"The religion of Dostoyevsky's 'Grand Inquisitor,' he [Eugene (Blessed Seraphim)] wrote, is 'the religion of earthly bread. It has one central doctrine, and that is: the welfare of man in this world is the only common and indispensable religious concern of men. To anyone capable of distinguishing between them, such humanitarianism seems indeed a paltry subsitute for Christianity; but it is by no means superficial. It appeals to some of the highest human emotions; and its logic--once one grants the initial premise--is irrefutable. It is, in fact, the profoundest and most ingenious substitute for Christianity every devised.' . . .
"'Humanitarian idealism,' Eugene wrote, 'is what is left of Christianity when specifically Christian truth has evaporated from it. It is the one ground on which Christians and non-Christians can unite; for, having sprung from Christianity and derived its specific coloration from Christian doctrine, it yet appeals to everyone who believes first in man and in earthly happiness. Everyone, receiving this doctrine, can read his own meaning into it. Christians may find in it the earthly side of a doctrine which in its fullness speaks also of Heaven; non-Christians can find in it a doctrine of man and a "higher reality" that does no violence to their own specific ideas of what lies above man and outside this world; and anti-Christians may find in it an expression of universal wisdom that itself exhausts the religious needs of man.' . . .
"'The tragedy of these times is that men, rediscovering the fact that they require more than earthly bread, turn in their spiritual hunger to what seems to be the "renewed" Church of Christ, only to find there an insubstantial imitation of genuine spiritual food. Starving men cannot distinguish flavors.'"
--Not of this World, pp. 229-230, 231, 233
Posted by Clifton at June 4, 2004 06:00 AM | TrackBack