East or West?
Now another disciple presents himself (Lk 9: 57-62): “I will follow you, Lord,” he says, “but first I’m going to say good-bye to my family.” I think this is the meaning: “Let me tell my relatives so they won’t go looking for me.” And the Lord says: “No one who puts his hand to the plow, and then looks back, is ready for the kingdom of heaven.” The East is calling you, and you’re looking West (Vocat te Oriens, et tu attendis Occidentem.). (Augustine, Sermon 100, 3; PL 38, 604)
I suppose the last sentence could also be translated: “The sunrise is calling you, and you’re looking at the sunset.” The Latin of the Benedictus (Lk 1:78) refers to the Oriens ex alto–”the dayspring [or dawn] from on high,” which Joseph Fitzmyer sees as a messianic reference, derived from the LXX translation of Zech 3:8 and 6:12-13. But Augustine seems never to have referred to the phrase in any of his sermons, where oriens means simply “the East,” although in one of them he does a nice riff on Paul’s conversion’s having been his moving from the West of his sins to the East of grace.
I prefer sunrise (dawn) and sunset (dusk or darkness) metaphor in this context.
On the east/west point, Berdyaev had an interesting observation. He interpreted east/west literally and geographically. He noted that the east (Asia, India, mid-eastern Palestine, etc) is the land of revelation.
The west (western Europe) is that land of rationality.
He saw revelation as a deeply spiritual and not arising in the rational faculties but in the region of the heart, and the passion. He saw the function of the west as shaping and contextualizing the “irrational” revelation in a context.
As evidence, he noted that the West has not produced any lasting religion while all the great religions of the world (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hindu, Buddhist) have in fact emerged and been born in the east.
The west clearly has a function but its function is in rationality and framing the inchoate revelation.
Too simple, George D.
I think Berdyaev is on to something.
In an apposite way, it was something that the Pope discussed in the Regensburg address when he referred to the Greek contribution (meaning the contribution of rationality) to Christianity in the New Testament (written in Greek and possessing the Hellenistic spirit) as being part of Divine revelation in the sense that God creates according to the Logos or reason.
He contrasted this with the view of revelation in Islam (and even the voluntaristic drift of Dons Scotus in Christianity).
I am not sure that I can completely get on board with the Pope in that regard but the point is that, he argues in that address, that reason is an integral aspect of Divine revelation unique to the New Testament and revealed through the Christ (the Word – Logos).
Yet, the Hebrew Scriptures present God as changing and shifting (e.g the book of Job is the prime illustration of he inscrutiability of God) and Paul talks about the cross as being a folly to the Greeks.
The point is faith is walking without sight and the man in the gospel wants to look “west” but our Lord said the one who does so is not fit for the Kingdom. I am not suggesting complete irrationality but there is an element of risk.