HEARING THE WORD

Te truth of hope

An essential element of the Gospel proclamation

Patrick Henry Reardon, senior editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity

I

submit that the Gosel is first directed to man’s native hope, that social hope atendant on his sense

of being an actor on the stage of reality. First, the primal source of hope is

man’s persistent need to be a persona dramatis, to feel himself engaged in a story with a plot and resolution, to sense that his life pertains to a transcendent narrative, to believe himself homo historicus, and not a mere sectator. Certain schools of philosophy would

dissuade him from entertaining this hope. Tey would discourage him from taking his shabby litle existence seriously. Modern science, esecially, adopting the unsentimental standards of objectivity, hardly encourages man to think of himself as a significant actor.

No mere object

Man, however, is not a detached,

disembodied intellect. He can know reality only as an actor within existence, where he is a participant. For a start, he cannot discern reality objectively, for the simple reason that he is part of it. And he cannot know himself objectively: the notion is self- contradictory. Nor can man ultimately reduce

even nature to a known, independent object, for the plain reason that the consciousness of the knower is the discerning part of nature. Above all, man cannot know God objectively, because he knows God only within the communion of God’s knowing him. Te objectification of the divine is arguably the essence of idolatry. In short, man has access to reality

by existing as a participatory being within it. In other words, ‘Man is not a self-contained sectator. He is an actor, playing a part in the drama of being and, through the brute fact of his existence, commited to play it without knowing what it is’ [Eric

Voegelin, Israel and Revelation].

To seak of this primal human

8 ■ newdirections ■ April 2010

disposition – the need for a man to be an actor – as a source of hope does not mean that it favours optimism. Optimism, aſter all, is not necessarily related to narrative, whereas hope invariably depends on a story line. One susects there would not be

such a thing as theatrical drama, were it not for this human need to feel oneself as ‘playing a part’. Te verb ‘play’ here means interpretive acion, the human contribution – the particular scene – within a larger act, in the theatrical sense.

Playing a part

It is an important function of

theatre to preserve and enhance man’s sense of being an actor. ‘In this sense the theatre acts as a brake on all tidy philosophies; it shows that this existential characer is a part of the all-embracing reality itself. How it does this, and with what result, is questionable, but at least it holds fast to the question. And so long as the question continues to be put, we can still hope for an answer’ [Hans Urs von Balthasar, Teo-Drama]. Second, let us seak of the Gosel

with resect to that primal hope, for the Gosel is its correct object, more akin to theatre than to the philosophies of being, and infinitely more akin than the supposed objectivity of science. Te Gosel invites its hearers to become personae dramatis – as though ‘compelling’ them to enter [Luke 14.23]. Te Gosel beckons its hearers into

communion with God, who redeems man’s primal hope through the medium of redemptive and revelatory history. Te Gosel inserts its hearers as acive participants in that history. Tere holy Scripture supplies both the foundational script and the dramatic

mis-en-scène. Tus the Gosel is what makes existence truly existential. Tis is why the early Christians called it ‘the way’.

ND

Travel delay

Before Christmas a major travel

agent, hit by recession, asked staff to entice folk into its shops. Came the Big Freeze and the lasses could drop their hems and deal with the rush of bookings from those wishing to escape the British climate. Bookings were also driven by fears that the pound could fall further. Some sun- seekers were not tempted. ‘Wait until the last minute. That’s when you get the real bargains.’ Yet there were many who, despite

the lack of 2009’s promised ‘barbecue summer’, found that staying put wasn’t so bad after all – FiF’s Director has hymned the good food of Cornwall in Forward Plus. His own foodie fiesta on Channel 4 when FiF goes backwards? Reminiscent of the CofE, except

that the decisiveness of Anglicanism’s wanna-get-aways isn’t as obvious as that of the sun-seekers. If the Ordinariate Special Offer is so

good, why aren’t the biretta brigade booking up straight away, singing ‘E Viva Romana’? Can they be waiting for an even better last minute deal? One offering no need to dump the lace trimmings at the local charity shop. No need to become as low church as St Aloysius – worship songs and no incense. Would the Pilgrim Fathers (sorry

for the Protty reference, fathers) have not set sail until Walmart was offering oven-ready turkeys for the first Thanksgiving? Whatever the reason for the delay,

spare us more ‘Shall I, shan’t I?’ blogs. Remember the bore who’s always going to emigrate – Britain’s had it – and ten years later is still propping up the same bar, probably with the same drink. Equally Anglican staycationers

must be prepared for the climate to worsen. Always does (whatever TV weather girls promise). Our weather’s said to come from America. As surely as Trick or Treat, so too will come Hurricane Katherine. Are Thomas Cook yet selling Virgin’s

cut price ‘Trips to the Moon’?

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