Sonntag, 15. Mai 2016

Wort zum Sonntag: »The democratic state as a descendent of the Free Church of the Spirit«

Eine interessante Herleitung der heutigen Demokratie aus dem freikirchlich-pflingstlichen (nicht: pflingstlerischen!) Geist der englischen Dissenter von Rev. Andrew J. Brown, Cambridge Memorial Church:
There is a well-known story that I first heard in educational circles about a sailing ship setting-off for a long voyage to a distant, promised land. The crew begin the journey with passion, clarity and purpose and undertake all their tasks in this light whether they are coiling ropes, setting sails or cleaning decks. However, after many, many months at sea slowly they begin to forget their beginnings and, without them fully noticing it, their tasks become increasingly detached from the initial, enabling passion, clarity and purpose and the crew begin only to coil ropes, set sails and clean decks and emptiness, listlessness and dissatisfaction begins to set in; in a word, “ennui”.
I have noticed that, whenever this story is told, most people believe that the solution to this problem is to be found simply by somehow restoring the original conditions of the voyage. If this can be done, so the argument goes, then the meaning of and passion for their present tasks will suddenly be restored, all will be well and, re-energised, and the journey can proceed as before. But this reading fails to take into account the fact that the present state of the journey, with all it’s ennui is, in fact, a fruit of the same original conditions.

It is important to see that it is impossible to restore to the crew the initial conditions that obtained at the start of their voyage because, thanks to the experiences of the journey, they are now very different people from those who originally set-off. Additionally, they are now, quite literally, in a different place and time.

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