Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

THE ENGLISH REFORMATION: A TALE FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS by Ron S. Dart

But there are remnants left around me… very strange remnants… in this case the Anglican Church which has in it some of the ancient truth and therefore I will live within it. - George Grant

The English Reformation took more than a century from beginning to end, and when the end was reached, the Anglican Tradition had both a solid and sane Prayer Book, and a sensible and sound theological grounding. The Anglican Church of Canada and the Anglican Communion, I suspect, can learn much from the English Reformation.

The 1st phase of the English Reformation began when John Colet lectured on Romans in 1496 at Oxford University. The Oxford Reformers (Colet, Erasmus, More) saw deeper than most the need for reform, and how a wise notion of reform could and would take place. The publication of the Enchiridion (1501), by Erasmus, pointed the way, in both a theological and political sense, to the meaning of reform. The Oxford Reformers were, in many ways, the morning stars of the English Reformation.

Charles Taylor and the Hegelian Eden Tree: Canadian Compradorisim by Ron Dart

The fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom. Genesis 3:6 Canada

may produce more original work on Hegel than any other nation.   
David MacGregor, Literary Review of Canada (February 1994)

 

The fact that the well known Canadian philosopher, Charles Taylor, won the enviable Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries About Spiritual Realities in 2007 has been noted and noticed by many. There are few that have won this prestigious award, and fewer Canadians have taken the trophy home.Taylor did so, and did so in a way that has made many a Canadian proud of their native born boy. But, philosophy is about asking critical questions, and critical questions keep us from slipping into
hagiography. Why did Taylor win the Templeton Prize, what questions need to be asked of Taylor, what intellectual agenda does he serve and are there other Canadians of equal worth and merit that might have won the Templeton Prize but did not?

George Grant and the Anglican Church of Canada: A 20th Century Prophet by Ron Dart

"Liberalism was, in origin, criticism of the old established order. Today, it is the voice of the establishment."     George Grant

Part I 

The inside flap on the recent book about George Grant, Athens and Jerusalem: George Grant’s Theology, Philosophy, and Politics (2006), says this: ‘George Grant (1918-1988) has been called Canada’s greatest political philosopher. To this day, his work continues to stimulate, challenge, and inspire Canadians to think more deeply about matters of social justice and individual responsibility. However, while there has been considerable discussion of Grant’s political theories, relatively little attention has been paid to their theological and philosophical underpinnings’. There is little doubt, in short, that Grant was the most important Christian public intellectual in Canada in the later half of the 20^th century, and for those who take their faith with some intellectual seriousness, much can be learned from George Grant the prophet, theologian, philosopher and engaged thinker.

Diefenbaker and Harper by Ron Dart

Diefenbaker and Harper:
Classical Canadian Tory Meets Republican Conservative
 

I would be quite willing, personally, to leave the Hudson Bay Company awilderness for the next half century, but I fear if  the Englishmen do not go there, Yankees will.

Sir John A. Macdonald 1865 

There were two heads of state that President Kennedy had little patience for and often faced off with in nasty sparring sessions: General Sukarno of Indonesia and Prime Minister John Diefenbaker of Canada. Diefenbaker, again and again, refused to give Kennedy his way. The King of Camelot was never pleased with the way he was treated in Canada.

Three Poems by Ron Dart

 THREE POEMS

BUDS

The life
so short
only a few buds

 FRUIT

Spring
buds, blossoms
then summer fruit.
None came to pick from the tree.

 
AUTUMN

Fruit bearing season
was over, done,
finished.
There was such a
final fling of colour.

RSD

 

CHRISTIANITY AND THE SYMPHONY OF LIVING FAITHS by Ron Dart

1.  Religious Pluralism: The New Orthodoxy

Our contemporary social context is one in which many religions mix and intermingle. A casual walk down a street in a large or growing city reveals to the interested a synagogue, church, mosque, gudwara, temple and many other sacred sites. The choices can be bewildering, but there is no doubt there are plenty of choices for those on the spiritual path.

We have, gratefully so, left behind a rather stunted period in western intellectual history in which a one-dimensional and single vision form of science excluded, in the guise of objectivity and empiricism, the important reality and role of spirituality and religion. Science is now much more open to the larger religious questions, and, in many ways, the secular wing of the Enlightenment has been replaced, as a cultural model, by the humanist branch of the Enlightenment. This means that mysticism and religion are now seen as valid and vital ways of knowing and being human, but no religious tradition has the final and ultimate word. In short, all the grand metanarratives and truth telling visions of the world religions have been relativized. The new liberal Orthodoxy is Enlightenment humanism with its commitment to religious pluralism and, often, some form of religious syncretism.

Stephen Leacock: A Centennial Celebration by Ron Dart

He (Leacock) was more famous than this country.

Don Herron   

In Canada, I belong to the Conservative party.

Stephen Leacock

At McGill, as at Ottawa Collegiate, I was blessed with exceptional teachers. Stephen Leacock, head of the department of Economics and Political Science, was one of the most brilliant men I have ever known. He was an ardent conservative and fierce Canadian nationalist.

Eugene Forsey

Political Science, then, deals with the state; it is, in short,as it is often termed, the “theory of the state.”

          Stephen Leacock, Elements of Political Science (1906)

Erasmus: Then and Now by Ron Dart

The name of Erasmus will never perish. -- John Colet

Erasmus has published volumes more full of wisdom than any which Europe has seen for ages. --Thomas More

What would the Christian Church be like today if the guidance and wisdom of Erasmus in the early 16th century had been followed rather than the reactionary protestant thinking of Luther or Calvin or the equally brittle response of the Roman Catholic stance at the Treaty of Trent? What is it about Erasmus that towers, Everest-like, above the lesser peaks on all sides?

Russet Lake--Afghanistan: Aug. 20 & Sept.5 by Ron Dart

Gary Bauman, Bryan Ward and I left Abbotsford at 6:00 a.m. on Sunday August 20th, and we wound our way up the Sea-to-Sky and arrived at Whistler by 8:30. The lift did not open until 9:30, so we waited, swapped tales and anticipated the hike under the blue canopy and the heat of day star. We were, by 10:30, off the peak chair and on the wide dirt roadway. We dipped down into the valley, and it took us little time to bid adieu to the heights of Whistler and be on the trail. The older path took us up and over the Musical Bumps (Piccolo, Flute & Oboe), then down into Singing Pass. Many a pleasant ski run has been down in the powder of the Flute bowl.

Canadian Republicanism and Christian Zionism by Ron Dart

The National Post (Saturday August 19 2006) carried a full page advertisement, sponsored by Christians United for Israel, calling for a ‘National Day of Prayer for Israel and the Peace of Jerusalem’. A short read of the advertisement makes it quite clear that the political agenda for the day of prayer is support of Zionism. The organization that sponsored the advertisement, Christians United for Israel, is a right of centre activist organization with close ties to Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Benny Hinn and John Hagee. It is interesting to note that Benny Hinn was offered some of his earliest vision and assistance by the well known Canadian Christian Zionists, Merv and Merla Watson.  A browse through the Canadian affiliate website tells the tale in startling clarity (www.cufi.ca).