What I meant by "different" is that I would like to serialize an article previously published in The Christian Century which is an adaption from Albert Camus and The Minister.
"During several summers in the 1950's, Howard Mumma served as guest minister at the American Church in Paris. After Sunday service one day,he noticed a man in a dark suit surrounded by admirers. Albert Camus has been coming to church, first to hear Marcel Dupre' playing the organ, and later to hear Mumma's sermons.
Mumma became friends with the existentialist Camus who by then was famous for his novels, The Plague and The Stranger and for essays such as The Myth of Sisyphus.
The two men met to discuss questions of religious belief that Camus raised. Mumma, now 92, kept the conversations confidential for over 40 years before deciding to share them.
Soon after the following conversation on baptism, Mumma returned to the United States. In 1960 Camus was killed in a car accident."
"One day toward the end of my summer in Paris, the concierge's wife prepared supper for Camus and me. We had planned to take a ride that afternoon, but after we finished our meal, we could not bring ourselves to leave. We were both relaxed and enjoying the weather when Camus broke the silence: 'Howard, do you perform baptisms?'
"For a moment I thought I was going to fall off my chair.'Yes, Albert, I do,' I answered with some tension and suprise.
'what is the significance of this rite?'
"I had become accustomed to his questions and by now we had developed a kind of a routine. Still, there was something different about this question. He seemed more than merely curious, rather contemplative, as if this question was more personal to him."
'Baptism is not necessarily a supernatural experience,' I began, 'The important thing is not the heavens opening up or the dove or the Voice. Those are the externals, oriental imagery. Baptism is a symbolic commitment to God, and there is a longstanding tradition and history involved.'
"Yes, I remember some of it from my readings."
"First of all, let me say a word about why the average adult seeks baptism. I think, Albert, that you are a good example. You have said to me again and again that you are dissatisfied with the whole philosophy of existentialism and that you are privately seeking something that you do not have."
"Yes, you are exactly right, Howard. The reason I have been coming to church is because I am seeking. I'm almost on a pilgrimage -- seeking something to fill the void I am experiencing -- and no one else knows, certainly the public and the readers of my novels, while they see that void, are not finding the answers in what they are reading. But deep down you are right -- I am searching for something that the world is not giving me."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Wow - even Camus was a seeker.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting how "sanitized" the very Protestant view of Baptism here is. A symbolic act of commitment? Confirms my contention that at the Reformation they threw out so much richness of understanding and reduced the sacraments to mere ceremonies.
For Catholics, Baptism is the love of Christ and the community embracing and claiming the person, transforming them to new life, initiating them to the table of the Eucharist, which regularly strenghtens and nourishes the call of baptism. The baptized literally give up their old life as they are immersed in the water and "lose" their breath, breathing in new life as they rise from the water. Post-baptism is a lifelong reflection on the meaning of the sacrament - in discovering what its call to transformation and mission means for each individual.
THAT is something the world does not give. Wonder what difference it would have made if Camus had had this conversation with a Catholic priest?
That may become more apparent with the rest of the posting which I will try to do soon. I too was kind of embarrassed by this rather liberal and very diluted view of baptism and I certainly agree that my adult baptism was more like what you describe. Again I'd refer back to Flannery's opinion of such depictions of the Eucharist as "symbolic." "If it's a symbol, to hell with it." And as I am trying to depict in the most recent posting, many of men's compromises with the Incarnate Logos are indeed from our hell-inspired imaginations. The "ash heap of history" would be a description of some of the functions of hell itself. Which is still under construction or should I say, deconstruction.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, without which there would not be much reason to have a blog.