Call me cynical, and perhaps a sinner, for having the image of Orwell's Big Brother pervade my mind as I read the rules of St. Benedict. Especially in the chapters where the degrees of humility are discussed, does the emphasis of one's lowliness as a human being, pathetic and powerless in the eyes of God, shine. A passage from chapter 7, for instance, is as follows: "The eyes of the Lord observe the good and the evil and the Lord is always looking down from heaven on the children of earth... our deeds are daily, day and night, reported to the Lord by the Angels assigned to us, we must constantly beware." God, like Big Brother, is always watching, ready to judge or smite at a whim. Worse than Big Brother, though, is that God can condemn us after we die, and commit us to eternal torment by barring us from Paradise, though St. Benedict would exhort that it is not God's fault, but our own puny fault.
Most of these rules involve suffocating our own human nature, which is thought-provoking, because didn't God make us in his image? So, if we censor our nature, couldn't we also be censoring the nature God has imbued within us? There is probably a reasonable explanation for this, and I realize that I am definitely showing my non-Christian bias here. St. Benedict's rules are quite austere and inhibit enjoyment of any kind, just to prepare for everlasting, heavenly joy in the afterlife, yet why even be born if not to enjoy the life we are given? Must we force ourselves to be austere for that alleged spot in heaven, sacrificing the life we know to be true, on earth?
Biased or not, I can see a God/Big Brother relationship here. What I find particularly disturbing though is that "God loves us," therefore constantly watching every move out of love. To me, this is almost reminiscent of a controlling, even abusive relationship that is filled with mistrust - imagine one's own significant other stalking social media pages and looking through private messages to see who you've been talking to and what about. While it's difficult for me to see the difference, I do believe that Christians see their relationship with God as a loving and nurturing one, and Saint Benedict was probably trying to convey this. Just shows how utopia for some can sound outright horrible to others.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your points. I find your comparison of God's ever-watchful love with that of a controlling relationship really interesting and in many ways I agree. Additionally, St. Benedict's monastery is DEFINITELY a "dystopia" for me!
DeleteI think you pose a very interesting insight from this reading. I had not thought about the irony of leaving what God has created to go where God dwells as a paradox. On a surface level, it dose seem contradictory that God's image would be imperfect, or not a Utopia, if He is the one who created it, but if I look at this reading from the lens of the author, it might be possible that St. Benedict was referring to Earth being imperfect as a test of God to enter Heaven perhaps? I have no idea honestly either how St. Benedict would justify this concept, but I think looking at Utopia without a strictly religious lens might make understanding it easier. Adding a religious layer to defining Utopia does start to make defining Utopia much more difficult. Also, considering how Heaven is perceived to be a place people go once they die, that makes the Utopia sound like a place you go when you die, whereas other theorists think of it as a place while you are alive.
ReplyDelete