Democracy in America and Brave New World, by Kevin Sullivan
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Volume 6 Issue 2 Fall 2013 A Journal of Georgetown University’s Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy Editor-in-Chief Christopher Mooney Executive Editor Hannah Schneider Managing Editor Jordan Rudinsky Section Editors Steven Waldorf (The Forum) Christina Eickenroht (The Chamber) Michael Lessman (The Sanctuary) Stephen Taft (The Archive) Zongxian Eugene Ang (The Parlor) Amanda Wynter (The Clock Tower) Utraque Unum Georgetown University’s seal is based directly on the Great Seal of the United States of America. Instead of an olive branch and arrows in the Amer- ican eagle’s right and left talons, Georgetown’s eagle is clutching a globe and calipers in its right talon and a cross in its left talon. The American seal’s eagle holds a banner in its beak that states, E Pluribus Unum, or “Out of Many, One”, in reference to the many different people and states creating a union. The Georgetown seal’s eagle holds a banner in its beak that states, Utraque Unum. As the official motto of Georgetown University, Utraque Unum is often translated as “Both One” or “Both and One” and is taken from Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians. This motto is found in a Latin translation of Ephesians 2:14: ipse est enim pax nostra qui fecit utraque unum. The King James Version of the Bible says, “For He [Christ] is our peace, who hath made both one”. Utraque Unum is the Latin phrase to describe Paul’s concept of unity between Jews and Gentiles; that through Jesus Christ both are one. In view of the Georgetown seal, the motto represents pursuing knowledge of the earthly (the world and calipers) and the spiritual (the cross). Faith and reason should not be exclusive. In unity faith and reason enhance the pursuit of knowledge. Acknowledgements The publication of Utraque Unum was made possible by the generous support of Bill Mumma, Georgetown University Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service Class of 1981, as well as the Collegiate Network. The Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy additionally wishes to acknowledge the generous support of The Veritas Fund as administered by the Manhattan Insti- tute, the Thomas W. Smith Foundation, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and the Jack Miller Center. The Tocqueville Forum promotes events and activities devoted to furthering and deepening student understanding of the American constitutional order and its roots in the Western philosophical and religious traditions. The Tocqueville Fo- rum sponsors these activities solely through the contributions of generous sup- porters of its mission. If you would like further information about supporting the Tocqueville Forum, please e-mail [email protected] or visit http://government.georgetown.edu/tocquevilleforum. As always, we welcome your thoughts and comments regarding this journal. If you are or once were a Georgetown University student, professor or staff mem- ber we would welcome the opportunity to review your work for publication in Utraque Unum. In addition to writers, we are looking for section editors, art- ists, graphic designers and web designers. Please e-mail the editors at utraque. [email protected] for these inquiries. Cultivating Knowledge of America and the West TOCQUEVILLE FORUM AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY T www.TocquevilleForum.org | Ph 202.687.8501 | Utraque Unum Fall 2013 Volume 6, Issue 2 Table of Contents From the Editor-in-Chief .........................................................................1 Tocqueville and the Academy, by Professor Joshua Mitchell . .4 . The Forum (Feature Articles) “A Final Gladness”: The “Last Lecture” at Georgetown, by Father James V . Schall, S . J . 6. The Haunting Vision of Tocqueville’s “Equality in Servitude”: Democracy in America and Brave New World, by Kevin Sullivan . .12 . “The Antipode to the Indian Buddha”: Friedrich Nietzsche’s Salvific Quest to Conquer European Nihilism, by Caitlin Casey . .18 . Division and Undesirability: Rousseau and Marx on Knowledge and Living Well, by Jessica Firn . 24. The Chamber (Articles on Law and Politics) France’s Laico-Christian Syncretism Meets Islam, by Joshua Dill . .28 . The Buddhist Root Metaphor: Nonduality and the Ecological Crisis, by Christian F . Lambert . .34 . Church-State Confusion and Schizophrenic Reasoning in Everson v . Board of Education, by Caleb Morell . 42. The Sanctuary (Articles on Religion and Theology) Liturgy and the Divine Comedy: Approaches to Human Freedom, by Kieran G . Raval . 47. Cutting through to Enlightenment: The Tibetan Buddhist Practice of Cho, by Marya Pulaski . .52 . The Flute of Reed: A Comparison of Rumi and Tagore’s Mystical Poetry, by Bassam F . Sidiki . 57. The Archive (Articles on History) Byzantium’s Trifold Inheritance and Her Renaissances, by Michael Lessman . .63 . The Architect and the Storyteller: Nikon, Avvakum, and the Theological Fight for the Fate of a Nation, by Hannah Schneider . 69. “Fools for Christ”: Catholic Radicals and the Vietnam War, by Graham D . Welsh . .74 . The Parlor (Articles on Literature, Film, Music, Plays, and Art) A Christian Orfeo: Christian and Classical Themes in Strigio and Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, la favola in musica, by Michael Donnay . .80 . Suicidal Anna: A Cognitive-Behavioral Psychological Framework of the Suicidality of Tolstoy’s Eponymous Character, by Tyler Joseph White . .84 . Implications of Gazing in The Turn of the Screw, by Stephanie LaGumina . .88 . TOCQUEVILLE FORUM AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY www.TocquevilleForum.org | Ph 202.687.8501 The Clock Tower (Articles on Georgetown) Death at a University, by Michael Fischer . .93 . Shifting Gears and Changing Hearts: An Interview with Joshua Mitchell, by Amanda Wynter . 98. Pressing Normative Questions at Georgetown, by Stephen M . Fields, S .J . .101 . The Editor’s Desk ear Reader, When I relate to prospective students, dear old friends, or faculty how greatly I have Dloved my time at Georgetown—a short three years—I am often met with the follow up ques- tion, “Why did you decide to come to Georgetown?” This question always particularly delights me, because it reminds me of precisely what has led me to such a deep affection for our beloved university. The reasons I first came to Georgetown actually compelled me to leave, and nearly for good. That is, like many, I first came to Georgetown, a crushed Harvard wait-list, zealous for an ambitious, power- ful career in politics. When I began to taste the wonders of a liberal education I could hardly recon- cile my old reasons for attending, so I temporarily withdrew to become an auto-didact of the great books and a writer (a humbling failure of a venture). Yet now, three years later, as I tell any earnest questioner, I have a different reason for coming to Georgetown—the reason I stayed at Georgetown. There is at Georgetown today a deep tension, nearly irresolvable, between the Liberal Arts tra- dition, guided by its Jesuit heritage, and its desire to be a top-tier research university, among the Harvards, Yales, and Princetons of the world. As these two competing forces strain and pull against each other—for funding, for attention, for teachers and curricular planning, for advertisement and campaigning, even just for affection—a tear, a hole of potential opens in this interstitial space, which as a student I have been privileged to occupy. On the one hand, students are able to receive the most rigorous, soul-forming education possible, the sort of education that has for centuries excelled at its end: making captive minds free. The Liberal Arts is still alive at Georgetown and, even at minimum because of core requirements, architecture, Catholic ideas, and the residents of Wolfington Hall, students are forced to engage with it. On the other, we benefit from all the global access afforded by the reputation associated with the name ‘Georgetown’ because the world is eager for the research and capable leaders Georgetown produces. And just as iron sharpens iron, the space for conversation between opposed ideas that arises on account of this tension forces a constant reexamination of what is most important to us and why, and it forces us to engage in the continuous pursuit of truth because in the midst of the world we know just how great the stakes of such a pursuit are. A small school engaged only in the Liberal Arts would not have been able to provide this level of global access or necessitate, by virtue of the diversity of opinions, its students to engage with the much wider world of differing ideas; yet an Ivy League would not have provided such a solid education to actually go transform the world. But I fear a future where the better but weaker side will lose because some fail to see the true end of education and are enticed by this desire for Georgetown’s reputation. At that point Georgetown will have become every bit the research university it wanted to be: while having lost anything that made it unique, exceptional, or diverse among major universities it still would not be better, richer, or higher-ranked than Harvard, Yale, or Princeton, a frightening possibility that gives truth to that eerie idea that “even what they have will be taken from them”. The Liberal Arts is the essential counterbalance to this because it provides students with an education that makes them intelligent citizens, citizens who know not just how to conduct research but rather what to research, and why, how, and even whether to use it. To create such thinkers I would not say that the Liberal Arts teaches us ‘how to think’ (as it has become so fashionable to speak of education). Rather, it teaches us what to think, and by teaching us Utraque Unum — Fall 2013 | 1 The Editor’s Desk | what to think it teaches us how to think. It imbues us with ideas about what is true and right and wonderful, ideas that are the key to thinking itself.