Rowan Williams on Dostoevsky

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/08/religion.anglicanism

"Why was the moment when Jesus, perhaps out of compassion for the tormented Inquisitor, kisses the man and then is allowed to slip from his cell into the Seville night, possibly never to be seen again, so important for Williams? "Dostoevsky has no easy answers, but what struck me when I first read the Grand Inquisitor episode was there is absolutely no form of words that can give a solution to suffering. Absolutely none. That's why what ends the arraignment of the captive Jesus by the Grand Inquisitor is silence - and then Jesus kisses him. When I read it I had the dim sense that there was something very important in that what you look for in faith is not solutions but a certain relationship." And that's why Dostoevsky's appeal has endured for Williams: he offers no closure, no authorial master-voice, but an endless dialogue where no one wins the argument but everyone is connected."

This is a portion of the interview Archbishop Rowan Williams had about his book on Dostoevsky. I invite you to access the website noted above. The complete interview is important but this note on suffering has significant resonance for me now in relation to two very close friends. So easy to offer and speak words, so much medical assistance to relieve, to maintain but in the end the power of relationships becomes embracing. The offer of oil, and sharing of bread and wine in the setting of relationship provided a measure of healing that words and medicine could not.

A second note concerns the introduction to this interview with Rowan Williams. With all the crises afflicting the Church of England and leading up to Lambeth 2008 why did the Archbishop spend time writing a book about Dostoevsky? He had his reasons which he gives but in so many ways this was a most suitable way to prepare for Lambeth and the crises. Just to reread The Brothers Karamazov would have provided him with settings / situations / personalities to prepare for most events.
Even the paragraph provided gives a clue to what in the end is required of the archbishop, and one without constitutional powers to exercise authority. The archbishop also reminds us that the One Christians claim to follow declared His Power by his very powerlessness. After all the Cross was the Roman symbol of authority and power. Yet it is used in the purposes of God to deal with the fault lines in humanity and the created order. The Resurrection declares Rome's authority is not final. The Resurrection check mates whatever final act Rome / Babylon ... ?? might make to demonstrate its / their power.

Deep Meaning, Exuberant Hope

This is the latest of Walter Brueggemann's books that I have commenced reading. It is the third of a series commenced in 1999 with 'The Covenanted self' followed in 2000 with 'Texts that Linger, Words that Explode'. While one should read in series I have this to read ... so I will.
The sub-title is 'Contested Truth in a Post-Christian World'. It is exactly that. We, I, can no longer speak from a triumphalist position to another. Mind you I don't believe we / I have ever had the right to speak from such a place. There is rarely if ever any respect for the other when we do.
This reflection will continue. I have been so confronted I knew it had to be placed on this page ... NOW.