In Search of Christianity
Zeik, Michael
Books: DOES CHRISTIANITY EXIST? YOU WOULD THINK, since I totally disagree with one (perhaps the major) of the theses of this book, that I did not like it, will not review it favorably, and...
...he restrains himself here as well, when he discusses the relative merits of Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, European Protestantism, and the new African Churches...
...Christ the Preacher, who is emulated chiefly by the Protestants...
...I would go somewhat further than the author: the same physical fact of sexual intercourse can express the entire spectrum of human emotion, from the most tender, personal love, to—in the instance of rape—the most violent, impersonal detestation...
...He has, additionally, a novel and interesting way of dealing with his data...
...But allow me, somewhat indirectly, to get back to the matter of the conclusion...
...IN SEARCH OF CHRISTIANITY Ninian Smart Harper & Row, $10.95, 320 pp...
...Add to these, the Christ of solitary prayer, the Christ who fasted in the desert: model for monks and contemplatives...
...And the contexts are widely divergent...
...both of the latter insist, to begin with, that they are nothing more than human teachers...
...The author's conclusion is this: Christianity is such "a kaleidoscope of different lived interpretations of the meaning of faith," that "it is doubtful whether there is some essential Christianity...
...What," he asks elsewhere, "do the Amish of Pennsylvania have in common with a Zulu (African) Zion...
...I never read an Englishman who fractured a fabric before...
...That the cult of the Virgin Mary fits in with Italian 'macho,' explains somewhat less...
...The reason I can do all three, despite my disagreement with the book's principal conclusion, is that Ninian Smart is an alert phenomenologist with a keen eye for significant religious behavior, who proceeds intelligently in the unraveling of the probable social and historical causes of these variant religious behaviors...
...Why then, asks the author, must we assume that the Buddhist and Hindu mystic are experiencing, in...
...In all other religious traditions, Smart observes, it is the body of intuitions and teachings which are all-important...
...More on this in a moment...
...But set this down, to a busy author and a lazy editor...
...Christ is a far more elusive personality than either the (Theravada) Buddha, or the Prophet Mohammed...
...What was, alone, worth the price of the book to me, was the job done on those scholars of comparative religion, and they are legion, who insist on lumping together all mystical experience — Islamic, Buddhist, Taoist, Hindu, Christian, etc—as if the mystics from all these religious traditions had shared an identical encounter...
...Consummatum est," was spoken, apparently, only once...
...he begins in twentieth century Lake Como, Italy...
...meditative trance, the very same thing as Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross...
...We must turn, he insists, to the context of each of these mystical traditions, if we hope to understand the import of the experiences related...
...a Swedish town...
...Michael Zeik Rather than proceeding chronologically from the Early Church and Scriptures, through the Middle Ages and Reformation, to the present Christian behavioral patterns in Rome, Constantinople, etc...
...The Gospel of Luke was not, after all, written at Lake Como...
...Smart deserved better...
...Smart claims otherwise...
...in an Orthodox Romanian village...
...Professor Smart, who teaches both in England and at the University of California, is the author of several works on religious phenomenology, including The Long Search, recently the basis for an excellent film series on public TV...
...The Master taught," is a phrase that appears over and over in the World Religions...
...Perceptive...
...28 March 1980: 187...
...But doesn't the fact that the author distinguishes between Christian and non-Christian mysticism suggest Commonweal: 186 that there is some underlying essence to the Christian experience...
...As for myself, I not only find an 'essence' beneath the widely differing forms of Christianity practiced around the world, but I even found it, presented forcibly enough, in this book...
...Professor Smart's sojourn in America has left its mark...
...I grant, also, that the Gospels present us with many faces of Christ...
...the Christ who, in the Supper, initiated the liturgy—followed, preeminently, by the Orthodox...
...That the captivity of much of the Orthodox Church, under Islam, is responsible for its thrust to 'conserve' rather than to convert,' is a useful insight...
...But more important than the entire body of his teachings was the body of his flesh, and what he did with it...
...for while I found the chapter on contemporary Orthodoxy most satisfying, the one on modern Roman Catholicism seemed sketchy...
...I agree...
...And the interpretation is a major part of the sexual experience...
...Simply because a man and a woman making love in Tibet are performing the same essential calisthenics as a pair of lovers in Spain, we are not entitled to assume that they are all interpreting the experience identically...
...as well as the Bridegroom who feasted and celebrated with his church...
...YOU WOULD THINK, since I totally disagree with one (perhaps the major) of the theses of this book, that I did not like it, will not review it favorably, and refuse to recommend it to the general reader...
...I wish, as a matter of fact, that he had devoted more time to this particular section of the book...
...The author does well, I think, at this point, to compare spiritual ecstasy with sexual...
...In fact, I did like it, am going to review it favorably, and have no hesitation in recommending it...
...an African tribe, etc., and proceeds backwards from the observed religious behavior to the historical and theological reasons for the divergent expressions of faith...
...I found it fascinating, therefore, to read his descriptions and analyses of the behavioral facts, even though I came to a divergent conclusion having read them...
...The mystics, themselves, do this eften enough...
...Jesus had intuitions also, and he taught us many things...
...Essence enough for me...
...If I wanted (contrary to the holiday spirit in which I write this review), I could carp also on the dozen-or-so infelicities of style scattered throughout the book...
...All of this and much more, I contend, does not add up to there being "only Christianities, and nowhere a Christianity...
...The author speaks, for example, of the "fractured fabric" of doctrine and philosophy in Reformation Europe...
...And the reason for this is observed by our astute phenomenologist, himself—observed, but not utilized in his general conclusion...
...As a phenomenologist, he has always restrained himself from making 'value judgments' regarding the relative virtues of the World Religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, etc...
Vol. 107 • March 1980 • No. 6
