“It takes two to love. It takes liberty. It takes the right to reject. If there were no hell, we would be like the animals. No hell, no dignity.” Flannery O’Connor, 1959
Mary Flannery O’Connor was a southern writer and a Roman Catholic. She died in 1964 having written two novels and 32 short stories. She also was quite a philosopher as the quote above shows. You have to read it several times just to get the sense of it, and even then you find that you want to read it a couple of more times. But, think through some of your theology, and you will get some hints.
It does take a minimum of two to love. As many theologians have pointed out, from across the entire Christian spectrum, God himself is a community. We know that He is love because there is love in the Trinity. The Persons of the Trinity express love to each other. But, we do not call love that is coerced as love. And, so love can only be fully expressed among those who are truly free. Our example of the freest love on earth is the Trinity, which freely loves in community. And, so, it is no surprise that we were created with free will, as were the angels. But, if we have free will, we truly have the right to reject that free will. And, so Saint Paul talks about the mystery of lawlessness.
Much has been written about free will. In fact, one of the big answers to the questions that have to do with what is called, “The Problem of Evil,” is the Free Will Defense. In the 20th century, no one did that defense better than Professor Alvin Plantinga who was read by many Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox philosophers. In fact, he did such a good job in defending God against that charge of evil that modern philosophers have given up trying to argue for the idea that God and evil are necessarily contradictory. He has been responsible for the problem of evil being changed from what is called apriori to what is called evidentiary argumentation.
But, O’Connor also points out something very important. “If there were no hell, we would be like the animal.” That is, if there were no hell, we would begin to behave like the animals who simply follow whatever instinct or urge happens to push them in a certain direction. I would tend to argue that we would be worse than the animals, as animals do not tend to engage in gratuitous violence. Having said that, do not think that animals are, uhm, complete innocents. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, pointed out about nature that it is, “nature, red in tooth and claw.” Animals may technically not be either moral or immoral, but they have been “damaged” by the Fall, just like human beings have.
And so, that saying of O’Connor is quite true, and behind it there is quite a bit of good theology. But, then, poetic and literary types are often able to state an idea in words much briefer than those of theologians–or bloggers.
I take it you watched “Criminal Minds” last night? A short version of this quote popped up.
Besides the Trinitarian relation to love, I think that your point about nature having been damaged by the fall is also very important.
As a colleague of mine once said, in speaking of pantheistic neo-paganism: “We know that nature is not God beccause nature does not forgive”.
Yep, I watched Criminal Minds.
….at some point in my life i picked up a book by Brennan Manning called Raggamuffin Gospel (or did the book find me?) and it changed me…when i contemplate “free will” i think of all the sermons i’ve heard from conservative fundamental preachers declaring “our part” in salvation..somehow that seems vaineglorious to me when i realize that i was something of a “Dead man walking” before He called my name……imo 🙂
I think it is amazing that, like myself… having heard the quote, I and others needed to look it up. I don’t think Man has dignity.. I absolutely believe that animals are innocent.. What I get from the quote (which I’m sure is not the most accurate) is that somehow we are all damaged? and that Man somehow stands atop all? No, I see God in the simplest and most breathtaking things. There is innocence in all… but there is also damage.