themselves onto his thought to co-opt him for their agendas. Yet ironically, who else has reinvigorated interest in the Bible and tempted millennials to re-examine faith in Canada more than Jordan Peterson? Ex-church agnostics were filling large halls to hear him ramble on about archetypes in the Book of Genesis for endless hours. Now that was newsworthy. I’ll say it: for good or ill, Jordan Peterson has been, by far, the most effective evangelist in our nation for many decades. A striking accomplishment for someone who is self-consciously agnostic and heterodox. But that’s part of the appeal, no?    

Back to the book. I may as well drop the table of contents here:

Contents

    “Introduction” by Ron Dart

1. “Jordan Peterson and the Chaos of Our Secular Age” by Bruce Ashford
   
   
2. “Jordan Peterson the Counter-Revolutionary: Marxism, Postmodern Neo-Marxism, and Suffering” by Hunter Baker
   
   
3. “Language and Freedom: Jordan Peterson as Champion of Free Speech (and Freedom from Compelled Speech)” by Alastair Roberts
   
   
4. “Myth, Memoricide, and Jordan Peterson” by Ron Dart
   
   
5. “Archetypes, Symbols, and Allegorical Exegesis: Jordan Peterson’s Turn to the Bible in Context” by T. S. Wilson
   
   
6. “Jordan Peterson’s Genesis Lectures: Interpreting the Bible between Rationalism and Nihilism” by Laurence Brown
   
   
7. “The Image of Christ: Jordan Peterson as Humanist” by Esther O’Reilly
   
   
8. “Professor Peterson, Professor Peterson: What Is Your View on … Science and Religion?” by Esgrid Sikahall
   
   
9. “A Kierkegaardian Reading of Jordan Peterson” by Stephen M. Dunning
   
   
10. “Being and Meaning: Jordan Peterson’s Antidote to Evil” by Matthew Steem and Joy Steem

Myth and Meaning is well-written, thoughtful, and transcends the tired rhetoric, propaganda, hagiography, and misinformation that’s made “the historical Peterson” harder to locate. Each of the authors approaches their topic from within their own wheelhouse and applies their expertise to coolly interpreting a facet of his thought where they may be as competent or more so than he is. I found the book charitable and “true” if there’s such a thing in our age. I mean that its affirmations and critiques, whether accurate or mistaken, were consistently thoughtful and, more importantly for Peterson, in good faith. He deserves at least that. Everyone does.

I won’t annotate each chapter, but I would like to express enthusiastic kudos to Ron Dart for orchestrating this impressive ensemble. And I especially want to laud T.S. Wilson’s work in his chapter on “Archetypes, Symbols, and Exegesis.” It outshone the essay I had hoped to contribute on “Peterson’s Affinities to Patristic Interpretation.” Ron had kindly invited me to the table at a time when I knew I was unable to pull together something worthy of the volume. But I’m gratified that Wilson far exceeded the very best I could have offered. Well done, Taylor!

The secondary literature on Peterson is already expanding exponentially and will no doubt continue to grow. But unless readers are planning to accumulate a large collection, for my money, Dart et al’s Myth and Meaning in Jordan Peterson would be my go-to first recommendation.        

Ron Dart - A Christian Perspective on Jordan Peterson (with Chase Replogle)

Via PASTORWRITER.com

Chase Replogle interviews Ron Dart about Myth and Meaning in Jordan Peterson:

https://pastorwriter.com/episode/ron-dart/

Ron Dart teaches in the Department of Political Science, Philosophy, and Religious Studies at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia. He has authored or coauthored thirty-five books that deal with the interface between literature, spirituality, and politics, including The North American High Tory Tradition and Christianity and Pluralism.

He joined me today to talk about a recently released book for which he served as editor and contributor. The books is Myth and Meaning in Jordan Peterson: A Christian Perspective.

Ron Dart, Jordan Peterson, Roger Scruton & Paul VanderKlay: Nuances within Conservativism

"Myth & Meaning in Jordan Peterson" - Ron Dart

COVID-19 & the USA - Ron Dart

COVID 19 has spread with much rapidity from China through countries in Europe (Italy, Spain, France, UK, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany being ravaged the most) to the USA. But, in the recent posting by Worldometer, the USA has now passed, in deaths, the most tragic places in Europe. 

 

The deaths in the USA  are now nearing 21,000.

Why do you think the USA has been pummeled the hardest?

Much to ponder on this Western

Easter Sunday. 

 

Ron Dart

Jordan Peterson Phase 3: The Books about Him - Paul VanderKlay & Ron Dart

Knecht and Dienst: A Probe - by Ron Dart

Knecht and Dienst: A Probe                         

Hermann Hesse, in the “Foreword” to the 1946 edition of If the War Goes On….mentions that “three strong influences, at work, throughout my life, have made me what I am”. He then lightly lands on such influences: his Swabian German pietistic upbringing, Chinese thinkers, and Jakob Burkhardt.  What might bind together such influences that made Hesse “what I am?” Perhaps, such a hint and pointer might be found in Book I of The Journey to the East.

The narrator in The Journey to the East has been part of a significant group called “The League”. The League is a conscious group of spiritual thinkers that have drawn together the best that has been thought, said and done in the history of the human journey into a grand synthesis of insight and wisdom. Each and all in the League are committed to, in a personal and communal way, understanding and living forth the wisdom and meaning of such insights. What, though, might be the core and centre of such an abiding vision?

The narrator in Book I encounters Leo who seems, at first glance, to be the servant and Sherpa of the league. Leo packs up the bags for the pilgrims, brings their food, does their dishes, carries the bulk of their belongings (and much else) that eases the material needs of those on the quest. Leo, for all intents and purposes, seems to be the hired hand for those with deeper, grander and greater spiritual commitments and longings. And yet? And yet? There is a telling conversation between Leo and the narrator that is a portal into Hesse core vision. Leo suggests that there is a law or structure at the heart of things that we ignore to our peril and those on the quest for meaning and life must learn it. What is such a law?

         “The Law?” I asked curiously. “What law is that, Leo?”

         “The Law of service. He who wishes to live long must serve, but

         He who wishes to rule does not live long”

There is much compressed into this compact and not to be forgotten insight of Leo, and such an insight can be found in much of Hesse’s writings as a counterpoint to other options.

Most of Hesse’s more mature short stories and novels probe, ever further and deeper, the diverse nature of the human soul, paths to take as a means of fulfillment, meaning and purpose and consequences of such choices. Some of the darker and more ominous novels such as Demian and Steppenwolf are more about indulging various appetites and desires, speculations and possibilities of life, much being liquid and fluid, willing wishes and living from such willed wishes. There is a sense in which Demian and Steppenwolf are must-reads for the simple reason

that inner and willed exploration (and the individual freedom to indulge such a journey) is at the heart and core of the authentic life. But, is this Hesse’s final word or merely a phase that, by day’s end, is a cliff’s edge and cul-de-sac? And, what might Hesse-Leo mean by the law of service?

Hesse had a tender and probing mind and heart and his notion of the law of service had both a core and radiated ever outwards. First, the inner law of service had much to do with serving, being attentive to,

heeding the deeper inner life and being part of birthing the real self rather than pandering to the inflated wants of the imposter ego (and its multiple addictions and erratic choices). It was in this attentive listening and responding to the inner depths (and living from such a place) that the ego could be seen for what it was and a more meaningful life might be lived. This is why, although Hesse explored a variety of identity options, he realized many were rabbit trails. Second, if the law of service was, initially, meant to be one in which the self was properly birthed, matured and grew, so service was meant to be front and centre in the communal human journey also. If, in short, the spiritual and religious quest bypassed service, the quest was an opiate of sorts.

We can see, in Hesse’s novels, short stories and much else, those who seem to be overcoming the bourgeois and philistine way of life, in fact, are only reacting to it and, in reality, gorging the ego. So, what seems to be an overcoming is, in fact, a being caged by the ego. All this is so subtle and yet so real, the overcoming not a deeper overcoming. The real overcoming is when the self-overcomes the demands of the ego and this is best illuminated by the discipline of service and care for the self and others (at a variety of levels). We can see this worked out in most of Hesse’s novels: Peter’s turn to St. Francis, Siddhartha, Narcissus, Leo and Joseph Knecht but echoing the same motif. It is significant to note that, in Greek myth, narcissus (from which we get the narcissistic personality) is seen as a place not to go. The longing of Narcissus, of course, is the desire to know true identity—needless to say, the shallow surface of the water is not the place to look—only a surface reflection is returned as the answer. But, Hesse realized that the longing of Narcissus is legitimate, but the places gone to are the problem. Hence in his superb novel, Narcissus and Goldmund, Hesse highlights the nature of proper and genuine self-love and other love (community being the context within which such a reality is lived forth). The more Hesse’s pondering and reflections matured, the more he moved from the lone individual searching for a meaningful identity (in all sorts of convoluted and complex ways) to the role of persons in community and how community and personhood are, when properly understood, a hand and glove fit.

Narcissus and Goldmund, The Journey to the East and The Glass Bead Game embody and reflect Hesse’s notion of service within the context of community. Joseph Knecht, magister of the glass bead game, means the one who serves, knecht, in German meaning servant—the word also overlaps with the English word for knight (again, one who serves).

Leo is the servant of all servants yet he is the leader of the League. There are two words in German that embody layered ways of understanding the meaning of servanthood (Knecht and Dienst)and throughout most of Hesse’s novels, he is ever massaging the meaning of the words at a personal and political level. It is somewhat significant that in the passage quoted above in which Leo ponders the meaning of service, he uses the German word Dienst. Dienst, unlike Knecht, has decided political overtones and implications---such acts of serving the other can, of course, take place at the familial, friendship and social levels, but to serve, in a meaningful way and responsible way, at the larger public and political levels was also something Hesse and Leo were acutely aware of and the need for it. The obvious use by Hesse of the two German words of Knecht and Dienst walks the attentive reader into Hesse’s fuller vision of the meaning of faithful service at many-layered levels and such words incarnate and embody Hesse’s more mature notion of the true overcomer when compared to the more inadequate notion of the overcomer described in Klingsor’s Last Summer, Demian or Steppenwolf.    

In sum, therefore, the golden key that will open the door into Hesse’s novels and life is the key to the law of service and Hesse, again and again, returns to this core theme in his writings and life. If, therefore, we are to understand Hesse, we must return to such a persistent theme and be attentive to how Hesse understands it. I might add, then, by way of conclusion, that what Hesse’s German Swabian pietistic upbringing, his interest in Chinese thinkers and Burckhardt shared in common was an understanding of service as the portal into life and life abundant.                                  

Knulp and Wandering: The Plight of the Bohemian Way - by Ron Dart

Knulp and Wandering: The Plight of the Bohemian Way                                   

Hesse had established himself, as a compelling and attractive writer, before WWI. The publication of such Hesse classics and primers as Peter Camenzind, Under the Wheel, Gertrude, From India, The Prodigy andRosshalde placed Hesse at the forefront of a thoughtful and emerging German and European romantic tradition and ethos. But, dark clouds were emerging at a variety of levels in Hesse’s life: tensions at home with wife and family and WWI were demanding their exacting due. Hesse saw all too keenly, given his sensitive temperament, the imposing challenges before him. It is understandable, from a certain perspective, why the need for a certain escape from such growing responsibilities can and might occur. When life becomes too overwhelming, there is a tendency to go to places in which the sky is clear blue, there are no dark clouds and much is calm and peaceful--such is, in some ways, the naively sweet yet worth the reads of Knulp and Wandering.

Ralph Freedman suggests that Hesse in Knulp “developed the figure of the perennial wanderer--literally the sensitive hobo-who could stand out as the vagabond par excellence (p. 140). Knulp does, in many ways, anticipate some of the American Beat writers that emerged after WWII, Kerouac’s On the Road, for example,a decades later version although perhaps not as tender and elusive as Knulp. There is a definite sense in which Hesse in Knulp is pondering both the appeal yet end destination of those who are ever on the road, uprooted, unrooted and committed to nothing other than the next step of being on the trail of life. The 3-part life story and biography of sorts of Knulp tracks and traces his life from that of a seemingly gifted person, his departure from what he might have been if he had continued his schooling, painful and disappointing life experiences, his longing for a home and settling but never making the decision to do so. Knulpwas published in 1915 and is divided into three sections or tales: 1) Early Spring, 2) My Recollections of Knulp and 3) The End. Needless to say, the young Knulp of the early spring phase has a winsome, winning and delightful charm to him. He has turned aside from the expected demands in his life and has chosen to live as he wishes and wants—there is a spring-like budding and blossoming in this tale but also consequences of making such decisions and living them. The young Knulp certain appeals to the childlike within and what Blake might call the “songs of innocent”. The next section of the short story walks the interested reader into, increasingly so, the “songs of experience”, life demanding its inevitable due and exacting wage. “My Recollections of Knulp” walk the reader to Knulp in midlife stride, Knulp now living into the troubling reality of his earlier decisions made. The midlife phase tends to be more layered and complex, the fresh and bountiful scenery, fruit and air of “Early Spring” now fading in Knulp’s summer and emerging autumn years. “The End” brings Knulp’s final years to a conclusion, alone and deserted, assistance from an old doctor friend initially received, Knulp takes to the road again and dies penniless, snow frozen and starving, the temptation of the early spring season, once absolutized and made a vocation, ending in a tragic and painful way. Who has not seen Knulp’s in their lives? Hesse certainly understood the temptation and Hesse poignantly described, in Knulp, the end of such decisions and journey of those who make a vocation of ever wandering and a commitment to nothing but wandering.

There is a sense in which Wandering is a companion missive to Knulp although the end is not so sad and sobering. Wandering, unlike Knulp, is a series of short reflections and sketches of a wanderer of sorts who makes a walking pilgrimage from Switzerland, over an alpine pass, and into Italy, WWI now over. Each short reflection and poem ponders significant life issues and does so in a tender and probing way and manner. The short book begins with the wanderer leaving what he has known and been and heading alone southward to the lure of Italy (a common European and German literary destination). The wanderer is ever the outsider, watching, observing yet ever moving on. The final chapter, “Evenings”, like Knulp, portrays the wanderer, like a spectator in a play, watching the drama of life but refusing to be committed to acting on the stage. The wanderer, therefore, is torn between longing for some sort of meaningful life and a commitment to place and people and yet refusing to make the decision that will ground him. The wanderer, ever the reflective and uncommitted skeptic, impotent and ever in the maze of his insights yet paralyzed by them. Wandering was published in 1920, Hesse feeling the brunt of many a German nationalist having turned on him, the literary elite suspicious of him, his marriage ailing, his children with friends and relatives, his life, in many ways, in a turbulent and painful place. The wanderer, like Knulp, remains the lone romantic individual, unheard and misunderstood by the bourgeois, philistine and thoughtless classes of the time. The question for Hesse of which Knulp and Wanderer were provisional answers was this: how is the sensitive artist and political oppositional thinker to respond to opposition, indifference and those close to the bone relationships unraveling? Is the answer merely to isolate oneself and leave society and family behind, be committed to observing the unpredictable and much ado about nothing in much of life? Idealism once betrayed can and often does lead to cynicism or a form of realism in which life is hard and painful, hence only by being alone and isolated can one not be hurt and betrayed again. And yet such a stance of indifference and skepticism creates its own difficult dilemmas.

Those who retreat into their private worlds of inner reflection and, at times, meaningful insights, but disconnect themselves from other people and community, predictably so, often become depressed and disoriented, solipsism and nihilism their tempting companions on the journey. Hesse has certainly probed such a path hiked in these two small books (worth many a read), but his deeper and more mature thinking and writing go further and are more nuanced than Knulp and Wandering. It is to these more thoughtful novels we now turn as Hesse ever grows in his nuanced probes in the journey of life.  

It is probably of some significance to note that twenty-two of Hesse’s fairy stories written 1904-1918 was published, edited by Jack Zipes, as The Complete Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse (1995). The shorter and earlier version was published in 1919 in German as Strange News from Another Star (translated into English in 1972). Many of these, broadly speaking, fairy tales, highlight the trying and difficult nature of growing into wisdom, depth and maturity. It is in this sense that the fairy tales are a companion and corrective to what might seem a rather thin and subtly indulgent life journey as embodied in Knulp and Wandering, the life of the detached wanderer and bohemian. A thorough immersion in the fairy tales will reveal a meditative breadth and depth in Hesse’s life and writings not necessarily discovered in Knulp-Wanderingand, such fairy tales both antedated Knulp-Wandering and many were written about the same time.                          

Hermann Hesse, "Siddhartha" – review by Ron Dart

When New Directions decided to publish the first English translation of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha in 1951, it could never have foreseen the enormous impact it would have on American culture.

—Paul Morris (p. xiii)

Hinduism has been much misunderstood in the West since it has been introduced in one or another of its exaggerated forms. One image of it is that of the starving sannyasin who by dint of extravagant austerities claims to have realized himself as the soul of the All…The other is that of a religion of unbridled sexuality which the publication of the Kamasutrasas a paperback has done nothing to dispel.

—R.C. Zaehner, Concordant Discord (p. 163)

American witnessed a Hesse phenomenon that was for a European writer.—Paul Morris (p. xv).          

There has been and continues to be in our post-Christendom and post-Secular and Scientific Western culture and ethos a perennial spiritual longing and thirst that only deeper waters can quench. The West has a significant contemplative tradition as does the East. Kipling wrongfully suggested that “East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet”. There have been many creative writers and thinkers in the last few centuries that, in our increasing global village, have sought to discern, how East and West might meaningfully meet—Hermann Hesse is certainly such a guide and mentor, one who in his layered and longer life, sought to bring together the wisdom and contemplative traditions of the West and East: Siddhartha was one of Hesse’s fuller forays into such thoughtful probes.

The sheer carnage and tragedy of WW I, for the more sensitive and thoughtful, raised questions about human suffering on our all too human journey. What does to mean to be human and live an authentic life? What are decisions worth the making, how can we be deflected from making such decisions and is there more to being human than the fleeting ego, throes of matter and projected public personas? It was these sorts of questions that greeted Hesse and begged a response. Hesse’s seeming turn to Buddhism as an initial attempt to face such questions after WW I was not, it should be noted, a scholarly and academic approach to examining the origins and sources of the emergence of Buddhism—Hesse’s interest was much more existential and personal. Hence, the Siddhartha of this short novella of sorts is not the Siddhartha turned Gotama Buddha (the enlightened one) of 1^stgeneration Buddhism—it is much more the story of every person who longs to live a more meaningful life (and the hard decisions that point in such a direction).

Ron Dart with Brad Jersak - Secularism, Gnosticism, Bede Griffiths and Interfaith Dialogue

Ron discusses 3 shades of secularism, political Gnosticism (a la Eric Voegelin's 4 examples), the clash between certain forms of pluralism and secularism in the public square, and the example of Bede Griffiths in interfaith dialogue that honours Christian distinctives while respecting the religious other.

This is a follow-up to Ron's lecture on "Some Dilemmas of Contemplative Interfaith Dialogue." Viewable here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2pSJwxJ2WA

Some Dilemmas of Contemplative Interfaith Dialogue - Ron Dart (video)

Ron Dart (UFV) discusses various nuances of exclusivism, inclusivism, pluralism, and syncretism. For more details, see his new release of "Christianity and Pluralism," originally co-written with J.I. Packer in response to Bishop Michael Ingham's work, "Mansions of the Spirit."

See the book description below this video. 

Christianity and Pluralism is a collection of concise yet thoughtful essays by J. I. Packer and Ron Dart, interacting with and responding to the four traditional models used to answer the existence of multiple faiths (exclusive, inclusive, pluralist, and syncretist), but focusing particularly that form of syncretism which claims that all faiths find commonality through their mystical traditions.

Written in response to key events in the history of the Anglican church, Packer and Dart's analysis gives us a perennially relevant model for how the church ought to respond to our own pluralistic culture with integrity and kindness - and how to uphold the distinctiveness of the gospel. Christians directly or indirectly engaging our pluralist world will find their ideas enriched by this short yet powerful book.

Endorsement

"This unapologetic yet irenic defense of creedal Christianity deserves a wide readership and is a reminder of our continued indebtedness to faithful leaders such as Dart and Packer."

- Hans Boersma, Nashotah House, WI

About the Authors

Ron Dart (PhD, McMaster University) is associate professor of political science at the University of Fraser Valley (Abbotsford, BC). He is author of numerous books, including The Marks of the Church and Renewal and The North American High Tory Tradition.

J. I. Packer (PhD, Oxford University) is Board of Governors' Professor of Theology at Regent College (Vancouver, BC). He is author of many books, including Knowing God, Affirming the Apostles' Creed, and Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility.

Jordan Peterson vs. Zizek - Interview with Ron Dart with Paul VanderKlay

Jordan Peterson and Transcending Tribalism - Ron Dart

Prof. Ron Dart, Department of Political Science, University of the Fraser Valley

The culture wars (and the issues that so dominate both tribes) that have so divided the left from the right, liberals from the conservatives have meant minimally thoughtful thinkers find it difficult to salute before either tribe. There can be no doubt that Jordan Peterson has offended the leftist progressive liberals and when such an orthodox tribe is challenged, they tend to caricature or demonize those who refuse to salute at their flagpole. Many have been the detractors from within such a clan that have responded to Peterson in such a predictable way. Those who only think in either-or Manichean categories falsely assume, therefore, that Peterson must be an apologist for variations of the Alt-Right, right or some variation of conservatism. Is he, though? Peterson has been more than candid about his concerns about variations of the Alt-Right and conservatism. 

Those who take the time to read, in some depth and detail, Peterson’s earliest tome, Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief (1999), cannot but realize that his creative thinking transcends the rather simplistic categories of left and right. The fact some within the right, delighted by Peterson’s criticisms of the liberal left, assume Peterson is a cheerleader for their ideological perspective, are often disappointed when Peterson dares to question them also. There can be no doubt the publication of Peterson’s recently published and best selling book, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (2017), has had an ample supply of boosters and knockers but those who reduce Peterson’s thinking to such an entry-level book fail to see that it is only a portal into a much more nuanced vision that transcends left-right categories.  It is significant that Peterson’s recent dialogue of sorts in Toronto with Zizek raised the legitimate question of “which antidote to chaos?” 

The fact that Peterson did his BA in political science, with a focused interest in totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, means he has a certain suspicion of groupthink whether from the left or right—his turn to psychology had much to do with an attempt to answer a simple question: why do people uncritically assimilate into herd thinking and how is it possible for individuals to be both free from such tendencies and meaningfully individuate? But, such individuation can become narcissistic or authentic—what are the criteria for the latter and dangers of the former?  It is in the answer to such questions that Peterson probes, again and again, the role of myth, archetypes and the significance of substantive structures of meaning and our all too human journey.   

The fact that Peterson, as a scientist of the soul, is willing to question an approach to psychology that is shot through with the ideology of secularism means his more mythic approach to the relationship between the sacred-secular yet once again transcends more reductionistic approaches to the larger life issues. Peterson’s approach to the Bible and other sacred texts tends to offend both the more simplistic literalists and reactionary secularists—needless to say, both tribes turn on him (many with a vengeance, others in a more thoughtful way and manner). But, there can be no doubt Peterson is in the business of deconstructing dated categories and his ample use of such worthies as Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard and Jung (to mention only a few) serve him well and wisely.         

The first task of any thoughtful person is to engage in the process of trying to understand those we differ with, agree yet disagree with or agree with (and why we do so). Sadly so, many either dismiss or embrace Peterson without truly understanding him. It is not very liberal of a liberal not to critique liberalism but many liberals do not do so—interestingly enough, Peterson dares to critique aspects of liberalism from within a certain classical liberal tradition—many liberal critics of Peterson fail to see this obvious reality. I might add, by way of conclusion, that Peterson is more of a portal than substantive thinker—those he points to are more worthy of meditative reads than Peterson, but for those with little or no background in intellectual history (memoricide an illness of sorts) Peterson is a gateway thinker and cultural icon.  

There are many sources that can be mined in entering through the Peterson portal—there are his ample scholarly articles on clinical psychology, books published, multiple interviews (some more worth the hearing than others), lectures on myth, fairy tales, Bible and other sacred texts, public debates and dialogues and his varied reflections on political leaders and movements (past and present).    

Peterson (whether we agree with him or not) reveals much about the state of our cultural ethos at the present time—our reactions to him tell us much about ourselves and our times, our unexamined prejudices and how we respond when threatened by an intruder to our tribe.

Wayne Northey's "Justice that Transforms" - Foreword by Ron Dart

Wayne Northey: I’m pleased to add this page about three books produced fall 2018:

CLICK HERE for the books homepage

They are of my writings on Restorative Justice over the years, including (in Volume One) by a few contributors. They are part of a projected multi-volume series. I then hope to publish another series of my Peace/Peacemaking writings, tentatively titled Justice That Yields Peace.

Justice That Transforms Cdn edition, or Justice That Transforms US edition.

Foreword by Ron Dart

There has been, sadly so, a predictable tendency within the historic Western tradition to read, interpret and apply the Bible within the crime and punishment, justice ethos in a retributive manner—an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, Shylockian pound of flesh dominating the day, fair Portia banished from the stage.  A rather narrow and reductionistic read of the Hebrew canon (Old Testament) has dominated and, in an imperial sort of way, colonized alternate notions of both justice and mercy that can equally be found in the Old Testament, Apocrypha and New Testament. The Jewish prophets and the Sermon on the Mount are two needful portals and correctives to a one-dimensional and reactionary read of the Bible.

There has also been a predictable tendency within the much longer historic Western and Christian tradition to develop, in greater depth and detail, via legal systems and jurisprudence, more finely tuned notions of Retributive Justice. We might ask why this single-vision approach to justice has so come to dominate and what other options might be mined within both the Bible and the Christian Tradition that question and doubt the reigning monarch of Retributive Justice? The answer to such a nagging question can be aptly and amply answered, from a variety of angles, in this superb book by Wayne Northey.

Each of the in-depth and detailed chapters in this must-read beauty of a tome highlight, in not-to-be-missed insights, how and why the ideology of Retributive Justice has dominated, the consequence of such a reality, and why Restorative Justice has not really been tried and found wanting.

Wayne, to his credit, has spent many a decade in the restorative trenches (he was there at the beginning many a decade ago) and he tells a worthy tale about the need to, Phoenix-like, resurrect the Restorative Justice tradition. There has been a tendency to pit the liberal rehabilitative approach against the more conservative retributive approach, but the 3^rd way of Restorative Justice has many a possibility worth the fuller probing. The genius of the book is the way Wayne both probes ever deeper and thinks ever wider and fuller about these timely and timeless issues. Again, I might add that Wayne’s thinking and writing emerge from decades of being in the thick of the fray and the diverse articles embody such a reality.

The fact that the Restorative Justice position has often been marginalized, misunderstood or caricatured as a sort of naïve idealism is found wanting in Wayne’s animated and vigorous defense of Restorative Justice. I might add that beyond the importance of Restorative Justice is the broader notion of Transformative Justice that Wayne has often pondered. I have been fortunate, over the decades, to have had Wayne lecture in my classes in Philosophy of Law and other classes on Restorative/Transformative Justice. Students have raised tough questions about both positions and Wayne has answered each question admirably, well, charitably and wisely. This book does much the same but in a more in-depth way and manner.

The fact that Wayne engages Biblical exegetes’ questionable read of the Bible when applied to justice, the way the Western Tradition has erred in significant ways in this area, and how significant approaches by the Evangelical and Reformed Christian tribes have only seen with one eye on this issue are held up for serious scrutiny by Wayne in this packed and challenging bounty of a book. Wayne has lived in the midst of these issues at the Biblical, Christian Tradition and contemporary Evangelical and Reformed levels. He knows the nuances and subtleties but he is also acutely aware of how, time and again, Retributive Justice dominates the day (and the practical implications of it). There is a unique sense in which Wayne (although probably not seeing himself as such) comes as a prophetic voice to the establishment and status quo Sanhedrin and dares to question their misread of the Bible and Christian Tradition. Again a careful read of this well-crafted book will, if read discerningly, reveal much that is often, tragically, ignored in how Christians interpret the Dostoevskian crime and punishment dilemma.

I have gently urged Wayne, over the years, to compile and thread together many of the articles he has written on Restorative Justice (and they are legion). I have no doubt that those who read and inwardly digest the articles chosen by Wayne for this unique collection and book will be generously rewarded by each read and reread. Certainly, the way Wayne immerses the curious reader in the trying issues will refocus the way justice is often defined and understood. I do, therefore, heartily recommend this exceptional book to the reader with an open mind: their understanding of justice may never be the same again.

I might add, by way of conclusion, that George Grant’s English Speaking Justice will walk the interested yet further down the philosophic trail that Wayne (and peers) are well on.

Amor Vincit Omnia

Ron Dart