Note: This article was previously published in Reformed Journal on June 30, 2017. Proverbs echo in the wind tunnel of history. We cannot help but hear reverberations of past wisdom in present-day prose. In the Manipulus Florum (“handful of flowers”), for instance, we find the following words attributed to Saint Augustine: “The pride of angels made them demons; the humility of men makes them as angels.” Quite the maxim, isn’t it? In seven hundred years, we haven’t changed all that much. Pride still brings out the worst in us, and humility, the best. Most disturbing and callous actions are but reflections of quieter atrocities in our own souls. Fyodor Dostoevsky would concur. In The Brothers Karamazov, the spiritual leader Father Zossima teaches the protagonist that a critical part of what it means to be a faithful servant of God is that he must see himself as “guilty before all people, on behalf of all and for all, for all human sins, the world’s and each person’s.” Striking words, aren’t they? Think of it: the world’s loudest evils, the most disturbing and callous actions, are but reflections of quieter atrocities in our own soul.
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The Panacea for Personal Judgment
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Note: This article was previously published in Reformed Journal on June 30, 2017. Proverbs echo in the wind tunnel of history. We cannot help but hear reverberations of past wisdom in present-day prose. In the Manipulus Florum (“handful of flowers”), for instance, we find the following words attributed to Saint Augustine: “The pride of angels made them demons; the humility of men makes them as angels.” Quite the maxim, isn’t it? In seven hundred years, we haven’t changed all that much. Pride still brings out the worst in us, and humility, the best. Most disturbing and callous actions are but reflections of quieter atrocities in our own souls. Fyodor Dostoevsky would concur. In The Brothers Karamazov, the spiritual leader Father Zossima teaches the protagonist that a critical part of what it means to be a faithful servant of God is that he must see himself as “guilty before all people, on behalf of all and for all, for all human sins, the world’s and each person’s.” Striking words, aren’t they? Think of it: the world’s loudest evils, the most disturbing and callous actions, are but reflections of quieter atrocities in our own soul.