CONTRA FATUM

Note: the following post is the first of a planned series on Christian anarchism titled 'The Kingdom of God is Anarchy: Anarchy as a Christian Practice of Faith'. The below is the first part of the introduction. The links between Christian theology and practice on the one hand, and a radical, anti-authoritarian rejection of all kinds of dominance on the other, are far from being novel. Throughout most of Church history, Christian thinkers have frequently returned to Jesus’ original criticism of all forms of political and religious oppression, and his proclamation of the kingdom of God, where power is replaced by love and authority by freedom. Paul – even if his thinking is often regarded as somewhat authoritarian – made it clear, that Jesus will eventually destroy “all rule, and all authority and power”, and that Christians fight against the principialities, powers and rulers of “this dark world”. For Christians this meant not to practice any kind of violence or domin...

I recently found myself having to walk out from a worship service at a Baptist Church, as I could not stand the kind of worship music that is becoming the norm among Evangelicals. This happened when the European Baptist Federation celebrated the opening of its annual conference, this year in Lviv, Ukraine. As it was a celebration the volume was extra high, etc., making the music quite intolerable. I would normally argue that as long as we are gathered in the name of Christ, no question of aesthetics can justify leaving church – no matter how bad the music is! While I still think this is true in principle, I felt this time I had to go and breathe some air (and get a beer) in order to reflect upon what it is with contemporary worship music, that I dislike so much. What I found is that it’s not just a matter of taste and style, but a matter of how form relates to content. The misconception that the gospel must in some way be given an arbitrary form that does not follow from its conte...

Note: the following post is the first of a planned series on Christian anarchism titled 'The Kingdom of God is Anarchy: Powerlessness as a Christian Practice of Faith'. The below is the first part of the introduction. ”There is a perfect likeness between Christian and anarchist: their object, their instinct, points only toward destruction. […] The Christian and the anarchist: both are decadents ; both are incapable of any act that is not disintegrating, poisonous, degenerating, blood sucking ; both have an instinct of mortal hatred of everything that stands up, and is great, and has durability, and promises life a future.” (Friedrich Nietzsche, Der Antichrist §58) The above quote appears in the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Antichrist from 1895. Nietzsche wrote his famous book in at time when anarchism as a political philosophy was gaining increasing support. Many anarchists were strongly critical of religion in general, but for Nietzsche he fundamental...

"The light that is God is unmingled, no admixture comes in. This was a sign that it was the true light he saw, which is Nothing (niht). By the light he meant quite simply that with his eyes open he saw nothing. In seeing nothing, he saw the divine nothing." (Pr. 71).

” The bottomless abyss of My hidden mysteries (in which I order everything according to My eternal providence), let no one explore, for no one can fathom it. And yet, in this abyss, what thou askest about and many things besides are possible, which yet never happen. However, know this much, that, in the order in which emanated beings now are, a more acceptable or more pleasing way could not be. The Lord of nature knows well what He can do in nature. He knows what is best suited to every creature, and He operates accordingly. How should man better know the hidden things of God than in His assumed Humanity? How might he, who has forfeited all joy through irregular lusts, be rendered susceptible of regular and eternal joy? How would it be possible to follow the unpracticed way of a hard and despised life, unless it had been followed by God Himself? If thou didst lie under sentence of death, how could He, who should suffer the fatal penalty in thy stead, better prove His fideli...

"When the affairs of men were in this condition, God pitied us, revealed and displayed Himself to us, that in Himself we might learn religion, faith , purity, and mercy; that having laid aside the error of our former life, together with God Himself we might know ourselves, whom impiety had disunited from Him, and we might choose the divine law , which unites human affairs with heavenly, the Lord Himself delivering it to us; by which law all the errors with which we have been ensnared, together with vain and impious superstitions , might be taken away. What we owe to man , therefore, is prescribed by that same divine law which teaches that whatever you render to man is rendered to God . But the root of justice , and the entire foundation of equity, is that you should not do that which you would be unwilling to suffer, but should measure the feelings of another by your own. If it is an unpleasant thing to bear an injury, and he who has done it appears unjust , transfer to...

“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) Though Gregory of Nyssa does not present what we would today consider a systematic political philosophy, he frequently criticizes political power, domination and violence. The homilies on the Lord’s Prayer are no exception. The Kingdom of God does not rule by “violent kingship” or “tyrannical dictatorship”, enforcing the obedience of its subjects through “fear and compulsion”, says Gregory. When we pray for the Kingdom of God, we pray that the “good power” which already governs the whole universe will free us from the tyranny of the Devil through the Holy Spirit. A similar line of thought appears in Gregory’s homilies on the Beatitudes. The Kingdom o...