Zones of the Spirit: A Book of ThoughtsStrindberg, August
Religion
Zones of the Spirit: A Book of Thoughts
Strindberg, August
Swedish literature
=Christianity and Radicalism.=--Christianity is really more
radical than Radicalism. Christ turns his back on the whole of society
with its institutions, science, and art. He warns us against the
scribes; the rich are not his friends, but rather Lazarus; the rich
youth is told to sell all that he has and to give to the poor. To
soldiers Christ says, "Those who take the sword shall perish with the
sword." He says nothing about science, art, and industry because He
is indifferent to them. He has no great illusions about men, for he
calls them "a generation of vipers." And rightly; since the earth is
a prison for those who have committed crimes in heaven, we are all
rascals; but it is the prison chaplain's duty to preach pardon to those
who behave properly. To open the prison would be unwise and unlawful;
there Christianity differs from Anarchism. Give custom to whom custom
is due, and to Cæsar what is Cæsar's. Authority is ordained of God, and
beareth not the sword in vain.
Christianity and Radicalism accordingly agree in their criticism of
society, but not in the inferences they draw. The Christian endures the
sufferings of the prison-house with religious resignation; he does not
waste valuable time in making foolish proposals regarding the reform of
prison-life and management. In order to obtain mitigation and pardon,
and to escape the dark cell and scourging, he tries to behave well, but
he does not believe that the prison can be a place of recreation.
All that Rousseau, Max Nordau, and Tolstoi have said against the faults
of society is quite true, but their inferences are false. Socialism,
_i.e._ pagan socialism, which preached development and progress, went
its crab-like course backwards to the trade unions which had been
dissolved, limited industrial freedom, introduced inquisitorial
methods, excommunicated heretics. In the great strike non-socialists
were refused water and gas, bread and milk for children. They compelled
the contented to be discontented, made men wild and despairing, and
really made things worse, when they ought to have improved them.
But in their pagan Radicalism they did not attain to the height of
Christianity. Unbelieving, they believed in everything that was
false--scientific fallacies, politico-economical errors, philosophical
stupidities. Into a pagan one may instil every possible falsehood and
stupidity; but for the truth in its real relations he is deaf and blind.
To have a moderate quiet contempt of the world, to be already half out
of it, one's staff in one's hand and one's knapsack on one's back, ever
ready for departure, to have clean hands and a good conscience--that
is the way not to be easily assailable. Then one is not envied, and
suffers not from disappointments and humiliations, for one is prepared
for all, and has anticipated all in advance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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