Posted on 08/05/2008 6:01:33 PM PDT by sionnsar
Despite penning 38 paragraphs for his obituary, the closest AP's Douglas Birch came to mentioning the late Alexander Solzhenitsyn's Christian faith was by remarking how the bearded author and Soviet dissident looked like a religious icon:
In a 1978 speech at Harvard University, Solzhenitsyn - who with his beard and dour demeanor resembled a figure from an Orthodox icon - denounced the Western view that liberal democracy was fated to triumph in non-Western civilizations, which he called "worlds" unto themselves.
Yet it was in that speech -- "A World Split Apart" -- Baptist theologian Albert Mohler argues, that Solzhenitsyn famously diagnosed secularism as a disease corrupting the West and, what's more, he did so thoroughly anchored in his Orthodox Christian faith (emphasis mine):
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Edward E. Erickson, who wrote two major works on Solzhenitsyn, argues that the key to understanding Solzhenitsyn is Christianity -- the Russian Orthodox faith that framed Solzhenitsyn's worldview. Erickson argued that "in a day when secular humanism flourishes among the cultural and intellectual elite, he holds fast to traditional Christian beliefs."
Indeed, Solzhenitsyn railed against the secularism and spiritual weakness of the West, even as he took refuge in Cavendish, Vermont for the years of his exile. In his famous 1978 Harvard University commencement address, "A World Split Apart," Solzhenitsyn pointed to the moral and spiritual crisis in the West. He declared that America's experiment with democracy was being undermined by secularism:
However, in early democracies, as in the American democracy at the time of its birth, all individual human rights were granted because man is God's creature. That is, freedom was given to the individual conditionally, in the assumption of his constant religious responsibility. Such was the heritage of the preceding thousand years. Two hundred or even fifty years ago, it would have seemed quite impossible, in America, that an individual could be granted boundless freedom simply for the satisfaction of his instincts or whims. Subsequently, however, all such limitations were discarded everywhere in the West; a total liberation occurred from the moral heritage of Christian centuries with their great reserves of mercy and sacrifice. State systems were -- State systems were becoming increasingly and totally materialistic. The West ended up by truly enforcing human rights, sometimes even excessively, but man's sense of responsibility to God and society grew dimmer and dimmer.
[...]
He returned to Russia a prophet, but also a man who seemed strangely out of his times. In his case, a great life of the twentieth century lingered awkwardly into the twenty-first. Nevertheless, his great courage and his literary achievement remain a tribute to the human spirit. Even more, Solzhenitsyn's moral vision serves as a reminder that Christianity alone provides an adequate grounding for human dignity.
Christian ping
He must have really pissed of everyone.
Solzhenitsyn’s Christianity doesn’t fit the liberal meta-narrative. To believe that one’s Christian faith brings freedom, rather than oppression, is to much for the AP writers to believe.
Reading his books so long ago I had no idea of his faith, for all I wondered at his strength. Now it is clear (though to be sure I have more of life's "experiences" to apply than I had before...).
I’ll agree with you in all except the word “oppression,” but I think I understand what I think you meant. (grin)
I as a young man read the Gulag Archipelago when it first came out. In volume 3 if not sooner his faith is self evident in his writing. The first two volumes are about the crushing Soviet system but in volume 3 he details the one thing that could not be crushed by the communists.
“I did not know of this until a few minutes ago... “
Really???? I’m surprised. Well, the next time you wonder about the Orthodox worldview or phronema, read that speech at Harvard.
Solzhenitsyn was sublimely Orthodox, s! Because of his Orthodox Faith, he recognized, understood and dealt with evil all his life.
Most of that time has been on FR, too.
Dang the damned posting police!
The Speech at Harvard: haven't read it but heard of it (with quotes) in those times. But what I've read the day or so past (including his rejection of the West) made me wonder about his faith, and I was not at all surprised (call me delighted) at what I learned.
Today I am not at all surprised to learn he was Orthodox! I am only surprised that he never mentioned it (in anything of his I read.)
Maybe I was too immature. I do not recall that.
Forget the posting police -- how about He who takes the good from among us? *\;-)
Solzhenitsyn declares his faith quite openly in Gulag Archipelago Book 4, “The Soul And Barbed Wire”. Part 1 of Book 4, “The Ascent”, contains the poem he wrote about his return to belief in God.
Is nonsense. Soviets were atheists. Pravda tells me so.
I know we don’t care much for Time magazine these days but checking the listing for The Gulag Archipelago on Amazon Time considers it the best non fiction work of the 20th century.
Not mentioning his faith is comparable to forgetting that he spent time in the GULAG.
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