4 December, 2021
Dear Reader,
We have pleasure in opening with another guest feature, this time by Emeritus Prof John Simons. John pursues our discussion a few weeks ago on the terminological problems that arise in applying the terms Western or Christian to the Civilisation we all know but sometimes struggle to define adequately!
GREECE AND THE ‘TWO EUROPES’
About twenty-five years ago I was sitting in the lounge at Ljubljana airport en route for Tirana. Opposite me was a man in a loden coat reading a German newspaper and beside him a veiled woman wearing a metal face mask. I was on a fault line yet I was less than a four-hour drive from Vienna (which is actually east of Ljubljana).
There are two Europes. One is based on the Rhine and has as its hinterland Scandinavia, Britain, France and Italy. This Rhenish Europe is the legacy of Rome and the Reformation. The other Europe is based on the Danube: its hinterland is Russia, the Balkan states and Greece. This Danubian Europe is largely Orthodox and it is also Islamic. The original European Union (the Common Market) was based on the Europe of the Rhine; the new expanded entity has incorporated much of Danubian Europe but without the re-assessment of culture that such a major change ought to have entailed. Political Europe still defines itself in predominantly Rhenish terms and has incorporated the Danubian countries into a ‘western’ club, with ‘western’ values and a ‘western’ culture.
A paradox is that the cradle of that culture, Greece, is in the Danubian hinterland and remains stubbornly Orthodox. From the eighteenth-century onwards one reads of ‘western’ travellers being shocked by the ‘Asiatic’ nature of Greece. So an interesting boundary began to be drawn between the ‘pure’ ancient Greek culture which gave the west its best values and the ‘corrupt’ modern Greek culture, undermined by Asiatic depravity. Ancient Greece was purged of its anarchic paganism and the space filled with Classical discipline. But anyone who has sheltered from the rain in the British Museum and taken the opportunity really to look at the Elgin Marbles can be in no doubt what sort of culture produced them and it was not the Greece of Goethe and Winckelmann. Patrick Leigh Fermor was one of the few who understood the continuities between modern and Ancient Greece. Whether Samuel P. Huntington, who recognised Orthodoxy as a distinct civilisation, did I am not so sure.
Western criticism has always been able to see religious art as purely aesthetic but there is no similar inflection for Orthodox art. Most western classical composers tried their hand at a Mass but the Moscow Patriarchate took a dim view of Tchaikovsky’s and Rachmaninov’s settings of Orthodox liturgical texts. Similarly while in the nineteenth century some Russian painters did adopt the western mode of painting religious scenes in a secular style these images were often controversial (and now are barely known outside Russia). True Orthodox art is to be found in ikons and liturgical texts and although it is possible to look at these through secular eyes they can only be properly understood as they are used in devotional contexts. In other words, a distinctive character of Orthodox cultural production is that it cannot be separated from Orthodox religious belief and practice in the way that we so often see in the treatment of ‘western’ religious art where religion becomes another secular subject. And non-religious writers and artists in Orthodox countries have tended not to pursue religious themes.
The Orthodox world is undoubtedly part of the west. Christianity makes it so. If you define the west predominantly and narrowly through the secular values of the Enlightenment then maybe there is a case to exclude it. But such a definition does not capture the fullness of Europe and offers neither comfort in the past nor hope for the future.
Macquarie University Emeritus Professor John Simons now lives in Tasmania. He retired as Deputy Vice-Chancellor. John has published widely in literature and history. More recently he has concentrated on cultural representations of animals, currently working on a study of fish in Victorian England. His most recent publication was a study of a lion who lived in Paris during the French Revolution. He is an Orthodox Christian and is soon to be ordained as a chtets(reader) in the Russian Orthodox Church.
Thank you for reading our newsletter,
David Daintree
LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES
Someone has just sent me a link to the Collegium Intermarium in Poland. Extract from their mission statement: ‘Our university is also a haven for all those who, in their search for freedom and order, are not afraid to refer to the achievements of previous generations, including the foundations of our civilization – Roman law, Greek love of truth, and the living heritage of Christianity.’
NEW NEWSLETTER LAUNCHED
Former Vice-Chancellor of Macquarie University Emeritus Prof Steven Schwartz has launched a new personal blog Wiser Every Day. His posts focus on restoring traditional virtues – honesty, courage, tolerance, loyalty, honour and patriotism – to education, medicine, and politics.
Subscription is free here, or take a look at Knowledge without Wisdom and Science without Humanity.
IS THE TIDE TURNING?
Cambridge University reverses its earlier ‘ban’ on Jordan Peterson. Philosopher Arif Ahmed reports on a successful visit and a sold-out audience. Is it too much to hope that when brave people take a stand the Woke opposition will melt away?
VACCINES AND ALL THAT
We have generally held a questioning if not entirely sceptical view of governments’ measures to protect us. I am moved to include this piece by one of our readers:
‘It surprises me that now, in our secular Australian society, we are talking about vaccines as moral duties, regardless of any individual’s reasonable hesitation. Not only that, but the return of our freedoms (not privileges, mark you, but rights!), once lost in the blink of an eye, will apparently be granted only after due compliance has been achieved.
‘A worrying inconsistency is the discourse around our elderly. To risk passing on a virus to an elderly person is deemed morally wrong. Yet a bill allowing euthanasia is thought necessary and ‘dignified’. Where is the ‘safety’ in healthcare if we allow professionals to assist their patients’ suicide?
‘Freedom favours the compliant. Daily counts of fully vaccinated Australians fill the news. Most of us have decided to get jabbed for many reasons: for health, to keep jobs, to keep the peace in relationships, or just to go to a pub again. Our re-entry into civil society is now contingent on our vaccine status. The ‘final push’ to achieve higher vaccination percentages has been seen by many as a morally right thing to ask of citizens.
‘Whilst our leaders face corruption charges and scandals, and attacks on the traditional family are rampant, we citizens are asked to ‘do the right thing’ as a moral obligation. And our freedoms are held to ransom!
‘We are living in an age of secular spirituality – we are led by commandments (mandates) and are rewarded with heaven on earth (freedom of movement).’
US MOTHERS VS CRITICAL RACE THEORY
This article focuses on one (black) mother’s brave resistance to woke teaching in Virginia schools. It’s a long but inspirational read.
SUMMER SCHOOLS 2022
Both courses, we’re pleased to say, are now full, though we could take one or two more if pressed! Bookings can be made online through Eventbrite. Please follow the links:
10-14 January – Medieval and Ecclesiastical Latin
17-21 January – Western Civilisation – an Overview.
Alternatively use any of the payment methods here.
Write for further details or to request a concessional rate or deferred payment.