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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/20206-8.txt b/20206-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f3ffa57 --- /dev/null +++ b/20206-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2434 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Agony of the Church (1917), by Nikolaj Velimirovic + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Agony of the Church (1917) + +Author: Nikolaj Velimirovic + +Release Date: December 28, 2006 [EBook #20206] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AGONY OF THE CHURCH (1917) *** + + + + +Produced by Project Rastko, Nikolaj Velimirovic Project, +Rénald Lévesque and the Online Distributed Proofreaders +Europe at http://dp.rastko.net + + + + + + + + + THE AGONY + OF THE CHURCH + + BY THE REV. + NICHOLAI VELIMIROVIC, D.D. + OF ST SAVVA'S COLLEGE, BELGRADE + + WITH FOREWORD BY THE + REV. ALEXANDER WHYTE, D.D. + PRINCIPAL OF NEW COLLEGE, EDINBURGH + LONDON + + STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT + 32 RUSSELL SQUARE, W.C. + + 1917 + + Printed in Great Britain + by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh. + + + + + FOREWORD + + +The Eastern Church, the Church of the Apostles and the Mother of us all, +in this book, speaks to her children in all lands and in all languages, +and to us, with an authority and a wisdom and a tenderness all its own. +The author and the publishers are doing us a service of the very best +kind in issuing it. May God's blessing rest upon it. + + + + + PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD + + +The contents of this book was originally given in the form of lectures +at St Margaret's, Westminster. There is, we think, a special fitness in +the lectures appearing in book form bearing the imprint of the Student +Christian Movement, for though Father Nicholas has hosts of friends in +Great Britain now, when he first came here our Movement was perhaps the +only body which had the right to claim him as being already a friend. +When the Student Christian Movement made its way to Serbia a few years +ago, Father Nicholas became one of its first friends and, the year the +war commenced and the following year, it was he who, on the Universal +Day of Prayer for Students, preached by invitation of the Student +Movement and its President, Dr. Marko Leko, to the students in the +Cathedrals of Belgrade and Nish. Members of our Movement, therefore, +will recognise that he comes under the category of persons so highly +valued in the Student Movement, namely, that of senior friend. + +Both inside and outside the Student Movement to-day people are thinking +of the Church. Much has been spoken and written about the Church of +Jesus Christ in our modern world, but not so much as to leave us unready +to welcome this arresting and penetrating message from Serbia. + + + + + INTRODUCTORY THOUGHTS + + +If the official churches have had no other merit but that they have +preserved Christ as the treasury of the world, yet they are justified +thereby. Even if they have solely repeated through all the past +centuries "Lord! Lord!" still they stand above the secular world. For +they know at least who the Lord is, whereas the world does not know. + +Churches may disappear, but The Church never will. For not churches are +the work of Christ, but the Church. Moreover, if the Church disappears, +as an institution, the essence of the Church cannot disappear. It is +like rivers, sea and water: when rivers disappear into the sea, the sea +remains, and if the sea disappears into steam, water still remains. + +If Christ ever meant to form the Church as an institution He meant to +form it not as the end but as the means, like a boat to bring its +inmates safely over the stormy ocean of life into the quiet harbour of +His Kingdom. + +Like the body in a bath, so the soul disrobes in the Church to wash. But +as soon as we get out, we clothe our soul in order to conceal it from +the curious eye. Is it not illogical that we dare to show our +imperfections to the Most Perfect, while we are ashamed to show them to +those who are just as imperfect, ugly and unclean as ourselves? The +Church, like a bath, reveals most uncleanness. + +The initial and most obvious idea of the Church is collectiveness of sin +and salvation. To pray alone and for one's self is like eating alone +without regard to other people's hunger. + +When the sun sees a man of science, wealth or politics, kneeling at +prayer with the poor and humble, it goes smiling to its rest. + +Full of beauty and wonders are all the Christian churches, but not +because of their pretended perfections: they are beautiful and wonderful +because of Him whose shadow they are. + +You are a Christian? Then do not be afraid to enter any Christian church +with prayerful respect. All the Churches have sworn allegiance to the +same Sovereign. How can you respect a cottage, in which once abided His +Majesty King Alfred, or Charles, while you would not go into a building +dedicated to His Majesty the Invisible King of kings? + +The real value of any Christian community is not to be found in its own +prosperity but in its care for the prosperity of other Christian +communities. So, for example, the value of the Protestants is to be +found in their loving care for the Roman Catholics, and vice versa. + +Taking the above standard, we find that all the Christian communities +are almost quite valueless as to the spirit, i.e. as to their unusual +loving care. Their actual value is more physical than spiritual, being +as they are limited to the care for themselves. Exceptions are as +refreshing as an oasis in the desert. + +Church and State are like fire and water. How to connect them? For if +connected, fire always dies down under water. + +There are three ages in the history of the Church: the Golden Age, when +the Church was opposed to political governments; the Iron Age, when she +was politically directing Europe's kingdoms; and the Stone Age, when she +has been subdued to the service of political governments. What a +humiliation for the present generation to live in the Stone Age of +Christianity! + +Trying to unite Church and State we are trying to unite what God +separated from the beginning of our era. + +To separate the Church from the State does not mean, as many think, to +separate soul from body; it means to separate two quite opposed spirits +unakin and hostile to each other, like Cross and Capitol. + +The worm of comfort and human inertia has reconciled Christianity with +secular, pagan governments, and so paralysed the most divine movement in +human history. Go to the bottom of all those clever advocacies for unity +of Church and State, and you will meet, as their primus motor, the worm +of comfort and human inertia. + +All Churches and Christian institutions of the present time, however +wonderful they may be, are only a dim prophecy of the coming Christian +worship in truth and spirit. Through them we look now to the future as +through a glass. + +Christianity is neither monarchical nor republican. It does not care +about institutions but about the spirit living in them. That institution +is the best which is fullest of the Christian spirit. From this point of +view, an autocracy may be better than a republic, and vice versa. + +The true Christianity has been hidden from us as iron and coal were +hidden from the men of the Stone Age. They walked over iron and coal but +they used stone and wood only. So we are walking over and around Christ, +still using in our daily life the pagan gods of old. + +If there is to be a new geological epoch, with a new type of man, it +will be the Christian epoch. All the existing types have been made by +revolutions and influences of earth and water, or of air and fire. Now +only the Christian revolution--I mean literally and not +allegorically--can produce a higher type of the human animal. + +My friend, you are dissatisfied with the existing Churches, and you are +anxious to form a new church, or sect, or some kind of religious +organisation! How childish of you! The existing Churches are the most +wonderful vessels--some in gold, others in silver or pottery--made by +thousands of years and generations. I know your dissatisfaction comes +because of the emptiness of those vessels and not because of their +ugliness. Well then, pour the divine wine into them and they will please +you just as the vessels in Cana of Galilee pleased the thirsty people +around the table. No one of those people, being thirsty, ever thought of +making new vessels for the wine, but to get wine as soon as possible +into the vessels. To pour wine into existing vessels, that is really the +needed miracle, my dear grumbler! + +People say: Read the Bible! Almost would I say: Do not touch it for five +years--read other literature during this period--and then read it again, +and you will see its real greatness, power and sweetness. + +The Christ's wounds have wrought more blessings in the world than the +health of all the Roman Caears. + +The Eucharist does not mean a memory only but also a prophecy. The +prophecy of it is, that the whole earth will become Christ's body, +Christ's flesh and blood, so that whatever we eat or drink we eat and +drink Him. + +He ought to be our daily food. Regarding all our food through Christ it +will not seem to be a prey from nature but rather nature's sacrifice for +us, reminding us of Christ's sacrifice, and through it of our own +calling to sacrifice. + +You have to choose either to be proud or poor in spirit. The first will +mean a noisy destruction, the second a quiet construction. + +There exists no sublime and no mean thing in the whole world of which I +could not find a representation in myself, and none in which I were +wholly unrepresented. + +The beauty, glory and greatness of a field of golden wheat consists of +an association of innumerable blades of wheat, with their insignificant +beauty, glory and greatness. If you have seen that, then do not repeat +to me the old story of the beauty, glory and greatness of the human +blade called Pythagoras, Caear or Napoleon. + +The wealthiest and most powerful people, that we are wont to admire and +imitate, were most pitied by Christ. To-day, as always, the most +difficult Christian mission is that among the rich. + +Our real value we never reveal through the using of our rights but +through our capacity for service and sacrifice. + +Easier is it for a man to get his own rights than to lose his pride. + +Sacrifice without murmuring makes of our stormy life a calm holy day. We +fill all our days with the talk of the people who are loth to sacrifice +and of those who dare to sacrifice. Disgust and admiration are two baths +in which our hearts bathe from sunrise to sunset. By nothing is the +disgust towards a man more excited than by hearing: "He is incapable of +sacrifice." When this sentence is directed to ourselves, we feel as if +we had lost the whole battle of life. + +The value of metaphysical systems is more for the scientific than for +the moral progress of mankind. Upon Hegel you could build a new science, +but upon St Paul only could you build a new social life and a new world +politics. Did you ever think that St Paul is the greatest prophet of a +new and desirable statesmanship? + +All the Empires founded upon rights have perished and must perish. The +future belongs to the Empire of St Paul, an Empire founded upon loving +service. + +It is better in humbleness to belong to the worst of the Churches than +proudly to separate one's self from the best of the Churches. + +Aristocratic origin is as inscrutable as the darkness of the past night. +A mighty aristocrat of to-day may be of the meanest soul-stuff, and the +beggar at his door of the noblest. But respect both of them equally, +knowing that both of them are of the same royal origin. The Most High +names both of them His children. For the same reason respect asses and +sheep and trees and stones. + +The real crucifiers of Christ in our time are those who think Christ's +Gospel could not be taken as a base for world politics. Were not His +last words to the disciples: go to all nations? The last and supreme +expression of Christianity will be in the relations of nation to nation, +as its starting expression has been the relations of man to man. + +Inter-individualism has been the elementary school of Christianity. +Inter-nationalism ought to be its university. + +Christian ethics, i.e. cheerful service and sacrifice, is the noblest +consequence of real belief in God. Never a shorter line can bind our +planet with the centre of the Universe than the line going through +Christ. It is the shortest way, as a straight line is the shortest +distance between two geometrical points. + +Slavery means obligatory service; freedom ought to mean willing service. +Only a man or a nation educated for willing service to their neighbours +is a really free man or free nation. All other theories of freedom are +illusions. Freedom asking for rights and not for willing service means +an endless quarrel crowning with unhappiness all its champions. Neither +Pericles' republic nor Octavian's monarchy were the States of happiness, +but St Paul's pan-human state, with a single Magna Charta of willing +service, will be a State of Universal Happiness. + +Every man is a battlefield of many unclean spirits, very bold in the +absence of Christ and very shy in His Presence. O how many of these +spirits that find an easy habitation in us would make even the swine to +rage and run down the steep place--into the sea! + +The conception that the mentality of Machiavelli and Metternich, +Bismarck and Beaconsfield could be taken as a basis of politics, whereas +Christ's mentality could not, is the conception even of many +theologians. Yet Christ survives all these politicians as an undying +power, just because He is the fittest of all of them. + +What an obscure philosophy it is which teaches that Moses and Mohamed +had some thing to do with politics and Christ has not! + +Carlyle and Emerson were over-anxious to recommend every great man as a +leader of mankind more than Christ. It is the same as to say: men! take +candles and lamps to light your way in darkness, but be aware of the +sun. How quite different are Dostoievsky and Tolstoi! + +I looked at men in prayer and I thought: Behold, the fallen angels! I +looked again at them in hateful quarrel and I thought: Behold, the risen +demons! + +Animals are cruel but not vulgar. Yet both in cruelty and vulgarity man +is on record. If forced to chose one of two evils, we should prefer to +look at cruelty rather than vulgarity. + +All our to-days are spoiled by reminiscences about yesterday and sorrows +about tomorrow. Thus we are disindividualising and emptying all our +"to-days" and degrading them to a misty meeting-place of yesterday and +tomorrow. + +From the physical point of view the greatest thing in this life is its +mystery. From the moral point of view the greatest thing in man is the +optimistic interpretation of that mystery. There is no reasonable +optimism outside of Christianity. + +No man could be a tyrant unless he were a slave of some moral defects. + +No nation could tyrannise over another nation unless it were tyrannised +over itself by some illusions. + +Nobody in the world is free but he who feels himself to be a prisoner of +Christ. The greatest champion of freedom in human history called +himself: "Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ." + + + + + CHAPTER I + + THE WISDOM OF THE CHURCH SOPHIA + + +The most magnificent sanctuary of the Eastern Churches is called St +Sophia (Holy Wisdom), whereas the most magnificent sanctuaries of the +Western Churches are called St Peter's, St Paul's, or St John's, etc. As +every hair on our head and every line on the palm of our hand has a +certain significance, so these dedications of the Church have doubtless +certain significance. And this significance is typical of the religion +of the East and the West. Western Christianity, grown upon the soil of a +youthful individualism, preferred this or that apostle's personality and +dedicated their best temples to him. The aged East, tired of +individualistic ambitions, tired of great men, flagellated by the +phantom of human greatness, was thirsty for something higher and more +solid than any human personality. Adoration of great personalities being +the very wisdom of this world, the East stretched its hands to a +superhuman ideal, to the Holy Wisdom. It is a psychological fact that +youth sees his ideal in personal greatness, progressed age in holiness. +The East asked for something more eternal than Peter, Paul or John. +There is wisdom, and there is holy wisdom. Philosophical or personal +wisdom existed from the beginning of mankind, but Holy Wisdom entered +the world with Jesus Christ. Christ was the embodiment of God's wisdom, +the very incarnation of Holy Wisdom. This Wisdom stands above all human +wisdom and revives and illuminates it. Holy Wisdom includes the +essential wisdom of Peter, Paul, John, and any other apostle or seer, or +any other thing or creature, as the ocean includes the water of many +rivers. In the darkest times of dissension, uncertainty or suffering, +the Christian East did not rely so much upon the great apostles, either +Peter, or Paul, or John, but looked beyond time and space to the Eternal +Christ, The Logos of God, and asked for Light. And it looked to Eternity +through this church in Constantinople, St Sophia, as the all-embracing +and all-reconciling, holy symbol. Whenever Peter, or Paul, or John, or +any other apostle, or prophet, became the ground upon which the +believers quarrelled, it was in the Holy Wisdom that they sought refuge +and healing from their intellectual one-sidedness and ill-will. + +Yet if Holy Wisdom has only in the East a magnificent visible symbol, +Holy Wisdom is none the less the very foundation, substance and aim of +the Western Church as well as of the Eastern, yea of the one, holy +Catholic Church. For Christianity had been destined neither for the East +alone nor for the West alone, but for the whole globe. And what means +the so-much abused word Catholic if not inclusiveness? Even such is, +too, the meaning of the Divine wisdom as revealed in Christianity from +the beginning. + +I will try to show this inclusive wisdom of the Church, revealed from +the beginning, Firstly in the Church's Founder, Secondly in the Church's +organisation, and Thirdly in the Church's destination. + + + + + THE INCLUSIVE WISDOM OF THE CHURCH'S FOUNDER + + +By His birth He included and bound together the lowest and the highest, +the natural and the supernatural: stable, manger, straw, sheep and +shepherds on the one hand; stars, angels, magi and Davidic royal origin +on the other. + +By His life He included the austerity of the Indian monks, of John the +Baptist and the Nazarenes on the one hand; and on the other the +Confucian moderate feasting, in the houses of friends, at the marriage +feast and on other solemn occasions. + +His life-drama was interwoven into the lives of all classes of people: +men, women and children, Judaists and heathen, King Herod and the +proconsul Pilate, priests and soldiers, merchants and beggars, learned +sophists and ignorant fools, the sick and the healthy, the righteous and +the sinful, Jews and Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, and all others who +could be met in Palestine, the very market of races and creeds. + +He was by no means a party man like the Pharisees and the doctors of +law. He called both the Pharisees and their enemies to follow Him. He +went to the temple to pray, but He also prayed alone in the desert. He +kept the Sabbath and He broke the Sabbath by healing the sick and doing +good on this sacred day. He came not to destroy the Law, but He brought +something which was higher than the Law and even included the law +itself, i.e. love and mercy. + +He rebuked people who used to pray and say. "Lord, Lord!" And yet He +prayed very often Himself. He rebuked those who were fasting, and yet He +used to fast Himself. What He really looked for was neither prayer nor +fasting, but the spirit in which one prayed or fasted. + +He commanded the people to give to Caesar things which were Caesar's, +and to God that which was God's. He did not criticise this or that form +of government, nor did He accentuate Monarchism, Republicanism, or +Socialism as one form preferable to another. Under His scheme all forms +of government were included as equally good or evil according to what +place they reserved for God, what gifts they duly gave to God, and by +what spirit they were inspired. + +He followed the customs of His nation, and did not break them or evade +them purposely. He took food according to the Law, and washed hands +according to the Law, and went to the Holy City and took part in worship +in the temple (though He was "greater than the temple"), according to +the Law. It seems that He excluded no form of worship or social life, +though He despised the unclean and petty spirit with which the +hypocrites filled these forms. And when it came to a dispute He, the +Messenger of a new spirit, naturally tried to save rather the pure +spirit even without a form than a form filled with an impure spirit. +Therefore He felt bound to say: "Not that which goeth into the mouth +defileth a man," or "to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man," or +"thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet," etc. + +Even so, too, He embraced all nationalities and races. Nothing was for +Him unclean that God had created, nothing but unclean spirits. When the +Roman centurion asked help from Him, He gave it. And when the people +beyond the Israelitish boundaries, from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, +cried after Him, He did not listen to the exclusivistic warnings of His +disciples, but He distributed even there His divine mercy. He was +mindful even of the people of Nineveh. And when He sent His disciples, +He sent them to "all nations." + +Finally, He included the natural and the supernatural. He talked with +spirits. He saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven. He stood amongst +Peter, John and James on one side, and Moses and Elias on the other. All +the people saw lilies in the field and sparrows upon the roof, but He +saw more, He saw how, His Father clothed the lilies and how He fed the +sparrows. He united the natural and the supernatural in His teaching. + +"Love those who love thee" was a natural teaching. But He added: "and +those who hate and persecute thee," which was supernatural. + +"Give to them who give to thee" was a natural teaching. But He added: +"and to them who do not give to the", which was supernatural. + +"Bless those who bless thee." But He added: "and those who curse thee," +which was supernatural. + +And He united the natural and supernatural in His death. He suffered and +died in agony. He rose from the dead, descended to Hell and ascended to +Heaven. For Him there was as little boundary between heaven and earth, +between nature and supernature, as between Israel and Canaan, or as +between man and man, or form and form. + +His wisdom was inclusive from the beginning to the end. What did He ever +exclude--save unclean spirits? His disciples were as exclusive as +anybody could be, exclusive when judging and acting according to natural +wisdom. But when they looked at Him, they were reconciled. He was the +Holy Wisdom, in which everyone could find a mansion for himself, every +disciple, every nation, every form of worship, everything--but the +unclean spirit. + + + + + THE INCLUSIVE WISDOM IN THE CHURCH'S ORGANISATION + + +Let us look now to the Christian Church in the early time of her +formation. + +Jesus Christ gave the largest possible scheme on which to work and the +largest foundation to build upon. There is no other name in history upon +which more has been constructed than upon His name. The primitive Church +realised it from the beginning, and declared it. She was inclusive from +the first, inclusive in her teaching and worship. + +(a) Inclusive in Teaching.--Christ was put in the centre of the world's +history. He represented what was the best and highest in Eastern and +Western thought. The dream of Messias was the best and highest in the +Jewish conception. Well, Jesus was the Messias. + +The expectation of a second Adam, the redeemer of the first, sinful +Adam, was common among the peoples in Palestine and Mesopotamia. Well, +Jesus was the second Adam, the expected Redeemer, God's Messenger. + +Egypt had an intuition into the mystery of the Divinity as a Trinity. +However rough may have been that idea, the Trinity being thought of as a +human family of Father, Mother, and Son, still it existed very vividly +in Egypt. And the people expected the coming of God's only Son, the +third person of their Trinity, not an imaginary being like Horus, but +the real son of Osiris in flesh and blood who would bring happiness to +men. Well, Jesus of Nazareth was this Son of God, and He as Christ was +the eternal sharer of the Divine Trinity. + +India was the cradle of the teaching of the Incarnation. The supreme +God, Brahma, had already been incarnated in many persons since the dawn +of history. But the highest incarnation of Him was still to come. Well, +Jesus Christ was this highest incarnation of Brahma in human shape. + +The cultivated polytheists did not like the idea of a monotonous +theology of one solitary God. They liked rather a divine company upon +Olympus. Well, Christianity with its Trinity-teaching presented to them +a limited polytheism. God was not physically one, as in Judaism, nor +many, as in Hellenism. He was a Trinitarian Plurality in Unity. He was +not a grim hermit, but He had the riches of an eternal life. + +The intellectual Greeks and Hellenists climbed to the idea of one God +and of Logos, the Mediator between God and the world, through whom God +created whatever He created, and who may be incarnated for the salvation +of the fallen, suffering creation. Well, Jesus Christ could include in +His person this wonderful doctrine of Neoplatonism. + +The mountainous Asia under Caucasus and Ararat, plunged into the mystery +of Mithras, which was born out of the Zoroastrian dualistic religion of +light and darkness, of Ormuzd and Ahriman. Well now, Christ, the friend +of humanity, revealed Himself as the God of light struggling against +Satan, the enemy of humanity. + +Rome, politically ruling the world, was longing for a sacred King, for a +Prince of Peace, who should come from the East and bring to the people +some higher and truer happiness than that deceiving chimera of political +bigness. Well, Christ should be this universal, sacred King, this Prince +of Peace, and Messenger of a durable happiness. It is not true that +Christ had His prophets among the people of Israel only. His prophets +existed in every race and every religion and philosophy of old. That is +the reason why the whole world could claim Christ, and how He can be +preached to everybody and accepted by everybody. Behold, He was at home +everywhere! + +(b) Inclusive in Worship.--Inclusive in doctrine, the primitive Church +was wisely inclusive in worship too. It would be nonsense to speak of +Christian worship as of something quite new and surprising. There was +very little new and very little surprising in it indeed; almost nothing. +The first Church met for prayer in the Jewish temple. Wherever the +apostles came to preach the new Gospel they went to the old places of +prayer, to the temples of Jehovah. Their Christian spirit did not revolt +against the old forms of worship. Later on the naked Christian spirit +needed to be clothed, and it was clothed. But when Israel looked to +Christian worship they recognised much--forms, signs, vestments and +administration--to be like their own. And not only Israel, but even +Egypt, India, Babylon and Persia, Greece and Rome, yea, the Pagans of +North and South. If Nature could speak, it could say how much it lent of +its own to Christian worship. + +A student of ancient history one day asked me: "How can I recognise the +Christian religion as the best of all, when I know how much it borrowed +from the ancient religious forms of worship? How poor it looks without +all that!" + +I said: "Just this wonderful power of embracing and assimilating gives +evidence of the vitality and universality of Christianity. It is too +large in spirit to be clothed by one nation or one race only. It is too +rich in spirit and destination to be expressed by one tongue, by one +sign, or one symbol, or one form. In the same sense as Christian +doctrine was prepared and prophesied by the religions and the +philosophies before Christ, in the same sense Christian worship was +prepared and prophesied as well. Whenever the Christian spirit is strong +the Church is not afraid of worship being strange, and ample, and even +grotesque. The weaker the Christian spirit, the greater exclusiveness in +worship. Some people say: It is wicked to use pagan architecture for the +Church, and incense and fire, and music, or dance, or bowing, or +kneeling, or signs and symbols, in Christian worship, because it is +pagan." Yes, all this is pagan indeed, but it is Christian too if we +wish it to be. The Latin language was pagan, but now it is Christian +too. The English language was a vehicle of Paganism as well, now it is a +vehicle of Christianity. The human body was itself pagan too, but the +Eternal Christ, God's Holy Wisdom, entered it and filled it with a new +spirit, and it ceased to be pagan. We in the East sometimes use for our +sacerdotal vestments Chinese silk made by pagan hands in China, or +chalices and spoons and little bells and chains made by the Moslems, or +precious stones gathered and scents prepared by the fire or +stone-worshippers of Africa, and no one of us should be afraid to use +them when worshipping Christ, as Christ Himself was not afraid to touch +the most wretched human bodies or souls with His pure hands. +Christianity cannot be defiled, using for its worship the works of pagan +hands, but pagan people are hereby taking a share in Christian worship, +physically and unconsciously, waiting for the moment when they will +share in it spiritually and consciously as well. Every piece of Chinese +silk in our vestments is a prophecy of the great Christian China. But +this belongs to the following paragraph. + + + + + THE INCLUSIVE WISDOM IN THE CHURCH'S DESTINATION + + +Judaism was destined for the people of Israel only. The Christian Church +was destined for the people of Israel too, but not for them only. She +included Greeks as well. + +The Greek polytheism of Olympus was destined for the Hellenic race only. +The Christian Church was destined for the Hellenic race too, but not for +it only. She included Indians as well. + +Buddha's wisdom was offered to the monks and vegetarians. Monks and +vegetarians the Christian Church included in her lap, but also married +and social people too. + +Pythagoras founded a religious society of intellectual aristocrats. The +Christian Church from the beginning included intellectual aristocrats +side by side with the ignorant and unlettered. + +The Persian prophet, Zoroaster, recruited soldiers of the god of light +among the best men to fight against the god of darkness. His religious +institution was like a military barracks. The Christian Church included +both the best and the worst, the righteous and the sinners, the healthy +and the sick. It was a barracks and a hospital at the same time. It was +an institution both for spiritual fighting and spiritual healing. + +The Chinese sage, Confucius, preached a wonderful ethical pragmatism, +and the profound thinker, Lao-Tse, preached an all-embracing +spiritualism. Christian wisdom included both of them, opening Heaven for +the first and showing the dramatic importance of the physical world for +the second. Islam--yes, Islam had in some sense a Christian ambition: to +win the whole world. The difference was: Islam wished world-conquest; +the Church, the world's salvation. Islam intended to subdue all men and +bring them before God as His servants: The Church intended to educate +all men, to purify and elevate them, and to bring them before God as His +children. + +And all others: star-worshippers, and fire, and wood, and water, and +stone, and animal-worshippers had a touching sense of the immediate +divine presence in nature. The Church came not to extinguish this sense +but to explain and to subordinate it; to put God in the place of demons +and hope instead of fear. + +The Church came not to destroy, but to purify, to aid and to assimilate. +The destination of the Church was neither national nor racial, but +cosmic. No exclusive power was ever destined to be a world-power. The +ultimate failure of Islam to become a world-power lies in its +exclusiveness. It was with religion as with politics. Every exclusive +policy is foredoomed to failure: the German as well as the Turkish and +the Napoleonic. The policy of the Church was designed by her Divine +Founder: "He that is not against us is for us." Well, there is no human +race on earth wholly against Christ and wholly unprepared to receive +Him. The wisdom of the Christian missionaries therefore is to see first +in what ways Providence has prepared a soil for Christian seed; to see +which of the Christian elements a race, or a religion, already +possesses, and how to utilise these elements and weld them into +Christianity. All that--in order to make Christianity grow organically, +instead of pushing it mechanically. + +In conclusion let me repeat again: the wisdom of the Church has been +inclusive. Inclusive was the wisdom of her Founder, inclusive the wisdom +of her organisation and of her destination. Exclusiveness was the very +sickness and weakness of the Church. That is why we in the East in the +time of sickness of the Church looked neither towards Peter, nor Paul, +nor John, but towards the Holy Wisdom, the all-healing and +all-illuminating. For St Sophia in Constantinople, the temple dedicated +to Christ the Eternal, includes in itself the sanctuaries of Peter, Paul +and John; moreover, it is supported even by some pillars of Diana's +temple from Ephesus and has many other things, in style or material, +which belonged to the Paganism of old. Indeed, St Sophia has room and +heart even for Islam. The Mohamedans have been praising it as the best +of their sanctuaries! + +I speak thus to you because I am sure you will not misunderstand me. And +because I know you, the British, to be a race of the world-wide spirit, +I dare to make this appeal to you. + +Look to the Holy Wisdom! Look beyond Peter, and Paul, and John--through +them and still beyond them! Every Church has her prophet, her apostle, +her angel. Look now over them all to the very top of the pyramid, where +all the lines meet! + +Either Christianity is one, or there is no Christianity. Either the +Church is universal, or there is no Church. + +There lived once upon a time twelve men as different as any twelve men +could be. And the Holy Wisdom united all of them into one spiritual +body. Such was the first Church of the twelve, and such ought to be the +last Church of the milliards: different in all her parts, but cemented +by the Holy Wisdom into one glorious building. Christ, God's Holy +Wisdom, includes all of us, why should we exclude each other? He was +sent for the salvation of China and Japan and India as well as for that +of the Jews and Greeks. Well, let us quarrel no more about the +"circumcision" while a milliard of human beings are still waiting to +hear for the first time the name of Jesus Christ--yea, for the first +time after two thousand years! Let the present time be the new Pentecost +for us all. I speak to you, the British: don't look around you and wait; +it is yours to start. All the peoples of earth are looking towards you +and listening to you. Don't be too shy to start. + +To start what? To start a revival of the primitive wisdom of the Church, +i.e. to confess and declare: + +That Christianity in its integrity is one and indivisible; + +That Christianity is not a precious stone preserved in a box called the +Church of England, or the Church of the East, or Rome, but that it is +the common good of mankind, destined for all continents and all races; + +That there is no constituent of the present European civilisation, but +the Christian religion, which could stop the brutal struggle among men, +in one form or another, and guarantee a Godlike peace profitable for +the whole of mankind. + +All of us, small or great nations, are now looking to you with respect, +not only for the victory over a revived anachronical Paganism in Central +Europe, but also for a formulation of the new ideal, of saving power for +all men. + +Great is our expectation indeed, but it is justified by your gifts, +given to you by Providence. Therefore let your hearts be larger than +your Empire and your national Church, and the respect of mankind towards +you will be warmed by love. Surely there can not be built a greater +Empire than yours, humanly speaking. The only greater Empire than yours +will be Christ's Empire. And if you are longing for something greater +than your present possession, you are indeed longing for this universal, +pan-human Empire of Christ. Otherwise you would be sticking either at a +stagnancy or at something impossible. Both would be unwise: nature +tolerates no stagnancy and punishes experiments with the impossible. + +But who am I to teach you? "A reed (from the wilderness) shaken with the +wind"? Not I but the present despair of the world teaches you. I am only +a loud amongst many suffocated cries from West and East, from North and +South, directed to you: lift up your hearts and listen! God is now doing +a great thing through you, and the whole world is expecting a great +thing from you. What is this great thing? How to reach it? Pray and +listen! One thing only is sure, that this great thing will come neither +from any Foreign Office nor from any War Office, but from the living +Christian Church. Yes, she is still living, although she looks dead. She +is only sleeping. But Christ is standing beside her now, calling: "Rise, +ye daughter! Talitha Cumi!" + + + + + CHAPTER II + + THE DRAMA OF THE CHURCH + + +The Church is a drama. She represents the greatest drama in the world's +history, yea, she personates the whole of the world's history. She +originated in an astounding personal drama. Humanly speaking, in the +life of Jesus Christ during the three years of His public work there was +more that was dramatic, from an outside and inside point of view, than +in the lives of all other founders of religion taken together. And +speaking from a soteriological and theological point of view, His +life-drama had a cosmic greatness, involving heaven and earth and both +ends of the world's history. Wonderful was the life of Buddha, but his +teaching was still more wonderful than his life. Very striking was the +life of Mohammed, the life of a pious and romantic statesman, but his +work quickly overgrew his personality. Five years after Mohammed's +death, Islam numbered more followers than Christianity five hundred +years after Golgotha. But the life-drama of Jesus was and still is +reckoned as the most marvellous aspect of Christianity: not His teaching +or His work, but His life. + +Well, was not His life-drama typical and prophetic for His Church? His +Church had to live through all those agonies, external and internal, +that He Himself lived through. She had to go through sunshine and +darkness, through angelic concerts and devilish temptations, through +death and resurrection. In one word, she had to live His life, again and +again, treading sometimes quickly, sometimes reluctantly, her path, +always asking for light and comfort from her visions of Him. I say the +visions of Him, because those visions were omnipotent, including in +themselves words and works. + +There is an impressive picture now circulating in London of an English +soldier lying wounded in agony on the battlefield. Well, what would a +Buddhistic painter put as a simile of consolation for the man in agony? +What else if not a Buddha's sentence or word? And what would a +Mohammedan painter put on the picture to console the expiring soldier if +not also a sentence or word from the Koran or an imaginative view of the +Paradise which is waiting for him? And you know what a Christian painter +depicted--the vision of the Crucified! the soldier lying beneath this +vision grasping with his hand Jesus' bleeding feet; this vision of the +Crucified is greater than any sentence, any word, yea, it includes all +the words of sympathy and of consolation. On another occasion the +Christian painter would paint another appropriate vision, and a painter +of another religion or philosophy would write another appropriate word. +Therefore, it is difficult to learn the Christian religion without +pictures, or to teach it without visions. + + + + + THE DRAMATIC FORMATION OF THE CHURCH + + +It was a quarrel, as usual, among men about God and bread, when Jesus +interrupted them. Peter never thought to fish anything else all his life +but fishes, nor Pilate to sentence to death anyone but criminals, nor +the Jewish patriots that they were losing their greatest opportunity, +nor the heathen of Britannia that they were contemporaries with the very +God in flesh of their posterity. How many times did it happen that Jesus +during the first thirty years of His life was present in the temple when +a Rabbi read the prophetic passages on the Messiah! Reading the +Scriptures the poor Rabbi measured the distance between himself and the +Messiah by thousands of years, and 10--the Messiah in person was +listening to his reading! + +All the controversies in the synagogues and in the streets of Jerusalem +were merely repeated platitudes, when a man appeared in Galilee, who +claimed the highest authority and showed the greatest humility at the +same time. The Law was the highest authority for the Jews, and the +Emperor of Rome the highest authority for Pilate. But Jesus declared +himself to be the bearer of an authority which was incomparably higher +than any authority existing on earth. He did not beg either Andrew or +Peter or John and James, to follow Him; He commanded them: "Follow Me!" +Speaking with authority He gained the confidence of His first followers, +and showing humility He also gamed their love. Authority and +humility--two qualities which not often were united in the character of +the church-leaders, a good reason why many of them were feared and many +others pitied, instead of being respected and loved as Jesus was +respected and loved by the first Church. For fear and pity are the +degenerate forms of respect and love. + +What we call the first Church represented in reality the smallest Church +in number as well as in time and space, but the richest in its dramatic +changes and conflicts. + +Some few fishermen were called by Christ, and this call meant real +baptism for them. He let Himself be baptised but He did not baptise His +disciples otherwise than by His personal calling to them to follow Him; +Pentecost was their "confirmation." The history of the first Church +comprised a time not of some hundred years but of some hundred days. +When Andrew and Peter followed Jesus the formation of the Church +started. There were already two gathered in His name and conducted by +Him in person. As a matter of fact, they followed Jesus at first merely +with their eyes and feet, but with their hearts they still followed +Moses and the Law. The Twelve Disciples were at first nothing more than +twelve insignificant grains of sand placed upon a big rocky foundation +of a palace, which had to be built. Only after their confirmation by the +Holy Spirit did they become the real pillars of the palace. They were +uncertain about their Master and everything He said, and they quarrelled +about many things. I think they represented through their differences +not one church but twelve churches, but by their common respect and love +for their Master they represented one Church only. What a prophetic +image of the Church of Christ, say, after nineteen hundred years! + +Now as long as the living Jesus was with the first Church she was all +right. His life was the source of her life; His authority and power +meant her existence and unity. But when the Shepherd was smitten the +sheep were scattered. When the followers of Christ saw Him powerless and +dead they denied Him and fell back to their natural instinct of +self-defence, and the first Church died with the death of Christ. It was +like the green corn in the field smitten by a flail to the very root. +The owner of the corn walks in the field and looks with despair on his +perished corn. But it happens often that after a few days the field +begins under the sunshine to flourish anew, and the corn grows +beautifully and brings forth plenty of fruit. + +Mary of Magdala and the other Mary brought this first sunshine over the +smitten corn. "He is alive!" This was the tidings of the women on the +second morning after His death. This tidings about the living Lord Jesus +con-verted Peter and the other disciples again to Christianity. "He is +alive"--that was the greatest word ever uttered by any human tongue +since the Church was founded. Yea, through this very word the drooping +Church was brought again to life. Whatever utterances Peter made during +Christ's life were as dead as stone compared with Mary Magdalene's +tidings of the living Lord after the catastrophe of His death. The +beautiful and true words: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living +God," had no meaning whatever for the future of Christianity in +comparison with the certainty that the dead Christ had risen, i.e. that +He was Lord even over death. Therefore if I could be convinced that a +grain of good as small as the mustardseed should result from the strange +quarrels about the primacy of this or that Church--or this or that +bishop--I would be very sorry that there did not exist a Church founded +upon the memory of Mary Magdalene. For Mary Magdalene, and not St Peter, +expressed the first the absolutely decisive revelation, churchmaking and +world-changing. "He is alive" was this decisive revelation. + +Pentecost was the crown of the first Church and meant her victory over +all her internal conflicts and her final armament for the coming +dramatic struggle in the world. The Church, which kept herself after +Golgotha on the defensive, inwardly against doubt and fear, outwardly +against the regardless persecution of men, now, after Pentecost, +undertook again her offensive against all her enemies, and became again +the Church militant as she was before Golgotha when the Lord led her in +person. This is the second Church, to which also we all belong. +Historically, this Church is the second, but organically and +dogmatically she is absolutely one with the first Church. Let us see now +what were. + + + + + THE EXTERNAL CONFLICTS OF THE MILITANT CHURCH + + +For the quantity and quality of the conflicts are the conditions of the +dramatic life of a person as well as of a society. Well, the Christian +Church had plenty of the most extraordinary conflicts, external and +internal. Among the gravest external conflicts I reckon her conflicts +with Patriotism and Imperialism. + +The first Christians were persecuted most fiercely by the exclusive +Jewish patriots, as all good Christians always have been persecuted by +exclusive patriots. For it is an essential characteristic of a true +Christian not to be an exclusive patriot, exalting his own nation and +despising all others. Oppression and suffering are the best soil for a +too excited Patriotism. Such a soil was Israel in the time of Christ and +the first Church. All parties were united against Christ and His +followers upon national and patriotic grounds; the Pharisees, the +Scribes, the Sadducees and the ignorant people, believers and +sceptics--they all accused Christ of "perverting the nation." They +accused St Paul of the same crime. Yet St Paul it was who dealt with the +question of Jewish Patriotism very courageously and minutely. + +Patriotism is a natural quality, but Christianity is supernatural. +Patriotism is a provincial truth, but Christianity is a pan-human truth. +Patriotism means love of one's country or one's generation, Christianity +means love of all countries and all generations. Christianity includes a +sound and true Patriotism, but excludes untrue and exaggerated +Patriotism as it excludes every untrue thought and feeling. Of course an +exalted Patriotism in a frame of hatred all around excludes the +Christian religion and is its most dangerous enemy. St Paul, who +remained a true patriot till the end of his life, thought, as we all +shall think, that Christianity never can damage the just cause of a +country, but, on the contrary, it gives to a patriotic cause a universal +nimbus and importance, putting it direct before the Eternal Judge, and +liberating it from small anxieties, little faith and unworthy actions. +He who is numbering every day our hair, and feeding the sparrows, and +clothing the grass in the field--He is a greater warrant for our +patriotic justice than any of our exaggerated calculations and +sentiment about our country and our nation. Alas, no European nation has +right to blame the Jews because of their persecution of Christianity in +the name of their Patriotism. There exists no country in Europe which +has not at some time in the name of a false Patriotism either directly +persecuted or abased the Church, or at least subordinated her to the +cause of the country or put her in the service of its local and temporal +cause. The purest Christianity in the nineteenth century had a struggle +against patriotic and nationalistic exclusiveness not much less dramatic +than the primitive Church, struggling in Judasa against Judaism and in +Greece against Hellenism. The national hero-saints were exalted in +Europe over the merely Christian saints: in France, Jeanne d'Arc; in +Russia, Serge of Radonez; in Germany, Luther; among the Serbs, St Savva, +and St Peter of Cettinje. + +Another enemy of the Church from the beginning was Imperialism. First of +all Roman Imperialism. Christ's second "crime," for which He was brought +before Pilate, was His disregard of Caesar. And Caesar was the symbol of +the Roman world-dominion. Therefore, one Caesar after the other did +their best to exterminate this dangerous Christian sect. Therefore, +among hundreds of religions only Christianity practically was prohibited +in the Roman Empire, as a religio illicita. No wonder! All other +religions which swarmed in Rome were tolerated as naive curiosities by +the people who had lost their own religion. But Christianity was marked +as an enemy from the first. Not only a corrupted Caesar, like Nero, +persecuted the Church, but the wise ones like Trajan and Diocletian, and +the wisest, like Marcus Aurelius. There were plenty of pretexts to +excite the public mind: burnings, earthquakes, diseases, etc. It was +Trajan who prohibited by an edict the Christian secret clubs, Hetoerias, +as dangerous to the State. And it was the philosopher Marcus Aurelius +who sentenced to death the Christian philosopher, Justin, on +Imperialistic grounds. + +Rome was armed to the teeth and the Church had no arms at all except an +ardent belief and the inspired word. Rome drew the sword against the +unarmed Christians, and the Christians armed only with Jesus Christ, and +with empty hands, took the challenge. The enemies knew each other from +the beginning. Rome's conviction was: better to lose the soul than the +Empire; and the Christians' was: better to save the soul than to get an +Empire. The Roman persecutors were every day sure of their victory, +slaughtering defenceless men and women, or throwing them ad bestias, +whereas the martyrs saw their victory as a distant vision, and still +rejoiced. "The prison was like a palace to me," exclaimed St Perpetua. +And Saturus, another martyr, spoke to his executors: "Mark our faces +well, that you may know us again in the day of judgment." Such was the +spirit of the primitive Church in her duel with pagan Imperialism. + +Islam was another kind of Imperialism against which the Church fought. +If the Roman Imperialism was cool, calculating, without any fanaticism, +Islam was a unique form of religious, fanatical Imperialism, having in +view world-conquest and world-dominion, like Rome and yet unlike Rome. +Here the Church fought with the sword against the sword. Before the +definite fall of the Roman Empire the crusades of Christianity against +Islam began, and it has not been finished until this day. Very dramatic +was this struggle in Palestine, under Western crusaders, in Spain and +Russia. But I think the most dramatic act of this dramatic conflict +happened in the Balkans, especially in Serbia, during the last five +hundred years. + +The conflict with Islamic Imperialism was not yet at an end when a +French, and English, and Russian, and German Imperialism were +formulated. We may call it by one name, European Imperialism, although +every species of it is different. What was the Church's attitude towards +the European imperialistic formulae? Did she agree with them? Or did she +oppose and protest as she did against Rome and the Crescent? No, she +neither agreed nor disagreed as a whole, but partially she agreed or +disagreed. Yet the true Church of Christ reserves the world-dominion +only for Christianity in its most spiritual and perfect form and +excludes every other dominion of man over men. The present cataclysm of +Europe may show the world that no earthly king is destined for dominion +over our planet, but Christ, the Heavenly King of souls. + + + + + THE INTERNAL CONFLICTS OF THE CHURCH + + +Dramatic was the external course of Church history, fighting against +exclusive Patriotism and Imperialism, dramatic too, her internal +struggles for a true doctrine and an ethical ideal. + +1. The Struggle for a True Doctrine.--The central problem for the living +Church has always been: Who was Jesus? and how to worship Him? The +restless spirit of humanity endeavoured to define the details both in +His relation to God and to the world. The Church did not define her +doctrine in advance, but bit by bit, pragmatically, according to the +questions and doubts raised in the Christian communities. The refused +solutions of a raised question were called heresy, the adopted solution +by the Church was called orthodoxy. No heresy came merely as an abstract +theory, but every one was a dramatic movement, an organisation, a camp, +a deed--and not merely a word. That made the struggle against it more +difficult. Docetism, Nicolaism, Gnosticism, Chiliasm, Manichaism, +Monatism, Monarchism, Monophysitism, Monotheletism, Arianism, +Nestorianism--every one of these terms means both a theory and a drama. +The Church had to correct the opinion of the heretics for herself, and +to fight against them for themselves. + +The doctrine of the Church was regarded by the heretics as incorrect or +insufficient, and by outsiders as wicked. Celsus, an Epicurean writer, +despised the Christian doctrine as of "barbarous origin." The people of +Smyrna being aroused against the Christians and their bishop, Polycarp, +cried: "Away with the Atheists!" the heathen misunderstood the Church +doctrine and called the Christians atheists, as Montanus, a Christian +heretic, misunderstood the Church doctrine and regarded Jesus only as +his own Percursor and himself as an incarnation of the Holy Spirit. But +the Church did not care either for the pressure from without or from +within, she went on her way cheerfully, struggling and believing, +showing to the world her saints and martyrs as her argument and Christ +as the guarantee of her ultimate victory. + +The Church had also a dramatic struggle with the philosophers. She +rather was inclusive concerning the different opposed systems. John of +Damascus based his theology upon Aristotle, like Thomas Aquinas, and +Gregory of Nyssa based his own upon Plato, as the Scottish School did in +the nineteenth century. Pantheism and Deism were both against the +Church. Pantheism thought God immanent, Deism thought God transcendent. +The Church had already in its creeds the true parts of both of these +systems. She taught that God is by His essence transcendent to this +world, which is His image, but immanent in the world pragmatically, or +dramatically, i.e. visiting this world and acting in this world. + +Materialism and spiritualism excluded each other, but both held the +Church in contempt as a "rough philosophy for the people." Yet the +Church included the true parts for both, not by asserting anything about +the atoms but by recognising two different worlds, the world of bodies +and the world of spirits, in a dramatic union in this transitory +Universe. + +In the same way the Church cut off the extremities and one-sidedness in +empiricism and supernaturalism, in rationalism and mysticism, in +optimism and pessimism. All these systems represented the human effort +to solve the riddle of our life without taking any notice of the Church +and her wisdom. And all failed to become the universally accepted truth, +but all of them helped the Church unconsciously to her own orientation +and strength. The Church collided with any extreme philosophy. Her +wisdom was broad as life, simple as life on the one hand, and manifold +as life on the other; mystical as the starry night and pragmatic as a +weekday. + +2. The Struggle for an Ethical Ideal.--The primitive Church was "of one +heart and of one soul," or, in the words of a very early document, it +was among the Christians: "A life in the flesh but not according to the +flesh" (Epist. ad Diognet.). But the restless human spirit soon dug out +difficult questions and conflicts concerning the ethical life of the +Church members. Of course the Lord Himself was the supreme moral ideal, +but men felt themselves to be too small and too narrow to grasp this +ideal both in its purity and its broadness and inclusiveness. Therefore +we see not only in the primitive Church but throughout Church history +extreme and exclusive propositions to solve the problem. For instance, +asceticism with celibacy and flight from the world was regarded by some +people in the primitive Church as the highest ideal of morality. The +deserts were populated with the ascetics. The same ideal has been +strongly accentuated in Russia even in the nineteenth century. On the +other hand, chastity has been preferred as an ideal by many others. + +Another problem was: what were more salvatory, faith or works? Or +another: whether we are saved or condemned by God's predestination or by +our free will (libertarian, arbitrarian, Augustinianism, and +Pelagianism; Jansenism and Ultramontanism)? Or another: in our moral +perfection how much is God's grace operating and how much our human +collaboration? Or another: what part worship plays in our salvation (the +problem known in theology as opus operatum)? Or another: what should be +the normal relation of the Church and State, the Church and social life, +the Church and education, the Church and the manifold needs and +tribulations of mankind? + +All these problems, and many others here unmentioned, moved every part +of the Christian Church in the East and West. Your Church history too is +full of a moving and dramatic struggle for light in all these problems, +from the day when the first Roman missionaries brought the new Gospel to +your country up to our days. + +The Church, inclusive in wisdom, has had the most dramatic history in +the world. Struggling against Patriotism, she pleaded for humanity; and +struggling against Imperialism, she pleaded for spirituality. And again: +struggling against heretics, she pleaded for unity, and struggling +against worldly philosophers, she pleaded for a sacred and pragmatic +wisdom. She looked sometimes defeated and on her knees before her +enemies, but she rose again and again like the phoenix from its ashes. +In her dramatic struggle through the world and against the world the +internal voice of her Founder comforted and inspired her. The harder +struggles she fought the louder was the comforting and inspiring voice. +The more comfortable she made herself in this world, the less was His +magic voice heard. His life was a scheme of her life: his crucifixion +and resurrection a prophecy of her history to the world's end. Whenever +she became satisfied with herself and with the world around her she was +overshadowed and eclipsed. Whenever she feared struggle and suffering +she became sick, on the dying bed. He then stood, meek and sorrowful, at +her bed and called: Arise, my daughter! + +The Church's craving for comfort is indeed her craving for death. Like a +noble knight who descends into a prison to liberate the enchained +slaves, to whom the prison is painful and liberation still more painful, +so is the Church's position in this world. But how regrettable should it +be if the noble knight accommodated himself in the prison among the +slaves and forgot the light from which he had descended and to which he +ought to return! "He is one of ourselves," the slaves will say. So might +say to-day all the worldly institutions about the Christian Church in +this valley of slavery: "She is one of ourselves." She is destined to +quicken the world end, and she is postponing it. One millennium is past, +another is near by, yet the Church does not think of the world end: she +loves this world; that is her curse. The world still exists because of +the Church's hesitation and fear. Were she not hesitating and fearing +she had been dramatically struggling and suffering, and a new heaven and +a new earth should be in sight. Why has the Church stopped being a +drama? Why is she hesitating and fearing? Doubts and comfort have +weakened the Church. The most tragical religion has climbed from +Golgotha to Olympus and is now lying there comfortably, in sunshine and +forgetfulness, while Chronos, appeased, continues to measure the time by +thousands of years, as before. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + THE AGONY OF THE CHURCH + + +The present time should be one of self criticism. The European race now +needs this self-criticism more than any other race, and the Christian +Church needs it more than any other religion in the world, for before +this War the European race set itself up as the critic of the defects +and insufficiencies of all other races, and the Christian Church exalted +herself over all other religions "as high as the heaven is exalted over +the earth." The other races and religions thought that behind this proud +criticism of Christian Europe there must be at least a well-possessed +security for the world-peace. Of course it was an illusion. On no +continent was the peace of mankind more endangered than in Europe, the +very metropolis of Christianity and Christian civilisation. And it has +been so not only during the last few years, it has been the case during +the last thousand years, that Europe has represented a greater contrast +to peace than any other continent. During the last thousand years +history can report more wars, more bloodshed, and more criminal unrest +in Christian Europe than in the heathen countries of the Far +East--China, Japan, and India. It is a very humiliating fact, both for +the white race and for its religion, but, nevertheless, it is a fact. +This humiliating fact should rouse us in the present painful times to +the consideration of our own defects and insufficiencies. Europe is +sick, and her Church is sick too. How can a wounded man be healed unless +his wounds are unveiled? Europe's soul is sick, therefore her body is so +sorely suffering and bleeding. Well, Europe's soul is nothing else than +Europe's religion, but the religion of Europe to-day is not Europe's +guide and lord, it is Europe's most obedient servant. + + + + THE CHURCH THE SERVANT OF PATRIOTISM AND IMPERIALISM + + +Patriotism and Imperialism--qualities more physical than spiritual--were +the worst enemies of the primitive Church, as I tried to show in my +previous chapters. Well, Patriotism and Imperialism have been the most +prominent qualities of modern Europe. Now compare the primitive Church +with the modern Church: the primitive Church fought most tenaciously and +heroically against the exclusive Patriotism of the Jews and against the +Imperialism of the Romans, and the modern Church serves very obediently +modern Patriotism and Imperialism! I wish I were wrong in what I am +stating now, but, alas! the facts are too obvious, both the facts of +this War, and the facts of previous peace. + +Here are the facts: + +When Austria mobilised against Serbia and declared War, the Church in +Austria did not protest against it, but, on the contrary, she supported +the Vienna Government with all her heart and means. + +It is well known how much the Church of Germany, both the Protestant and +the Roman Catholic, unanimously and strongly supported the War policy of +the Kaiser's Government--the very policy of a blind exclusiveness and a +regardless Imperialism. + +The Governments of Russia and Great Britain declared War against their +enemies without consulting their respective Churches, yet the Churches +of both countries have done their best to help their "country's cause." + +The Churches of France, Italy, Serbia, Rumania, Belgium, and Bulgaria +have been at the disposal of the War Governments of their countries. + +Now we have almost the same denominations of religion on each fighting +side (it is, however, significant that the whole Anglican Church and the +Eastern Orthodox Church are on the side of the Allies), so that we +cannot say it is a War of Protestants against Catholics, nor of the +Orthodox against the Modernists, nor of the Episcopalians against the +Presbyterians, nor even of the Christians against Mohamedans (because on +both sides we have Christians and Mohammedans). No, we cannot say that, +for it is not a War of one Church against the other, nor of one religion +against another; it is a War of Patriotism against Patriotism, of +Patriotism against Imperialism, and of Imperialism against Imperialism. +The Churches are only the tools of Patriotism or Imperialism. Not one of +the Churches has stated her standpoint as a different one from the +standpoint of its respective Government. The Churches have simply +adopted the standpoint of the Government. They seemed to have no +standpoint of their own concerning this War between nations. As if the +War were quite a surprisingly new event in history! + +When the Austrian Government declared war on Serbia, the Church of +Austria adopted the standpoint of the Austrian Government as the right +one. The Serbian Church adopted the standpoint of the Serbian +Government, of course, as the right one. So it happened that the +Churches in Austria and Serbia prayed to the same God, and against each +other. + +The Church of Germany stood up against the Church of Russia because the +German Government stood up against the Russian Government. Neither could +the Church of Germany raise any protest against the warlike German +Government, nor could the Church of Russia say anything to cancel what +the Russian Government had already said. And so it happened that the +Churches of Germany and Russia prayed to the same God for each other's +destruction. + +The Churches of France, England, Belgium, and Italy have fully +recognised the justice of the Governments of France, Belgium, and Italy +concerning the War of those countries against other countries, whose +justice on the other hand has been fully recognised by their Churches. +And so it has happened that during the last three years the most +contradictory prayers have been sent to God in Heaven from the "One, +Holy, Catholic Church" on earth. + +The Churches of the different countries adopted the standpoint of those +countries which governed them. What is the consequence if a Christian +Church adopts the standpoint of a worldly Government as the true one? It +means practically nothing else but that the said Church recognises that +standpoint as the Christian one. + +Now, if the German policy is right, the German Church is right, and +consequently, the Russian Church is wrong; and, on the other hand, if +the Russian policy is right the Russian Church is right, and, +consequently, the German Church is wrong. The same, if the Serbian +Patriotism, which dictates the Serbian policy, is right, then the +Serbian Church, too, is right; and if the Austro-German Imperialism is +right, then the Austro-German Churches are right, and the Church in +Serbia wrong. Of course the same could be said for other belligerent +Churches, i.e., the justice or injustice of the Church of England +depended on the justice or injustice of the English Government, and the +same about the French, Belgian, and Italian Churches, which are +dependent on the justice or injustice of their respective Governments. +The same is true not only of the so-called established Churches, but of +the Disestablished as well. The great fact remains: no Church whatever +did protest against the War action taken by the respective Governments; +no Church whatever refused to do the War work she was asked to do, and, +finally, no Church whatever opposed her views to the views of the +Governments. In one word, no Christian Church now existing has declined +to be the very obedient servant either of Patriotism or Imperialism. +Future generations will be, I hope, more truly Christian than we have +been--they will be shocked to read in the history of the greatest and +bloodiest conflict in the world's history, that the worldly Governments, +and not the Christian Church, formulated the truth; in other words, that +the politicians and soldiers were bearers and formulators of the truth, +and that the Church was only a follower and supporter of that truth, +this truth having to wage War in consequence, i.e. the disobedience of +all God's ten Commandments--not to speak of the New Testament--which +truth must be condemned by the Church as untrue. Following to the +extreme the ideals of Patriotism and Imperialism, the Churches partially +did not shrink even from preaching War as a legal thing. The court +preacher of the Kaiser, preaching in the Domchurch at Berlin after the +Allie's refusal to enter into peace negotiations with Germany, said: "We +have spoken to our enemies (read, the enemies of German Imperialism), +and they did not listen to our words; well, let our guns talk now until +our enemies are compelled to listen to us!" That is the voice of a great +Church. Yet this voice has not remained unaccompanied with similar +warlike and unchristian voices from other great and small Churches. + + + + + THE LITTLE ISLANDS AMIDST THE OCEAN + + +Why did not the Church--the educator of Europe for the space of nineteen +hundred years--why did she not protest against this War? + +Because she was too weak everywhere; and, even if she had protested, her +voice would not have been listened to. + +But why was the Church so weak as to be silent at a most fatal moment in +history, and to have to listen to the Foreign and War Offices to know +what the truth was? + +Because she was not a united, universal Church, like a lofty mountainous +continent despising all the storms of an angry ocean around. She was +weak, because she was cut in pieces and had become like an archipelago +of small islands in a stormy ocean. + +The Churches were not prepared to protest, they were prepared only to +surrender to any temporal power. Therefore, they surrendered altogether, +without making any effort, to Patriotism and Imperialism. + +But what led to the Churches' surrender? It was through their internal +quarrels; through their fruitless controversies and paralysing mutual +accusations and self-sufficiency. + +For instance: + +The Eastern Church proudly insisted on her superiority over all other +Churches, because she preserved faithfully and unchangingly the most +ancient traditions of Christianity, and because she had an episcopal +decentralised system of Church administration, which has been capable of +adapting itself to all political and social situations. She reserved +perfection only for herself, and was prodigious in criticising other +Christian communities. She became an isolated island. + +The Roman Church has had nothing to do with any other Church, living in +her isolation and raising higher and higher the walls which separated +her from other Churches. She has a wonderful record of missionary work +in Europe and outside; she has a minutely organised centralisation, with +an infallible autocrat at the head; and she has an enlarged dogmatic +system, larger than any other Church. She pointed out again and again +her superiority to all other Christian communities, and claimed for +herself the exclusive right to speak in the name of Jesus Christ. Thus +she became an isolated island. + +The Anglican Church repudiated the papal authority. She repudiated as +well the Eastern worship of the saints and use of ikons on the one side, +and on the other she repudiated all the extremes of Protestantism in +teaching, worship and administration. She thought in that way to be the +absolutely true Christian organism, incomparably better than any other +all around. Thus the Anglican Church became an isolated island too. + +The Protestants of the Continent, and of England and Scotland, thought +to save the Christian religion in its integrity by bringing it back to +its primitive simplicity. By repudiating the Pope and the Bishops, by +shortening the Christian dogmatic, and by reducing worship to a minimum, +they boasted of restoring the true Church of Christ and His Apostles. +Everything which was an addition to their simplicity was regarded by +them either as unnecessary, or even as idolatrous and false. Thus the +Presbyterian and Protestant Nonconformist Churches became isolated +islands. + +But the more the morselling of Christianity went on, the more dangerous +became the raging ocean around it, so that now the Christian Archipelago +seems to be quite covered with the stormy waves. The Church, therefore, +is in an agony everywhere. Even if the Church had no responsibility upon +her shoulders for the present bloodshed in Europe, she would be in +agony, just because the whole Christian world is in agony, but much more +so because a great deal of responsibility for it must rest on her +shoulders. + + + + + SELF-CASTIGATION + + +The Christian monks of old used to castigate themselves when a great +plague came over the world. They used to consider themselves as the real +cause of the plague, and did not accuse anybody else. Well, this extreme +method ought to be used now by the Churches, for the good of mankind and +for their own good. It would be quite enough to bring the dawning of a +new day for Christianity if this self-castigation of the Churches were +only a self-criticism. + +If, for instance, the Eastern Church would say: Although I have +preserved faithfully and unchangingly the most ancient traditions of +Christianity, still I have many faults and insufficiencies. I have much +to learn from the Roman Church, how to bring all my sections, all my +national and provincial branches into closer touch; and from Anglicanism +I have to learn the wonderful spirit of piety, expressed not only in old +times, but even in quite modern times through new prayers, new hymns, +new Psalms, added to the old ones; and from Protestantism I have to +learn the courage to look every day to the very heart of religion in its +simplest and most common expressions. + +Or, if the Roman Church would use this self-criticism, saying: My +concentration is my strength and my weakness. Perhaps, after all, my +Pope is more a Caesaristic than a Christian Institution, making more for +worldly Imperialism than for the Spirituality of the world. I have to +learn from the Christian East more humility, and from Anglicanism more +respect for human freedom and social democracy, and from Protestantism a +more just appreciation of human efforts and results in science and +civilisation generally. + +Or, if the Anglican Church would use self-criticism like this, and say, +I am, of course, an Apostolic Church, but I am not the only Church. I +have to learn from the Eastern Church something, and from the Church of +Rome something, but, above all, I have to learn that they are the +Apostolic Churches as well as I, and that I am, without them, too small +an island, and unable to resist alone the flood of patriotic and +imperialistic tendencies. And from the Protestants I have to learn to +put the living Christ above all doctrinal statements and liturgical +mysteries. + +Or, if the Protestants of all classes would abandon their contemptuous +attitude towards so-called ecclesiasticism and ritualism, and criticise +themselves, saying: We have had too much confidence in human reason and +human words. Our worship is bare of every thing but the poor human +tongue. We have excluded Nature from our worship, though Nature is +purer, more innocent and worthier to come before the face of God than +men. We have been frightened by candles and incense, and vestments, and +signs, and symbols, and sacraments, but now we see that the mystery of +life and of our religion is too deep to be spoken out clearly in words +only. And we have been frightened by the episcopal administration of the +Church, but now we see that the episcopal system is a golden midway +between the papal and our extremes. Besides, we have gone too far in +our criticism of the Church tradition and of the Holy Scriptures. We +have to learn to abstain from calling the Eastern Church idolatrous and +the Roman Church tyrannical, and the Episcopal Church inconsistent. We +have our own idolatries (our idols are: individualism, human reason, and +the human word); and we have our own tyranny (the tyranny of criticism +and pride); and we have--thank god--our own inconsistencies. + +Such a self-criticism would mean really a painful self-castigation, +because it would mean a reaction from a policy of criticism and +self-sufficiency which has lasted a thousand years, ever since the 16th +July 1054--the very fatal date when the Pope's delegates put an +Excommunication Bull on the altar of St Sophia's in Constantinople. The +primitive monks, who practised self-castigation because of the +world-evil, experienced a wonderful purification of soul, a new vision +of God, and an extraordinary sense of unity with all men, living and +dead. Well, that is just what the Church needs at present; a +purification, a new vision of God, and a sense of unity. + + + + + A COMMON ILLUSION + + +The present agony of the Church has resulted from an illusion which has +been common to all the Churches, i.e. that one of the Churches could be +saved without all other Churches. It is, in fact, only the enlarged +Protestant theory of individualism, which found its expression, +especially in Germany, in the famous formula: "Thou, man, and thy God!" +It is an anti-social and anti-Christian formula too, quite opposed to +the Lord's Prayer: "Our Father," which is in the plural and not in the +singular possessive. This prayer is a symbol of our salvation: we can be +saved only in the plural, not in the singular; only collectively, not as +individuals: i.e. we can be saved, but I cannot be saved. I cannot be +saved without thee, and thou canst not be saved without me. For if thou +art in need I can be saved only by helping thee; and vice versa, if I am +in need, thou canst save thyself only by saving me. And we all, and +always, are in need of each other. Peter could not be saved without +Andrew, and John and James, nor could the others be saved without Peter. +That is why Christ brought them all together, and educated them to live +and pray together, and spoke to them in assembly as to one being. If +Christ's method were like the German Protestant method, "Thou, man, and +thy God!" He would really never have gathered the disciples together, +but He would have gone to Andrew and saved Andrew first; and then to +Peter and saved Peter; and then to John and James and the others, and +saved them individually, one by one. That is just what He did +not--because He could not do it. He knew, and He said (speaking of the +two Commandments), that God is only one constituent of our salvation, +and that the other constituent is our neighbours. What does that mean, +but that I cannot be saved without God and my neighbours? And my +neighbours! The whole of mankind must become the mystical body of Christ +before any one of us is saved. If ninety nine of us think we are saved, +still we must wait in the corridor of Heaven until the one lost sheep is +found and brought in; the door of Heaven does not open for one person +only. And speaking in larger circles we may say: If ninety-nine Churches +think they are saved, still they must wait in the corridor of Heaven +until the one retrograde Church has become the member of the mystical +body of Christ. The door of Heaven is open for Christ only and for +nobody else. And the mystical Christ does not mean one righteous man +only, or two, or twelve, or one Church denomination, or one +generation--no. It means milliards and milliards of human beings. All +the Churches are inbuilt into His body. This building is yet far from +being finished, still it is much larger and more magnificent than we +think. It is larger than a denomination, it is loftier than our nation, +or our race, or our Empire; yea, it is stronger than Europe. + +Consequently, the Church of England cannot be saved without the Church +of the East, nor the Church of Rome without Protestantism; nor can +England be saved without Serbia, nor Europe without China, nor America +without Africa, nor this generation without the generations past and +those to come. We are all one life, one organism. If one part of this +organism is sick, all other parts should be suffering. Therefore let the +healthy parts of the Church take care of the sick ones. Self-sufficiency +means the postponement of the end of the world and the prolongation of +human sufferings. It is of no use to change Churches and go from one +Church to another seeking salvation: salvation is in every Church as +long as a Church thinks and cares in sisterly love for all other +Churches, looking upon them as parts of the same body, or there is +salvation in no Church so long as a Church thinks and cares only for +herself, contemptuously denying the rights, beauty, truth and merits of +all other Churches. It is a great thing to love one's Church, as it is a +great thing to love one's country, but it is much better to love other +Churches and other countries too. Now, in this time, when the whole +Christian world is in a convulsive struggle one part against the other, +now or never the consciousness of the desire for one Church of Christ on +earth should dawn in our souls, and now or never should the +appreciation, right understanding and love for each part of this one +Church of Christ on earth should dawn in our souls, and now or never +should the appreciation, right understanding and love for each part of +this one Church begin in our hearts. + +Stick to your Church: it is a beautiful and a holy Church, but, +nevertheless, break up every sort of disgraceful exclusiveness from +other Churches. That is the way to bring the Church out of the present +agony and weakness. That is the best way for you to serve your own +Church and your own nation. And the Crucified does not ask any other +service from your Church in the present world agony. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + THE VICTORY OF THE CHURCH + + + WHAT IS THE CHURCH? + + +What is the Church, psychologically viewed? + +The Church is: + +1. A school of the Christian spirit. That is her first task in the +world. + +2. She is the Body of Christ. That is her official and physical +determination--her firm, her name. + +3. She is the living Christ Himself, i.e. Christ's body (consisting of +all the human bodies inside the Church organisation), and Christ's +spirit (filling all the human bodies inside the Church). That is her +ideal, her end, her Horeb. + +What is the Church, sociologically viewed? + +The Church is: + +1. A Theocracy. That is her general virtue, which she shares with all +the religions in history. + +2. She is a Christocracy. God is the abstract Ruler of Humanity, but +Christ is the pragmatic God, leading, enlightening, encouraging and +inspiring Humanity. That is the Church's special charter, special way, +different from the charters and ways of other religions. + +She is a Sanctocracy. The saints ought to lead mankind--not the great +men of the world, but the saints. But when all men become saintly, no +special leaders will be needed: no authority, no state, no law, no +punishment. All men will do their over-duty, and all will be happy in +their neighbour's happiness. The fight for right is an inferior stage in +human history. It is a savage fight. But there will come a fight for +over-duty. It will be a smiling, pleasant fight. + +What is the Church, historically viewed? + +The Church is: + +1. A heresy regarding Judaism and Paganism, a real, deep heresy. Not so +deep was the outward gulf as the inward. Outwardly, this heresy made a +thousand compromises with Judaism and Paganism. That did not matter. But +inwardly it was a new, an absolutely new and most uncompromising spirit +with anything in the world. + +2. She was a heresy regarding the whole practical life of mankind: +politics, society, art, war, education, nationalism, imperialism, +science. She meant the most obstinate conflict between what exists and +what ought to exist. Therefore her martyrdom is quite comprehensible. + +3. She was built up and applied to human life by the Graeco-Hebrew +spirit. Yet she has become the European religion, par excellence, almost +exclusively European. That is her historical development and fate. +Europe's acceptance of Christianity is nominally definite. No other +Asiatic religion (all great religions are Asiatic) has had any notable +success in Europe. Yet Europe's mission of Christianity has been no +success. St Paul has done more for the Christian mission than the whole +of modern Europe. Historically, Christianity has been and has remained +until now the religion of the European race only. + +What is the Church viewed from the point of view of the world war? + +The Church is: + +1. The only keeper of the secret of the present war. The present war is +the result of the de-christianisation of Europe, and de-christianisation +of Europe's Church. The Church only is conscious of this fact and keeps +silent. She has no courage to accuse because she has no courage to +self-accuse. + +2. She is the only thing which makes European civilisation not lower +than the civilisation of Egypt, Babylon, Persia, and China. The ruins of +those ancient civilisations are more magnificent than the actual +constructions of Europe. But the Church gives Europe a special nimbus +and a special excellency over those ancient worlds. Secular Europe does +not know that, but the Church knows it and keeps silent. She cannot +announce it because she has sinned. Her sins keep her tongue-tied. + +3. Nothing is sure to survive the present catastrophe of Europe, but the +Christian Church. None of the European potencies has the idea for the +reconstruction of the world, for durable and Godlike world-peace, but +the Church. + +Socialism, Masonry, Philanthropy, Rousseauism,--all these are only small +units of the great treasury that the Christian Church hides under her +clouds and dust of errors and miseries. All non-Christian systems and +schemes mean, my own interest first and then thine, or first I and my +nation and my race, and then thou and thy nation and thy race, or, my +happiness and, along with it, thy happiness. The Christian idea hidden +in the Church is a revolutionary one, the most revolutionary idea in the +world. The Christian idea is, thou and thy nation and thy race first, +and then me and my nation and my race; or, thy happiness first and in +thy happiness my happiness. Saintliness above everything, the true +saintliness including goodness and sacrifice. That is the fundamental +idea of the Church. That is the only constructive, Godlike treasury that +Europe still possesses, the sleeping, never used, never tried treasury. +The Church is the keeper of this treasury. This treasury must survive +the old Europe and the old Church, the de-christianised Europe and the +de-christianised Church. + + + + + THE POVERTY OF EUROPEAN CIVILISATION + + +The poverty of European civilisation has been revealed by this war. The +ugly nakedness of Europe has brought to shame all those who used to bow +before Europe's mask. It was a silken shining mask hiding the inner +ugliness and poverty of Europe. The mask was called: culture, +civilisation, progress, modernism. All was only vanitas vanitatum and +povertas povertatum. When the soul fled away, what remained was empty, +ugly and dangerous. When religion plunged into impotence, then: + + Science became a mask of pride. + Art--a mask of vanity. + Politics--a mask of selfishness. + Laws--a mask of greediness. + Theology--a mask of scepticism. + Technical knowledge--a poor surrogate for spirituality. + Journalism--a desperate surrogate for literature. + Literature--a sick nostalgy and a nonsense, a dwarf-acrobacy. + Civilisation--a pretext for imperialism. + Fight for right--an atavistic formula of the primitive creeds. + Morals--the most controversial matter. + Individualism--the second name for egoism and egotism. + +Christ--a banished beggar looking for a shelter, while in the royal and +pharisaic palaces lived: Machiavelli, the atheist; Napoleon, the +atheist; Marx, the atheist; and Nietsche, the atheist, imperially ruling +Europe's rulers. + +The spirit was wrong and everything became wrong. The spirit of any +civilisation is inspired by its religion, but the spirit of modern +Europe was not inspired by Europe's religion at all. A terrific effort +was made in many quarters to liberate Europe from the spirit of her +religion. The effort-makers forgot one thing, i.e. that no civilisation +ever was liberated from religion and still lived. Whenever this +liberation seemed to be fulfilled, the respective civilisation decayed +and died out, leaving behind barbaric materialism in towns and +superstitions in villages. Europe had to live with Christianity, or to +die in barbaric materialism and superstitions without it. The way to +death was chosen. From Continental Europe first the infection came to +the whole white race. It was there that the dangerous formula was +pointed out: "Beyond good and evil." Other parts of the white world +followed slowly, taking first the path between Good and Evil. Good was +changed for Power. Evil was explained away as Biological Necessity. The +Christian religion, which inspired the greatest things that Europe ever +possessed in every point of human activity, was degraded by means of new +watchwords; individualism, liberalism, conservatism, nationalism, +imperialism, secularism, which in essence meant nothing out +de-christianisation of the European society, or, in other words, +emptiness of European civilisation. Europe abandoned the greatest things +she possessed and clung to the lower and lowest ones. The greatest thing +was--Christ. + +As you cannot imagine Arabic civilisation in Spain without Islam, or +India's civilisation without Hinduism, or Rome without the Roman +Pantheon, so you cannot imagine Europe's civilisation without Christ. +Yet some people thought that Christ was not so essentially needed for +Europe, and behaved accordingly without Him or against Him. Christ was +Europe's God. When this God was banished (from politics, art, science, +social life, business, education), everybody consequently asked for a +God, and everybody thought himself to be a god, and in truth there it +failed, not on theories in Europe proclaiming, openly or disguisedly, +everyone a god. So the godless Europe became full of gods! + +Being de-christianised, Europe still thought to be civilised. In reality +she was a poor valley full of dry bones. The only thing she had to boast +of was her material power. By material power only she impressed and +frightened the unchristian (but not antichristian) countries of Central +and Eastern Asia, and depraved the rustic tribes in Africa and +elsewhere. She went to conquer not by God or for God, but by material +power and for material pleasure. Her spirituality did not astonish any +of the peoples on earth. Her materialism astonished all of them. Her +inner poverty was seen by India, China, Japan, and partly by Russia. +What an amazing poverty! She gained the whole world, and when she looked +inside herself she could not find her soul. Where has fled Europe's +soul? The present war will give the answer. It is not a war to destroy +the world but to show Europe's poverty and to bring back her soul. It +will last--this war--as long as Europe remains soulless, Godless, +Christless. It will stop when Europe gets the vision of her soul, her +only God, her only wealth. + + + + + THE CHRISTIANISATION OF THE CHURCH + + +The Church must first awaken out of her sleep and her European +emptiness, and then Europe will come again to life. The Church has +failed, not because she was not Europeanised, but just because she was +too much Europeanised. Instead of inspiring Europe she was inspired by +Europe, i.e. emptied by the empty Europe. The soul obeyed the body and +became the body itself. All the secular watchwords entered the Church +and the Church watchwords were eclipsed. Liberalism, conservatism, +ceremonialism, right, nationalism, imperialism, law, democracy, +autocracy, republicanism, socialism, scientific criticism, and similar +things have filled the Christian theology, Christian service, Christian +pulpits as the Christian Gospel. In reality the Christian gospel has +been as different from all these worldly ideas and temporal forms as +heaven is different from earth. For all these ideas or forms were +earthly, bodily, dustly--a convulsive attempt to change unhappiness for +happiness through the changing of institutions. The Church ought to have +been indifferent towards them, pointing always her principal idea, +embodied in Christ. And her principal idea meant never a change of +external things, of institutions, but a change of spirit. All the ideas +named were secular precepts to cure the world's evil, the very poor +drugs to heal the sick Europe outside of the Church and without the +Church. + +Yet the Church only possessed the true remedy, although she became +forgetful of it, because she herself got sick, and instead of giving the +world the necessary remedy she looked about to take it from the world. +Weakened in her position in the world and forgetful of her external +value, the Church, or some parts or parties of the Church, made even +coquetry with the current and transitory potencies in order to make her +position stronger. Yet the fact stood in history as big as a mountain +that the Church always failed when making concessions of her spirit to +any temporary power, and when not making concessions as to the visible +forms and transitory shapes of human societies. + +Neither Ritualism nor Liberalism helps anything without the true +Christian spirit. The modern Ritualism and Liberalism are absolutely +equally worthless from the Christian point of view, being so hostile to +each other as they are, filled with the unclean spirit of hatred, +unforgiveness, despising and even persecuting each other. They are +equally unchristian and even antichristian. Measured by the mildest +measure they are a new edition of the Judaistic Pharisaism and +Sadduceeism. The Ritualists cling to their ritual, the Liberals cling to +their protest against the Ritualists. But the true spirit by which both +of them move and act and write and speak is the unclean spirit of hatred +and despite of each other, the very spirit which excludes them both from +communion with Christ and the saints. The Church has been equally +de-christianised by Ritualists and Liberals, by Conservatives and +Modernists, by bowers and by talkers. The Church must be now +re-christianised amongst all of them and through all of them. + +Let the Church be the Church, i.e. the community of the saints. Let the +world know that the Church's mission on earth is not to accumulate +wealth, or to gain political power or knowledge, or to cling to this +institution or to that, but to cleanse mankind from its unclean, evil +spirits, and to fill it with the spirit of saintliness. Let the Church +first change her spirit and then urge the whole of mankind to change +theirs. + +Let the Ritualists know that however devout they might be, still they +can call the Protestants their brothers. The most devout have been often +killers of their neighbours and killers of Christ. + +Let the learned doctors of Protestantism think that however learned they +might be, still they are foolish and ignorant enough to be +self-satisfied. It is doubtful whether the most elaborate sermon of a +Protestant doctor smells more beautifully than incense. The most learned +theologians in Germany and elsewhere have whole-heartedly supported the +criminal enterprise of the warlike and criminal scientia militans. The +deepest learning and the meanest spirit have often shown in history a +very brotherly alliance. Christianity is not that. + +Let the Pope be congratulated for his tenacious keeping of the idea of +Theocracy. But let him consider this idea only as the starting-point in +the social science of the Church. His Theocracy has been refused because +it was not at the same time Christocracy and Sanctocracy. The saints in +Christ are alone infallible. Let the Vatican be filled with saints, and +infallibility then will not need to be preached and ordered but only to +be silently shown. Nobody believes infallibility upon authority, but +everyone will accept it upon Saintliness. + +The way of authority is a fallible way. + +The way of knowledge is quite as fallible. + +But the way of saintliness is infallible. + +Every spirit is fallible but the spirit of saintless. The Church is +infallible not by any talisman but by her saintliness. The Bishop of +Rome or of Canterbury will be infallible only if they are saints. The +saints are detached from everything and attached to Christ, so that +Christ incarnates His spirit in them. Not we, but Christ in us, is +infallible. + +Let the people of the Eastern Church stick to their Christian ideal of +saintliness. Their interpretation of the Christian spirit may be the +best and truest. Yet the ideal must become flesh. Let them not be proud +of their not having pride, and exclusive because God chose them to +understand the bottomless deepness of the esoteric Christianity. By +pride towards the proud and by exclusiveness they may spoil and darken +their ideals and remain in the dark. + +Let all the Churches feel their unity in the ideal spirit of +saintliness. But if that is difficult for them, let them first feel +their unity in sinfulness, in committed sins and crimes, in their +nakedness and poverty. Just to start with, this first step seems +absolutely necessary. Never any great saint became saintly unless he +first thought himself equal in impurity and sinfulness with all other +human beings. The Churches must go the way of the saints. Their way is +the only infallible one. + + + + + THE ONLY NECESSARY EXCLUSIVENESS OF THE CHURCH + + +When you deeply search in history about the causes of the strength of +the primitive Church and of the weakness and decay of the modern Church, +you will come to a very clear and simple conclusion. + +1. The primitive Church was inclusive as to its forms, but exclusive as +to its spirit. + +2. The modern Church has been exclusive as to its forms, but inclusive +as to its spirit. + +The primitive Church was very puritanic concerning the Christian spirit. +She was not particular as to the vessels in which to pour the new wine, +but she was extremely particular as to the wine itself. She borrowed the +vessels in Judæa, Alexandria, Athens, Rome, but she never borrowed wine. +The Christian spirit and the pagan spirit were just like two opposite +poles, like white and black, or day and night. The Church was conscious +of it, and jealously watchful that no drop of any foreign spirit should +be mixed with the precious spirit of the New Gospel. There existed no +thought of compromise, and no idea of inclusiveness whatever regarding +the spirit. The terrific conflict of Christianity and Paganism through +centuries sprang from the irreconcilability of two different spirits. +Were the Church as inclusive as to the spirit as she was to forms, +doctrines, customs and worships, conflicts never would arise--but then +neither would Christianity arise. + +The modern Church is particular as to its institutions, but not +particular at all as to its spirit. The Roman Emperors never would +persecute the modern Church, for they would easily recognise their own +spirit included in her. Nor would the Pharaohs from Egypt persecute +modern Christianity. Nor would Areopagus or Akropolis be puzzled so much +had St Paul preached to them the modern European Christianity with its +complicated spirit of all kinds of compromises with Heaven and Hell, +compromise with the State, Plutocracy, Nationalism, Imperialism, +Conquest, War, Diplomacy, Secular Philosophy, Secular Science, Agnostic +Parliaments, Tribal Chauvinism, Education, Officialism, Bureaucracy, +etc., etc. All these things have their own spirit, and every such spirit +is partly or wholly included in the spirit of the Church, i.e. of modern +Christianity. None of the Christian Churches of our time makes an +exception as to this inclusiveness of all kinds of spirits. Even +Protestantism, which claims the simplicity of its Christian ritual and +administration, represents a lamentable mosaic of spirits gathered from +all the pagan corners of secular Europe and mixed up with the Christian +wine in the same barrel. + +The Church of the East excommunicated thousands of those who crossed +themselves with two fingers instead of using three fingers. The Church +of the West burnt thousands of those who did not recognise the papal +organisation of the Church as the only ark of salvation. Yet there is +rarely to be found in the Church annals an excommunication on the ground +of chauvinism or brutal egoism. No one of the world conquerors--neither +Napoleon nor Kaiser William--have been excommunicated by the Church. It +signifies an extreme decadence of the Church. And this decadence +penetrates and dominates our own time. Speaking on the reunion of the +Churches the peoples of the East are anxious to know--not whether the +Church of the West has preserved the unmixed Christian spirit in its +integrity, but whether this Church still keeps Filioque as a dogma, and +whether she has ikons, and whether she allows eggs and milk in Lent. And +the people of the West are anxious to know whether the Eastern Church +has a screen quite different from their own screen at the altar, and +whether she has been always tenaciously exclusive in teaching, worship +and organisation. Who of us and of you asks about the integrity of the +Christian spirit? If St Paul were amongst us he would ridicule our +controversies on Filioque and all the trifles concerning Church +organisation and the external expressions of Christianity. He would ask: +What happened with the spirit he preached? What happened with this +spirit which excommunicated de facto the Jewish narrow Patriotism and +the Roman Imperialism? Have we still this exclusive spirit which moved +the world effecting the greatest revolution in History? I am sure he +would have to repeat with good reasons to every Church and to everyone +of us: "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." + +Well, we must come again to this source of Christian strength and +greatness, which is Christ's spirit. A new revival, yea, regeneration of +Christianity, could be possible only in a united Christian Church; and +the union of the Church is possible only upon the ground of the +primitive Church, which was inclusive in teaching, worship and +organisation, but exclusive in spirit. On the day when we all exclude +from ourselves the Jewish and Greek and Roman spirit, and retain only +the pure Christian spirit, we shall be at once ready to include each +other's Church into one body, into one Christianity. We must be clear +about it, and we must confess that the divisions of the church are due +to the invasion of a foreign spirit, an unclean spirit, into the Church. +When the Church cleanses herself from this foreign unclean spirit she +will be victorious over herself, and from this victory to the ultimate +victory of Christianity over our planet will be a very short distance. + + + + + ECCLESIA TRIUMPHANS + + +How can the church get her past strength again and triumph over the evil +inside and outside her walls? + +If she were united she could get it by waiting for the ruin of +Europe--i.e. of a house which is divided in itself--which is not very +far off. But she the Church--is divided too. She is fighting with and +for the European parties, and against herself. Consequently, in waiting +for the ruin of Europe she is waiting for her own ruin. Therefore she +must make up her mind lest it is too late. Horribile dictu--she must +start a dramatic movement in order to get her soul back. + +First of all she must become again a heresy towards Europe and European +secular, antidivine civilisation, just as she was a heresy towards the +theocratic Israel and semi-theocratic Greece and Rome. Theoretically, +she must stick to Theocracy, historically, to Christocracy, and +practically to Sanctocracy. She must loose herself from all the chains +binding her either to the chariot of any dynasty or of any oligarch or +president, or whatever political denomination it may be, and insist upon +the Holy Wisdom to lead humanity. It ought to be absolutely indifferent +to the Church what political denomination, or social creed, or +institutional shape a human society shall have as long as this is +founded upon any other ideal but saintliness. The Church ought to know +only two denominations--politics and social life, inter-human as well as +international and inter racial-racial relations in trade and business, +in education and family life--i.e. saintliness and unsaintliness. If you +ask what saintliness ought to mean, Christianity has not to argue but to +show you the saintliness in the flesh. Christ the saintly Lord, St Paul +and St John, Polycarp and Leo, Patrick and Francis, Sergius and Zosim, +St Theresa and hundreds of other saints. And if somebody thinks still +that a few thousands of Christian saints are not a sufficient argument +to show that saintliness is practicable, then the Church has still not +to give her ideal up and to take as her ideal thousands of great and +small Napoleons and Bismarcks, and Goethes and Spencers, or Medics and +Cromwells or Kaisers and Kings--no, in the latter case it would be much +nicer for the Church to point out the saintly men outside of Christian +walls, like St Hermes and St Pythagoras, or St Krishna and St Buddha, or +St Lao-Tse and St Confucius, or St Zoroaster and St Abu-Bekr. Better +even is unbaptised saintliness than baptised earthliness. + +Saintliness includes goodness and sacrifice, and excludes all the +earthly impure spirits of selfishness, pride, quarrels and conquests. +Therefore, when the Church returns to her fundamental ideal, she will +return to her elementary simplicity in which she was so powerful as to +move mountains and empires and hearts at the beginning of her history. +That is what the world needs now just as much as it needs air and +light, i.e. an elementary spiritual power by which it could be moved, +cleared up, purified and brought out of its chaos to a solid and +beautiful construction. + + + + + HOLY CHURCH IN HOLY EUROPE + + +Europe has been eclipsed because her Church--her soul--has been +eclipsed; the Church has been eclipsed because her principal ideal has +been eclipsed. The principal ideal of the Church is saintliness. This +ideal, plunged down into darkness like a sun into ashes, must come out +again to illuminate the Church and Europe. Europe has tried all the ways +but the way of the Church, the European Church has tried all the ways +but the way of Christ. Well, then, Europe must try the only way left, +which is saintliness. The Church must give an example to Europe. + +Europe has been materialistic, heroic, scientific, imperialistic, +technical, secular. At last she has to be holy. Whatever she has been, +she has been unhappy and restless, and brutal and criminal, unjust and +gluttonous. Soldiers and traders, despots and robbers, popes and kings, +gluttons and harlots, have ruled Europe, but not yet the saints, the +holy wizards. The Church's duty has been to provide Europe with such +holy wizards. She has failed because she has been obscured by Europe, as +a fine soul often is obscured by a heavy and greedy body. The body, one +thought, the soul, another, until their thought became one and the same, +i.e. the bodily thought. Now, after a bitter experience, the soul must +come to its rights. Europe and Europe's Church have not henceforth to +think two different thoughts, but one and the same, and this one thought +has not to be a bodily one but a spiritual one. The aim of the Church as +well as of Europe has to be God, Christ, saintliness. If this thing is +given to the Church and Europe, everything else will be easily given. A +Holy Church in Holy Europe! + +A holy Europe only can be a missionary Europe. No other mission has +Europe on other continents but a Christian one. It was an illusion to +speak about Europe's mission in the wide world without Christ. Well, but +only a Christlike people can be a missionary of Christ. How could an +unholy Europe preach the Holy One? + +Do you think that the Arabs, who gave Europe knowledge, are expecting +from Europe knowledge? No, they expect Europe's goodwill. + +Or do you think that India, whose history is a history of saints, is +anxious to accept German materialistic science, individual philosophy, +and a destructive and shallow theology? No, they expect from Europe more +saintliness than they have had in their history. And that is just very +difficult for Europe to give them. + +Or do you think that Chino-Japanese civilisation has anything worth +mentioning to borrow from Europe but Christian ideals? No, nothing that +could make them happier than they have been. + +Well then, let Europe kill her pride and self-conceit in this war and +become humble and meek. The Church ought to give an example to secular +Europe: an example of humility, goodness, sacrifice--saintliness. + +But which of the Churches ought to give this example for the salvation +of Europe and of the world? Yours, if you like. Why not just your +Anglican Church? But whichever undertakes to lead the way will be the +most glorious Church. For she will lead the whole Church and through the +Church Europe and through Europe the whole world to holiness and +victory, to God and His Kingdom. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Agony of the Church (1917), by +Nikolaj Velimirovic + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AGONY OF THE CHURCH (1917) *** + +***** This file should be named 20206-8.txt or 20206-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/2/0/20206/ + +Produced by Project Rastko, Nikolaj Velimirovic Project, +Rénald Lévesque and the Online Distributed Proofreaders +Europe at http://dp.rastko.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/20206-8.zip b/20206-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cf23f94 --- /dev/null +++ b/20206-8.zip diff --git a/20206.txt b/20206.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5e8762 --- /dev/null +++ b/20206.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2434 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Agony of the Church (1917), by Nikolaj Velimirovic + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Agony of the Church (1917) + +Author: Nikolaj Velimirovic + +Release Date: December 28, 2006 [EBook #20206] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AGONY OF THE CHURCH (1917) *** + + + + +Produced by Project Rastko, Nikolaj Velimirovic Project, +Renald Levesque and the Online Distributed Proofreaders +Europe at http://dp.rastko.net + + + + + + + + + THE AGONY + OF THE CHURCH + + BY THE REV. + NICHOLAI VELIMIROVIC, D.D. + OF ST SAVVA'S COLLEGE, BELGRADE + + WITH FOREWORD BY THE + REV. ALEXANDER WHYTE, D.D. + PRINCIPAL OF NEW COLLEGE, EDINBURGH + LONDON + + STUDENT CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT + 32 RUSSELL SQUARE, W.C. + + 1917 + + Printed in Great Britain + by Turnbull & Spears, Edinburgh. + + + + + FOREWORD + + +The Eastern Church, the Church of the Apostles and the Mother of us all, +in this book, speaks to her children in all lands and in all languages, +and to us, with an authority and a wisdom and a tenderness all its own. +The author and the publishers are doing us a service of the very best +kind in issuing it. May God's blessing rest upon it. + + + + + PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD + + +The contents of this book was originally given in the form of lectures +at St Margaret's, Westminster. There is, we think, a special fitness in +the lectures appearing in book form bearing the imprint of the Student +Christian Movement, for though Father Nicholas has hosts of friends in +Great Britain now, when he first came here our Movement was perhaps the +only body which had the right to claim him as being already a friend. +When the Student Christian Movement made its way to Serbia a few years +ago, Father Nicholas became one of its first friends and, the year the +war commenced and the following year, it was he who, on the Universal +Day of Prayer for Students, preached by invitation of the Student +Movement and its President, Dr. Marko Leko, to the students in the +Cathedrals of Belgrade and Nish. Members of our Movement, therefore, +will recognise that he comes under the category of persons so highly +valued in the Student Movement, namely, that of senior friend. + +Both inside and outside the Student Movement to-day people are thinking +of the Church. Much has been spoken and written about the Church of +Jesus Christ in our modern world, but not so much as to leave us unready +to welcome this arresting and penetrating message from Serbia. + + + + + INTRODUCTORY THOUGHTS + + +If the official churches have had no other merit but that they have +preserved Christ as the treasury of the world, yet they are justified +thereby. Even if they have solely repeated through all the past +centuries "Lord! Lord!" still they stand above the secular world. For +they know at least who the Lord is, whereas the world does not know. + +Churches may disappear, but The Church never will. For not churches are +the work of Christ, but the Church. Moreover, if the Church disappears, +as an institution, the essence of the Church cannot disappear. It is +like rivers, sea and water: when rivers disappear into the sea, the sea +remains, and if the sea disappears into steam, water still remains. + +If Christ ever meant to form the Church as an institution He meant to +form it not as the end but as the means, like a boat to bring its +inmates safely over the stormy ocean of life into the quiet harbour of +His Kingdom. + +Like the body in a bath, so the soul disrobes in the Church to wash. But +as soon as we get out, we clothe our soul in order to conceal it from +the curious eye. Is it not illogical that we dare to show our +imperfections to the Most Perfect, while we are ashamed to show them to +those who are just as imperfect, ugly and unclean as ourselves? The +Church, like a bath, reveals most uncleanness. + +The initial and most obvious idea of the Church is collectiveness of sin +and salvation. To pray alone and for one's self is like eating alone +without regard to other people's hunger. + +When the sun sees a man of science, wealth or politics, kneeling at +prayer with the poor and humble, it goes smiling to its rest. + +Full of beauty and wonders are all the Christian churches, but not +because of their pretended perfections: they are beautiful and wonderful +because of Him whose shadow they are. + +You are a Christian? Then do not be afraid to enter any Christian church +with prayerful respect. All the Churches have sworn allegiance to the +same Sovereign. How can you respect a cottage, in which once abided His +Majesty King Alfred, or Charles, while you would not go into a building +dedicated to His Majesty the Invisible King of kings? + +The real value of any Christian community is not to be found in its own +prosperity but in its care for the prosperity of other Christian +communities. So, for example, the value of the Protestants is to be +found in their loving care for the Roman Catholics, and vice versa. + +Taking the above standard, we find that all the Christian communities +are almost quite valueless as to the spirit, i.e. as to their unusual +loving care. Their actual value is more physical than spiritual, being +as they are limited to the care for themselves. Exceptions are as +refreshing as an oasis in the desert. + +Church and State are like fire and water. How to connect them? For if +connected, fire always dies down under water. + +There are three ages in the history of the Church: the Golden Age, when +the Church was opposed to political governments; the Iron Age, when she +was politically directing Europe's kingdoms; and the Stone Age, when she +has been subdued to the service of political governments. What a +humiliation for the present generation to live in the Stone Age of +Christianity! + +Trying to unite Church and State we are trying to unite what God +separated from the beginning of our era. + +To separate the Church from the State does not mean, as many think, to +separate soul from body; it means to separate two quite opposed spirits +unakin and hostile to each other, like Cross and Capitol. + +The worm of comfort and human inertia has reconciled Christianity with +secular, pagan governments, and so paralysed the most divine movement in +human history. Go to the bottom of all those clever advocacies for unity +of Church and State, and you will meet, as their primus motor, the worm +of comfort and human inertia. + +All Churches and Christian institutions of the present time, however +wonderful they may be, are only a dim prophecy of the coming Christian +worship in truth and spirit. Through them we look now to the future as +through a glass. + +Christianity is neither monarchical nor republican. It does not care +about institutions but about the spirit living in them. That institution +is the best which is fullest of the Christian spirit. From this point of +view, an autocracy may be better than a republic, and vice versa. + +The true Christianity has been hidden from us as iron and coal were +hidden from the men of the Stone Age. They walked over iron and coal but +they used stone and wood only. So we are walking over and around Christ, +still using in our daily life the pagan gods of old. + +If there is to be a new geological epoch, with a new type of man, it +will be the Christian epoch. All the existing types have been made by +revolutions and influences of earth and water, or of air and fire. Now +only the Christian revolution--I mean literally and not +allegorically--can produce a higher type of the human animal. + +My friend, you are dissatisfied with the existing Churches, and you are +anxious to form a new church, or sect, or some kind of religious +organisation! How childish of you! The existing Churches are the most +wonderful vessels--some in gold, others in silver or pottery--made by +thousands of years and generations. I know your dissatisfaction comes +because of the emptiness of those vessels and not because of their +ugliness. Well then, pour the divine wine into them and they will please +you just as the vessels in Cana of Galilee pleased the thirsty people +around the table. No one of those people, being thirsty, ever thought of +making new vessels for the wine, but to get wine as soon as possible +into the vessels. To pour wine into existing vessels, that is really the +needed miracle, my dear grumbler! + +People say: Read the Bible! Almost would I say: Do not touch it for five +years--read other literature during this period--and then read it again, +and you will see its real greatness, power and sweetness. + +The Christ's wounds have wrought more blessings in the world than the +health of all the Roman Caears. + +The Eucharist does not mean a memory only but also a prophecy. The +prophecy of it is, that the whole earth will become Christ's body, +Christ's flesh and blood, so that whatever we eat or drink we eat and +drink Him. + +He ought to be our daily food. Regarding all our food through Christ it +will not seem to be a prey from nature but rather nature's sacrifice for +us, reminding us of Christ's sacrifice, and through it of our own +calling to sacrifice. + +You have to choose either to be proud or poor in spirit. The first will +mean a noisy destruction, the second a quiet construction. + +There exists no sublime and no mean thing in the whole world of which I +could not find a representation in myself, and none in which I were +wholly unrepresented. + +The beauty, glory and greatness of a field of golden wheat consists of +an association of innumerable blades of wheat, with their insignificant +beauty, glory and greatness. If you have seen that, then do not repeat +to me the old story of the beauty, glory and greatness of the human +blade called Pythagoras, Caear or Napoleon. + +The wealthiest and most powerful people, that we are wont to admire and +imitate, were most pitied by Christ. To-day, as always, the most +difficult Christian mission is that among the rich. + +Our real value we never reveal through the using of our rights but +through our capacity for service and sacrifice. + +Easier is it for a man to get his own rights than to lose his pride. + +Sacrifice without murmuring makes of our stormy life a calm holy day. We +fill all our days with the talk of the people who are loth to sacrifice +and of those who dare to sacrifice. Disgust and admiration are two baths +in which our hearts bathe from sunrise to sunset. By nothing is the +disgust towards a man more excited than by hearing: "He is incapable of +sacrifice." When this sentence is directed to ourselves, we feel as if +we had lost the whole battle of life. + +The value of metaphysical systems is more for the scientific than for +the moral progress of mankind. Upon Hegel you could build a new science, +but upon St Paul only could you build a new social life and a new world +politics. Did you ever think that St Paul is the greatest prophet of a +new and desirable statesmanship? + +All the Empires founded upon rights have perished and must perish. The +future belongs to the Empire of St Paul, an Empire founded upon loving +service. + +It is better in humbleness to belong to the worst of the Churches than +proudly to separate one's self from the best of the Churches. + +Aristocratic origin is as inscrutable as the darkness of the past night. +A mighty aristocrat of to-day may be of the meanest soul-stuff, and the +beggar at his door of the noblest. But respect both of them equally, +knowing that both of them are of the same royal origin. The Most High +names both of them His children. For the same reason respect asses and +sheep and trees and stones. + +The real crucifiers of Christ in our time are those who think Christ's +Gospel could not be taken as a base for world politics. Were not His +last words to the disciples: go to all nations? The last and supreme +expression of Christianity will be in the relations of nation to nation, +as its starting expression has been the relations of man to man. + +Inter-individualism has been the elementary school of Christianity. +Inter-nationalism ought to be its university. + +Christian ethics, i.e. cheerful service and sacrifice, is the noblest +consequence of real belief in God. Never a shorter line can bind our +planet with the centre of the Universe than the line going through +Christ. It is the shortest way, as a straight line is the shortest +distance between two geometrical points. + +Slavery means obligatory service; freedom ought to mean willing service. +Only a man or a nation educated for willing service to their neighbours +is a really free man or free nation. All other theories of freedom are +illusions. Freedom asking for rights and not for willing service means +an endless quarrel crowning with unhappiness all its champions. Neither +Pericles' republic nor Octavian's monarchy were the States of happiness, +but St Paul's pan-human state, with a single Magna Charta of willing +service, will be a State of Universal Happiness. + +Every man is a battlefield of many unclean spirits, very bold in the +absence of Christ and very shy in His Presence. O how many of these +spirits that find an easy habitation in us would make even the swine to +rage and run down the steep place--into the sea! + +The conception that the mentality of Machiavelli and Metternich, +Bismarck and Beaconsfield could be taken as a basis of politics, whereas +Christ's mentality could not, is the conception even of many +theologians. Yet Christ survives all these politicians as an undying +power, just because He is the fittest of all of them. + +What an obscure philosophy it is which teaches that Moses and Mohamed +had some thing to do with politics and Christ has not! + +Carlyle and Emerson were over-anxious to recommend every great man as a +leader of mankind more than Christ. It is the same as to say: men! take +candles and lamps to light your way in darkness, but be aware of the +sun. How quite different are Dostoievsky and Tolstoi! + +I looked at men in prayer and I thought: Behold, the fallen angels! I +looked again at them in hateful quarrel and I thought: Behold, the risen +demons! + +Animals are cruel but not vulgar. Yet both in cruelty and vulgarity man +is on record. If forced to chose one of two evils, we should prefer to +look at cruelty rather than vulgarity. + +All our to-days are spoiled by reminiscences about yesterday and sorrows +about tomorrow. Thus we are disindividualising and emptying all our +"to-days" and degrading them to a misty meeting-place of yesterday and +tomorrow. + +From the physical point of view the greatest thing in this life is its +mystery. From the moral point of view the greatest thing in man is the +optimistic interpretation of that mystery. There is no reasonable +optimism outside of Christianity. + +No man could be a tyrant unless he were a slave of some moral defects. + +No nation could tyrannise over another nation unless it were tyrannised +over itself by some illusions. + +Nobody in the world is free but he who feels himself to be a prisoner of +Christ. The greatest champion of freedom in human history called +himself: "Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ." + + + + + CHAPTER I + + THE WISDOM OF THE CHURCH SOPHIA + + +The most magnificent sanctuary of the Eastern Churches is called St +Sophia (Holy Wisdom), whereas the most magnificent sanctuaries of the +Western Churches are called St Peter's, St Paul's, or St John's, etc. As +every hair on our head and every line on the palm of our hand has a +certain significance, so these dedications of the Church have doubtless +certain significance. And this significance is typical of the religion +of the East and the West. Western Christianity, grown upon the soil of a +youthful individualism, preferred this or that apostle's personality and +dedicated their best temples to him. The aged East, tired of +individualistic ambitions, tired of great men, flagellated by the +phantom of human greatness, was thirsty for something higher and more +solid than any human personality. Adoration of great personalities being +the very wisdom of this world, the East stretched its hands to a +superhuman ideal, to the Holy Wisdom. It is a psychological fact that +youth sees his ideal in personal greatness, progressed age in holiness. +The East asked for something more eternal than Peter, Paul or John. +There is wisdom, and there is holy wisdom. Philosophical or personal +wisdom existed from the beginning of mankind, but Holy Wisdom entered +the world with Jesus Christ. Christ was the embodiment of God's wisdom, +the very incarnation of Holy Wisdom. This Wisdom stands above all human +wisdom and revives and illuminates it. Holy Wisdom includes the +essential wisdom of Peter, Paul, John, and any other apostle or seer, or +any other thing or creature, as the ocean includes the water of many +rivers. In the darkest times of dissension, uncertainty or suffering, +the Christian East did not rely so much upon the great apostles, either +Peter, or Paul, or John, but looked beyond time and space to the Eternal +Christ, The Logos of God, and asked for Light. And it looked to Eternity +through this church in Constantinople, St Sophia, as the all-embracing +and all-reconciling, holy symbol. Whenever Peter, or Paul, or John, or +any other apostle, or prophet, became the ground upon which the +believers quarrelled, it was in the Holy Wisdom that they sought refuge +and healing from their intellectual one-sidedness and ill-will. + +Yet if Holy Wisdom has only in the East a magnificent visible symbol, +Holy Wisdom is none the less the very foundation, substance and aim of +the Western Church as well as of the Eastern, yea of the one, holy +Catholic Church. For Christianity had been destined neither for the East +alone nor for the West alone, but for the whole globe. And what means +the so-much abused word Catholic if not inclusiveness? Even such is, +too, the meaning of the Divine wisdom as revealed in Christianity from +the beginning. + +I will try to show this inclusive wisdom of the Church, revealed from +the beginning, Firstly in the Church's Founder, Secondly in the Church's +organisation, and Thirdly in the Church's destination. + + + + + THE INCLUSIVE WISDOM OF THE CHURCH'S FOUNDER + + +By His birth He included and bound together the lowest and the highest, +the natural and the supernatural: stable, manger, straw, sheep and +shepherds on the one hand; stars, angels, magi and Davidic royal origin +on the other. + +By His life He included the austerity of the Indian monks, of John the +Baptist and the Nazarenes on the one hand; and on the other the +Confucian moderate feasting, in the houses of friends, at the marriage +feast and on other solemn occasions. + +His life-drama was interwoven into the lives of all classes of people: +men, women and children, Judaists and heathen, King Herod and the +proconsul Pilate, priests and soldiers, merchants and beggars, learned +sophists and ignorant fools, the sick and the healthy, the righteous and +the sinful, Jews and Egyptians, Greeks and Romans, and all others who +could be met in Palestine, the very market of races and creeds. + +He was by no means a party man like the Pharisees and the doctors of +law. He called both the Pharisees and their enemies to follow Him. He +went to the temple to pray, but He also prayed alone in the desert. He +kept the Sabbath and He broke the Sabbath by healing the sick and doing +good on this sacred day. He came not to destroy the Law, but He brought +something which was higher than the Law and even included the law +itself, i.e. love and mercy. + +He rebuked people who used to pray and say. "Lord, Lord!" And yet He +prayed very often Himself. He rebuked those who were fasting, and yet He +used to fast Himself. What He really looked for was neither prayer nor +fasting, but the spirit in which one prayed or fasted. + +He commanded the people to give to Caesar things which were Caesar's, +and to God that which was God's. He did not criticise this or that form +of government, nor did He accentuate Monarchism, Republicanism, or +Socialism as one form preferable to another. Under His scheme all forms +of government were included as equally good or evil according to what +place they reserved for God, what gifts they duly gave to God, and by +what spirit they were inspired. + +He followed the customs of His nation, and did not break them or evade +them purposely. He took food according to the Law, and washed hands +according to the Law, and went to the Holy City and took part in worship +in the temple (though He was "greater than the temple"), according to +the Law. It seems that He excluded no form of worship or social life, +though He despised the unclean and petty spirit with which the +hypocrites filled these forms. And when it came to a dispute He, the +Messenger of a new spirit, naturally tried to save rather the pure +spirit even without a form than a form filled with an impure spirit. +Therefore He felt bound to say: "Not that which goeth into the mouth +defileth a man," or "to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man," or +"thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet," etc. + +Even so, too, He embraced all nationalities and races. Nothing was for +Him unclean that God had created, nothing but unclean spirits. When the +Roman centurion asked help from Him, He gave it. And when the people +beyond the Israelitish boundaries, from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, +cried after Him, He did not listen to the exclusivistic warnings of His +disciples, but He distributed even there His divine mercy. He was +mindful even of the people of Nineveh. And when He sent His disciples, +He sent them to "all nations." + +Finally, He included the natural and the supernatural. He talked with +spirits. He saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven. He stood amongst +Peter, John and James on one side, and Moses and Elias on the other. All +the people saw lilies in the field and sparrows upon the roof, but He +saw more, He saw how, His Father clothed the lilies and how He fed the +sparrows. He united the natural and the supernatural in His teaching. + +"Love those who love thee" was a natural teaching. But He added: "and +those who hate and persecute thee," which was supernatural. + +"Give to them who give to thee" was a natural teaching. But He added: +"and to them who do not give to the", which was supernatural. + +"Bless those who bless thee." But He added: "and those who curse thee," +which was supernatural. + +And He united the natural and supernatural in His death. He suffered and +died in agony. He rose from the dead, descended to Hell and ascended to +Heaven. For Him there was as little boundary between heaven and earth, +between nature and supernature, as between Israel and Canaan, or as +between man and man, or form and form. + +His wisdom was inclusive from the beginning to the end. What did He ever +exclude--save unclean spirits? His disciples were as exclusive as +anybody could be, exclusive when judging and acting according to natural +wisdom. But when they looked at Him, they were reconciled. He was the +Holy Wisdom, in which everyone could find a mansion for himself, every +disciple, every nation, every form of worship, everything--but the +unclean spirit. + + + + + THE INCLUSIVE WISDOM IN THE CHURCH'S ORGANISATION + + +Let us look now to the Christian Church in the early time of her +formation. + +Jesus Christ gave the largest possible scheme on which to work and the +largest foundation to build upon. There is no other name in history upon +which more has been constructed than upon His name. The primitive Church +realised it from the beginning, and declared it. She was inclusive from +the first, inclusive in her teaching and worship. + +(a) Inclusive in Teaching.--Christ was put in the centre of the world's +history. He represented what was the best and highest in Eastern and +Western thought. The dream of Messias was the best and highest in the +Jewish conception. Well, Jesus was the Messias. + +The expectation of a second Adam, the redeemer of the first, sinful +Adam, was common among the peoples in Palestine and Mesopotamia. Well, +Jesus was the second Adam, the expected Redeemer, God's Messenger. + +Egypt had an intuition into the mystery of the Divinity as a Trinity. +However rough may have been that idea, the Trinity being thought of as a +human family of Father, Mother, and Son, still it existed very vividly +in Egypt. And the people expected the coming of God's only Son, the +third person of their Trinity, not an imaginary being like Horus, but +the real son of Osiris in flesh and blood who would bring happiness to +men. Well, Jesus of Nazareth was this Son of God, and He as Christ was +the eternal sharer of the Divine Trinity. + +India was the cradle of the teaching of the Incarnation. The supreme +God, Brahma, had already been incarnated in many persons since the dawn +of history. But the highest incarnation of Him was still to come. Well, +Jesus Christ was this highest incarnation of Brahma in human shape. + +The cultivated polytheists did not like the idea of a monotonous +theology of one solitary God. They liked rather a divine company upon +Olympus. Well, Christianity with its Trinity-teaching presented to them +a limited polytheism. God was not physically one, as in Judaism, nor +many, as in Hellenism. He was a Trinitarian Plurality in Unity. He was +not a grim hermit, but He had the riches of an eternal life. + +The intellectual Greeks and Hellenists climbed to the idea of one God +and of Logos, the Mediator between God and the world, through whom God +created whatever He created, and who may be incarnated for the salvation +of the fallen, suffering creation. Well, Jesus Christ could include in +His person this wonderful doctrine of Neoplatonism. + +The mountainous Asia under Caucasus and Ararat, plunged into the mystery +of Mithras, which was born out of the Zoroastrian dualistic religion of +light and darkness, of Ormuzd and Ahriman. Well now, Christ, the friend +of humanity, revealed Himself as the God of light struggling against +Satan, the enemy of humanity. + +Rome, politically ruling the world, was longing for a sacred King, for a +Prince of Peace, who should come from the East and bring to the people +some higher and truer happiness than that deceiving chimera of political +bigness. Well, Christ should be this universal, sacred King, this Prince +of Peace, and Messenger of a durable happiness. It is not true that +Christ had His prophets among the people of Israel only. His prophets +existed in every race and every religion and philosophy of old. That is +the reason why the whole world could claim Christ, and how He can be +preached to everybody and accepted by everybody. Behold, He was at home +everywhere! + +(b) Inclusive in Worship.--Inclusive in doctrine, the primitive Church +was wisely inclusive in worship too. It would be nonsense to speak of +Christian worship as of something quite new and surprising. There was +very little new and very little surprising in it indeed; almost nothing. +The first Church met for prayer in the Jewish temple. Wherever the +apostles came to preach the new Gospel they went to the old places of +prayer, to the temples of Jehovah. Their Christian spirit did not revolt +against the old forms of worship. Later on the naked Christian spirit +needed to be clothed, and it was clothed. But when Israel looked to +Christian worship they recognised much--forms, signs, vestments and +administration--to be like their own. And not only Israel, but even +Egypt, India, Babylon and Persia, Greece and Rome, yea, the Pagans of +North and South. If Nature could speak, it could say how much it lent of +its own to Christian worship. + +A student of ancient history one day asked me: "How can I recognise the +Christian religion as the best of all, when I know how much it borrowed +from the ancient religious forms of worship? How poor it looks without +all that!" + +I said: "Just this wonderful power of embracing and assimilating gives +evidence of the vitality and universality of Christianity. It is too +large in spirit to be clothed by one nation or one race only. It is too +rich in spirit and destination to be expressed by one tongue, by one +sign, or one symbol, or one form. In the same sense as Christian +doctrine was prepared and prophesied by the religions and the +philosophies before Christ, in the same sense Christian worship was +prepared and prophesied as well. Whenever the Christian spirit is strong +the Church is not afraid of worship being strange, and ample, and even +grotesque. The weaker the Christian spirit, the greater exclusiveness in +worship. Some people say: It is wicked to use pagan architecture for the +Church, and incense and fire, and music, or dance, or bowing, or +kneeling, or signs and symbols, in Christian worship, because it is +pagan." Yes, all this is pagan indeed, but it is Christian too if we +wish it to be. The Latin language was pagan, but now it is Christian +too. The English language was a vehicle of Paganism as well, now it is a +vehicle of Christianity. The human body was itself pagan too, but the +Eternal Christ, God's Holy Wisdom, entered it and filled it with a new +spirit, and it ceased to be pagan. We in the East sometimes use for our +sacerdotal vestments Chinese silk made by pagan hands in China, or +chalices and spoons and little bells and chains made by the Moslems, or +precious stones gathered and scents prepared by the fire or +stone-worshippers of Africa, and no one of us should be afraid to use +them when worshipping Christ, as Christ Himself was not afraid to touch +the most wretched human bodies or souls with His pure hands. +Christianity cannot be defiled, using for its worship the works of pagan +hands, but pagan people are hereby taking a share in Christian worship, +physically and unconsciously, waiting for the moment when they will +share in it spiritually and consciously as well. Every piece of Chinese +silk in our vestments is a prophecy of the great Christian China. But +this belongs to the following paragraph. + + + + + THE INCLUSIVE WISDOM IN THE CHURCH'S DESTINATION + + +Judaism was destined for the people of Israel only. The Christian Church +was destined for the people of Israel too, but not for them only. She +included Greeks as well. + +The Greek polytheism of Olympus was destined for the Hellenic race only. +The Christian Church was destined for the Hellenic race too, but not for +it only. She included Indians as well. + +Buddha's wisdom was offered to the monks and vegetarians. Monks and +vegetarians the Christian Church included in her lap, but also married +and social people too. + +Pythagoras founded a religious society of intellectual aristocrats. The +Christian Church from the beginning included intellectual aristocrats +side by side with the ignorant and unlettered. + +The Persian prophet, Zoroaster, recruited soldiers of the god of light +among the best men to fight against the god of darkness. His religious +institution was like a military barracks. The Christian Church included +both the best and the worst, the righteous and the sinners, the healthy +and the sick. It was a barracks and a hospital at the same time. It was +an institution both for spiritual fighting and spiritual healing. + +The Chinese sage, Confucius, preached a wonderful ethical pragmatism, +and the profound thinker, Lao-Tse, preached an all-embracing +spiritualism. Christian wisdom included both of them, opening Heaven for +the first and showing the dramatic importance of the physical world for +the second. Islam--yes, Islam had in some sense a Christian ambition: to +win the whole world. The difference was: Islam wished world-conquest; +the Church, the world's salvation. Islam intended to subdue all men and +bring them before God as His servants: The Church intended to educate +all men, to purify and elevate them, and to bring them before God as His +children. + +And all others: star-worshippers, and fire, and wood, and water, and +stone, and animal-worshippers had a touching sense of the immediate +divine presence in nature. The Church came not to extinguish this sense +but to explain and to subordinate it; to put God in the place of demons +and hope instead of fear. + +The Church came not to destroy, but to purify, to aid and to assimilate. +The destination of the Church was neither national nor racial, but +cosmic. No exclusive power was ever destined to be a world-power. The +ultimate failure of Islam to become a world-power lies in its +exclusiveness. It was with religion as with politics. Every exclusive +policy is foredoomed to failure: the German as well as the Turkish and +the Napoleonic. The policy of the Church was designed by her Divine +Founder: "He that is not against us is for us." Well, there is no human +race on earth wholly against Christ and wholly unprepared to receive +Him. The wisdom of the Christian missionaries therefore is to see first +in what ways Providence has prepared a soil for Christian seed; to see +which of the Christian elements a race, or a religion, already +possesses, and how to utilise these elements and weld them into +Christianity. All that--in order to make Christianity grow organically, +instead of pushing it mechanically. + +In conclusion let me repeat again: the wisdom of the Church has been +inclusive. Inclusive was the wisdom of her Founder, inclusive the wisdom +of her organisation and of her destination. Exclusiveness was the very +sickness and weakness of the Church. That is why we in the East in the +time of sickness of the Church looked neither towards Peter, nor Paul, +nor John, but towards the Holy Wisdom, the all-healing and +all-illuminating. For St Sophia in Constantinople, the temple dedicated +to Christ the Eternal, includes in itself the sanctuaries of Peter, Paul +and John; moreover, it is supported even by some pillars of Diana's +temple from Ephesus and has many other things, in style or material, +which belonged to the Paganism of old. Indeed, St Sophia has room and +heart even for Islam. The Mohamedans have been praising it as the best +of their sanctuaries! + +I speak thus to you because I am sure you will not misunderstand me. And +because I know you, the British, to be a race of the world-wide spirit, +I dare to make this appeal to you. + +Look to the Holy Wisdom! Look beyond Peter, and Paul, and John--through +them and still beyond them! Every Church has her prophet, her apostle, +her angel. Look now over them all to the very top of the pyramid, where +all the lines meet! + +Either Christianity is one, or there is no Christianity. Either the +Church is universal, or there is no Church. + +There lived once upon a time twelve men as different as any twelve men +could be. And the Holy Wisdom united all of them into one spiritual +body. Such was the first Church of the twelve, and such ought to be the +last Church of the milliards: different in all her parts, but cemented +by the Holy Wisdom into one glorious building. Christ, God's Holy +Wisdom, includes all of us, why should we exclude each other? He was +sent for the salvation of China and Japan and India as well as for that +of the Jews and Greeks. Well, let us quarrel no more about the +"circumcision" while a milliard of human beings are still waiting to +hear for the first time the name of Jesus Christ--yea, for the first +time after two thousand years! Let the present time be the new Pentecost +for us all. I speak to you, the British: don't look around you and wait; +it is yours to start. All the peoples of earth are looking towards you +and listening to you. Don't be too shy to start. + +To start what? To start a revival of the primitive wisdom of the Church, +i.e. to confess and declare: + +That Christianity in its integrity is one and indivisible; + +That Christianity is not a precious stone preserved in a box called the +Church of England, or the Church of the East, or Rome, but that it is +the common good of mankind, destined for all continents and all races; + +That there is no constituent of the present European civilisation, but +the Christian religion, which could stop the brutal struggle among men, +in one form or another, and guarantee a Godlike peace profitable for +the whole of mankind. + +All of us, small or great nations, are now looking to you with respect, +not only for the victory over a revived anachronical Paganism in Central +Europe, but also for a formulation of the new ideal, of saving power for +all men. + +Great is our expectation indeed, but it is justified by your gifts, +given to you by Providence. Therefore let your hearts be larger than +your Empire and your national Church, and the respect of mankind towards +you will be warmed by love. Surely there can not be built a greater +Empire than yours, humanly speaking. The only greater Empire than yours +will be Christ's Empire. And if you are longing for something greater +than your present possession, you are indeed longing for this universal, +pan-human Empire of Christ. Otherwise you would be sticking either at a +stagnancy or at something impossible. Both would be unwise: nature +tolerates no stagnancy and punishes experiments with the impossible. + +But who am I to teach you? "A reed (from the wilderness) shaken with the +wind"? Not I but the present despair of the world teaches you. I am only +a loud amongst many suffocated cries from West and East, from North and +South, directed to you: lift up your hearts and listen! God is now doing +a great thing through you, and the whole world is expecting a great +thing from you. What is this great thing? How to reach it? Pray and +listen! One thing only is sure, that this great thing will come neither +from any Foreign Office nor from any War Office, but from the living +Christian Church. Yes, she is still living, although she looks dead. She +is only sleeping. But Christ is standing beside her now, calling: "Rise, +ye daughter! Talitha Cumi!" + + + + + CHAPTER II + + THE DRAMA OF THE CHURCH + + +The Church is a drama. She represents the greatest drama in the world's +history, yea, she personates the whole of the world's history. She +originated in an astounding personal drama. Humanly speaking, in the +life of Jesus Christ during the three years of His public work there was +more that was dramatic, from an outside and inside point of view, than +in the lives of all other founders of religion taken together. And +speaking from a soteriological and theological point of view, His +life-drama had a cosmic greatness, involving heaven and earth and both +ends of the world's history. Wonderful was the life of Buddha, but his +teaching was still more wonderful than his life. Very striking was the +life of Mohammed, the life of a pious and romantic statesman, but his +work quickly overgrew his personality. Five years after Mohammed's +death, Islam numbered more followers than Christianity five hundred +years after Golgotha. But the life-drama of Jesus was and still is +reckoned as the most marvellous aspect of Christianity: not His teaching +or His work, but His life. + +Well, was not His life-drama typical and prophetic for His Church? His +Church had to live through all those agonies, external and internal, +that He Himself lived through. She had to go through sunshine and +darkness, through angelic concerts and devilish temptations, through +death and resurrection. In one word, she had to live His life, again and +again, treading sometimes quickly, sometimes reluctantly, her path, +always asking for light and comfort from her visions of Him. I say the +visions of Him, because those visions were omnipotent, including in +themselves words and works. + +There is an impressive picture now circulating in London of an English +soldier lying wounded in agony on the battlefield. Well, what would a +Buddhistic painter put as a simile of consolation for the man in agony? +What else if not a Buddha's sentence or word? And what would a +Mohammedan painter put on the picture to console the expiring soldier if +not also a sentence or word from the Koran or an imaginative view of the +Paradise which is waiting for him? And you know what a Christian painter +depicted--the vision of the Crucified! the soldier lying beneath this +vision grasping with his hand Jesus' bleeding feet; this vision of the +Crucified is greater than any sentence, any word, yea, it includes all +the words of sympathy and of consolation. On another occasion the +Christian painter would paint another appropriate vision, and a painter +of another religion or philosophy would write another appropriate word. +Therefore, it is difficult to learn the Christian religion without +pictures, or to teach it without visions. + + + + + THE DRAMATIC FORMATION OF THE CHURCH + + +It was a quarrel, as usual, among men about God and bread, when Jesus +interrupted them. Peter never thought to fish anything else all his life +but fishes, nor Pilate to sentence to death anyone but criminals, nor +the Jewish patriots that they were losing their greatest opportunity, +nor the heathen of Britannia that they were contemporaries with the very +God in flesh of their posterity. How many times did it happen that Jesus +during the first thirty years of His life was present in the temple when +a Rabbi read the prophetic passages on the Messiah! Reading the +Scriptures the poor Rabbi measured the distance between himself and the +Messiah by thousands of years, and 10--the Messiah in person was +listening to his reading! + +All the controversies in the synagogues and in the streets of Jerusalem +were merely repeated platitudes, when a man appeared in Galilee, who +claimed the highest authority and showed the greatest humility at the +same time. The Law was the highest authority for the Jews, and the +Emperor of Rome the highest authority for Pilate. But Jesus declared +himself to be the bearer of an authority which was incomparably higher +than any authority existing on earth. He did not beg either Andrew or +Peter or John and James, to follow Him; He commanded them: "Follow Me!" +Speaking with authority He gained the confidence of His first followers, +and showing humility He also gamed their love. Authority and +humility--two qualities which not often were united in the character of +the church-leaders, a good reason why many of them were feared and many +others pitied, instead of being respected and loved as Jesus was +respected and loved by the first Church. For fear and pity are the +degenerate forms of respect and love. + +What we call the first Church represented in reality the smallest Church +in number as well as in time and space, but the richest in its dramatic +changes and conflicts. + +Some few fishermen were called by Christ, and this call meant real +baptism for them. He let Himself be baptised but He did not baptise His +disciples otherwise than by His personal calling to them to follow Him; +Pentecost was their "confirmation." The history of the first Church +comprised a time not of some hundred years but of some hundred days. +When Andrew and Peter followed Jesus the formation of the Church +started. There were already two gathered in His name and conducted by +Him in person. As a matter of fact, they followed Jesus at first merely +with their eyes and feet, but with their hearts they still followed +Moses and the Law. The Twelve Disciples were at first nothing more than +twelve insignificant grains of sand placed upon a big rocky foundation +of a palace, which had to be built. Only after their confirmation by the +Holy Spirit did they become the real pillars of the palace. They were +uncertain about their Master and everything He said, and they quarrelled +about many things. I think they represented through their differences +not one church but twelve churches, but by their common respect and love +for their Master they represented one Church only. What a prophetic +image of the Church of Christ, say, after nineteen hundred years! + +Now as long as the living Jesus was with the first Church she was all +right. His life was the source of her life; His authority and power +meant her existence and unity. But when the Shepherd was smitten the +sheep were scattered. When the followers of Christ saw Him powerless and +dead they denied Him and fell back to their natural instinct of +self-defence, and the first Church died with the death of Christ. It was +like the green corn in the field smitten by a flail to the very root. +The owner of the corn walks in the field and looks with despair on his +perished corn. But it happens often that after a few days the field +begins under the sunshine to flourish anew, and the corn grows +beautifully and brings forth plenty of fruit. + +Mary of Magdala and the other Mary brought this first sunshine over the +smitten corn. "He is alive!" This was the tidings of the women on the +second morning after His death. This tidings about the living Lord Jesus +con-verted Peter and the other disciples again to Christianity. "He is +alive"--that was the greatest word ever uttered by any human tongue +since the Church was founded. Yea, through this very word the drooping +Church was brought again to life. Whatever utterances Peter made during +Christ's life were as dead as stone compared with Mary Magdalene's +tidings of the living Lord after the catastrophe of His death. The +beautiful and true words: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living +God," had no meaning whatever for the future of Christianity in +comparison with the certainty that the dead Christ had risen, i.e. that +He was Lord even over death. Therefore if I could be convinced that a +grain of good as small as the mustardseed should result from the strange +quarrels about the primacy of this or that Church--or this or that +bishop--I would be very sorry that there did not exist a Church founded +upon the memory of Mary Magdalene. For Mary Magdalene, and not St Peter, +expressed the first the absolutely decisive revelation, churchmaking and +world-changing. "He is alive" was this decisive revelation. + +Pentecost was the crown of the first Church and meant her victory over +all her internal conflicts and her final armament for the coming +dramatic struggle in the world. The Church, which kept herself after +Golgotha on the defensive, inwardly against doubt and fear, outwardly +against the regardless persecution of men, now, after Pentecost, +undertook again her offensive against all her enemies, and became again +the Church militant as she was before Golgotha when the Lord led her in +person. This is the second Church, to which also we all belong. +Historically, this Church is the second, but organically and +dogmatically she is absolutely one with the first Church. Let us see now +what were. + + + + + THE EXTERNAL CONFLICTS OF THE MILITANT CHURCH + + +For the quantity and quality of the conflicts are the conditions of the +dramatic life of a person as well as of a society. Well, the Christian +Church had plenty of the most extraordinary conflicts, external and +internal. Among the gravest external conflicts I reckon her conflicts +with Patriotism and Imperialism. + +The first Christians were persecuted most fiercely by the exclusive +Jewish patriots, as all good Christians always have been persecuted by +exclusive patriots. For it is an essential characteristic of a true +Christian not to be an exclusive patriot, exalting his own nation and +despising all others. Oppression and suffering are the best soil for a +too excited Patriotism. Such a soil was Israel in the time of Christ and +the first Church. All parties were united against Christ and His +followers upon national and patriotic grounds; the Pharisees, the +Scribes, the Sadducees and the ignorant people, believers and +sceptics--they all accused Christ of "perverting the nation." They +accused St Paul of the same crime. Yet St Paul it was who dealt with the +question of Jewish Patriotism very courageously and minutely. + +Patriotism is a natural quality, but Christianity is supernatural. +Patriotism is a provincial truth, but Christianity is a pan-human truth. +Patriotism means love of one's country or one's generation, Christianity +means love of all countries and all generations. Christianity includes a +sound and true Patriotism, but excludes untrue and exaggerated +Patriotism as it excludes every untrue thought and feeling. Of course an +exalted Patriotism in a frame of hatred all around excludes the +Christian religion and is its most dangerous enemy. St Paul, who +remained a true patriot till the end of his life, thought, as we all +shall think, that Christianity never can damage the just cause of a +country, but, on the contrary, it gives to a patriotic cause a universal +nimbus and importance, putting it direct before the Eternal Judge, and +liberating it from small anxieties, little faith and unworthy actions. +He who is numbering every day our hair, and feeding the sparrows, and +clothing the grass in the field--He is a greater warrant for our +patriotic justice than any of our exaggerated calculations and +sentiment about our country and our nation. Alas, no European nation has +right to blame the Jews because of their persecution of Christianity in +the name of their Patriotism. There exists no country in Europe which +has not at some time in the name of a false Patriotism either directly +persecuted or abased the Church, or at least subordinated her to the +cause of the country or put her in the service of its local and temporal +cause. The purest Christianity in the nineteenth century had a struggle +against patriotic and nationalistic exclusiveness not much less dramatic +than the primitive Church, struggling in Judasa against Judaism and in +Greece against Hellenism. The national hero-saints were exalted in +Europe over the merely Christian saints: in France, Jeanne d'Arc; in +Russia, Serge of Radonez; in Germany, Luther; among the Serbs, St Savva, +and St Peter of Cettinje. + +Another enemy of the Church from the beginning was Imperialism. First of +all Roman Imperialism. Christ's second "crime," for which He was brought +before Pilate, was His disregard of Caesar. And Caesar was the symbol of +the Roman world-dominion. Therefore, one Caesar after the other did +their best to exterminate this dangerous Christian sect. Therefore, +among hundreds of religions only Christianity practically was prohibited +in the Roman Empire, as a religio illicita. No wonder! All other +religions which swarmed in Rome were tolerated as naive curiosities by +the people who had lost their own religion. But Christianity was marked +as an enemy from the first. Not only a corrupted Caesar, like Nero, +persecuted the Church, but the wise ones like Trajan and Diocletian, and +the wisest, like Marcus Aurelius. There were plenty of pretexts to +excite the public mind: burnings, earthquakes, diseases, etc. It was +Trajan who prohibited by an edict the Christian secret clubs, Hetoerias, +as dangerous to the State. And it was the philosopher Marcus Aurelius +who sentenced to death the Christian philosopher, Justin, on +Imperialistic grounds. + +Rome was armed to the teeth and the Church had no arms at all except an +ardent belief and the inspired word. Rome drew the sword against the +unarmed Christians, and the Christians armed only with Jesus Christ, and +with empty hands, took the challenge. The enemies knew each other from +the beginning. Rome's conviction was: better to lose the soul than the +Empire; and the Christians' was: better to save the soul than to get an +Empire. The Roman persecutors were every day sure of their victory, +slaughtering defenceless men and women, or throwing them ad bestias, +whereas the martyrs saw their victory as a distant vision, and still +rejoiced. "The prison was like a palace to me," exclaimed St Perpetua. +And Saturus, another martyr, spoke to his executors: "Mark our faces +well, that you may know us again in the day of judgment." Such was the +spirit of the primitive Church in her duel with pagan Imperialism. + +Islam was another kind of Imperialism against which the Church fought. +If the Roman Imperialism was cool, calculating, without any fanaticism, +Islam was a unique form of religious, fanatical Imperialism, having in +view world-conquest and world-dominion, like Rome and yet unlike Rome. +Here the Church fought with the sword against the sword. Before the +definite fall of the Roman Empire the crusades of Christianity against +Islam began, and it has not been finished until this day. Very dramatic +was this struggle in Palestine, under Western crusaders, in Spain and +Russia. But I think the most dramatic act of this dramatic conflict +happened in the Balkans, especially in Serbia, during the last five +hundred years. + +The conflict with Islamic Imperialism was not yet at an end when a +French, and English, and Russian, and German Imperialism were +formulated. We may call it by one name, European Imperialism, although +every species of it is different. What was the Church's attitude towards +the European imperialistic formulae? Did she agree with them? Or did she +oppose and protest as she did against Rome and the Crescent? No, she +neither agreed nor disagreed as a whole, but partially she agreed or +disagreed. Yet the true Church of Christ reserves the world-dominion +only for Christianity in its most spiritual and perfect form and +excludes every other dominion of man over men. The present cataclysm of +Europe may show the world that no earthly king is destined for dominion +over our planet, but Christ, the Heavenly King of souls. + + + + + THE INTERNAL CONFLICTS OF THE CHURCH + + +Dramatic was the external course of Church history, fighting against +exclusive Patriotism and Imperialism, dramatic too, her internal +struggles for a true doctrine and an ethical ideal. + +1. The Struggle for a True Doctrine.--The central problem for the living +Church has always been: Who was Jesus? and how to worship Him? The +restless spirit of humanity endeavoured to define the details both in +His relation to God and to the world. The Church did not define her +doctrine in advance, but bit by bit, pragmatically, according to the +questions and doubts raised in the Christian communities. The refused +solutions of a raised question were called heresy, the adopted solution +by the Church was called orthodoxy. No heresy came merely as an abstract +theory, but every one was a dramatic movement, an organisation, a camp, +a deed--and not merely a word. That made the struggle against it more +difficult. Docetism, Nicolaism, Gnosticism, Chiliasm, Manichaism, +Monatism, Monarchism, Monophysitism, Monotheletism, Arianism, +Nestorianism--every one of these terms means both a theory and a drama. +The Church had to correct the opinion of the heretics for herself, and +to fight against them for themselves. + +The doctrine of the Church was regarded by the heretics as incorrect or +insufficient, and by outsiders as wicked. Celsus, an Epicurean writer, +despised the Christian doctrine as of "barbarous origin." The people of +Smyrna being aroused against the Christians and their bishop, Polycarp, +cried: "Away with the Atheists!" the heathen misunderstood the Church +doctrine and called the Christians atheists, as Montanus, a Christian +heretic, misunderstood the Church doctrine and regarded Jesus only as +his own Percursor and himself as an incarnation of the Holy Spirit. But +the Church did not care either for the pressure from without or from +within, she went on her way cheerfully, struggling and believing, +showing to the world her saints and martyrs as her argument and Christ +as the guarantee of her ultimate victory. + +The Church had also a dramatic struggle with the philosophers. She +rather was inclusive concerning the different opposed systems. John of +Damascus based his theology upon Aristotle, like Thomas Aquinas, and +Gregory of Nyssa based his own upon Plato, as the Scottish School did in +the nineteenth century. Pantheism and Deism were both against the +Church. Pantheism thought God immanent, Deism thought God transcendent. +The Church had already in its creeds the true parts of both of these +systems. She taught that God is by His essence transcendent to this +world, which is His image, but immanent in the world pragmatically, or +dramatically, i.e. visiting this world and acting in this world. + +Materialism and spiritualism excluded each other, but both held the +Church in contempt as a "rough philosophy for the people." Yet the +Church included the true parts for both, not by asserting anything about +the atoms but by recognising two different worlds, the world of bodies +and the world of spirits, in a dramatic union in this transitory +Universe. + +In the same way the Church cut off the extremities and one-sidedness in +empiricism and supernaturalism, in rationalism and mysticism, in +optimism and pessimism. All these systems represented the human effort +to solve the riddle of our life without taking any notice of the Church +and her wisdom. And all failed to become the universally accepted truth, +but all of them helped the Church unconsciously to her own orientation +and strength. The Church collided with any extreme philosophy. Her +wisdom was broad as life, simple as life on the one hand, and manifold +as life on the other; mystical as the starry night and pragmatic as a +weekday. + +2. The Struggle for an Ethical Ideal.--The primitive Church was "of one +heart and of one soul," or, in the words of a very early document, it +was among the Christians: "A life in the flesh but not according to the +flesh" (Epist. ad Diognet.). But the restless human spirit soon dug out +difficult questions and conflicts concerning the ethical life of the +Church members. Of course the Lord Himself was the supreme moral ideal, +but men felt themselves to be too small and too narrow to grasp this +ideal both in its purity and its broadness and inclusiveness. Therefore +we see not only in the primitive Church but throughout Church history +extreme and exclusive propositions to solve the problem. For instance, +asceticism with celibacy and flight from the world was regarded by some +people in the primitive Church as the highest ideal of morality. The +deserts were populated with the ascetics. The same ideal has been +strongly accentuated in Russia even in the nineteenth century. On the +other hand, chastity has been preferred as an ideal by many others. + +Another problem was: what were more salvatory, faith or works? Or +another: whether we are saved or condemned by God's predestination or by +our free will (libertarian, arbitrarian, Augustinianism, and +Pelagianism; Jansenism and Ultramontanism)? Or another: in our moral +perfection how much is God's grace operating and how much our human +collaboration? Or another: what part worship plays in our salvation (the +problem known in theology as opus operatum)? Or another: what should be +the normal relation of the Church and State, the Church and social life, +the Church and education, the Church and the manifold needs and +tribulations of mankind? + +All these problems, and many others here unmentioned, moved every part +of the Christian Church in the East and West. Your Church history too is +full of a moving and dramatic struggle for light in all these problems, +from the day when the first Roman missionaries brought the new Gospel to +your country up to our days. + +The Church, inclusive in wisdom, has had the most dramatic history in +the world. Struggling against Patriotism, she pleaded for humanity; and +struggling against Imperialism, she pleaded for spirituality. And again: +struggling against heretics, she pleaded for unity, and struggling +against worldly philosophers, she pleaded for a sacred and pragmatic +wisdom. She looked sometimes defeated and on her knees before her +enemies, but she rose again and again like the phoenix from its ashes. +In her dramatic struggle through the world and against the world the +internal voice of her Founder comforted and inspired her. The harder +struggles she fought the louder was the comforting and inspiring voice. +The more comfortable she made herself in this world, the less was His +magic voice heard. His life was a scheme of her life: his crucifixion +and resurrection a prophecy of her history to the world's end. Whenever +she became satisfied with herself and with the world around her she was +overshadowed and eclipsed. Whenever she feared struggle and suffering +she became sick, on the dying bed. He then stood, meek and sorrowful, at +her bed and called: Arise, my daughter! + +The Church's craving for comfort is indeed her craving for death. Like a +noble knight who descends into a prison to liberate the enchained +slaves, to whom the prison is painful and liberation still more painful, +so is the Church's position in this world. But how regrettable should it +be if the noble knight accommodated himself in the prison among the +slaves and forgot the light from which he had descended and to which he +ought to return! "He is one of ourselves," the slaves will say. So might +say to-day all the worldly institutions about the Christian Church in +this valley of slavery: "She is one of ourselves." She is destined to +quicken the world end, and she is postponing it. One millennium is past, +another is near by, yet the Church does not think of the world end: she +loves this world; that is her curse. The world still exists because of +the Church's hesitation and fear. Were she not hesitating and fearing +she had been dramatically struggling and suffering, and a new heaven and +a new earth should be in sight. Why has the Church stopped being a +drama? Why is she hesitating and fearing? Doubts and comfort have +weakened the Church. The most tragical religion has climbed from +Golgotha to Olympus and is now lying there comfortably, in sunshine and +forgetfulness, while Chronos, appeased, continues to measure the time by +thousands of years, as before. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + THE AGONY OF THE CHURCH + + +The present time should be one of self criticism. The European race now +needs this self-criticism more than any other race, and the Christian +Church needs it more than any other religion in the world, for before +this War the European race set itself up as the critic of the defects +and insufficiencies of all other races, and the Christian Church exalted +herself over all other religions "as high as the heaven is exalted over +the earth." The other races and religions thought that behind this proud +criticism of Christian Europe there must be at least a well-possessed +security for the world-peace. Of course it was an illusion. On no +continent was the peace of mankind more endangered than in Europe, the +very metropolis of Christianity and Christian civilisation. And it has +been so not only during the last few years, it has been the case during +the last thousand years, that Europe has represented a greater contrast +to peace than any other continent. During the last thousand years +history can report more wars, more bloodshed, and more criminal unrest +in Christian Europe than in the heathen countries of the Far +East--China, Japan, and India. It is a very humiliating fact, both for +the white race and for its religion, but, nevertheless, it is a fact. +This humiliating fact should rouse us in the present painful times to +the consideration of our own defects and insufficiencies. Europe is +sick, and her Church is sick too. How can a wounded man be healed unless +his wounds are unveiled? Europe's soul is sick, therefore her body is so +sorely suffering and bleeding. Well, Europe's soul is nothing else than +Europe's religion, but the religion of Europe to-day is not Europe's +guide and lord, it is Europe's most obedient servant. + + + + THE CHURCH THE SERVANT OF PATRIOTISM AND IMPERIALISM + + +Patriotism and Imperialism--qualities more physical than spiritual--were +the worst enemies of the primitive Church, as I tried to show in my +previous chapters. Well, Patriotism and Imperialism have been the most +prominent qualities of modern Europe. Now compare the primitive Church +with the modern Church: the primitive Church fought most tenaciously and +heroically against the exclusive Patriotism of the Jews and against the +Imperialism of the Romans, and the modern Church serves very obediently +modern Patriotism and Imperialism! I wish I were wrong in what I am +stating now, but, alas! the facts are too obvious, both the facts of +this War, and the facts of previous peace. + +Here are the facts: + +When Austria mobilised against Serbia and declared War, the Church in +Austria did not protest against it, but, on the contrary, she supported +the Vienna Government with all her heart and means. + +It is well known how much the Church of Germany, both the Protestant and +the Roman Catholic, unanimously and strongly supported the War policy of +the Kaiser's Government--the very policy of a blind exclusiveness and a +regardless Imperialism. + +The Governments of Russia and Great Britain declared War against their +enemies without consulting their respective Churches, yet the Churches +of both countries have done their best to help their "country's cause." + +The Churches of France, Italy, Serbia, Rumania, Belgium, and Bulgaria +have been at the disposal of the War Governments of their countries. + +Now we have almost the same denominations of religion on each fighting +side (it is, however, significant that the whole Anglican Church and the +Eastern Orthodox Church are on the side of the Allies), so that we +cannot say it is a War of Protestants against Catholics, nor of the +Orthodox against the Modernists, nor of the Episcopalians against the +Presbyterians, nor even of the Christians against Mohamedans (because on +both sides we have Christians and Mohammedans). No, we cannot say that, +for it is not a War of one Church against the other, nor of one religion +against another; it is a War of Patriotism against Patriotism, of +Patriotism against Imperialism, and of Imperialism against Imperialism. +The Churches are only the tools of Patriotism or Imperialism. Not one of +the Churches has stated her standpoint as a different one from the +standpoint of its respective Government. The Churches have simply +adopted the standpoint of the Government. They seemed to have no +standpoint of their own concerning this War between nations. As if the +War were quite a surprisingly new event in history! + +When the Austrian Government declared war on Serbia, the Church of +Austria adopted the standpoint of the Austrian Government as the right +one. The Serbian Church adopted the standpoint of the Serbian +Government, of course, as the right one. So it happened that the +Churches in Austria and Serbia prayed to the same God, and against each +other. + +The Church of Germany stood up against the Church of Russia because the +German Government stood up against the Russian Government. Neither could +the Church of Germany raise any protest against the warlike German +Government, nor could the Church of Russia say anything to cancel what +the Russian Government had already said. And so it happened that the +Churches of Germany and Russia prayed to the same God for each other's +destruction. + +The Churches of France, England, Belgium, and Italy have fully +recognised the justice of the Governments of France, Belgium, and Italy +concerning the War of those countries against other countries, whose +justice on the other hand has been fully recognised by their Churches. +And so it has happened that during the last three years the most +contradictory prayers have been sent to God in Heaven from the "One, +Holy, Catholic Church" on earth. + +The Churches of the different countries adopted the standpoint of those +countries which governed them. What is the consequence if a Christian +Church adopts the standpoint of a worldly Government as the true one? It +means practically nothing else but that the said Church recognises that +standpoint as the Christian one. + +Now, if the German policy is right, the German Church is right, and +consequently, the Russian Church is wrong; and, on the other hand, if +the Russian policy is right the Russian Church is right, and, +consequently, the German Church is wrong. The same, if the Serbian +Patriotism, which dictates the Serbian policy, is right, then the +Serbian Church, too, is right; and if the Austro-German Imperialism is +right, then the Austro-German Churches are right, and the Church in +Serbia wrong. Of course the same could be said for other belligerent +Churches, i.e., the justice or injustice of the Church of England +depended on the justice or injustice of the English Government, and the +same about the French, Belgian, and Italian Churches, which are +dependent on the justice or injustice of their respective Governments. +The same is true not only of the so-called established Churches, but of +the Disestablished as well. The great fact remains: no Church whatever +did protest against the War action taken by the respective Governments; +no Church whatever refused to do the War work she was asked to do, and, +finally, no Church whatever opposed her views to the views of the +Governments. In one word, no Christian Church now existing has declined +to be the very obedient servant either of Patriotism or Imperialism. +Future generations will be, I hope, more truly Christian than we have +been--they will be shocked to read in the history of the greatest and +bloodiest conflict in the world's history, that the worldly Governments, +and not the Christian Church, formulated the truth; in other words, that +the politicians and soldiers were bearers and formulators of the truth, +and that the Church was only a follower and supporter of that truth, +this truth having to wage War in consequence, i.e. the disobedience of +all God's ten Commandments--not to speak of the New Testament--which +truth must be condemned by the Church as untrue. Following to the +extreme the ideals of Patriotism and Imperialism, the Churches partially +did not shrink even from preaching War as a legal thing. The court +preacher of the Kaiser, preaching in the Domchurch at Berlin after the +Allie's refusal to enter into peace negotiations with Germany, said: "We +have spoken to our enemies (read, the enemies of German Imperialism), +and they did not listen to our words; well, let our guns talk now until +our enemies are compelled to listen to us!" That is the voice of a great +Church. Yet this voice has not remained unaccompanied with similar +warlike and unchristian voices from other great and small Churches. + + + + + THE LITTLE ISLANDS AMIDST THE OCEAN + + +Why did not the Church--the educator of Europe for the space of nineteen +hundred years--why did she not protest against this War? + +Because she was too weak everywhere; and, even if she had protested, her +voice would not have been listened to. + +But why was the Church so weak as to be silent at a most fatal moment in +history, and to have to listen to the Foreign and War Offices to know +what the truth was? + +Because she was not a united, universal Church, like a lofty mountainous +continent despising all the storms of an angry ocean around. She was +weak, because she was cut in pieces and had become like an archipelago +of small islands in a stormy ocean. + +The Churches were not prepared to protest, they were prepared only to +surrender to any temporal power. Therefore, they surrendered altogether, +without making any effort, to Patriotism and Imperialism. + +But what led to the Churches' surrender? It was through their internal +quarrels; through their fruitless controversies and paralysing mutual +accusations and self-sufficiency. + +For instance: + +The Eastern Church proudly insisted on her superiority over all other +Churches, because she preserved faithfully and unchangingly the most +ancient traditions of Christianity, and because she had an episcopal +decentralised system of Church administration, which has been capable of +adapting itself to all political and social situations. She reserved +perfection only for herself, and was prodigious in criticising other +Christian communities. She became an isolated island. + +The Roman Church has had nothing to do with any other Church, living in +her isolation and raising higher and higher the walls which separated +her from other Churches. She has a wonderful record of missionary work +in Europe and outside; she has a minutely organised centralisation, with +an infallible autocrat at the head; and she has an enlarged dogmatic +system, larger than any other Church. She pointed out again and again +her superiority to all other Christian communities, and claimed for +herself the exclusive right to speak in the name of Jesus Christ. Thus +she became an isolated island. + +The Anglican Church repudiated the papal authority. She repudiated as +well the Eastern worship of the saints and use of ikons on the one side, +and on the other she repudiated all the extremes of Protestantism in +teaching, worship and administration. She thought in that way to be the +absolutely true Christian organism, incomparably better than any other +all around. Thus the Anglican Church became an isolated island too. + +The Protestants of the Continent, and of England and Scotland, thought +to save the Christian religion in its integrity by bringing it back to +its primitive simplicity. By repudiating the Pope and the Bishops, by +shortening the Christian dogmatic, and by reducing worship to a minimum, +they boasted of restoring the true Church of Christ and His Apostles. +Everything which was an addition to their simplicity was regarded by +them either as unnecessary, or even as idolatrous and false. Thus the +Presbyterian and Protestant Nonconformist Churches became isolated +islands. + +But the more the morselling of Christianity went on, the more dangerous +became the raging ocean around it, so that now the Christian Archipelago +seems to be quite covered with the stormy waves. The Church, therefore, +is in an agony everywhere. Even if the Church had no responsibility upon +her shoulders for the present bloodshed in Europe, she would be in +agony, just because the whole Christian world is in agony, but much more +so because a great deal of responsibility for it must rest on her +shoulders. + + + + + SELF-CASTIGATION + + +The Christian monks of old used to castigate themselves when a great +plague came over the world. They used to consider themselves as the real +cause of the plague, and did not accuse anybody else. Well, this extreme +method ought to be used now by the Churches, for the good of mankind and +for their own good. It would be quite enough to bring the dawning of a +new day for Christianity if this self-castigation of the Churches were +only a self-criticism. + +If, for instance, the Eastern Church would say: Although I have +preserved faithfully and unchangingly the most ancient traditions of +Christianity, still I have many faults and insufficiencies. I have much +to learn from the Roman Church, how to bring all my sections, all my +national and provincial branches into closer touch; and from Anglicanism +I have to learn the wonderful spirit of piety, expressed not only in old +times, but even in quite modern times through new prayers, new hymns, +new Psalms, added to the old ones; and from Protestantism I have to +learn the courage to look every day to the very heart of religion in its +simplest and most common expressions. + +Or, if the Roman Church would use this self-criticism, saying: My +concentration is my strength and my weakness. Perhaps, after all, my +Pope is more a Caesaristic than a Christian Institution, making more for +worldly Imperialism than for the Spirituality of the world. I have to +learn from the Christian East more humility, and from Anglicanism more +respect for human freedom and social democracy, and from Protestantism a +more just appreciation of human efforts and results in science and +civilisation generally. + +Or, if the Anglican Church would use self-criticism like this, and say, +I am, of course, an Apostolic Church, but I am not the only Church. I +have to learn from the Eastern Church something, and from the Church of +Rome something, but, above all, I have to learn that they are the +Apostolic Churches as well as I, and that I am, without them, too small +an island, and unable to resist alone the flood of patriotic and +imperialistic tendencies. And from the Protestants I have to learn to +put the living Christ above all doctrinal statements and liturgical +mysteries. + +Or, if the Protestants of all classes would abandon their contemptuous +attitude towards so-called ecclesiasticism and ritualism, and criticise +themselves, saying: We have had too much confidence in human reason and +human words. Our worship is bare of every thing but the poor human +tongue. We have excluded Nature from our worship, though Nature is +purer, more innocent and worthier to come before the face of God than +men. We have been frightened by candles and incense, and vestments, and +signs, and symbols, and sacraments, but now we see that the mystery of +life and of our religion is too deep to be spoken out clearly in words +only. And we have been frightened by the episcopal administration of the +Church, but now we see that the episcopal system is a golden midway +between the papal and our extremes. Besides, we have gone too far in +our criticism of the Church tradition and of the Holy Scriptures. We +have to learn to abstain from calling the Eastern Church idolatrous and +the Roman Church tyrannical, and the Episcopal Church inconsistent. We +have our own idolatries (our idols are: individualism, human reason, and +the human word); and we have our own tyranny (the tyranny of criticism +and pride); and we have--thank god--our own inconsistencies. + +Such a self-criticism would mean really a painful self-castigation, +because it would mean a reaction from a policy of criticism and +self-sufficiency which has lasted a thousand years, ever since the 16th +July 1054--the very fatal date when the Pope's delegates put an +Excommunication Bull on the altar of St Sophia's in Constantinople. The +primitive monks, who practised self-castigation because of the +world-evil, experienced a wonderful purification of soul, a new vision +of God, and an extraordinary sense of unity with all men, living and +dead. Well, that is just what the Church needs at present; a +purification, a new vision of God, and a sense of unity. + + + + + A COMMON ILLUSION + + +The present agony of the Church has resulted from an illusion which has +been common to all the Churches, i.e. that one of the Churches could be +saved without all other Churches. It is, in fact, only the enlarged +Protestant theory of individualism, which found its expression, +especially in Germany, in the famous formula: "Thou, man, and thy God!" +It is an anti-social and anti-Christian formula too, quite opposed to +the Lord's Prayer: "Our Father," which is in the plural and not in the +singular possessive. This prayer is a symbol of our salvation: we can be +saved only in the plural, not in the singular; only collectively, not as +individuals: i.e. we can be saved, but I cannot be saved. I cannot be +saved without thee, and thou canst not be saved without me. For if thou +art in need I can be saved only by helping thee; and vice versa, if I am +in need, thou canst save thyself only by saving me. And we all, and +always, are in need of each other. Peter could not be saved without +Andrew, and John and James, nor could the others be saved without Peter. +That is why Christ brought them all together, and educated them to live +and pray together, and spoke to them in assembly as to one being. If +Christ's method were like the German Protestant method, "Thou, man, and +thy God!" He would really never have gathered the disciples together, +but He would have gone to Andrew and saved Andrew first; and then to +Peter and saved Peter; and then to John and James and the others, and +saved them individually, one by one. That is just what He did +not--because He could not do it. He knew, and He said (speaking of the +two Commandments), that God is only one constituent of our salvation, +and that the other constituent is our neighbours. What does that mean, +but that I cannot be saved without God and my neighbours? And my +neighbours! The whole of mankind must become the mystical body of Christ +before any one of us is saved. If ninety nine of us think we are saved, +still we must wait in the corridor of Heaven until the one lost sheep is +found and brought in; the door of Heaven does not open for one person +only. And speaking in larger circles we may say: If ninety-nine Churches +think they are saved, still they must wait in the corridor of Heaven +until the one retrograde Church has become the member of the mystical +body of Christ. The door of Heaven is open for Christ only and for +nobody else. And the mystical Christ does not mean one righteous man +only, or two, or twelve, or one Church denomination, or one +generation--no. It means milliards and milliards of human beings. All +the Churches are inbuilt into His body. This building is yet far from +being finished, still it is much larger and more magnificent than we +think. It is larger than a denomination, it is loftier than our nation, +or our race, or our Empire; yea, it is stronger than Europe. + +Consequently, the Church of England cannot be saved without the Church +of the East, nor the Church of Rome without Protestantism; nor can +England be saved without Serbia, nor Europe without China, nor America +without Africa, nor this generation without the generations past and +those to come. We are all one life, one organism. If one part of this +organism is sick, all other parts should be suffering. Therefore let the +healthy parts of the Church take care of the sick ones. Self-sufficiency +means the postponement of the end of the world and the prolongation of +human sufferings. It is of no use to change Churches and go from one +Church to another seeking salvation: salvation is in every Church as +long as a Church thinks and cares in sisterly love for all other +Churches, looking upon them as parts of the same body, or there is +salvation in no Church so long as a Church thinks and cares only for +herself, contemptuously denying the rights, beauty, truth and merits of +all other Churches. It is a great thing to love one's Church, as it is a +great thing to love one's country, but it is much better to love other +Churches and other countries too. Now, in this time, when the whole +Christian world is in a convulsive struggle one part against the other, +now or never the consciousness of the desire for one Church of Christ on +earth should dawn in our souls, and now or never should the +appreciation, right understanding and love for each part of this one +Church of Christ on earth should dawn in our souls, and now or never +should the appreciation, right understanding and love for each part of +this one Church begin in our hearts. + +Stick to your Church: it is a beautiful and a holy Church, but, +nevertheless, break up every sort of disgraceful exclusiveness from +other Churches. That is the way to bring the Church out of the present +agony and weakness. That is the best way for you to serve your own +Church and your own nation. And the Crucified does not ask any other +service from your Church in the present world agony. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + THE VICTORY OF THE CHURCH + + + WHAT IS THE CHURCH? + + +What is the Church, psychologically viewed? + +The Church is: + +1. A school of the Christian spirit. That is her first task in the +world. + +2. She is the Body of Christ. That is her official and physical +determination--her firm, her name. + +3. She is the living Christ Himself, i.e. Christ's body (consisting of +all the human bodies inside the Church organisation), and Christ's +spirit (filling all the human bodies inside the Church). That is her +ideal, her end, her Horeb. + +What is the Church, sociologically viewed? + +The Church is: + +1. A Theocracy. That is her general virtue, which she shares with all +the religions in history. + +2. She is a Christocracy. God is the abstract Ruler of Humanity, but +Christ is the pragmatic God, leading, enlightening, encouraging and +inspiring Humanity. That is the Church's special charter, special way, +different from the charters and ways of other religions. + +She is a Sanctocracy. The saints ought to lead mankind--not the great +men of the world, but the saints. But when all men become saintly, no +special leaders will be needed: no authority, no state, no law, no +punishment. All men will do their over-duty, and all will be happy in +their neighbour's happiness. The fight for right is an inferior stage in +human history. It is a savage fight. But there will come a fight for +over-duty. It will be a smiling, pleasant fight. + +What is the Church, historically viewed? + +The Church is: + +1. A heresy regarding Judaism and Paganism, a real, deep heresy. Not so +deep was the outward gulf as the inward. Outwardly, this heresy made a +thousand compromises with Judaism and Paganism. That did not matter. But +inwardly it was a new, an absolutely new and most uncompromising spirit +with anything in the world. + +2. She was a heresy regarding the whole practical life of mankind: +politics, society, art, war, education, nationalism, imperialism, +science. She meant the most obstinate conflict between what exists and +what ought to exist. Therefore her martyrdom is quite comprehensible. + +3. She was built up and applied to human life by the Graeco-Hebrew +spirit. Yet she has become the European religion, par excellence, almost +exclusively European. That is her historical development and fate. +Europe's acceptance of Christianity is nominally definite. No other +Asiatic religion (all great religions are Asiatic) has had any notable +success in Europe. Yet Europe's mission of Christianity has been no +success. St Paul has done more for the Christian mission than the whole +of modern Europe. Historically, Christianity has been and has remained +until now the religion of the European race only. + +What is the Church viewed from the point of view of the world war? + +The Church is: + +1. The only keeper of the secret of the present war. The present war is +the result of the de-christianisation of Europe, and de-christianisation +of Europe's Church. The Church only is conscious of this fact and keeps +silent. She has no courage to accuse because she has no courage to +self-accuse. + +2. She is the only thing which makes European civilisation not lower +than the civilisation of Egypt, Babylon, Persia, and China. The ruins of +those ancient civilisations are more magnificent than the actual +constructions of Europe. But the Church gives Europe a special nimbus +and a special excellency over those ancient worlds. Secular Europe does +not know that, but the Church knows it and keeps silent. She cannot +announce it because she has sinned. Her sins keep her tongue-tied. + +3. Nothing is sure to survive the present catastrophe of Europe, but the +Christian Church. None of the European potencies has the idea for the +reconstruction of the world, for durable and Godlike world-peace, but +the Church. + +Socialism, Masonry, Philanthropy, Rousseauism,--all these are only small +units of the great treasury that the Christian Church hides under her +clouds and dust of errors and miseries. All non-Christian systems and +schemes mean, my own interest first and then thine, or first I and my +nation and my race, and then thou and thy nation and thy race, or, my +happiness and, along with it, thy happiness. The Christian idea hidden +in the Church is a revolutionary one, the most revolutionary idea in the +world. The Christian idea is, thou and thy nation and thy race first, +and then me and my nation and my race; or, thy happiness first and in +thy happiness my happiness. Saintliness above everything, the true +saintliness including goodness and sacrifice. That is the fundamental +idea of the Church. That is the only constructive, Godlike treasury that +Europe still possesses, the sleeping, never used, never tried treasury. +The Church is the keeper of this treasury. This treasury must survive +the old Europe and the old Church, the de-christianised Europe and the +de-christianised Church. + + + + + THE POVERTY OF EUROPEAN CIVILISATION + + +The poverty of European civilisation has been revealed by this war. The +ugly nakedness of Europe has brought to shame all those who used to bow +before Europe's mask. It was a silken shining mask hiding the inner +ugliness and poverty of Europe. The mask was called: culture, +civilisation, progress, modernism. All was only vanitas vanitatum and +povertas povertatum. When the soul fled away, what remained was empty, +ugly and dangerous. When religion plunged into impotence, then: + + Science became a mask of pride. + Art--a mask of vanity. + Politics--a mask of selfishness. + Laws--a mask of greediness. + Theology--a mask of scepticism. + Technical knowledge--a poor surrogate for spirituality. + Journalism--a desperate surrogate for literature. + Literature--a sick nostalgy and a nonsense, a dwarf-acrobacy. + Civilisation--a pretext for imperialism. + Fight for right--an atavistic formula of the primitive creeds. + Morals--the most controversial matter. + Individualism--the second name for egoism and egotism. + +Christ--a banished beggar looking for a shelter, while in the royal and +pharisaic palaces lived: Machiavelli, the atheist; Napoleon, the +atheist; Marx, the atheist; and Nietsche, the atheist, imperially ruling +Europe's rulers. + +The spirit was wrong and everything became wrong. The spirit of any +civilisation is inspired by its religion, but the spirit of modern +Europe was not inspired by Europe's religion at all. A terrific effort +was made in many quarters to liberate Europe from the spirit of her +religion. The effort-makers forgot one thing, i.e. that no civilisation +ever was liberated from religion and still lived. Whenever this +liberation seemed to be fulfilled, the respective civilisation decayed +and died out, leaving behind barbaric materialism in towns and +superstitions in villages. Europe had to live with Christianity, or to +die in barbaric materialism and superstitions without it. The way to +death was chosen. From Continental Europe first the infection came to +the whole white race. It was there that the dangerous formula was +pointed out: "Beyond good and evil." Other parts of the white world +followed slowly, taking first the path between Good and Evil. Good was +changed for Power. Evil was explained away as Biological Necessity. The +Christian religion, which inspired the greatest things that Europe ever +possessed in every point of human activity, was degraded by means of new +watchwords; individualism, liberalism, conservatism, nationalism, +imperialism, secularism, which in essence meant nothing out +de-christianisation of the European society, or, in other words, +emptiness of European civilisation. Europe abandoned the greatest things +she possessed and clung to the lower and lowest ones. The greatest thing +was--Christ. + +As you cannot imagine Arabic civilisation in Spain without Islam, or +India's civilisation without Hinduism, or Rome without the Roman +Pantheon, so you cannot imagine Europe's civilisation without Christ. +Yet some people thought that Christ was not so essentially needed for +Europe, and behaved accordingly without Him or against Him. Christ was +Europe's God. When this God was banished (from politics, art, science, +social life, business, education), everybody consequently asked for a +God, and everybody thought himself to be a god, and in truth there it +failed, not on theories in Europe proclaiming, openly or disguisedly, +everyone a god. So the godless Europe became full of gods! + +Being de-christianised, Europe still thought to be civilised. In reality +she was a poor valley full of dry bones. The only thing she had to boast +of was her material power. By material power only she impressed and +frightened the unchristian (but not antichristian) countries of Central +and Eastern Asia, and depraved the rustic tribes in Africa and +elsewhere. She went to conquer not by God or for God, but by material +power and for material pleasure. Her spirituality did not astonish any +of the peoples on earth. Her materialism astonished all of them. Her +inner poverty was seen by India, China, Japan, and partly by Russia. +What an amazing poverty! She gained the whole world, and when she looked +inside herself she could not find her soul. Where has fled Europe's +soul? The present war will give the answer. It is not a war to destroy +the world but to show Europe's poverty and to bring back her soul. It +will last--this war--as long as Europe remains soulless, Godless, +Christless. It will stop when Europe gets the vision of her soul, her +only God, her only wealth. + + + + + THE CHRISTIANISATION OF THE CHURCH + + +The Church must first awaken out of her sleep and her European +emptiness, and then Europe will come again to life. The Church has +failed, not because she was not Europeanised, but just because she was +too much Europeanised. Instead of inspiring Europe she was inspired by +Europe, i.e. emptied by the empty Europe. The soul obeyed the body and +became the body itself. All the secular watchwords entered the Church +and the Church watchwords were eclipsed. Liberalism, conservatism, +ceremonialism, right, nationalism, imperialism, law, democracy, +autocracy, republicanism, socialism, scientific criticism, and similar +things have filled the Christian theology, Christian service, Christian +pulpits as the Christian Gospel. In reality the Christian gospel has +been as different from all these worldly ideas and temporal forms as +heaven is different from earth. For all these ideas or forms were +earthly, bodily, dustly--a convulsive attempt to change unhappiness for +happiness through the changing of institutions. The Church ought to have +been indifferent towards them, pointing always her principal idea, +embodied in Christ. And her principal idea meant never a change of +external things, of institutions, but a change of spirit. All the ideas +named were secular precepts to cure the world's evil, the very poor +drugs to heal the sick Europe outside of the Church and without the +Church. + +Yet the Church only possessed the true remedy, although she became +forgetful of it, because she herself got sick, and instead of giving the +world the necessary remedy she looked about to take it from the world. +Weakened in her position in the world and forgetful of her external +value, the Church, or some parts or parties of the Church, made even +coquetry with the current and transitory potencies in order to make her +position stronger. Yet the fact stood in history as big as a mountain +that the Church always failed when making concessions of her spirit to +any temporary power, and when not making concessions as to the visible +forms and transitory shapes of human societies. + +Neither Ritualism nor Liberalism helps anything without the true +Christian spirit. The modern Ritualism and Liberalism are absolutely +equally worthless from the Christian point of view, being so hostile to +each other as they are, filled with the unclean spirit of hatred, +unforgiveness, despising and even persecuting each other. They are +equally unchristian and even antichristian. Measured by the mildest +measure they are a new edition of the Judaistic Pharisaism and +Sadduceeism. The Ritualists cling to their ritual, the Liberals cling to +their protest against the Ritualists. But the true spirit by which both +of them move and act and write and speak is the unclean spirit of hatred +and despite of each other, the very spirit which excludes them both from +communion with Christ and the saints. The Church has been equally +de-christianised by Ritualists and Liberals, by Conservatives and +Modernists, by bowers and by talkers. The Church must be now +re-christianised amongst all of them and through all of them. + +Let the Church be the Church, i.e. the community of the saints. Let the +world know that the Church's mission on earth is not to accumulate +wealth, or to gain political power or knowledge, or to cling to this +institution or to that, but to cleanse mankind from its unclean, evil +spirits, and to fill it with the spirit of saintliness. Let the Church +first change her spirit and then urge the whole of mankind to change +theirs. + +Let the Ritualists know that however devout they might be, still they +can call the Protestants their brothers. The most devout have been often +killers of their neighbours and killers of Christ. + +Let the learned doctors of Protestantism think that however learned they +might be, still they are foolish and ignorant enough to be +self-satisfied. It is doubtful whether the most elaborate sermon of a +Protestant doctor smells more beautifully than incense. The most learned +theologians in Germany and elsewhere have whole-heartedly supported the +criminal enterprise of the warlike and criminal scientia militans. The +deepest learning and the meanest spirit have often shown in history a +very brotherly alliance. Christianity is not that. + +Let the Pope be congratulated for his tenacious keeping of the idea of +Theocracy. But let him consider this idea only as the starting-point in +the social science of the Church. His Theocracy has been refused because +it was not at the same time Christocracy and Sanctocracy. The saints in +Christ are alone infallible. Let the Vatican be filled with saints, and +infallibility then will not need to be preached and ordered but only to +be silently shown. Nobody believes infallibility upon authority, but +everyone will accept it upon Saintliness. + +The way of authority is a fallible way. + +The way of knowledge is quite as fallible. + +But the way of saintliness is infallible. + +Every spirit is fallible but the spirit of saintless. The Church is +infallible not by any talisman but by her saintliness. The Bishop of +Rome or of Canterbury will be infallible only if they are saints. The +saints are detached from everything and attached to Christ, so that +Christ incarnates His spirit in them. Not we, but Christ in us, is +infallible. + +Let the people of the Eastern Church stick to their Christian ideal of +saintliness. Their interpretation of the Christian spirit may be the +best and truest. Yet the ideal must become flesh. Let them not be proud +of their not having pride, and exclusive because God chose them to +understand the bottomless deepness of the esoteric Christianity. By +pride towards the proud and by exclusiveness they may spoil and darken +their ideals and remain in the dark. + +Let all the Churches feel their unity in the ideal spirit of +saintliness. But if that is difficult for them, let them first feel +their unity in sinfulness, in committed sins and crimes, in their +nakedness and poverty. Just to start with, this first step seems +absolutely necessary. Never any great saint became saintly unless he +first thought himself equal in impurity and sinfulness with all other +human beings. The Churches must go the way of the saints. Their way is +the only infallible one. + + + + + THE ONLY NECESSARY EXCLUSIVENESS OF THE CHURCH + + +When you deeply search in history about the causes of the strength of +the primitive Church and of the weakness and decay of the modern Church, +you will come to a very clear and simple conclusion. + +1. The primitive Church was inclusive as to its forms, but exclusive as +to its spirit. + +2. The modern Church has been exclusive as to its forms, but inclusive +as to its spirit. + +The primitive Church was very puritanic concerning the Christian spirit. +She was not particular as to the vessels in which to pour the new wine, +but she was extremely particular as to the wine itself. She borrowed the +vessels in Judaea, Alexandria, Athens, Rome, but she never borrowed wine. +The Christian spirit and the pagan spirit were just like two opposite +poles, like white and black, or day and night. The Church was conscious +of it, and jealously watchful that no drop of any foreign spirit should +be mixed with the precious spirit of the New Gospel. There existed no +thought of compromise, and no idea of inclusiveness whatever regarding +the spirit. The terrific conflict of Christianity and Paganism through +centuries sprang from the irreconcilability of two different spirits. +Were the Church as inclusive as to the spirit as she was to forms, +doctrines, customs and worships, conflicts never would arise--but then +neither would Christianity arise. + +The modern Church is particular as to its institutions, but not +particular at all as to its spirit. The Roman Emperors never would +persecute the modern Church, for they would easily recognise their own +spirit included in her. Nor would the Pharaohs from Egypt persecute +modern Christianity. Nor would Areopagus or Akropolis be puzzled so much +had St Paul preached to them the modern European Christianity with its +complicated spirit of all kinds of compromises with Heaven and Hell, +compromise with the State, Plutocracy, Nationalism, Imperialism, +Conquest, War, Diplomacy, Secular Philosophy, Secular Science, Agnostic +Parliaments, Tribal Chauvinism, Education, Officialism, Bureaucracy, +etc., etc. All these things have their own spirit, and every such spirit +is partly or wholly included in the spirit of the Church, i.e. of modern +Christianity. None of the Christian Churches of our time makes an +exception as to this inclusiveness of all kinds of spirits. Even +Protestantism, which claims the simplicity of its Christian ritual and +administration, represents a lamentable mosaic of spirits gathered from +all the pagan corners of secular Europe and mixed up with the Christian +wine in the same barrel. + +The Church of the East excommunicated thousands of those who crossed +themselves with two fingers instead of using three fingers. The Church +of the West burnt thousands of those who did not recognise the papal +organisation of the Church as the only ark of salvation. Yet there is +rarely to be found in the Church annals an excommunication on the ground +of chauvinism or brutal egoism. No one of the world conquerors--neither +Napoleon nor Kaiser William--have been excommunicated by the Church. It +signifies an extreme decadence of the Church. And this decadence +penetrates and dominates our own time. Speaking on the reunion of the +Churches the peoples of the East are anxious to know--not whether the +Church of the West has preserved the unmixed Christian spirit in its +integrity, but whether this Church still keeps Filioque as a dogma, and +whether she has ikons, and whether she allows eggs and milk in Lent. And +the people of the West are anxious to know whether the Eastern Church +has a screen quite different from their own screen at the altar, and +whether she has been always tenaciously exclusive in teaching, worship +and organisation. Who of us and of you asks about the integrity of the +Christian spirit? If St Paul were amongst us he would ridicule our +controversies on Filioque and all the trifles concerning Church +organisation and the external expressions of Christianity. He would ask: +What happened with the spirit he preached? What happened with this +spirit which excommunicated de facto the Jewish narrow Patriotism and +the Roman Imperialism? Have we still this exclusive spirit which moved +the world effecting the greatest revolution in History? I am sure he +would have to repeat with good reasons to every Church and to everyone +of us: "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." + +Well, we must come again to this source of Christian strength and +greatness, which is Christ's spirit. A new revival, yea, regeneration of +Christianity, could be possible only in a united Christian Church; and +the union of the Church is possible only upon the ground of the +primitive Church, which was inclusive in teaching, worship and +organisation, but exclusive in spirit. On the day when we all exclude +from ourselves the Jewish and Greek and Roman spirit, and retain only +the pure Christian spirit, we shall be at once ready to include each +other's Church into one body, into one Christianity. We must be clear +about it, and we must confess that the divisions of the church are due +to the invasion of a foreign spirit, an unclean spirit, into the Church. +When the Church cleanses herself from this foreign unclean spirit she +will be victorious over herself, and from this victory to the ultimate +victory of Christianity over our planet will be a very short distance. + + + + + ECCLESIA TRIUMPHANS + + +How can the church get her past strength again and triumph over the evil +inside and outside her walls? + +If she were united she could get it by waiting for the ruin of +Europe--i.e. of a house which is divided in itself--which is not very +far off. But she the Church--is divided too. She is fighting with and +for the European parties, and against herself. Consequently, in waiting +for the ruin of Europe she is waiting for her own ruin. Therefore she +must make up her mind lest it is too late. Horribile dictu--she must +start a dramatic movement in order to get her soul back. + +First of all she must become again a heresy towards Europe and European +secular, antidivine civilisation, just as she was a heresy towards the +theocratic Israel and semi-theocratic Greece and Rome. Theoretically, +she must stick to Theocracy, historically, to Christocracy, and +practically to Sanctocracy. She must loose herself from all the chains +binding her either to the chariot of any dynasty or of any oligarch or +president, or whatever political denomination it may be, and insist upon +the Holy Wisdom to lead humanity. It ought to be absolutely indifferent +to the Church what political denomination, or social creed, or +institutional shape a human society shall have as long as this is +founded upon any other ideal but saintliness. The Church ought to know +only two denominations--politics and social life, inter-human as well as +international and inter racial-racial relations in trade and business, +in education and family life--i.e. saintliness and unsaintliness. If you +ask what saintliness ought to mean, Christianity has not to argue but to +show you the saintliness in the flesh. Christ the saintly Lord, St Paul +and St John, Polycarp and Leo, Patrick and Francis, Sergius and Zosim, +St Theresa and hundreds of other saints. And if somebody thinks still +that a few thousands of Christian saints are not a sufficient argument +to show that saintliness is practicable, then the Church has still not +to give her ideal up and to take as her ideal thousands of great and +small Napoleons and Bismarcks, and Goethes and Spencers, or Medics and +Cromwells or Kaisers and Kings--no, in the latter case it would be much +nicer for the Church to point out the saintly men outside of Christian +walls, like St Hermes and St Pythagoras, or St Krishna and St Buddha, or +St Lao-Tse and St Confucius, or St Zoroaster and St Abu-Bekr. Better +even is unbaptised saintliness than baptised earthliness. + +Saintliness includes goodness and sacrifice, and excludes all the +earthly impure spirits of selfishness, pride, quarrels and conquests. +Therefore, when the Church returns to her fundamental ideal, she will +return to her elementary simplicity in which she was so powerful as to +move mountains and empires and hearts at the beginning of her history. +That is what the world needs now just as much as it needs air and +light, i.e. an elementary spiritual power by which it could be moved, +cleared up, purified and brought out of its chaos to a solid and +beautiful construction. + + + + + HOLY CHURCH IN HOLY EUROPE + + +Europe has been eclipsed because her Church--her soul--has been +eclipsed; the Church has been eclipsed because her principal ideal has +been eclipsed. The principal ideal of the Church is saintliness. This +ideal, plunged down into darkness like a sun into ashes, must come out +again to illuminate the Church and Europe. Europe has tried all the ways +but the way of the Church, the European Church has tried all the ways +but the way of Christ. Well, then, Europe must try the only way left, +which is saintliness. The Church must give an example to Europe. + +Europe has been materialistic, heroic, scientific, imperialistic, +technical, secular. At last she has to be holy. Whatever she has been, +she has been unhappy and restless, and brutal and criminal, unjust and +gluttonous. Soldiers and traders, despots and robbers, popes and kings, +gluttons and harlots, have ruled Europe, but not yet the saints, the +holy wizards. The Church's duty has been to provide Europe with such +holy wizards. She has failed because she has been obscured by Europe, as +a fine soul often is obscured by a heavy and greedy body. The body, one +thought, the soul, another, until their thought became one and the same, +i.e. the bodily thought. Now, after a bitter experience, the soul must +come to its rights. Europe and Europe's Church have not henceforth to +think two different thoughts, but one and the same, and this one thought +has not to be a bodily one but a spiritual one. The aim of the Church as +well as of Europe has to be God, Christ, saintliness. If this thing is +given to the Church and Europe, everything else will be easily given. A +Holy Church in Holy Europe! + +A holy Europe only can be a missionary Europe. No other mission has +Europe on other continents but a Christian one. It was an illusion to +speak about Europe's mission in the wide world without Christ. Well, but +only a Christlike people can be a missionary of Christ. How could an +unholy Europe preach the Holy One? + +Do you think that the Arabs, who gave Europe knowledge, are expecting +from Europe knowledge? No, they expect Europe's goodwill. + +Or do you think that India, whose history is a history of saints, is +anxious to accept German materialistic science, individual philosophy, +and a destructive and shallow theology? No, they expect from Europe more +saintliness than they have had in their history. And that is just very +difficult for Europe to give them. + +Or do you think that Chino-Japanese civilisation has anything worth +mentioning to borrow from Europe but Christian ideals? No, nothing that +could make them happier than they have been. + +Well then, let Europe kill her pride and self-conceit in this war and +become humble and meek. The Church ought to give an example to secular +Europe: an example of humility, goodness, sacrifice--saintliness. + +But which of the Churches ought to give this example for the salvation +of Europe and of the world? Yours, if you like. Why not just your +Anglican Church? But whichever undertakes to lead the way will be the +most glorious Church. For she will lead the whole Church and through the +Church Europe and through Europe the whole world to holiness and +victory, to God and His Kingdom. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Agony of the Church (1917), by +Nikolaj Velimirovic + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AGONY OF THE CHURCH (1917) *** + +***** This file should be named 20206.txt or 20206.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/2/0/20206/ + +Produced by Project Rastko, Nikolaj Velimirovic Project, +Renald Levesque and the Online Distributed Proofreaders +Europe at http://dp.rastko.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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