Faith in Europe

This book is based on the lectures given at Westiminster Cathedral in April and May 2005, in the wake of JPII's death. They seek to give a perspective from different more or less religious people to Christians in Europe.
Jean Vanier starts off the series. From his experience of living in community with handicapped people he points out that the primacy of the person- this needs to be a factor in the design of the European project. He also points out the importance of community for human beings to be fulfilled: we are all vulnerable and need others to cover for our weaknesses. A key feature of such communities is compassion and forgiveness. Through that we can build peace in our communities, but also in the wider society.
Mary McAleese describes three features of Europe. First she speaks of the Europe of reconciliation, pointing out what a miracle we witness by seeing the former enemies of World War II cooperating only 50 years later. But this movement of reconciliation needs to go further, bringing peace to the newer members of Europe as well. But to pursue this ideal Europe needs to remember its roots, including its Christian heritage.
Timothy Radcliffe attempts to sketch the contribution of Christianity to the future of Europe. As more and more Europeans leave the church, how can the church keep in contact with these millions of people who, while not belonging to the church, still believe in something. Part of the answer according to Radcliffe is the ability of Christianity to survive in a multi-faith Europe. Rather than being bearers of dogmatic truths, Christians need to become companions of people on their journeys. In other words, not to insist on the keeping of rules and regulations, but to show the importance of virtues in our journey to happiness, this is the calling of today's European church. But this requires that Christians themselves model a deep and contageous freedom. As Christians pursue the true, the good and the beautiful, they will become attractive for their fellow Europeans.
The theme of solidarity is the key idea in Bob Geldof's contribution. He is very sceptical of the EU beaurocracy and its institutions. They have proven their inability to act in places like the Balkans or Africa. But he sees a "latent comon idealism" in Europe which could be harnessed. As far as he is concerned helping Africa could be the great idea which would galvanize Europe into action.
Chris Patten's weak adress mainly pushes for European expansion to include Turkey, Bulgaria and Rumania. Secondly he urges the EU to be more positive toward the US.
The concluding remarks are those of the Cardinal of Westminster, who was also the initiator of the series of lectures. A few striking aspects have to characterize the European church. It will have to return to the primacy of the interior life; it needs to discover the important contribution of lay people; and the role of lay communities will become crucial in order to supplement people's experience in parishes. Similarly the church will have to rediscover solidarity toward the poor. The choice between Babel and Jerusalem will become clearer in the years to come, and the church needs to point the way.
A thought-provoking book.

Fr. Alexander Men

This is one of the first biographies of this remarkable person which is available in English. It suffers from being a translation of the French, and a poor one at that. Even so, it conveys a very compelling picture of Fr. Men who to this day is one of the most influential figures in Orthodox Russia, especially in the renewed part of it. In that sense he played a very similar role for his church and country as Fr. Blachnitzky, the founder of the Light and Life Movement (Oasis) did in Poland.
Fr. Men was born on January 22, 1935 into a Jewish family. His mother converted to Orthodoxy, in part through the healing of her mother performed by St.John of Kronstadt. Men grew up in Stalinist Russia, and experienced both the official Russian church, which was often fearful of its existence, prone to compromise and traditionalism, and the undeground church, full of saintly figures, courageous men and women who passed on the faith through their example and their secret teaching. Men was also had a keen mind, which made him devour books, both science and philosophy. This laid the foundations for his later ability to bridge the gap between faith and reason, which became vital for his appeal to Russian intellectuals.
Men became a priest on September 1,1960 and thus started his ministry right around the time when Russian society was changing. Many people were becoming disenchanted with communism, dissidents like Andrei Sacharov andAlexander Solzhenitsyn were making their voices heard, and artists and writers were looking again for spiritual meaning in life. This is the period when people like Tatjana Goricheva came to faith, or Nadezhda Mandelstam. But when many of these people turned to the church, they encountered a seemingly unapproachable, traditionalist institution which demanded blind allegiance, without the ability or the desire to provide an apologetic, a defense of the faith, and without the means to answer the questions many of these people were asking themselves.
Fr. Men, on the other hand, saw that need, and embarked upon a vigorous campaign to change the way "church" was done: he encouraged the formation of small groups which would meet for intellectually stimulating discussions about the faith or which would study the Bible; his own sermons and conferences stressed the need of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ; and he began writing books (often published abroad) in order to instruct these new believers who were clueless, but who also did not find any answers in the normal Orthodox church context.
As a result the parish of Fr. Alexander became a spiritual center, even though it was some thirty miles outside of Moscow. He gathered around him a circle of people who were attracted by his approachable personality, his intellectual rigour and his ecumenical openness. But he also attracted criticism and made enemies, both within the church where he was often thought to be too radical in his views, and within the Communist party. This opposition increased in the 80s when it became more possible to speak publicly about religous matters: as a result Fr. Men ended up adressing large crowds at evangelistic rallies (even a Baptist one) and via television. Many think that this step was one too far...On Sunday September 9,1990 Fr. Alexander Men was killed by a man with an axe, as he was on his way to his parish in order to celebrate the liturgy.
To this day, many vibrant Christian circles and institutions in Russia draw their inspiration from Alexander Men. He was a prophet for his time!



Hamant, Yves. 1995. Alexander Men: A Witness for Contemporary Russia. Torrance, California: Oakwood Publications.

White Mughals

White Mughals is a blend of a history and a biography, set in late 1700 Hyderabad- India. The main character is the British resident of Hyderabad, Major James Achilles Kirkpatrick (1764-1805). As resident his role is to represent British interests at the Nizam Ali Khan's court. Like many of his contemporaries in India, Kirkpatrick takes a real liking to the particular Indian culture of the time and enculturates to an amzazing degree: he becomes fluent in the local languages, wears local dress and runs his household according to local custom. Even more, he takes a wife from a noble Indian family, the Begum Khair Un-Nissa. All this makes him remarkably effective as a diplomat, as evidenced by his negotiating three crucial treaties between the Nizam and the British. But it also makes him suspect in the eyes of his own people, most notably some of the military establishment of the "colonial force". Because of Kirkpatrick's sympathies for the Nizam and his people, he also becomes increasingly by what he considers the bullying tactics of the British Governor General, RIchard Colley Wellesley. All this leads to his eventually downfall...
The book is very well researched and gives a deep insight into the life and culture of India at that time. It depicts the blending of Hindu and Islamic cultures at the court of the Nizam, and the moral depravity of many of the British of that time. In describing the life of Kirkpatrick and other "white Mughals" i.e. people who pretty fully inculturated themselves, Dalrymple wants to show that "East and West are not irreconcilable, and never have been. Only fear, bigotry, prejudice, racism and fear drive them apart. But they have met and mingled in the past; and they will meet again." (page 501).
A very good read indeed.


Dalrymple, William. 2003. White Mughals. London: Flamingo.

Kallistos Ware "The Seed of the Church"

This is a study of martyrdom, and suffering, and its relevance for the church. Drawing on old and new martyrs of the Orthodox tradition, Ware (Bishop of Diokleia) points out that the difference between meaningless suffering and martyrdom is the voluntary acceptance on the part of the person concerned, thus imitating Christ who says in Jn 10 "I lay my life down of my own accord". The second element of martyrdom is what Ware calls solidarity, the act of taking suffering upon oneself for the sake of others. He gives a couple of moving examples of such vicarious sufferings. One is Rabbi Zusya in Martin Buber's Tales of the Hasidim who "felt the sins of the people he met as his own, and blamed himself for them". Another one is Polycarp, the early church martyr, who before his death stood two hours in intercession "remembering by name all whom he had ever met, old and young, celebrated and unknown, and the whole Catholic Church throughout the world".
Ware then moves on to explain that ever since the days of the Desert Monks (and Nuns) it was understood that chosing the monastic life was another form of martyrdom, especially in days when there was no opportunity for shedding one's blood for the sake of the kingdom. Such martyrdom was then often called white martyrdom, to contrast it with red martyrdom. But the elements were still the same: voluntary acceptance of suffering, and accepting the suffering on behalf of others. He quotes the story of a monk who went into town with one of his brothers. Upon their return from the city his brother confesses that he cannot go back to the monastery because he had fallen into fornication. So the monk in question, in order to convince his brother to return with him, replies that he too had fallen into the same sin. So they return together and, after confessing their sins to their superior, take upon themselves the heavy penance prescribed for such a sin. After a few days God revealed to their superior that, seeing the great love of the brother who had not sinned, He had forgiven the one who had.
The somewhat original point of Ware is that he then goes on to state that this vocation is not unique to the monk, but universal: every Christian needs to "give the blood to receive the Spirit", so to speak, i.e. to struggle daily for holiness. He points out that marriage is a particularly beautiful path of laying down one's life for the other, and that the Russian Orthodox wedding ceremony has the couple be crowned (like martyrs) and then processing around the church following the cross. He similarly points out that singles, who might not have chosen their current state in life, can become powerful witnesses (martyrs in Greek) when they offer their loneliness and suffering for the sake of others.


Ware, Kallistos. 1995. The Seed of the Church- The Universal Vocation to Martyrdom. Oxford: St. Stephen's Press.

Purpose of this blog

This blog is meant to be a place where we can exchange comments and reviews of books we recently read. It is meant to be a resource for all of us who like to read and to share what we have read with others. In some ways it could be called a "virtual bookclub".
Feel free to recommend others who might be interested in joining.