Steven Carroll, Goodnight, Vivienne, Goodnight.

 

- This is another triumph for Melbourne author Steven Carroll. It's the fourth and final novel in his superb T.S.Eliot series, the first three being The Lost Wife (2009), A World of Other People (2023), and A New England Affair (2017). I've read and loved them all. 

- The novels are not semi-biographies of the great English-American poet as much as stories of close friends, lovers and associates, many quite incidental. In Goodnight, Vivienne, Goodnight Eliot's first wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood, is centre stage. 

- As usual it's beautifully written in delicate, rhythmic prose. It's a sensitive portrayal of Vivienne who Eliot subsequently divorced. The marriage was fraught from the beginning. She had a wild side and became deadened by the boredom of the marriage to an unresponsive, conservative, complex Eliot. She believed her creative contribution to his success was unacknowledged. She  became mentally ill and was sent to a ‘lunatic asylum’ where she died many years later in 1949.

- Carroll changes her story to enrich the narrative. He has her escaping the asylum in 1940 with the help of friends and going undercover for 30 days. Under English law at the time, if escapees from the institution were able to stay free and care for themselves for that length of time, a judge could declare them sane and permanently set them free. 

- He also introduces other characters that are highly likeable and engaging: a police sergeant (Stephen Minter) and the receptionist at Faber’s office (Brigid Delaney) where Eliot worked as the senior editor. They end up becoming attracted to each other. 

- The policeman has been given the task of finding Vivienne. He is the son of Austrian jews who emigrated to England before the war and who've been interred. He re-reads Eliot and is not attracted to him or his poetry at all. He finds him cold and arrogant, and his poetry classist and openly antisemitic. 

- The ending is very satisfying. The novel is a delightful read.

Some theological reflections by a frustrated progressive Catholic

 

- There are two dimensions to Christianity: the historical and the mythical. Only the mythical is the accepted belief of the Christian churches. 

- An example is the birth of Jesus: 

History: His father Joseph impregnated Mary and she gave birth like any other woman. 

Mythic: The doctrines of the Immaculate Conception and the Virgin Birth enshrined the incarnation of Jesus as a divine intervention into human history. Both doctrines are thoroughly misogynistic and need to be expunged from formal Christian belief.

- Another example is the Resurrection:

History: Jesus was buried and stayed buried. 

Mythic: He ‘rose again’ and appeared to his disciples. 

- The mythic construction elevates the status of these events in history to a ‘supernatural’ level of timeless and universal meaning. Jesus becomes the ‘Son of God’ in a Christology which is  the foundation of traditional Christian belief. 

- However it is not necessary to believe in the existence of this supernatural realm in order to be a true follower of Jesus Christ. Nor are his ‘miracles’ believable. The ‘supernatural’ is a mythic fantasy. 

- Real Christian belief is all about love, charity, compassion and forgiveness. And a realisation that personal and social perfection is beyond human reach. Belief in a loving God can also offer comfort and consolation in times of pain and tragedy. It can be healing. Humanity yearns for a benign, loving personal creator, a protector, one who listens. So monotheistic religious traditions throughout the ages have created one. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in his book Thus Spake Zarathustra, published in 1883, proclaimed that 'God is Dead', and Enlightenment thinkers since that time, particularly Darwin and his theory of evolution, have had a profound effect on religious belief. 

- REVELATION: Christians believe that ‘God’ revealed himself to humankind. The opposite is the case. Human communities and individuals constructed through stories and reflections on life a mythology, a literary patrimony, that became richer over thousands of years and is now the Judeo-Christian tradition collected in scripture. 

- Even ‘God’ is a human creation. No such omnipotent being actually exists, just as the supernatural doesn’t exist. However belief in this God is the key part of the Judeo-Christian mythical construction, the foundation belief. Jesus is the Messiah, the saviour. 

- I take the fact-based scientific approach, judging biology and physics to be sufficient. There’s no need to invest it with a spiritual dimension. I believe humanity is progressing through the scientific method, medical discoveries and economic development. 

- But let me make a subtle distinction: I believe in the value of Christian belief, the value of the linguistic universe that explicates it, and the richness of the faith tradition, including the deep meaning of the community-creating Eucharist and other sacraments, the resurrection, and the concept of salvation. Especially the focus on love, compassion and forgiveness. The legacy of that belief has become embedded in Western philosophy, culture, music, art, sculpture, literature, architecture and other areas, and importantly in the social progress of humanity. It has built and sustained communities, and its adherents will continue to have a profound and lasting impact on that journey. It has also scuttled primitive beliefs in false gods, and thankfully continues to undermine current New Age fetishes, fashions and cults. (Although unfortunately it’s not doing much about toxic Hillsong Pentecostalism and hard right Evangelism). But this does not necessarily translate into a personal belief in the actual existence of an Almighty God. The Jewish Yahweh was a human construction, built out of a yearning for meaning by a persecuted people, and so was the Christian God the Father. 

- But you may rightly ask: how could Christianity thrive and last if God were believed not to be real? If followers were not believers? But he IS believed to be real. The mythology has constructed that reality, and it has profound meaning in people's lives. Secular, anthropological theologians like me are unimportant. We're perhaps outsiders or observers but we can certainly join in expressing the Credo. We believe in Jesus the Jewish Messiah, a zealot who revealed the deep meaning of life in the way he lived, died and preached. And most importantly, the way he transformed the Judaic tradition from one of law to one of love. He redefined divinity. I like to think that’s the core Christian belief.

- As a discipline, theology is, unlike any other academic field, significantly constrained in its thinking by the presumption of faith. Theologians are believers seeking to uncover deeper and contemporary meaning. Unfortunately this means ‘God’ is the underlying premise and his existence never questioned. There is therefore a lack of conceptual clarity in most theological exposition. (Noted theologian Elizabeth A. Johnson’s book Consider Jesus: Waves of Renewal in Christology, 1990, is a perfect example. Here is a typical sentence: Jesus is fully human, fully free, fully personal, and as such he is God who has self-emptied into our history.) 

- However it must be acknowledged that many theologians who have influenced my views have been seeking substantial change to official Church doctrine over the last 60 years since Vatican II, but a reactionary conservatism has unfortunately prevailed. 

- The fundamental question that this deconstructed theology has to confront is whether Christian belief will still have power and appeal. Could it if the reality of a loving God is denied? In my view, yes, because of the richness of the tradition, a tradition that gave birth to Western civilisation and its liberalism and enlightenment. The framing of deep insight into language of poetry and divinity is universal in its appeal. Philosophers, artists, poets and novelists over the last 150 years have been grappling with these issues. They universally recognise humankind's deep need for belonging and community. 

- MORALITY: Catholic moral theology has long needed a thorough revolution. 

- In all spheres: homosexuality and gay marriage, gender identity, divorce and remarriage, masturbation, sex before marriage, birth control, abortion, euthanasia, social/political morality. 

- The church must embrace and celebrate every dimension of the human spectrum, and leave behind prehistoric and medieval prejudices. In today’s world it must listen to what it deems the voice of the Holy Spirit. 

- Shamefully the Catholic church still upholds the long discredited doctrine that homosexuality is an ontological evil, a 'disorder'. Individuals with homosexual tendencies may be welcome in the Christian community but they must refrain from the homosexual sexual act itself. It remains a sin. Gay marriage therefore can never be supported. 

- The church must embrace gays and gay marriage. Such marriages should be celebrated sacramentally by a priest in a church, and deemed equal on every level to heterosexual marriages. The primacy of ‘openness to procreation’, the potential conception of children, has to he abandoned. Central to marriage is the love and commitment of two people, witnessed by the community. This is the sacred reality. 

- The reality of divorce must be acknowledged. The average age of death in today’s world is twice that of early Christian and medieval times. Divorce, obviously, was nowhere near as common as it is today, and easily isolated as unacceptable. Women, as well, were mere chattels. Civil divorcees today are not welcome as full participants in the Catholic liturgy, unless the marriage is ‘annulled’ after a deep personal intrusion by a church bureaucracy, and any subsequent marriage denied sacramental legitimacy. Without annulment subsequent marriages are considered adulterous. 

- There needs to be change here, and the adoption of a far more respectful and less ‘police state’ approach. Many couples do drift apart for all sorts of reasons, most not due to infidelity or abuse, and if sinners are to be named, then we are all sinners. In its official stance on divorce the church shows a distinct lack of empathy, sensitivity and forgiveness, adopting a presumption of perfection that defies the very nature of a fallen humanity. Pope Francis's emphasis on pastoral care rather than doctrinal reform in his 2016 encyclical Amoris Laetitia tries to have it both ways. Wouldn't a better position be that all sacramental marriages are considered indissoluble in the sense that obligations to the financial security of the partners and shared love and support for any children must exist forever, despite divorce and remarriage? Both spouses, despite a divorce, maintain an indissoluble bond. 

- Masturbation should be recognised as a perfectly normal and legitimate act by a sexual being. It should not be deemed a morally wrong act in any way. The ‘wasted seed’ notion harks back to the age when the more children a couple had the more financial security they were guaranteed as they aged. As well, a far higher percentage of babies and children died than today. We’re way beyond that unfortunate reality now. 

- Consensual sex between two unmarried adults, whether living together in a loving partnership or not, must be accepted by the Church as normal and morally legitimate human behaviour. The doctrine that sexual intimacy must be confined to marriage is unacceptable in the modern world, if it ever was. It also diminishes the seriousness of the marriage commitment, prioritising it as a sexual institution. (Prostitution and surrogacy should continue to be condemned. They are commercial transactions that exploit the poor and downtrodden and that abuse the sacred bonds of love, intimacy and the biological parental/child relationship).   

- The Catholic position denying the legitimacy of birth control measures of whatever kind has long been ignored by the great majority of Catholics. They consider it irrelevant. It should be abolished. The discredited ‘openness to procreation’ priority has to go. 

- Abortion is far more contentious. The church outlaws it, allowing only minimal medical exceptions, and constantly campaigns against government legislation seeking to introduce it. The view of the majority of citizens, including Catholics, in most Western countries and states, however, is in favour of it for embryos 16-20 weeks and under. Biologically these embryos are not yet considered human beings. The church’s contrary view, that 'ensoulment' happens at conception, is not medically or psychologically sound and is a massive overreach. Abortion, within acceptable guidelines, should be allowed.

- Euthanasia, now commonly known as Voluntary Assisted Dying, is also rejected by the church. However progressive states are now introducing it across the world, with substantial restrictions and medical protocols in place to ensure it is managed in the best interest of patients and their families. The church should acknowledge and respect this, and move beyond the total rejection stance it has always adopted. 

- The hierarchy of the Catholic Church has to shed its conservatism in relation to social issues. It should be a loud and critical voice in support of the poor and marginalised, the unemployed, the abused, the homeless, the sick, the aged. Australia’s appalling treatment of ‘boat people’ and refugees, and its insipid approach to the climate heating challenge, should be loudly condemned. Addressing economic inequality should be a central focus, as well as corruption, dishonesty and lack of transparency in the political sphere. The public voice of the church is nowhere near as clear and passionate as it should be. 

- PRIESTHOOD: Radical reforms must be made to the structure of the Catholic Church.

- Celibacy must be abolished. Priests must be allowed to marry and have children. 

- Women must be welcomed into the priesthood, and a 50/50 representation aspired to. The LGBTQIA+ community must also be welcomed. 

- This major structural change will cost the church significantly in financial terms. Priests and their families must be suitably housed, fed, clothed and insured, and education, recreation and transportation costs fully met. Parishioners will need to contribute substantially more to sustain this priesthood model. But there is no alternative. It must be done. 

- Finally, the church, as a whole, needs radical and revolutionary reform and that is possible. It's a bit like climate change. We can despair or we can be bold and aim for huge societal and economic change by 2050. And fight the enemies of it tooth and nail. Imagine if a progressive Pope were elected in the next decade or so and launched Vatican Three. Imagine also that he took no prisoners, forced through radical change on all levels, and did not fear a schism. A schism would be highly likely in my view, but so be it. The conservatives would go one way and the progressives - the great majority - would stay and rejoice in the Church's renewal. Eventually the conservatives would die out. 

Sources:

Elizabeth A Johnson, Consider Jesus, Waves of Renewal in Christology, 1990, Crossroad Publishing Company, NY

Richard P McBrien, Catholicism, 1994, HarperCollins, New York.

Charles E Curran, The Catholic Moral Tradition Today: A Synthesis, 1999, Georgetown University Press, Washington DC.

Margaret A Farley, A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics, 2006, Continuum International Publishing Group, NY.

Charles E Curran, Catholic Moral Theology in the United States: A History, 2008, Georgetown University Press, Washington DC.

James F Keenan, A History of Catholic Moral Theology in the Twentieth Century, 2010, Continuum International Publishing Group, London.

Reza Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, 2013, Random House, NY. 

Peter Watson, The Age of Nothing: How We Have Sought to Live Since the Death of God, 2014, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London. 

Reza Aslan, God: A Human History, 2017, Bantam Press, London.

Matthew Levering, The Indissolubility of Marriage: Amoris Laetitia in Context, 2019, Ignatius Press, San Francisco.

Marie-Josephe Devillers and Ana-Luana Stoicea-Deram (Eds), Towards the Abolition of Surrogate Motherhood, 2021, Spinifex Press, Australia

Olga Tokarczuk, The Books of Jacob

- This extraordinary 980 page novel by Nobel prize winning Polish author Olga Tokarczuk offers a profoundly rich tapestry of culture, religion and society set in Eastern Europe, what is now Eastern Ukraine and Poland, in the mid to late 18th century. 

- It tells the story of Jacob Frank, a young charismatic Jew from Turkey whose preaching attracts followers, and who paints himself as the new Messiah who will transport them to 'freedom'. The Jewish tradition has failed them, as has Islam and Christianity. This book is not just about Jacob -  it’s about ordinary people and their desperation, always seeking a saviour, a Messiah.  

- There are multiple stories of men, women and children in towns, cities and countries, eking out a living. Town squares are bustling with merchants and traders. The narrative is sprinkled with personal scribblings from a range of Jacob's family members, associates, friends, priests and rabbis, all with long unpronounceable names. They offer all sorts of reflections and commentary on their daily lives and beliefs. Many of them are book readers and collectors.

- Poverty and disease is rife, and the ache for messianic salvation is deep and constant. The plague kills thousands, particularly children. They long for salvation. They want miracles, signs, shooting stars, water to become blood. Where does religious zeal come from? Yokarczuk suggest it's a place of profound ignorance. 

- Tokarczuk’s knowledge of 18th century trade, commodities, clothing, everyday household items, spells, plants, herbs, potions, etc, is astonishing. She spends a lot of time describing clothes, shoes, hairstyles, beards, faces, and bodies. And the food and wines they consume. This domestic minutia bogs the novel down at times but it's fascinating too. 

- Jacob is a mystery. He indulges in a rich sex life, despite his marriage. He's a free man, not captured by belief or tradition. But fundamental doubts arise. Is he just a scammer, a pretender, an actor, a bully, a liar, a conman, or simply delusional? Even his father says: ‘Watch out for Jacob. He really is a thief.’ But he has charisma and authority, and is well built, handsome and extremely charming, with a loud, resonant voice. And the ordinary townsfolk are feeble minded. However as the novel progresses the more unlikable he becomes and we come to realise that what he preaches is nonsense. He favours free sex and doesn’t respect marital fidelity at all. But if there's one saving grace at least he’s not a conservative, reactionary prick, like all the religious leaders at the time. What is life, after all, if not dancing on graves. 

- Jacob’s message soon becomes clear and distinct: It is a question of uniting the three religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. The ‘faith of Edom. It's his version of the Catholic faith. He demands his followers be baptised.  

- The Jewish leaders of course officially curse him. And the Catholic authorities get their revenge on Judaism by banning the Talmud. All Jewish books are burnt by the peasant hordes, and those Jewish communities attracted to converting to Christianity debate and argue about beliefs, baptism, marriage, and ‘freedom’. Ignorance is profound here, even among the leaders. But, interestingly, the belief that persuades them to convert is the mystery of the Holy Trinity, that God was in three persons. Not that they have much idea of what that actually means. 

- After his baptism, however, Jacob disappears. He has been apprehended by the Polish authorities and is hauled before a Catholic commission to be interrogated. He is sentenced to life imprisonment for proclaiming himself the Messiah, and ends up ‘interned’ in a monastery for thirteen years. His money, gifted from wealthy supporters and turned into bribes, buys him a comfortable life however. 

- After political upheaval in Poland he is freed and he and his surviving family members move to Brunn in Moravia and eventually Vienna.  His personal following of pilgrims builds and virtually becomes a cult. He is known as the ‘Lord’, and he lives a life of luxury, incurring debts that can’t be repaid. Vienna in 1784 reflects the changing world as the Enlightenment dawns. Medicine and science are rapidly progressing, Emmanuel Kant, the philosopher, is disrupting the academy, and the young Mozart is delighting concert goers. And there is a popular revolution in France. 

- Eventually his cavalcade of family, elders and royalty move to a castle in Offenbach in Germany where Jacob sees out his days. After the burial service Jacob's critics have their say: Turkish; extracting money from naive Jews; amassing arms for an uprising against Poland; close ties with the Freemasons, the Illuminati, the Rosicrucians. The cult dies as opportunists and graspers seek to assume leadership.

- Here's a few quotes from Jacob's homilies: 

  Christ said that he came to free the world from Satan’s grip. But I came to free it from all the laws and statutes that have been in effect till now. 

  It’s easier to be stupid and lazy than evil. 

  The Jews are always afraid. 

  Equality goes against nature. 

  The written word lasts forever.

- The book's page count is downwards, possibly reflecting the countdown to the final coming.…in the end times, everything is done in reverse. (But the author’s note on sources at the end of the book says it’s a nod to books written in Hebrew, as well as a reminder that every order, every system, is simply a matter of what you’ve gotten used to.)

(Enormous respect to Text for publishing this huge and densely typeset book in Australia. It won’t get many reviews if any at all, because it’s too difficult and time consuming to read, and it won’t sell well. And only a tiny minority of those who do buy it will finish it. But like me, that minority will treasure it forever. It is also superbly translated by Jennifer Croft, whose crystal clear and lucid English is without any awkward bits. As well there are no typos or misplaced commas in the whole book. So professional.)