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Once again Adelphia or FirstStep failed to post my post. At least
it did not appear in my Adelphia in-box. Apologies if you saw this
the first time.<br><br>
Greetings: <br>
<br>
I'll be in Boise for four days, so I'm again posting my radio commentary
early. <br>
Gandhi's BD is on Oct. 2. <br>
<br>
Nick Gier <br>
<br>
MAHATMA GANDHI: CHARIASMATIC SAINT OF NONVIOLENCE <br>
<br>
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, better known as the Mahatma, would have been
137 <br>
years old on October 2. I would like to take the occasion of his birthday
to <br>
reflect on what it means to be a saint. The title Mahatma means
"great soul," <br>
and I would like to suggest that a great person need not be morally
perfect. <br>
<br>
Philosopher Susan Wolf has defined a saint as one “whose every action is
as <br>
morally good as possible,” but she finds that moral perfection alone does
make a <br>
normal life or an especially rich one. She finds this conclusion
disturbing <br>
because we have always been told to be as morally perfect as we can
be. <br>
<br>
In his response to Wolf, fellow philosopher Robert Adams claims that she
has <br>
made moral perfection too central to the life of the saint. Adams says
that <br>
“saintliness is not perfectionism,” and if we look at the lives of our
saints <br>
will indeed find a few moral flaws. Even Jesus said that "no one is
good but God <br>
alone" (Mark 10.18), and the Buddha begged his disciples not to
deify him. <br>
<br>
Adams also criticizes Wolf for viewing the saints apart from their
religious <br>
lives, and the transformative role that God allegedly has had on these
exemplary <br>
persons. Religious saints have sacrificed everything because they have
faith <br>
that God will provide not only for them but also for their great
projects. <br>
<br>
The achievements of Gandhi and other saints appear to go far beyond the
<br>
resources of their respective background and character. Like the
prophets of <br>
old they were very unlikely and somewhat reluctant political and
spiritual <br>
leaders. Many attributed their success to divine grace, and this
presumably <br>
explains why they were able to exhibit great love and compassion while
still <br>
remaining flawed human beings. <br>
<br>
To be fair to Professor Wolf, she does offer a broader vision of the
saint by <br>
adding the qualities “personal bearing, creativity, and sense of style”
as <br>
necessary to the saintly life. These qualities could be summed up by the
word <br>
"charisma," so I propose that we should look for moral charisma
in our saints. <br>
<br>
The souls of saints are not morally perfect; rather, they are great in
vitality, <br>
compassion, and courage. The saint also has a broad vision of cultural,
<br>
political, moral, and spiritual possibilities. Gandhi=s commitment to
<br>
recognizing the good in every religion and every person, his strong
empathy for <br>
his enemies, and his ability to draw diverse people to his cause make him
an <br>
outstanding charismatic saint. <br>
<br>
Contrary to common perceptions, Islam in India and Indonesia was not
spread by <br>
the sword, but by Sufi missionaries and saints. When I visited a
Hindu friend <br>
in Jaipur in 2005, the first religious site we visited was the shrine of
a great <br>
Sufi saint in Ajmer. There were just as many Hindus there as
Muslims. <br>
<br>
In 1995 Hindu friends from Panjab University invited me to join them in
<br>
celebrating a Sikh saint's birthday. The Hindu men and I were
conspicuous in a <br>
throng of thousands because we did wear turbans. Except for the
minority Hindu <br>
and Muslim fundamentalist families, Indian children are taught to revere
all <br>
saints regardless of religious affiliation. Gandhi embodied this
Indian <br>
tradition in spades, as only a true saint could do. <br>
<br>
The Buddha and Christ are two of our foremost ancient practitioners of
<br>
nonviolence. Christ’s message that we are to love even those who
hate us is <br>
essentially the message of the Buddha. Both knew very well that
hate <br>
figuratively burns a hole in the heart. Both were Great Souls whose
virtue <br>
shines down through the ages. <br>
<br>
Equally remarkable, particularly because we know their personal histories
and <br>
weaknesses so well, are the lives of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and
Mother <br>
Theresa. Taking the ancient saints of nonviolence or our more
recent <br>
charismatic saints as our models, let us all try to develop the virtue of
<br>
nonviolence until it becomes as natural as taking a breath. <br>
<br>
Read selected chapters from my Gandhi book at <br>
<a href="http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/vnv.htm" eudora="autourl">www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/vnv.htm</a>.
<br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=2>"Truth is the summit of being; justice is the
application of it to human affairs."<br>
--Ralph Waldo Emerson<br><br>
"Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings
who represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it."<br>
--Mohandas Gandhi<br><br>
"Modern physics has taught us that the nature of any system cannot
be discovered by dividing it into its component parts and studying each
part by itself. . . .We must keep our attention fixed on the whole and on
the interconnection between the parts. The same is true of our
intellectual life. It is impossible to make a clear cut between science,
religion, and art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its
various parts." --Ma</font><font size=1>x Planck<br><br>
</font>Nicholas F. Gier<br>
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho<br>
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843<br>
<a href="http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm" eudora="autourl">http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm</a><br>
208-882-9212/FAX 885-8950<br>
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO<br>
<a href="http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm" eudora="autourl">http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm</a><br><br>
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