Jul. 5, 2006 - Can we be civilized without God?
This is a "Monthly Meditation" from the founder of the CiRCE Institute and my friend, Andrew Kern. I always find these Meditations challenging and insightful and often funny!
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Can we be civilized without God?
The ancient Greeks had a code that can be categorized with the word xenia. It has been reduced to the English word hospitality, but that only shows how “to translate is to betray” as, I believe, a Spanish proverb expresses it (in English translation of course).
Xenia is what led a host to honor a guest as a human being before ever asking what his name or business was. Xenia is what led warriors to exchange armor on a battlefield because their grandfathers had once hosted each other in their homes. Xenia is what enabled ancient people and enables some modern societies to welcome strangers and bring them under one’s protection. It is, of course, highly impractical and very dangerous.
That is why we don’t practice xenia anymore. I was struck by our reality this morning when I drove out of my subdivision (I can’t honestly call it a neighborhood) and waited for a school bus. The corner was a cluster of cars occupied by the parents of the children who were waiting for the bus.
When I was a very young boy, I walked to school down 27th St. in Milwaukee. There were, as I recall it, empty shops, derelicts (both human and architectural), broken bottles, and an otherwise unpleasant environment along the way. But, except for a few of the kids at school, there were no dangers to me personally. Later, we moved to the suburbs and I walked, as I recall, about 1/2 mile to and from school. A good number of us walked, even in the bitter Wisconsin winters, usually trudging along in little groups.
No parent ever seemed concerned that something might happen.
But make no mistake; those were already days of decline. My neighbor was a hero because she had fought to be able to wear jeans to school. Authority was on the run, having forgotten where it was grounded.
But parents felt absolutely no compunction to stand with their children at their bus stop.
The contrast between the complete lack of trust even for our children versus the seemingly complete abandon of the ancient world is compelling. Why were they able to practice xenia, a code that, with marriage and property rights, serves as the foundation of any healthy social order, but we cannot? What would prevent a man from taking advantage of a code like xenia?
Unfortunately, there was nothing that worked every time. The Iliad tells the story of the destruction of the old order in Greece. It is broken when a dandy named Paris commits the ultimate sacrilege against his host Menelaus by seducing and/or kidnapping his wife. In other words, he defied xenia as brazenly as possible.
As a result, the entire Achaean world, 1169 ships strong, went to Troy to defend their civilization.
There’s more to it than just that, though. Because deep in the Achaean soul was the belief that Zeus was the defender of the host. On the one hand, this limited the boldness of the potential criminal. On the other, it encouraged the defender of justice. Zeus was on the side of the just and opposed to the violator. A whole civilization can be nourished by such an idea. But when a civilization loses its faith, it becomes very practical and safe. It does everything it can to defend itself against things God or the gods were formerly trusted to defend it against.
But something vital is lost. For if the man with whom I am dealing is not created in the divine image, and if his God will not defend him, then what would prevent my soul from calculating my best advantage? The world and my own soul provide almost unlimited evidence that there is nothing sufficient to the task.
If I don’t believe my God will defend me if my rights as a host are violated, I will not be able to show the same generosity. A great wall will grow between me and those I distrust. A false hierarchy will develop around fear and dread instead of around a pastoral heart.
If I know the people around me don’t believe that my God will defend the host when his rights are violated, then I know that I cannot count on them to defend my rights unless they have calculated a gain for themselves from the transaction.
This is one of the many reasons the Greeks were outraged at the thought of viewing one’s home as an investment. They understood that civilization is not the result of calculating gains. It is the result of faith in an order that both transcends and nourishes the individual, an order in which one can gain infinitely by losing oneself into it. Civilization is the result of the endless tiny sacrifices and offerings of unlimited numbers who love their homes and honor their neighbors’ homes, who love their wives and honor their neighbors and their wives, who tie themselves into a community with something the Romans called “religio” - that which ties all things together.
We cannot be good and we cannot be civilized without God. The fact that we aren’t particularly good with God in no way disproves this point.
For by becoming practical and safe, all is lost.
© The CiRCE Institute 2006
Comments
Jul. 9, 2006 - "practicality" isn't too practical
Posted by pilgrim
interesting thoughts. i think he's got a point. once we rely on "practicality" rather than God to deal with fear it's all over. Reminds me of Abraham saying Sarah was his sister 'cause he was afraid and figured that they didn't fear God. It turned out that God was a little bigger than the people who theoretically didn't fear Him. : )
