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| Christopher
Dawson :
Historian and Prophet Christopher Dawson: Distinguished English historian, author of many highly acclaimed books, international lecturer. Born 1889, convert to Catholicism in 1914, first holder of the Stillman Chair of Roman Catholic Studies, Harvard, died 1970. "Christopher Dawson in his field was the most distinguished Catholic thinker of this century" – Father David Knowles, OSB, eminent Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge. Dawson’s most valuable contributions to contemporary thought treat a very practical and pertinent issue, the modern world crisis including the rise of the Totalitarian-Communist State and its threat to Christianity. Communism, he said, was not something suddenly begotten in the 19th century; rather, it represented the climax; the culmination of the secularising, anti-religious process in modern civilisation. But Europe was once Christendom, and the spiritual force permeating that great culture was not wiped out in a moment, or even in a century. When, then, did this breakdown of religion as a social force begin? Who stood at the root of this mighty change? Social Change Dawson discerns its origins mainly in the religious revolution that rent the unity of Christendom. The reformers, he said, without intending it, brought about that separation of culture from religion. The result was an "increasing secularisation of life and thought." And when religion loses its hold on social life "it eventually loses its hold on life altogether." So Europe, Christendom, civilisation, was launched on the downward path of secularisation – an evolution of many phases, culminating in our day in the Godless, barbaric tyranny of Communism. And so we find ourselves in the most desperate crisis in history. How can we meet it? Is there any lesson to be learned from the past? Yes, said Dawson, and it is this: religion is the dynamic element in every civilisation and culture, and therefore Christianity alone, the one true religion, can save the world from the enslavement of Communism. Communism So Communism is the greatest menace to world peace – but what power is most opposed to Communism? Many think it is Capitalism. Not so, answered Dawson. Though Communism is the enemy of both Christianity and Capitalism, it stands far nearer to Capitalism than to Christianity. One need only read the Communist manifesto to realise this for it even begins with a remarkable tribute to the capitalist achievement. Marx regarded Communism as destined to carry on the Capitalist tradition, and Capitalism itself was the first step towards the new system of economic world organisation. And what about Christianity? Has Bolshevism anything in common with Christianity? Only this: it borrowed from Christianity its theoretical passion for social justice. But in every other respect they are diametrically opposed for Communism is not content to dominate the outer world and leave man’s inner life to religion. It claims the whole man recognises no higher power, and leaves no room for human rights and spiritual freedom. Liberalism Communism is rooted, as we have said, in the revolt against Christianity, in the secularisation of culture. To understand the growth of Communism, we must examine the main trends in this secularising process. Firstly, there was Liberalism, which owed to Christianity its humanitarian idealism and faith in progress. But in the secular society this exaltation of humanity became a substitute for the Christian Faith, and secular civilisation was regarded as man’s final end. And from the secularisation of culture arose also that religion of Science and Progress. "But Science," Dawson observed "is unable to realise all its vast potentialities for the organisation and transformation of human existence, unless it is directed by a moral purpose which it does not itself possess." Likewise Nationalism. When secularised and not subordinated to the spiritual power it became a principle of hatred and destruction and paved the way for the Totalitarian State. Dawson made this tremendous affirmation: "Once society is launched on the path of secularisation, it cannot stop in the half-way house of Liberalism: it must go on to the bitter end, whether that end be Communism or some alternative type of totalitarian secularism." Why? Because man cannot live in a spiritual void – "he needs some fixed social standards and some absolute intellectual principles." Liberalism, nationalism, and the bourgeois culture of the Capitalist State failed to satisfy the deepest need of the human spirit, so the "hungry and dissatisfied turned for relief even to the dry husks of Communism." And this prompts the question, "Is Communism, then a religion?" Yes, in a way it is. Here we have a strange paradox; a godless religion and a materialist spirituality. "The Communist ethic," said Dawson, "is religious in its absoluteness and in its unlimited claims to the spiritual allegiance of its followers." But this pseudo-religion of Communism – can it satisfy man’s inner cravings? Dawson wrote: "I do not myself believe that man will ever find a true religious satisfaction in the worship of himself in the race or in humanity at large." A true religion, he said, is a religion of revelation. And the religious instinct finds its "fullest and most concrete satisfaction in the historical field – through faith in a historical person; in a historical community and a historical tradition." Now the Communist philosophy is, at best, a poor thing – a philosophy of minimum spiritual and intellectual content. For example, its theoretical disregard of the hierarchical nature of man, its absurd blue-print of a classless society where the State just withers away! But herein lies its strength; it is enough of a philosophy to provide society with a theoretical basis. Freedom "It is therefore impossible." He wrote, "to dismiss the claims of Christianity as irrelevant to the problem of international order, for the demonic powers that have entered the empty house of secular civilisation are not to be exorcised by the economist or the politician. "Religion is the only power that can meet the forces of destruction on equal terms and save mankind from its spiritual enemies." And despite the overwhelming odds, Christianity can conquer. What it has achieved in the past it can achieve again. Two thousand years ago, Christianity must have seemed an absurd attempt on the part of a handful of fanatics to destroy all that was strongest in the ancient world, the power and authority of the Roman state, Greek science and culture … and the religious traditions of the East. Nevertheless these mighty forces were powerless to resist the spiritual energy of the new society. Christianity conquered. Christian Dawson was a realist. He warned against the idealisation of medieval culture as the complete social expression of Christianity. He insisted that Christianity was a sort of leaven working throughout the world and its work was never finished. He was a realist also in his attitude to present-day Christianity, and pointed out that the indifference and complacency of the average Christian were the reasons why the Christian Faith has made so little impression on the modern world and seemed powerless to influence the course of history. So he sounded a clarion call for action. Let Christians, he said, once more take the offensive and realise that their "real social mission was to be pioneers in a true movement of world revolution." And though everywhere today the ruling forces in civilisation seem converging against the Christian tradition, Dawson discerns signs of hope. "Never perhaps in the whole of its history," he wrote, "have the people of God seemed weaker and more scattered and more at the mercy of its enemies than today. Yet this is no reason for us to despair. The Christian law of progress is the very reverse of that of the world. "When the Church possesses all the marks of external power and success, then is its hour of danger. And when it seems that no human power can save it, the time of its deliverance is at hand. Christianity began with a startling failure and the sign in which it conquered was the Cross on which its Founder was executed." The collapse of our own secular civilisation has much in common with the breakdown of the Roman Empire from which we can learn so much and of which Dawson writes: "It marked the failure of the greatest experiment in secular civilisation that the world has ever seen, and the return of society to spiritual principles. It was at once an age of material loss and spiritual recovery when amidst the ruins of a bankrupt order, men strove slowly and painfully to rebuild the house of life on eternal foundations." |