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Word of the Day - heterodox
adjective HET-uh-ruh-dahks
Definition:
1 : contrary to or different from an acknowledged standard, a traditional form, or an established religion : unorthodox, unconventional
2 : holding unorthodox opinions or doctrines
The Heterodox Stalwart
His heterodoxy was a source of pride
As he floated through timeless space|
In ethereal ambiguity and baseless bliss.
Yet, when he stood before the bar
And with a smile, invited interrogation,
He seemed surprisingly orthodox …
For he declared with profound confidence,
That his was a positional ground of superior
Thought … albeit eclectic, nevertheless, defined.
"We must believe in free will — we have no choice." – Isaac Bashevis Singer, born , November 21, 1902, Polish-American novelist and short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate.
Born November 21, 1694 – Voltaire, French historian, playwright, and philosopher (d. 1778).
He was an ardent critic of the church and Christianity and a Deist who wrote,
"He challenged orthodoxy by asking: "What is faith? Is it to believe that which is evident? No. It is perfectly evident to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, but of reason."
He would identify with Christianity in some of his writings by calling it, "our religion," even as he criticized it.
As an advocate for religious freedom, he wrote, "
"It does not require great art, or magnificently trained eloquence, to prove that Christians should tolerate each other. I, however, am going further: I say that we should regard all men as our brothers. What? The Turk my brother? The Chinaman my brother? The Jew? The Siam? Yes, without doubt; are we not all children of the same father and creatures of the same God?"
In writing Candide, he advocated for a life of simplicity that reminds me of the book of Ecclesiastes in the closing song of the musical setting inspired by his work (via Leonard Bernstein).
I think it describes the tug-of-war within his own soul, and perhaps of the times he lived in — even the divergent claims made by many of his deathbed utterances.
Just in case you were not already confused about life. Consider the most famous equation of all time:
There is more to these musings than intellectual curiosity around issues of ambivalence and ambiguity.
Having broached the subject of being heterodox in a world of orthodox and even homodox partitioning, I am confronted with the current condition of the American experiment.
The Mayflower Compact was recently celebrated on its anniversary and we shall soon remember one of the early European Thanksgivings among the Puritans.
It was in 1620 at Plymouth Colony when settlers signed the Mayflower Compact which was written by the male Separatist Puritans on the ship from England, originally bound for Virginia.
It was their aim to form a colony based on religious principles rather than on the concept of religious freedom.
The freedom they sought was initially to build a community where church and state were intertwined and where there was no line of demarcation between civil authority and ecclesiastic authority.
Thus, rather than the King calling the shots over the church, the local civil government could enforce its principles such as church attendance, government licensing of preachers, church "taxes," and Sunday laws.
The downside was that this sucks the life out of the church, the individual and a spiritual being before God, and of society. The upside is that they meant well and their initial piety was very real – and born out of a persecution … that they would later inflict on others who dissented..
Also, it set the stage for the sort of decline that brought forth thinkers like Roger Williams and the Rhode Island experiment and later, the Great Awakening, which. along with the secular ideas of the Enlightenment gave birth to the revolutionary fervor to come and the concepts of soul freedom and freedom of religion.
The document as we have it is worth reading and contains some great ideas.
Modern version:
"IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620."
Artwork: Signing the Mayflower Compact 1620, a painting by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris 1899
We are abandoned in a cloud of polarized elements that float in the same air and share profound atomic similarities while resisting any semblance of meeting. Our "doxies' and self-descriptions have birthed severe filters to our thinking and understanding of the other.
Is there any reconciliation at all?
The sons of Mathias, like Judas, saw none on the horizon of persecution and annihilation of their faith and identity. Their singularity had been overrun by an intolerant plurality that was so orthodox in its heterodox orientation that its arms could not embrace the uniqueness of the Jews.
"It is easy for many to be hemmed in by few, for in the sight of Heaven there is no difference between saving by many or by few. It is not on the size of the army that victory in battle depends, but strength comes from Heaven. They come against us in great insolence and lawlessness to destroy us and our wives and our children, and to despoil us; but we fight for our lives and our laws. He himself will crush them before us; as for you, do not be afraid of them." – Judas Maccabeus
Imperialism, whether it is religious, cultural, or political seeks to suppress the freedom that expresses itself in diversity as well as distinctiveness.
"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light … " – I Peter 2:9
Peculiar, then, we are and peculiar we shall be.
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