The Brilliant, Exasperating David Bentley Hart
David Bentley Hart is undeniably brilliant, as anyone who has encountered his writings can attest. Hart, an Eastern Orthodox theologian, is widely appreciated as an astute philosophical mind, a formidable opponent of atheism in all its varieties, and a wizard of wordcraft.
But even those who admire Hart’s obvious gifts often find him exasperating as well, especially as his theology has advanced onto some contestable terrain. Like some who are perhaps too aware of their own brilliance, he is occasionally prone to combativeness and dismissiveness when engaging those of different views. And even as his ornate style of rhetoric reaches certain heights of beauty and eloquence, it can prove tough sledding for lesser mortals.
In her review of Hart’s latest volume, All Things Are Full of Gods: The Mysteries of Mind and Life, Nadya Williams sees all these tendencies on display, for better and worse. In the book, Hart uses a fictionalized dialogue between four pagan gods to argue that the dimensions of mind and spirit are more central to reality than anything mechanical or corporeal. Williams, a writer and historian of the ancient world, said the whole exercise “broke her brain,” and then some.
“In many ways,” writes Williams, “All Things Are Full of Gods—brain-breaking tendencies included—is classic Hart. Stunningly twisting Ciceronian sentences, of the sort I have quoted in this review, might span an entire paragraph, enticing the reader with the beauty of their phrasing. Still, it is a beauty that one cannot fully or easily comprehend, as I often realized upon reaching such a one’s end. I understand, I think, the overall premises and arguments of the book; I struggled, however, to understand many individual sentences in full. But then, as Hart notes, language too is a mystery.
“The evolution of Hart’s thought and brilliance is on full display, nevertheless, as he continues his decades-long exploration of the divine across traditions, offering in All Things Are Full of Gods a recognizable sequel to such earlier books as Atheist Delusions, The Experience of God, and, to a lesser extent, That All Shall Be Saved.
“Here, Hart’s meditation—for this book is more a meditation in dialogue form than any sort of traditional argument—centers around two essential premises that Psyche painstakingly tries to prove by drawing on examples from the past two and a half millennia of philosophy. First, that God and the divine or spiritual world are intensely, palpably real. Second (and most important), that the visible world is not all that there is—in fact, the things unseen are more real.
“The mind is greater than the body. As Psyche puts it early in the dialogue, ‘Whatever the nature of matter may be, the primal reality of all things is mind.’ But this idea, Hart is convinced, is not unique to any one tradition; rather, it is universal in premodernity. And so, Psyche concludes, ‘Ātman is Brahman—which I take to be the first, last, most fundamental, and most exalted truth of all real philosophy and religion alike.’
“Such beautiful yet loaded statements are what have previously embroiled Hart in charges of heresy. For instance, he has been accused of universalism (the belief in universal salvation), a stance he seems to defend most vehemently in That All Shall Be Saved. And Hart’s new book contains more than a whiff of what one article criticized as Hart’s ‘Post-Christian Pantheism.’”
Christians and ‘Saving Face’
Many attempts at “saving face” are perfectly innocent. Think of someone who, having tripped on a busy sidewalk, leaps up with a smile, laughs off the misstep, and maybe even charms the onlookers with a mock-theatrical bow.
Often enough, however, we invoke this idiom to describe something more than rebounding good-naturedly from mild embarrassment. When the “face” in question involves our outward reputation or inner sense of self-worth, our efforts at “saving” it can take on a determined, methodical, or even ruthless character.
For Christians, this can pose a serious problem, as it threatens to short-circuit biblical habits of confession and reconciliation. Why own up to your sin if it strikes at the core of your identity or the source of your public esteem?
As writer and educator Jolene Kinser discovered during a 15-year stint teaching English in China, these dynamics can be especially pronounced within Chinese culture. In a chapter from her recent book, Changing Normal: Break Through Barriers to Pursuing Peace in Relationships, Kinser sketches out a “theology of face” that honors our need for dignity and acceptance while insisting that we won’t retain them by concealing our sins.
As Kinser writes in an excerpt for CT, “in Chinese culture, confessing our sins and apologizing to one another is perceived as something that will cause a loss of face. Doing so between people of equal status, such as friends or coworkers, includes some degree of losing face. Yet this is exacerbated between people of superior and inferior status—think father and son, or boss and subordinate. It is thought that someone of superior status should not apologize to someone inferior because of the hierarchical Confucian notions of positional power and authority. The subordinate is to obey and defer to the superior and to stay silent and submit in times of conflict.
“Chinese Christians are thus confronted with a big conundrum: Culturally speaking, confession results in face loss, but in God’s kingdom culture, to reconcile is to apologize and confess, no matter your age or position.
“After all, God doesn’t give or save face. He doesn’t pretend everything is fine relationally when it is not. God genuinely loves, values, and forgives us. He calls us to acknowledge our mistakes and transgressions (Ps. 32; 103:8–14) and purposefully addresses our innermost issues so we can be transformed (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18).
“Apologizing merely to save face does not acknowledge one’s complicity in the situation. It strives to protect the person’s own honor and esteem. In contrast, giving a ‘confession apology’ does not excuse, explain, or defend. Rather, it acknowledges the hurt that the other person feels and takes responsibility for one’s own contribution to the conflict. This might entail losing face, but when done sincerely in face-to-face conversations, we can also gain valuable gifts such as mutual understanding and empathy.”
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