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Jonathan Dollimore argues in Death, Desire and Loss in Western Culture that the West has been defined by a particular linking of thanatos and eros, which is associated with the problem of mutability. He quotes Yeats to the effect that we love what vanishes, and there is no more to be said. This can lead in a hedonistic (eat, drink, be merry; carpe diem) direction or toward a kind of grim Stoic resignation, but in either case the problematic is the same.
Dollimore says that this concern with mutability comes to clearest expression in the Renaissance. That rings true, but it also raises the question of whether this is part of the rebirth of paganism in the Renaissance. It seems that so long as mutability is seen as the dominant dynamic of life, then to that extent the gospel has not penetrated.
After all, if change is the story of creation, and it is the story from the first words of the creation account (darkness is broken by light, and then they alternate), then change is good. Mutability is not a difficulty in the least. it is something to celebrate rather than mourn. Or we can start at the other end: What we love dies, but for the Christian there is also resurrection, restoration, and complete final joy. That future hope throws the changeability of the world into a new light, and strengthens the Preacher's exhortation to "eat, drink, be merry, rejoice with the wife of your youth, and tell yourself your work is good" in the face of life's "vaporous" character.
To the extent that Dollimore is correct, to that extent the Western world has remained a mish-mash of Hellenic despair and puzzlement in the face of change on the one hand and Christian hope in resurrection on the other. But I'm not convinced that Dollimore is correct about the whole of the Western tradition. Or was this the result of the particular intervention of the Renaissance? Was mutability the problem for Chaucer that it was for Spenser?
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, December 29, 2003 at 05:40 PM
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1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary
The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter
A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons
Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature
Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen
The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism
A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel
From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution
Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy
Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper
A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament
Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature
Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays
Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life
The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church
