In his book "The First Circle", Solzhenitsyn contrasts the world view of an agnostic and a Christian in the lives of two men, Nerzhin and Sologdin. Both are prisoners in the Gulag trying to make sense of their lives.
Nerzhin has become disenchanted with Communism and has retreated into skepticism. Although he is a scientist working on a top secret project for Stalin, he wants to quit his work and return to hard labour so that he can focus on finishing a book that he has started secretly writing.
Sologdin, on the other hand, is a Christian. In the words of Solzenitzyn "He was a non entity, a slave without rights. He had been inside for twelve years, but because he had been sentenced to a second term, there was no knowing when, if ever, his imprisonment would end. His wife had wasted her youth waiting in vain for him. To avoid dismissal from her present job, as from so many others, she had pretended that she had no husband and had stopped writing to him. Sologdin had never seen his only son-his wife had been pregnant when he was arrested. Sologdin had gone through the forests of Cherdynsk, the mines of Vorkuta, two periods under investigation, one of six months, one of a year, tormented by lack of sleep, drained of his strength, wasting away. His name and his future had long ago been trampled into the mud. All he possessed was a pair of well-worn padded trousers and a tarpaulin work jacket, kept at present in the storeroom in expectation of worse times to come. He was paid thirty rubles a month-enough for three kilos of sugar-but not in cash. He could breathe fresh air only at stated times authorized by the prison authorities. And in his soul there was a peace that nothing could destroy. His eyes sparkled like those of a young man. His chest, bared to the frost, heaved as though he were experiencing life to the full."
The two men volunteered to cut wood for the camp - because they believed it was good for the soul. In between their sessions pulling on the handles of a whipsaw, they spoke about God and the meaning of life.
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Nerzhin sighed.
"You know, I don't even mind acknowledging a Creator, some sort of higher Reason in the universe. I'll even say that I feel it to be so, if you want me to. But supposing I found out that there is no God, would I be any less moral?"
"Undoubtedly!"
"I don't think so. And why do you have to insist, why do all of you always insist, that we must recognize not just God in some general sense but a concrete Christian God, plus the Trinity, plus the Immaculate Conception? Would my philosophical deism be the least bit shaken if I learn that not one of the Gospel miracles ever happened? Of course it wouldn't !"
Sologdin sternly raised a hand with an admonitory finger.
There's no other way! If you begin to doubt a single dogma of the faith, a single word of the scriptures, all is lost! You are one of the godless!"
His hand slashed the air as though it held a saber.
"That's what repels people! All or nothing! No compromises, no allowances made. But suppose I can't accept it in toto? What can I be sure of? What can I rely on? I keep telling-the one thing I know is that I know nothing."
Socrate's apprentice took hold of the saw and offered the other handle to Sologdin.
"Another time then," Sologdin agreed. "Lets cut wood."
Solzenitzen - The First Circle
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Solzhenitsyn was exactly right that the dogmatism of Christians is what repels many. Christianity is an "all in" proposition. Faith does not deal in probabilities but is the certainty of things hoped for. But there is a way to get around this strait-jacket imposed by faith. This is by expanding the "the historical-grammatical" interpretation of the text to encompass any meaning a person wishes to give to a passage... within certain, ever expanding, boundaries of course. Part of the tendency towards a mystical/allegorical reading of the text is a reaction against dead orthodoxy.
But there is no need to dispense with a normal hermeneutic in order to recapture the mystery or life of Scripture. Neither does a straightforward way of reading the Prophets and Apostles necessarily dispel ambiguity... if anything, it preserves a legitimate amount of ambiguity. Rather than invent an interpretation, we are forced to leave it wrapped up and left under the tree until "we no longer see dimly as in a mirror" but shall see face to face. In the end, I think we find that what might have been regarded as a straitjacket is really perfect freedom in a world where each person does what is right in their own eyes.
It is easy to forget that, apart from the light of Scriptures, what do we know? Really, what do we know? Do we know that God is One? Do we know that God is Love? Do we know that sin is a corruption of what is good? Do we know that we are created in the image of God and have infinite worth. Do we know that life is sacred? Do we know that there will be a resurrection and a final judgment? Do we know of the Atoning Sacrifice? Do we know of holiness? Do we know of the sanctity of marriage? Do we know of the Christ and the future Restoration of all things? Do we have hope? Do we have any of what we love and cherish now?
Search in vain for the lofty ideals that have served as the underpinning of our stable and peaceful civilization. Look for them in the religions of the Polytheists. You won't find them in the writings of Homer or Hessiod! Yet somehow we modern day Evangelicals, have the impertinence to rise above the Sacred Script and look down on it with frowning and judgment.
Christians are a hairs breath away from Skeptics and have been long before skepticism became fashionable - long before Positivism was trampled into the mud during the time of Europe's troubles. Nerzhin said, "The one thing I know is that I know nothing." Yes, Nerzhin, you are right. We know nothing... without faith. It is faith that makes the difference.
Nerzhin has become disenchanted with Communism and has retreated into skepticism. Although he is a scientist working on a top secret project for Stalin, he wants to quit his work and return to hard labour so that he can focus on finishing a book that he has started secretly writing.
Sologdin, on the other hand, is a Christian. In the words of Solzenitzyn "He was a non entity, a slave without rights. He had been inside for twelve years, but because he had been sentenced to a second term, there was no knowing when, if ever, his imprisonment would end. His wife had wasted her youth waiting in vain for him. To avoid dismissal from her present job, as from so many others, she had pretended that she had no husband and had stopped writing to him. Sologdin had never seen his only son-his wife had been pregnant when he was arrested. Sologdin had gone through the forests of Cherdynsk, the mines of Vorkuta, two periods under investigation, one of six months, one of a year, tormented by lack of sleep, drained of his strength, wasting away. His name and his future had long ago been trampled into the mud. All he possessed was a pair of well-worn padded trousers and a tarpaulin work jacket, kept at present in the storeroom in expectation of worse times to come. He was paid thirty rubles a month-enough for three kilos of sugar-but not in cash. He could breathe fresh air only at stated times authorized by the prison authorities. And in his soul there was a peace that nothing could destroy. His eyes sparkled like those of a young man. His chest, bared to the frost, heaved as though he were experiencing life to the full."
The two men volunteered to cut wood for the camp - because they believed it was good for the soul. In between their sessions pulling on the handles of a whipsaw, they spoke about God and the meaning of life.
----------------
Nerzhin sighed.
"You know, I don't even mind acknowledging a Creator, some sort of higher Reason in the universe. I'll even say that I feel it to be so, if you want me to. But supposing I found out that there is no God, would I be any less moral?"
"Undoubtedly!"
"I don't think so. And why do you have to insist, why do all of you always insist, that we must recognize not just God in some general sense but a concrete Christian God, plus the Trinity, plus the Immaculate Conception? Would my philosophical deism be the least bit shaken if I learn that not one of the Gospel miracles ever happened? Of course it wouldn't !"
Sologdin sternly raised a hand with an admonitory finger.
There's no other way! If you begin to doubt a single dogma of the faith, a single word of the scriptures, all is lost! You are one of the godless!"
His hand slashed the air as though it held a saber.
"That's what repels people! All or nothing! No compromises, no allowances made. But suppose I can't accept it in toto? What can I be sure of? What can I rely on? I keep telling-the one thing I know is that I know nothing."
Socrate's apprentice took hold of the saw and offered the other handle to Sologdin.
"Another time then," Sologdin agreed. "Lets cut wood."
Solzenitzen - The First Circle
-------
Solzhenitsyn was exactly right that the dogmatism of Christians is what repels many. Christianity is an "all in" proposition. Faith does not deal in probabilities but is the certainty of things hoped for. But there is a way to get around this strait-jacket imposed by faith. This is by expanding the "the historical-grammatical" interpretation of the text to encompass any meaning a person wishes to give to a passage... within certain, ever expanding, boundaries of course. Part of the tendency towards a mystical/allegorical reading of the text is a reaction against dead orthodoxy.
But there is no need to dispense with a normal hermeneutic in order to recapture the mystery or life of Scripture. Neither does a straightforward way of reading the Prophets and Apostles necessarily dispel ambiguity... if anything, it preserves a legitimate amount of ambiguity. Rather than invent an interpretation, we are forced to leave it wrapped up and left under the tree until "we no longer see dimly as in a mirror" but shall see face to face. In the end, I think we find that what might have been regarded as a straitjacket is really perfect freedom in a world where each person does what is right in their own eyes.
It is easy to forget that, apart from the light of Scriptures, what do we know? Really, what do we know? Do we know that God is One? Do we know that God is Love? Do we know that sin is a corruption of what is good? Do we know that we are created in the image of God and have infinite worth. Do we know that life is sacred? Do we know that there will be a resurrection and a final judgment? Do we know of the Atoning Sacrifice? Do we know of holiness? Do we know of the sanctity of marriage? Do we know of the Christ and the future Restoration of all things? Do we have hope? Do we have any of what we love and cherish now?
Search in vain for the lofty ideals that have served as the underpinning of our stable and peaceful civilization. Look for them in the religions of the Polytheists. You won't find them in the writings of Homer or Hessiod! Yet somehow we modern day Evangelicals, have the impertinence to rise above the Sacred Script and look down on it with frowning and judgment.
Christians are a hairs breath away from Skeptics and have been long before skepticism became fashionable - long before Positivism was trampled into the mud during the time of Europe's troubles. Nerzhin said, "The one thing I know is that I know nothing." Yes, Nerzhin, you are right. We know nothing... without faith. It is faith that makes the difference.
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