Christianity as creative myth

structure seldom think for a moment about the radical change in human consciousness which would be necessary to bring it about. If socialism is to be the real Organic or functional Order of Humanity, then we have to imagine the change in human behaviour which would be necessary for every race, nation, profession and occupation, and also every religion both to agree with all the others about their own particular significance and function within the world whole, and to accept the validity and valuation of every other one. This would involve not merely tolerance, but active appreciation of the values and cultures of other races, nations, religions and individuals. It is not just avoidance of conflict, for each one must maintain its own values. It means maintaining the tension of opposing values without resorting to violence. Only in this way can there be agreement about how the world is to be economically and politically ordered.

It is written in St. John’s first Epistle (4.8) that God is Love. This is often quoted, but too often taken in a sentimental sense, especially by clergymen who are not quite sure about their belief in God. The injunction to love your enemies and to make peace with your adversary is not at all a sentimental exhortation to virtue. Love in this sense is not just a feeling, for it is impossible to command a feeling; it is an act of will as a result of which a feeling may follow by grace. Vladimir Solovyov wrote in his book The Meaning of Love, ‘The evil and falsity of egoism certainly do not consist in the fact that man prizes himself too highly or ascribes absolute significance and infinite dignity to himself, but in the fact that while he rightly ascribes such significance to himself he wrongly denies it to others’ 1® This is the force of the commandment to love one’s neighbour as oneself. Love for one’s enemies should be understood in this sense. It does not just mean being kind to them; it does not even mean avoiding conflict with them, but it does mean sincerely trying to understand the absolute significance which should be ascribed to them, admitting that it may be as valid as one’s own, and acting towards them in that realisation. Similarly the adversary is those aspects of one’s own nature which are rejected and relegated to the unconscious, but which one nevertheless meets, and often dislikes, in other people. The acceptance of these is a matter of one’s own personal health, for if one does not accept them, one will not be released