The Way of Martha and the Way of MaryGraham, Stephen
Religion
The Way of Martha and the Way of Mary
Graham, Stephen
National characteristics, Russian; Russia -- Religion
The Church of the future in England, and probably in Russia, will have
to come into alliance with what may be called the right side of the
theatre. For occasionally in the theatre people worship as much as
others do in the Church. Many young people whose families have lapsed
from the Church find their religious life functionised in the book, the
drama, the opera, the symphony. They are not _communicants_ in the
literal sense, they are outside the church walls and the shut church
doors, but they are inside the living Church. They have a common word
with people inside church walls. Their chorus of praise swells from the
other side of the walls, and in some countries the secular chorus of
praise to God has considerably more volume than the official
ecclesiastical chorus. Somehow in church one rather resents the choir,
especially in the _Te Deum_, when they are singing it to some
“God-forsaken” curious tune that a pedant musician has chosen. It is
good when the whole church can lift one great voice. And outside the
church the greater congregation rather resents the church-goers. They
would sing _Te Deum_ also.
The relation of Church and Stage exhibits the confusion of religious
values at present existing. The same confusion exists with regard to the
Church and Literature—many of the great classics of Russian literature,
like Gogol’s _Dead Souls_, the monks would regard it a sin to read. The
ecclesiastical Church takes no useful stand with regard to what is
helpful, what harmful, in past and present literature; it is left for
the living Church to find out for itself and do what it can without
organisation. Even in the domain of Holy Writ there is a confusion of
what the living Church believes, and what mere ecclesiasticism lays
down. At least one fundamental idea in Christianity has been overlaid,
and, as it were, frustrated by the Church itself—the idea of the Holy
Ghost. The Holy Ghost has been conventionalised and made terrible. It
has become the most inscrutable and awe-inspiring aspect of the Trinity,
whereas it should be the most familiar and consoling, Christ saying
good-bye to his disciples in that last long sweet talk where He calls
them friends, tells them that after He is gone away from them there will
come a new consolation, the vision of Truth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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