Ghost of a flea: I have a mustard seed and I'm not afraid to use it

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March 26, 2008

I have a mustard seed and I'm not afraid to use it

Spengler considers Pope Benedict's Regensburg address and the conversion of Italian journalist and author Magdi Cristiano Allam. In Allam's words, Christ has relieved him of his hatred of "the other".

The miracle of the Resurrection of Christ has reverberated through my soul, liberating it from the darkness of a tendency where hate and intolerance in before the "other", condemning it uncritically as an "enemy", and ascending to love and respect for one's "neighbor", who is always and in any case a person; thus my mind has been released from the obscurantism of an ideology which legitimates lying and dissimulation, the violent death that leads to homicide and suicide, blind submission and tyranny - permitting me to adhere to the authentic religion of Truth, of Life, and freedom.

Note to all our apologists, fifth columnists and anyone mentally enfeebled by the Frankfurt School and its works: We have met "the other" and it is ourselves. We are "the other" the enemy cannot tolerate. Every street marching moron protesting on behalf of the enemy is quite literally blaming the victim.

We can try to understand the enemy, even sympathize for the plight of countless millions labouring in the medieval hell they have built for themselves. But as Spengler notes, "sometimes it is sadly necessary to love one's enemies only after they are dead." That suits me fine.

Related: The inside story of the Western mind, Spengler's review of Twentieth-Century Catholic Theologians by Fergus Kerr; important, he argues, for its explication of the thinking which made possible Benedict's papacy. Too much to quote so I will restrict myself to my favourite passage.

If the "new" Catholic theology depended so much on Protestant and Jewish contributions as well as Patristic and medieval, what makes the Church "indispensable"? It has to do with Margaret Mead's quip that the best thing about marriage is that you are able to finish your conversations. Karl Barth may have been the greatest theologian of the past century, but he has nary a successor among today's Protestants. No institution furthers his work. Franz Rosenzweig, the greatest of Jewish theologians of the past century, has a worthy successor in Prof Michael Wyschogrod, now retired from teaching, but Rosenzweig in many respects remains uncharted territory. No Jewish theologian, for example, is willing to tread within a stone's throw of Rosenzweig's analysis of Islam, for all its obvious relevance to the situation of Jews in the 21st century. One still encounters the influence of Rosenzweig and Buber in pronouncements from the throne of St Peter, but not in Commentary Magazine, which just appointed a movie critic as its editor-in-chief.

After 2,000 years, the Catholic Church has learned to finish its conversations, or at least continue them.

If that is not enough, Spengler's Immanuel Kant quote is priceless.

Posted by Ghost of a flea at March 26, 2008 05:44 AM

Comments

I guess the only counter to Kerr is the fact of change in the Orient. Was democracy imposed? Is Peoria to be found on the Home Islands? Perhaps not, but something radically different than that which previously existed is there, is there on the Korean peninsula and seeemingly flourishing on the island nation of Taiwan.

Suspicious of both Heidegger and Kant, I pushed myself through that block of clay titled "Critique of Pure Reason". After pages of self-contradiction, I've come to the conclusion that Kant had made a name for himself based more on obscurantism than elegance.

Thanks for the article. Loved the Scottish joke. (Quarter Scots)

Posted by: OregonGuy at March 26, 2008 06:58 PM

Ghost of a flea

March 26, 2008

I have a mustard seed and I'm not afraid to use it

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