Fr Vsevolod Chaplin (1968- ), zamglavy of the MP DECR
Will peace in Europe and America last long? I don’t think so. The times the poet Anna Akhmatova called “vegetarian” sooner or later always come to an end, especially in a period of intense social contradictions in the world. In fact, the 100-200 million members of the Western élite cannot hold in leash the remaining six billion of the Earth’s population. Neither the stick nor the carrot will help. It was in mid-90s that in perfect silence I warned western analysts against nuclear terrorism, today it is considered a real danger. One French politician even has calculated recently the possible political and economic consequences of nuclear attacks by terrorists on European capitals.
The West has two ways out. The first one is to create numerous, extremely destructive (nuclear, chemical and etc.) flashpoints of conflict that allow it to get rid of two to three billion people and at the same time justify economic emergencies à la the American refusal to devalue the dollar or expropriating Middle East oil reserves. But, this way is unsafe as recent conflicts have shown that it’s difficult to manage them and they can easily catch the West as well.
The second way is to create a global “Orwellian” totalitarian regime with all-around electronic chase, brainwash, severe repressions against dissidents, and a widespread system of squealing. Historical experience shows that such a régime can conceal social conflicts inside for a long time. Today, it is technically difficult and expensive to build, even for the United States. But, I am afraid that global policy will develop in this direction. Even if the main slogans of such reforms will be democracy and political correctness, in practise we’ll have to leave them out.
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To discover the falsehood of pacifism, its advocates should establish a state of their own, without an army, police, and frontier guards. They will fall victims to scoundrels in several days and, willing or not, they will have to protect themselves. It’s nice to talk about the irrelevance of military force when you’re safely protected against all “surprises”. There is so much evil in our sinful world (and there will be enough of it until the second coming of Christ) that its forceful limitation is necessary. Even if Western society, well-protected today, creates an illusion of safety… this illusion is being destroyed by terrorism, which leads to a sudden decrease in the number of pacifists.
The major part of Western Christianity that is enthusiastic about pacifism will in future have to face the current threats; it shall survive only if it teaches its followers to fight and die… as their forefathers did.
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Without any exaggeration, I believe that we can call our time a Golden Age of Russian Orthodox thought. Serious and deep articles are published almost every week; similar books are issued every month. Most various themes are discussed: “pure” theology, philosophy of history, national and global social problems… We prefer the Silver age (late 19th and early 20th century: editor’s note) only because its texts are studied better and it has taken its solid place in history. Besides, there were fewer of them: the whole Russian religious thought of the late 19th to early 20th century can be “scanned” much quicker than today’s Internet space and the long shelves of contemporary Orthodox book stores. If a hundred years ago every new article become known to everyone (though not at once), today, it’s very difficult to find anything really worthy in the current information stream.
What of modern Orthodox thought will remain in history? Certainly, it depends on how history develops. But, to the same degree it depends on our ability to keep and popularise our heritage and make it comprehensible to people. In the past, the priority was given to academic texts. It is quite possible that in the future, artistic word and “petty forms” will be preferred. The popularity of the text even now depends on the author’s actions, on his social activity, and, unfortunately, on the “promotion”. If history doesn’t do a sharp turn, it will go on this way…
It’s sad that the West is almost completely unfamiliar with contemporary Russian thought and only experts, who are often tendentious and partisan, know it. The whole Orthodox world faces the same situation. For example, there are many original authors in the Romanian Church, but, they are absolutely unknown outside of Romania. That’s why it is so important to translate our texts, at least into English and then into French, Spanish, Greek, Italian, Arabic, and Chinese…
26 May 2008
Fr Vsevolod Chaplin
Zamglavy (Deputy Head) of the MP Department of External Church Relations
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=4716 (in English)
