In this powerful meditation, Williams probes words such as reconciliation to reveal the profound realism of the concepts of peace and violence as understood in the Bible and in latter Christian tradition.
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In this powerful meditation, Williams probes words such as reconciliation to reveal the profound realism of the concepts of peace and violence as understood in the Bible and in latter Christian tradition.
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Chapter 1
Williams claims that the type of violence being portrayed by the media and entertainment industry lends an insight into the psychology of the masses with regard to violence. Much of the violence seems to happen to us through forces outside of our control: the natural disaster, the creature from the black lagoon, the sharks, etc. ?And the conclusion? says Williams, ?that is implied in all this is that violence is never something ordinary human beings decide to do? (pg. 7). If this is the case, violence becomes divorced from the realm of morality. It morphs into a ?non-human phenomenon? (pg. 8). It is evident that people are afraid of an exterior threat, but they cannot define what this threat is and they do not see this as a moral problem. Another problem is the lack of accepting any responsibility. Society is used to laying the blame on the one who bears the brunt of our aggressions, keeping the envious title of ?victim? for itself. ?They made us do it? or ?they forced our hand? are all too common excuses made to ease our consciences and give us the sense of a false ?peace?. This attitude leads to impenitence and a failure to self-examine. The last observation is that perpetrators and receivers are alike victims and that society feels fear and powerlessness simultaneously. This sickness can be cured by the gospel. The gospel frees from our fantasy fears but at a cost: it forces us to really face ourselves, responsibility and, consequently, guilt. ?Faith has to expose unwelcome truths because faith has the resource to confront them without despair? (p. 23). All of this points to the fact that there is a ?sharp collision?between the Christian vision and the prevailing mind of our society?. (p. 29)
Chapter 2
Williams states that, as recognized by people of the Middle Ages, symbols ?were not a matter simply of decoration, but both declared and actualized certain policies for meaningful living.? He then goes on to say that the mission of the Church is to be a ?symbol of God's purpose for a reconciled humanity?. This humanity is one which is unified peacefully around Jesus. What this reconciled humanity might look like and who it might include is beyond human guess or understanding. No race or group of people, therefore, can be excluded. Everyone is needed for the whole to be what it should be. Jesus showed that salvation is for all and we, like him, must boldly cross all frontiers in order to find Christ. Any policy that necessitates violence is unacceptable for the Christian. ?Planning wholesale destruction is planning impenitence? (p. 34). Repentance is tied up with a desire for change. Williams then challenges the post WWII ?peace? that we have experienced and suggests that it really is otherwise. Relative peace for Europe and North America has caused destabilitisation elsewhere. This is not a Christian peace. Williams calls all of this neglect and destabilitisation the result of a failure to forget self and to look (contemplate) at others and at God. Men must contemplate in order to fulfill what they were created for and so a system that cripples contemplation cripples our path to the divine. Sin is to make oneself the center and to not contemplate; to not accept the role of creature.
Chapter 3: ?Illusory images of peace?
People often seek for peace and repose but the deeper they look, the more they do not really find it. That is because the ?peace? that is sought is misunderstood to be a static state of passivity. There is no acting or choosing; once again there is a blatant lack of claiming responsibility. Williams points to the decline of language as a sign of this in a bit of very interesting writing. People are unwilling to really give and receive in language as an individual because this results in uncomfortable responsibility. Reconciliation is an ongoing progress that changes and refreshes. It is not simply a passive or neutral absence of conflict. Peace sought by isolation from the ?world? is an asinine pursuit which breeds conscience soothing excuses, fear of responsibility, and exclusion. Peace cannot be separated from the world, its problems, and its battles. The ?fearful self? surrenders ?in order to rejoin the real world? (p. 65).
Chapter 4: ?Christ's peace?
Jesus offers a new and different sort of peace. His story in the gospels does not exude peacefulness and serenity. Peace includes doing something. It is necessarily a community activity which is fed by the love of Jesus expressed in the cross. There is this discord, then, between what the world offers as peace and what Jesus offers. The Church challenges us to move towards this peace by breaking down societal barriers. This is a constant struggle; one that ?runs through us? by means of penitence. This may seem problematic because it is tension-filled. Peace between the ?two worlds? (p. 75) of the content and the miserable comes together in the person of Jesus. ?He defines what it is for glory and misery to come together and interpret one another? (p. 77). Jesus lives in an overlapping realm of both misery and contemplation of the Father. We, like Jesus, must trust in the Father. We must see ?an anchorage, a firm point? (p. 78) in everything. Recognizing this ?affirmative and immovable centre? (p. 79) is peace. This is Christ's peace that he gives to us: union with the Father and his will. Within this peace one will feel the ?full force both of hope and of grief? (p. 80). This peace is the loving and affirming ?rootedness in the place of Christ? (p. 83). And this ?rootedness? happens among the countless tensions of the world.
Chapter 5:
The proper notions of poverty and simplicity are inseparable from that of true peace. Simplicity is ?that integrity of desire, purity of heart which draws together and takes up the fragments of meaning and longing in us, and, so far from ignoring them or peeling them off, welds them into one act? (p. 104-105). Simplicity is doing things ?whole-heartedly? (p. 105) or with integrity and discarding those things which cannot be done whole-heartedly. ?Real desire is about recognizing that I have no resting place?pure desire is desire that longs to grow endlessly in knowledge of and rootedness in reality and truth. Impure desire desires to stop having to desire, to stop needing? (p. 90). Williams also dwells on need which is centered on compassion for others. Thus there is a connection with poverty which seeks other as opposed to self gratification. ?Poverty is the acceptance of being part of an interdependent order ? being ?de-centred?? (p. 95). This model finds its perfection in Jesus and humans realize it with the aid of contemplation.
Chapter 6
In chapter 6 Williams expounds what the role of the Church should be in restoring true peace. It is a ?global moral community?because it claims to have been given awareness of certain basic facts about humanity?The existence of the Church?demonstrates the possibility of a community whose uniting rationale is the exact opposite of the assumptions of rivalry and containment as basic human concerns? (p. 119). The Church must cultivate an alternative politics which embraces compassion, repentance, and contemplation. He ends with practical suggestions on how a Church could implement some of his ideas for a unified and peaceful humanity.
