Dickens and Religion

On the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Dickens I found this quote posted on the web by David Cody, Associate Professor of English at Hartwick College. Dickens was apparently not a conventional Christian, although raised in the Church of England. But the spirituality behind his writing and his characters was definitely Christian:

Dickens and Religion: He was reticent on the subject of religion, but we can let an earnest...letter which he wrote to the Reverend D. Macrae speak for him:

With a deep sense of my great responsibility always upon me when I exercise my art, one of my most constant and most earnest endeavours has been to exhibit in all my good people some faint reflections of our great Master, and unostentatiously to lead the reader up to those teachings as the great source of all moral goodness. All my strongest illustrations are drawn from the New Testament; all my social abuses are shown as departures from its spirit; all my good people are humble, charitable, faithful, and forgiving. Over and over again, I claim them in express words as disciples of the Founder of our religion; but I must admit that to a man (or a woman) they all arise and wash their faces, and do not appear unto men to fast.

(The reference, at the close of the letter, is to Matthew 6:18; Dickens's religious emphasis, in his work, is indeed on the New Testament rather than on the Old, on Christ rather than on Jehovah.)

Finding oneself cooperating with evil

I frequently spend several minutes on Thursdays reflecting on The Compassionate Life using a devotional aid from Renovare. The Occupy movement has had me thinking about bringing about change through non-violence. I have been reading a collection of essays and speeches by Thomas Merton entitled The Nonviolent Alternative (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1980). I'm finding lots of wisdom that applies to other situations. Here's a quote I wish Eric Holder and the Department of Justice had taken heed of before approving Operation Fast and Furious:

Whoever finds convenient excuses for this adventurous kind of policy, who rationalizes every decision dictated by political opportunism and finds it justified, must stop to consider that he is perhaps himself cooperating in the evil. (p. 17)