The Tolstoy connection

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), a prolific Russian writer, may be best known for two novels: War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1878). He was a complex person: an artillery officer in the Crimean War (1853-1856) who became a pacifist; an advocate of sexual abstinence who fathered fourteen children; a deeply devout person of faith who was excommunicated in 1901 by the Russian Orthodox Church.

He described his faith in My Confession (1884) and his philosophy of non-violent resistance in The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894). Reviewer David Taffel calls it “one of the most provocative anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian pieces of literature ever written.” Chapter One describes Tolstoy’s interaction with American Quakers, the son of American abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison (1805-1879) and American Adin Ballou (1803-1890).

An excerpt from Chapter Five:

(People) of ancient and medieval times believed, firmly believed, that (people) are not equal. … But we cannot believe that now. …

We all know and cannot help knowing… with our whole heart … that we are all (children) of one (Creator), wherever we may live and whatever language we may speak, we are all brothers (and sisters) and are subject to the same law of love implanted by our (Creator) in our hearts.

From “The Kingdom of God is Within You–Leo Tolstoy (Review),” by Israel Wayne, Christian Worldview, April 29, 2011

A prolonged Lent

The season of Lent is 40 days, not counting Sundays. Every Sunday is a “little Easter.” At a party on Saturday, a friend refrained from eating chocolate, choosing to take it home–to eat after midnight. I tend to be more relaxed about such things, but I’m digging in. I anticipate a Lent longer than 40 days.

We’re in our second lap around the sun with Putin pummeling Ukraine. Book-banning is afoot in America. A bill has been introduced to make the AR-15 our “national gun.” The entertainer with the highest rated cable TV show is an unabashed cheerleader for Vladimir Putin.

We’re in an era of tribalism and authoritarianism. But John, my blessed Sunday School teacher, ended his class yesterday with an affirmation that in spite of all that’s wreaking havoc in our world, he believes the movement toward justice will prevail. On my best days, I believe it, too.

This Lent I’ve turned to Russia for some help from a long-ignored voice: Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). He inspired Gandhi. Maybe he can inspire me this Lent. In the next few posts, I’ll share some Tolstoy insights. Maybe his words can shine some light for the Russian people in this season of sorrows.

From “What Mahatma Gandhi learned from Russia’s Leo Tolstoy,” by Ksenia Zubacheva, Russia Beyond, October 17. 2019

A mapless journey

Thursday’s meditation from the Center for Action and Contemplation by Diana Butler Bass, “A Mapless Journey,” echoes the mystical words attributed to Jesus in John 14:6-7 that have always captured my attention. Yet, my brain’s tribal filters have caused me to hear in these words a tribal, exclusionary tone–as in “it’s my way or the highway.” Butler Bass helps me connect to a deeper reality. Three excerpts:

That is a beautiful … poetic and parabolic image … to willingly embrace the journey. … And it would be freeing but for the next sentence. “No one comes to the Father except through me ” … The welcome is pulled back, boundaries are put up … as the call to dance and sing … fades into … judgment and exclusion.

(Yet) “way,” “truth,” and “life” are relational words, all things that Jesus says he is. “Way” is not a technique or map, “truth” is not about philosophy or dogma, and “life” is not about going to heaven. In the mystical poetry of John, Jesus … embodies a way of being … so close to the heart of God that God can be known in and through Jesus. …

Meister Eckhart wrote: “There is no map. Your soul will lead you. And you can take nothing with you.” (Some) see Jesus as a directive or destination rather than this path; for them “way” is a noun, not a verb. On the mapless journey, however, all is movement. There is no destination. only the enveloping presence of love.

From “How to Know You’re On the Right Path,” by Chris Dessi, Inc., May 24, 2017

Table Mountain

While looking for a graphic to illustrate another blog post, I met Andrew Patterson, a fascinating human being from the other side of the planet–in Sea Point, Cape Town, South Africa. We “met” via the Internet. We’ve not conversed or communicated. I know him in an ephemeral cyberspace way through his blog site, Renaissance Guy.

My graphic search landed me at his September 27, 2022 post, “Why Getting Back to Basics in Nature is so Important For You.” Patterson is making a difference by helping people become philanthropic. It began with his Ubuntu Climbs initiative, which involved his climbing Cape Town’s Table Mountain 365 times, each day in 2018.

His year-long Table Mountain treks raised money for several organizations, especially Habitat for Humanity, One Heart for Kids, and The Sunflower Initiative. I’ve never been to South Africa. I don’t recall seeing a photo of Table Mountain before my search for a graphic. From now on, Table Mountain will remind me of Renaissance Guy.

From “Take in South Africa From Table Mountain National Park,” by Karen Larkins, Smithsonian Magazine, July 27, 2011.

Another look at Lent

Cynthia Bourgeault understands following Jesus as alignment with his “path of self-emptying love.” She draws from the “Philippian hymn” attributed to Paul. In one of those sentences that liberates and/or terrifies, she says of Jesus: …his idea of dying to self was not through inner renunciation or guarding the purity of his being but through radically squandering everything he had and was.

Those of us who grew up in a rules-based approach to faith and life may be rattled at Bourgeault’s take on Jesus:

What seemed disconcerting to nearly everybody was the messy, freewheeling largeness of his spirit. Abundance and a generosity bordering on extravagant seemed to be the signatures of both his teaching and his personal style.… As we look further, that extravagance is everywhere. When he feeds the multitudes … the leftovers fill twelve baskets…. He… specifically forbids counting the cost. “Do not store up treasures on earth,” he teaches; do not strive or be afraid—“for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). All will come of its own accord in good time and with abundant fullness, so long as one does not attempt to hoard or cling.  

Lent is a season to explore the extravagance of self-emptying.

From “Self-Emptying Love,” by Cynthia Bourgeault, February 22, 2023, Center for Action and Contemplation. (Image: A path from one week to the next—Benjamin Yazza, Untitled 6. Jenna Keiper, Taos Snow. Benjamin Yazza, Untitled 2.)

Empty Altars Everywhere

Yesterday morning, observed as Ash Wednesday by some Christians, a post arrived from The Cottage by Diana Butler Bass entitled “Empty Altars Everywhere.” For me, it was a good way to begin the season of Lent, so I commend it to you. An excerpt:

Most days, I drive over a spot in a road where a statue was once located. Since 1889, a Confederate soldier stood on a high podium in the middle of the busy intersection of Prince and Washington streets in Alexandria, Virginia.

My family nicknamed that statue the “dejected Confederate” … The statue’s real name was Appomattox, a memorial to honor Alexandria’s Civil War dead – “They died in the consciousness of duty faithfully performed,” proclaimed an inscription on the base,,,,

After the Richmond bronzes had been removed, I was in the city speaking at a church. The pastor, a religious leader who agreed with their removal, asked me: “Have you driven down Monument Avenue yet?”

“No,” I replied, “I haven’t been there recently.”

“It is stark, emotionally powerful in a different way than it used to be,” he said. “You look down the road and the statues are all gone. There are empty altars everywhere.”

I’ve registered for a 6-week online Lenten journey, “Empty Altars: American Saints in a Cynical Age,” by Diana Butler Bass and Tripp Fuller at Homebrewed Christianity, beginning on Monday, February 27. You can participate live or via recorded sessions. There’s no cost, though contributions are accepted. Click here for more information.

From Georgia

The two previous posts were inspired by Georgian Jimmy Carter. Yesterday morning, Heather Cox Richardson’s Letter referenced this tweet from Georgia’s 14th district representative to Congress:

Greene’s Twitter posts, consistent with her public rhetoric, reflect what I consider a regressive worldview. When I grow up, I want to be like her fellow Georgian, the gentleman from Plains, whose life tends to consistently reflect what I consider a progressive worldview:

This recently re-printed Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial cartoon by (now retired) Steve Sack was first published in the Star Tribune in August, 2015.

Two inaugural memories

The Spring of 1976 was my final semester in seminary, near the end of three years as a commuting student pastor. The Alabama Democratic presidential primary was between Alabama governor George Wallace and former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter. I applied to run as a Carter pledged delegate to the Democratic National Convention. I wasn’t chosen. Wallace won, but later endorsed Carter.

Carter succeeded segregationist Lester Maddox as Georgia’s governor in 1971. In his inaugural address, Carter said, “…the time for racial discrimination is over.” Six years later, Carter’s first words at his presidential inauguration were: “For myself, and for our nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land.” Then, he walked a few steps to shake the hand of Gerald Ford.

Carter is the only president to graduate from the US Naval Academy. In 1952, 28-year-old Lieutenant Carter led a US Navy team of experienced nuclear submarine personnel to successfully contain the damage following the world’s first nuclear reactor meltdown. It was at Canada’s Chalk River Laboratories, a research facility in Ontario, northwest of Ottawa.

From “How a future US president helped avert nuclear disaster near Canada’s capital,” by Malcolm Campbell, CBC News, December 22, 2021

When cable TV came to town

On this Presidents Day, my mind is on Jimmy Carter. His decision to stay home with hospice dusted off some memories. Cable TV came to my hometown in 1964, which included Atlanta Crackers baseball. Their best player in 1965 was Sandy Alomar, Sr.

A 1966 editorial by WSB news director Hal Suit dismissed “peanut farmer” Jimmy Carter’s first run for governor. He placed a respectable third in the democratic primary. Carter was nominated for governor in 1970 and defeated the republican–ironically, Hal Suit–in the general election.

Seminary at Atlanta’s Emory University in 1973 included a weekly shift one quarter as chaplain at a residential mental health center. A patient sculpted an impressive bust of Carter. She said he was destined for greatness. When Carter won the presidency in 1976, I chuckled at Hal Suit’s dismissal and the mental patient’s prescience.

From “When Atlanta watched baseball at Ponce de Leon Park,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 2016. Notice the Spiller magnolia tree in Center Field. In 1947, the fence was moved toward home plate and the tree was no longer “in play.” The Crackers last season at the old Ponce de Leon park was 1964.

The Realm is within you

Yesterday’s post introduced “Realm” as another term for the “Kingdom of God,” a central theme of Jesus’ life and message. Most people consider War and Peace to be Leo Tolstoy’s greatest work. My vote goes to The Kingdom of God is Within You.

From the Encyclopedia Britannica’s excellent article about the Kingdom of God:

Kingdom of God, also called Kingdom of Heaven, in Christianity, the spiritual realm over which God reigns as king, or the fulfillment on Earth of God’s will. The phrase occurs frequently in the New Testament, primarily used by Jesus Christ in the first three Gospels. It is generally considered to be the central theme of Jesus’ teaching, but widely differing views have been held about Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom of God and its relation to the developed view of the church.

Though the phrase itself rarely occurs in pre-Christian Jewish literature, the idea of God as king was fundamental to Judaism, and Jewish ideas on the subject undoubtedly underlie, and to some extent determine, the New Testament usage. Behind the Greek word for kingdom (basileia) lies the Aramaic term malkut, which Jesus may have used. Malkut refers primarily not to a geographical area or realm nor to the people inhabiting the realm but, rather, to the activity of the king himself, his exercise of sovereign power. The idea might better be conveyed in English by an expression such as kingship, rule, or sovereignty.

From “Contemplating the Cosmos,” by Munazza Alam, Review of Religions, September 21, 2020