CONTRA FATUM

“There is one true and perfect power which is above all things and governs the whole universe. But it rules not by violence and tyrannical dictatorship, which inforces the obedience of its subjects through fear and compulsion." ( Graff, St. Gregory of Nyssa, the Lord’s Prayer, the Beatitudes (Paulist Press; 1953), p. 51) “Μία τῶν πάντων ὑπέρκειται ἡ ἀληθὴς ἐξουσία καὶ δύναμις, ἡ τοῦ παντὸς ἀναδεδεγμένη τὸ κράτος, καὶ βασιλεύουσα οὐ βιαίᾳ τινὶ καὶ τυραννικῇ δυναστείᾳ, φόβοις καὶ ἀνάγκαις ὑποζεύξασα τῇ ὑποταγῇ τὸ ὑπήκοον.” (De or. Dom. III, PG 256)

"[...]we know of the existence in each city of another sort of country, created by the Logos of God. And we call upon those who are competent to take office, who are sound in doctrine and life, to rule over the churches. We do not accept those who love power. But we put pressure on those who on account of their great humility are reluctant hastily to take upon themselves the common responsibility of the church of God. And those who rule us well are those who have had to be forced to take office, being constrained by the great King who, we are convinced, is the Son of God, the divine Logos. And if those who are chosen as rulers in the church rule well over God's country (I mean the church), or if they rule in accordance with the commands of God, they do not on this account defile any of the appointed civic laws. If Christians do avoid these responsibilities, it is not with the motive of shirking the public services of life. But they keep themselves for a more divine and necessa...

“Perhaps, however, someone will think there is not objection to gathering these riches thus for oneself from the mines in the earth. But when to this sentence is added the peculiar treasure of kings and of the countries, the meaning of 'gathering' no longer admits of an innocent interpretation. For as it is possible for royal power to gather an abundance of riches from countries – that means, to impose tribute, to exact tithes, to compel their subjects to pay taxes – just so, he says, he has collected silver and gold.” (Eccl. 339,12)

“[...]are you not ashamed, you little clay doll, soon to be dust, blown up like a bubble with your own momentary puff, full of pride, all swollen with inflamed delusion and inflating your mind with empty conceit? Do you not see at each end the limits of human life, how it begins and where it ends? Yet you glory in your youth, you look to the blossom of your fresh years, and you boast of your full bloom, because your hands are strong for lifting, your feet agile for jumping, your curls blow about in the wind [...] Yes, perhaps you look even to your shoes, carefully polished with blacking and smart with extravagantly stitched lines, yet do you not look at yourself? I will shew you your reflection, who you are and what you are. Have you not seen in the burial ground the mysteries of our existence? Have you not seen the heap of bones piled on each other, skulls stripped of flesh, staring fearsome and horrible from empty eye-sockets? Have you seen the grinning mouths and the rest of the lim...

” Most people do not judge for themselves how things stand by nature. Instead, they look to the customs of their forebears and fail to achieve a sound judgment about reality, because they set up an irrational habit as their criterion of the good rather than any intelligent consideration. Consequently, they thrust themselves into positions of authority and power and make much of prominence in this world and of material things[...]” (De Cant. 2, p. 73)

”All the evils, and I choose my words carefully, all the evils of the world stem from our taking ourselves to be the Creator. Some, as warriors, transform the planet through their flashing conquests. Others, as dictators, shape a society. But the image always remains the same: a hand that molds a shapeless hunk of clay. We give glory to the creator of a state, a new order, or an empire, but also to the scientist who takes himself for the Creator – even though he inevitably ends up with the atomic bomb. Every time you take yourself to be a creator (even as an artist!), you become a destroyer, an annihilator. [...] [but] Every human work created in silence, discretion, and humility (in the image of the Creator, who works incognito!) is positive, useful, and life-giving. Every work of power, in which a person takes himself for a creator, becomes a work of emptiness that produces emptiness.” (Ellul, Reason for Being, p. 281)

"Any interest which people have in worldly things is quite simply the same as children's toys of sand (Homer, II. 15,363-364), in which the enjoyment of the products ends with the interest in their construction. As soon as they cease from their toil, the sand collapses, leaving behind no trace of what the children worked at. This is human life: ambition is sand, power is sand, wealth is sand, and sand each of the pleasures eagerly enjoyed in the flesh." ( Homilies on Ecclesiastes , Hall, 1993, 289,18)