FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   >>  
hing in it. I will try to show you that there was and still is a living being contained therein, with many more movements, dissatisfactions, convulsions, longings and sufferings than it seems possible could exist. II SLAV REVOLUTIONARY CATHOLICISM A FAR AIM AND A NARROW WAY. If Providence bestows on the English Church only once in every half century a man like Bishop Westcott, this Church, I think, can be sure of a solid and sound longevity. Well, this Bishop Westcott spoke once enthusiastically of "_the noble catholicity which is the glory of the English Church_." My intention in this lecture is to describe to you an island in the Roman Catholic Church among the Slavs, which island is distinguished by a _noble catholicity_. "I believe in the holy _catholic_ apostolic church." This sentence that you repeat in London, as do the Roman Catholics in Rome, and we Orthodox in Moscow, has always two meanings, a sectarian and a universal, or a narrow one and a sublime one. The first meaning belongs to the people who imagine Christ standing at the boundary of their Church, turned with his face to them and with his back to all other "schismatic" peoples. The second belongs to the people who think that Christ may be also beyond their own churchyard; that the dwelling of their soul may be too narrow for His soul, and that their self-praisings and schismatic thunderings are very relative in His eyes. I propose to speak to-night about the people of this second category, _i.e._, of the people who are in the Christian history like a link connecting the different parts, the different Churches, into a higher unity. I will limit my considerations in this lecture to Slav Roman Catholicism. I call my theme of to-night "Slav Revolutionary Catholicism." Why "revolutionary"? Why not? Is not Christianity a revolutionary movement from its very beginning? Is it not the most wonderful and the most noble among the revolutionary movements in history? Cardinal Newman and many others spoke about the evolution of Christianity. _Revolution_ is the word much more applicable to it. The spreading of this revolution from a poor village in Galilee over all the world--that is the history of the Church; or, if you like, the evolution of a revolution. As a volcano is an internal movement of the earth which gives a new shape to the surface, so the Christian revolution was also an internal movement, which gave a new form to the drama of human life. Th
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   >>  



Top keywords:
Church
 

people

 
revolution
 

history

 
revolutionary
 
movement
 
island
 

catholicity

 

Christianity

 

Catholicism


lecture

 

Christ

 

belongs

 

schismatic

 

Christian

 

narrow

 

evolution

 

Westcott

 

internal

 

movements


English

 

Bishop

 

praisings

 

volcano

 
propose
 
thunderings
 

relative

 

churchyard

 

surface

 

dwelling


Revolution

 
spreading
 
applicable
 

Newman

 

beginning

 

peoples

 

wonderful

 

Revolutionary

 

Cardinal

 
considerations

connecting
 
category
 

Galilee

 

village

 
higher
 

Churches

 

universal

 

Providence

 

bestows

 
NARROW