Inga Leonova Speaks with Jim Forest, Conversion Not Domination
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WAR AND CHRIST Conversion, Not Domination Inga Leonova interviews Jim Forest Thank you, Jim, for speaking to The Hymns such as the Troparion of the Wheel about your lifelong advocacy Cross do raise issues. But, of course, of peacemaking as essential to Chris- victory need not mean military defeat tian witness. To begin, perhaps you of the enemy. It could mean something could talk about the historical un- more like their conversion to a differ- derstanding of war in the Christian ent attitude toward us—a transforma- tradition, including the doctrine of tion of their behaviour. I think this is, Just War, which has found many ad- in fact, the correct way to understand herents. these hymns. Orthodox Christianity is essentially a religion of conversion The Just War theory emerged in West- rather than domination. ern Christianity and never became rooted in Eastern Christianity. In- As for warrior saints—their Lives stead, in the East, there is a relatively are complicated, but also surprising. undeveloped theology that war is Take Saint George, the most famous sometimes forced on a nation under example. On the one hand, we know attack, but is only justified to the ex- very little about the historical person, tent that the nation is defending itself George. He was a martyr, but we can’t from invasion. Even then, many re- say much more. He may not have been straints were placed on the practice of an actual solider, but perhaps was a sol- war. If you examine Byzantine history dier more in the sense that Saint Paul and theological writings about war, it uses military metaphors to describe is striking to see the extent to which the ideal Christian life: George had war was avoided. Many emperors courage, he was armed with truth, made compromises and paid huge his feet were shod with the gospel of amounts from the imperial treasury to peace. It wasn’t until the composition prevent war. As for a theology of war of the Golden Legend in the thirteenth in the East? There simply is no “Just century that the story of battling the War” doctrine in the Fathers. dragon emerged. Of course, the his- torical George never saw a dragon, How about Orthodox hymns such as but again, metaphorically and spiri- the Troparion for the Cross, which tually he certainly battled dragons: he originally read, “Grant victory to the battled fear and the command of the Orthodox emperor over his enemies”? emperor to make pagan sacrifice. For And what about warrior saints? How that reason, the dragon story—though do you reconcile this part of Orthodox a legend—is inspired and compelling. tradition with the exaltation of peace in the Gospel? The Wheel 12 | Winter 2018 11 In fact, I would say that the life of Saint who was canonized because of mili- George is entirely a metaphor of con- tary achievements. version: the saint arrives on a white horse, symbolizing courage; his shield This leads us back to the issue of dom- bears the sign of the Cross, showing ination and onward to our contem- that he is a soldier of Christ, not of porary situation. In the last twenty the world; in many icons, he is shown or thirty years, the world has expe- wielding a lance thinner than a pen- rienced wars waged by and between cil—hardly a mighty weapon of war; Orthodox nations. The aggressions and he has a dispassionate expres- of Russia in Georgia and Ukraine, for sion, not a warmongering look. Also, example, have been shrouded in the we should remember that he does not pseudo-religious rhetoric of Russkiy kill the dragon but only wounds it, Mir (“the Russian World”), which as- and in many icons the rescued pagan serts the religious primacy of the Rus- princess is shown putting her girdle sian church and state over all the Or- around the dragon’s neck and leading thodox of Slavic Tradition. What do it away. you think about the relationship be- tween Christianity and nationalism? Perhaps we might also think of Saint Alexander Nevsky. Why was he can- The first thing that springs to mind onized? Because he was victorious in is Saint Paul’s comment that there is battle? Or because he became a re- “neither Jew nor Greek” (Gal. 3:28). It pentant monk and peacemaker who, is so obvious from the New Testament in a somewhat scandalous way, made that Christianity is not a national reli- compromises with the Golden Horde, gion. There is no such thing as Russian which led to a period of peace? It is Orthodoxy, there is only Orthodoxy striking that it was not until the reign in the Russian tradition, in the Greek tra- of Peter the Great that he was depicted dition, in the Antiochian tradition, and as a military saint. The icons before so forth. To the extent that religion that time did not show him in this becomes confused with national iden- way, but rather as a monk. tity, it is no longer a form of Christi- anity. So it seems that the exaltation of mil- itary might is a matter of subsequent One of the items discussed at the 1917 interpretation, necessitated by politi- Moscow Council was whether the cal circumstances? Church should be called “The Ortho- dox Church in Russia” or “The Rus- Absolutely. It’s a matter of post-mor- sian Orthodox Church.” The council tem militarization—often a very long fathers chose the latter, which I think time after the saint died, as in the case is unfortunate, because it gives the of Saint George and Saint Alexander. impression that Russian identity has We must remember that, in the nine- primacy over the identity conveyed teenth century, the West (including by the words that follow. “The Ortho- Russia) was swept by a wave of na- dox Church in Russia” strikes quite a tionalism, and many of these saints different tone. were recruited as military heroes for the nationalist cause. I am certain that Perhaps the fathers of the Orthodox if we study the lives of the saints and Church in America had a better ear for learn to read their hagiography cor- language and therefore chose a better rectly, we will not find a single one name? The OCA was in some ways 12 Ai Weiwei, Soleil Levant, 2017. Installa- tion of migrants’ life jackets at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Co- penhagen, Denmark. Photo: TeaMeister, flic.kr/p/YjLvkF. intended to overcome the diasporic Yes. I think there are at least seven 1 Jim Forest, “Salt national divisions of the Orthodox aspects of Christian peacemaking. of the Earth: An in America—but, of course, it hasn’t The first is loving our enemies. Here we Orthodox Chris- been entirely successful in that regard. tian Approach to have to repair a damaged word, be- Peacemaking,” In cause love has been sentimentalized, Communion 54 (Fall And, of course, those responsible and the biblical meaning of the word 2009), incommunion. for securing the OCA’s autocephaly is quite different. Christ calls his fol- org/2010/01/10/ weren’t caught up in national strug- lowers to love their enemies. If we un- salt-of-the-earth-3. gles in the same way as the fathers of derstand love as a euphoric feeling or the Moscow Council. The OCA was pleasurable sentiment, then fulfilling named at a time when national iden- this commandment is impossible. But tity for Orthodox Christians in Amer- if we understand love as doing what ica was not a consideration in the we can to protect the life and seek the same way as for Russians in 1917. salvation of a person or group whom we fear or hate, then it is very differ- Let’s talk a bit about your own work ent. An essential aspect of response to as a peacemaker. In your seminal es- that commandment is to pray for our say, “Salt of the Earth,” you lay out enemies—a thread of daily connection a number of aspects of witnessing to through prayer. Christ’s peace, especially in times of war.1 For those who are unfamiliar The second aspect is related: doing with your work, perhaps you could good to enemies. Jesus teaches his fol- explain them to us? lowers, “Do good to those who hate The Wheel 12 | Winter 2018 13 you, bless those who curse you” (Luke it is to ask God to forgive us rather 6:27–28). This teaching is often viewed than to extend forgiveness to others? as unrealistic—but, in fact, it is a We are wounded and the wounds of- teaching full of common sense. Unless ten last a lifetime. Sins—often quite we want to pave the way to a tragic serious sins—have been committed future, we must search for opportu- against us. Others we love have suf- nities to demonstrate to an opponent fered or may even have died through our longing for an entirely different the evil done to them. But we are not kind of relationship. An adversary’s only victims. In various ways, we are time of need or crisis can provide that linked to injuries others have suffered opening. and are suffering. Yet, we are moved to condemn the evils we see in others The third aspect is turning the other and to excuse—even justify—the evils cheek. In the Sermon on the Mount, we practice ourselves. In fact, we all Jesus says, “If someone strikes you on both need and must offer forgiveness. the cheek, offer him the other also” (Matt.