Peace in the Face of War

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It is not only a mistake, but also actually harmful to imagine this earthly world to be in sharp opposition to the other world beyond the grave. In such a case, the realisation of Christian truth is entirely transposed into the world beyond the grave. For this world, there remains the law of beasts, receiving its highest sanction from ‘eschatological pessimism’. In reality, ‘this world’ has absolutely no inviolable boundaries, it is not an enclosed world, it is not at all a stable, ‘realest of all possible worlds’; it is possible to break through into it, to penetrate it from ‘another world.’ In ‘this world’, the actual mode of existence is experienced as ‘heaviness’. But a transfiguration of this world is possible. In Kant’s terminology, it could be said that ‘this world’ is appearance, and it corresponds to a certain structure of consciousness; the ‘other world’ is something in itself which opens up under a different structure of consciousness. But the-thing-in-itself, contrary to Kant, is not at all enclosed by any inviolable barrier; it manifests itself within phenomena, is active in a world of phenomena. What Kant calls ‘intelligible freedom’ is active within the world. For that reason. one can say that in this world there are two ‘worlds’. There is, in a particular sense, both this fallen world, and another world, active within this world. The fundamental dualism is essentially not a dualism of two worlds, where every truth ends up being transposed into the other world, but rather a dualism of freedom and necessity, of spirit and nature understood as real, causal connection. But freedom performs acts in the realm of necessity, the spirit performs acts in the realm of nature. A struggle of spirit and freedom is possible against humankind’s enslavement to the world, against the enslavement of the world itself. From this perspective, the End of the world constitutes a spiritual revolution of the world, a revolution of spiritual freedom. And it signifies first of all a change in the structure of consciousness. There has to be a dispersing and overcoming of a petrified and restricted consciousness, corresponding to the condition of ‘heaviness’. If there is a false dualism, then it is the dualism that asserts that eschatology has no kind of relationship to historical reality, to the social order. Eschatology has a relationship to everything; it has a relationship to every significant act of life. Seeking the Kingdom of God takes over the whole of life, not only the personal, but also the social. Seeking the Kingdom of God cannot be understood as simply seeking the personal salvation of one’s soul. A reduction of Christianity to personal salvation of the soul betrays the whole world to falsehood, evil and the devil, and would be a distortion of Christianity, an adjustment to the condition of the world and a catastrophic failure. An exclusively ascetic Christianity, despite its heroic manifestations in the past, is opportunist, a refusal to tread the path of transfiguring reality. 26
Eschatological Creativity The distinction between the morality of personal acts and the morality of social acts is totally false, and has had disastrous consequences in the history of Christianity. Every personal act is also a social act; it has social repercussions influencing circles in varying dimensions. Every social act is also a personal act, since behind it stands a human being. Human beings are integrated creatures and disclose themselves as such within the acts of their life. A person cannot be a good Christian in their personal religious life, but, in their social life – as father/mother of a household, a manager of a business, or figure of authority – indulging in anti- Christian principles and being inhuman, cruel, a despot, an exploiter. Such ‘double-entry book-keeping’ has been the disgrace of Christian history. Only one morality exists, one commandment of God. There is no morality based on serving a fallen and enslaved world. Eschatology has been contrasted with a morality tailored for those wanting to order this world. But from a deeper viewpoint, one must acknowledge that there is no other morality than the eschatological one, nor can there be, if by morality one understands that which human beings do when they listen to the voice of God, not to the voice of the world. Every truly moral, truly spiritual, truly creative act is an eschatological act; it ends this world and begins another, new world. Every moral act is a victory of freedom over necessity, of divine humanity over natural inhumanity. If you feed the hungry or free Africans from slavery, to take two most elementary examples, you are performing an eschatological act; you are ending this world, for this world is hunger and slavery. Every truly creative act is the onset of the End of the world; it is a passing over into the Kingdom of freedom, leaving behind the wizardry of the world. Towards Freedom The Kingdom of God comes gradually, without dramatic effects. It comes in every triumph of humanity, in real liberation. Through true creativity, the End of this world draws near, the world of inhumanity, of slavery, of inertia. God acts in human freedom, upon freedom and through freedom. God is present with His energies ... activating liberation. God revealed in Christ is, first and foremost, Liberator, and so the End of the world must be freshly interpreted, understood not exclusively as judgement and punishment, but as deliverance and enlightenment. Of course, the End of the world is also Dread Judgement, but judgement as the immanent consequence of the paths of evil, not as extrinsic punishment of God. Humanity’s creative freedom stands before the problem of the End. And an approach to this problem of the End must increase the intensity of the creative act.... The Catastrophe of History It was N. Fedorov who perceived more deeply than anyone else that Divine-human truth, that the End of the world depends 27
Page 1 and 2: Winds From the East Pursuing Peace
Page 3 and 4: Journal of the Community of the Ser
Page 5 and 6: who was married to Ruth, the Rector
Page 7 and 8: Our Associate, Caroline Walton, pro
Page 9 and 10: peace is easy. To the contrary, it
Page 11 and 12: heart reaches the limits of our phy
Page 13 and 14: has now become beyond their strengt
Page 15 and 16: establishment of this border allows
Page 17 and 18: Performers received slightly higher
Page 19 and 20: Never in my life, whether before th
Page 21 and 22: theatre halls. There was a strong s
Page 23 and 24: An eschatological understanding of
Page 25 and 26: and relish the cruel punishments to
Page 27: with a messianic consciousness, wit
Page 31 and 32: grim endlessness. 1 The End of the
Page 33 and 34: one concerned with women, religion
Page 35 and 36: the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Ro
Page 37 and 38: embassies need to know how these pr
Page 39 and 40: - regrettably, for security reasons
Page 41 and 42: need to ‘strengthen the moderate
Page 43 and 44: Do not repay anyone evil for evil.
Page 45 and 46: Wilson, had warned against it. Prob
Page 47 and 48: Brother John of the Cross CSWG 6 Ap
Page 49 and 50: He came to monastic life having ful
Page 51 and 52: the ups and downs - ‘up to the sk
Page 53 and 54: and it lifted high the waves of the
Page 55 and 56: Are religious conflicts today then
Page 57 and 58: And here, in order for the descript
Page 59 and 60: Alex (above) steps out into the lig

Peace in the Face of War

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