The Great Ideas Today 1967
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Angel
Family
Animal
Fate
Aristocracy
Form
Art
Astronomy
God Good and
Beauty
Government
Being
Habit
Cause
Happiness
Chance
History
Change
Honor
Citizen
Hypothesis
Constitution
Idea
Courage
Immortality
Custom and Convention
Induction
Definition
Infinity
Democracy
Judgment
Desire
Justice
Dialectic
Knowledge
Duty
Labor
Education
Language
Element
Law
Emotion
Liberty
Eternity
Life and
Evolution
Logic
Experience
Love
Evil
Death
The Great ^^H^^^^^^lE Mathematics Matter
Ideas ^^H
Reasoning
l^^^^^Hi
Relation
1|^^Hi
Religion
^
Mechanics
Revolution
Medicine
Rhetoric
Memory and
Imagination
Same and Other
Metaphysics
Science
Mind
Sense
Monarchy
Sign and Symbol
Nature
Sin
Necessity and Contingency
Slavery
Ohgarchy
Soul
One and Many
Space
Opinion
State
Opposition
Temperance
Philosophy
Theology
Physics
Time
Pleasure and Pain
Truth
Poetry
Tyranny
Principle
Universal and Particular
Progress
Virtue and Vice
Prophecy
War and
Prudence
Wealth
Punishment
Will
Quality
Wisdom
Quantity
World
Peace
'Full
Fathom Five by Jackson '
Pollock,
oil
on canvas, 1947.
THE GREAT IDEAS TODAY 1967
WILLIAM BENTON
Publisher
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, Chicago
'
INC.
London Toronto Geneva Sydney Tokyo Manila '
'
•
•
•
@
1967 by Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Copyright under International Copyright Union All rights reserved
under Pan American and Universal Copyright Conventions
by Encyclopaedia Britannica,
Inc.
No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any means, information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Printed in the U.S.A.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 61-65561
Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by John Gardner, the permission of The University of Chicago Press,
What
Eclipse of
is
Life?
Buber, copyright 1952 by Harper & Row, Pubhshers, Inc.
reprinted with the permission of Harper
FREDERICK
reprinted with
Inc.
by Erwin Schrodinger is reprinted with the permission of The Cambridge University Press.
God by Martin is
is
& Row, Pubhshers,
Inc.
DISTRIBUTED TO THE TRADE BY: A. PRAEGER, INC., NEW YORK, WASHINGTON
THE GREAT IDEAS TODAY Robert M. Hutchins
Mortimer
J.
1967
Adler
Editors in Chief
Otto Bird Executive Editor
Contributors
Harvey Cox
M. D. Chenu
E. L. Mascall
Roy McMullen
Langdon
Martin E. Marty
Stephen Toulmin
V.
Wilham
R. Dell
Theodore Puck B. Gilkey
McGill
J.
Jeffrey
Managing Editor
Weiss
Assistant Editor
Will Gallagher Art Director
Howard
Alberto Menocal
L.
Layout
Picture Editor
Ron
Ann Palormo
Baumann Artist
Villani
Designer
Picture Editor
J.
Thomas Beatty
Production Manager
W.
Barbara Whitney Chief
Copy Editor
Production Coordinator
Copy Elizabeth Chastain
H. Burget
Linda
Editors J.
Goffen
Harry Sharp
LIST Page
OF ILLUSTRATIONS Credit
Description
PART ONE Fronds-
"Full
Fathom Five" by Jackson
Courtesy,
Pollock,
piece
Statue of Christ, south portal, Chartres Cathedral; (right) figure of Christ, triptych by
2
(Left)
3
Novgorodian, 15th-century Russian. (Left) Twelfth-century image of Christ on a donkey; (center) 8th-century Irish crucifixion plaque; (right) contemporary American sculp-
The Museum
of
Modem
Art;
gift
of
Peggy Guggenheim. (Left) Giraudon; (right) courtesy. The Walters Art Gallery. (Left) Courtesy, Swiss National Museum, Zurich; (center) courtesy. National Museum of Ireland;
Rohn Engh.
(right)
ture.
6-
7 8 21
22 29 36 37 38 45 48 52-
53 54 68 69
Assemblage designed for the symposium; (lower left) Pope John XXIIL Harvey Cox. Athenagoras with dignitaries of the Eastern Orthodox Church. E. L. Mascall. Child playing at Spoleto Festival grounds. Children at blackboard. Helicopter carrying statue of Christ; scene from "La Dolce Vita." Martin E. Marty. Rosary hanging on a parking meter.
opening
in Mississippi, June 1966. (Top) Nuns bowling; (bottom) church in New Mexico. Father M. D. Chenu. Scene along Maxwell Street, Chicago. Old church in New York City.
Roy McMullen. (Left) French horn;
96-
(Top) Vladimir Ussachevsky demonstrating the production of electronic music; (bottom) performance by the New York Pro Musica. Fragment from the score of an electronic com-
104
©
Courtesy, Harvard University News Office. Carlo Bavagnoli, Life, Time Inc.
©
Bassano and Vandyk. Carlo Bavagnoli, Life, Rohn Engh.
An American
Time
Inc.
International Pictures release.
Morrill.
©
Courtesy of subject.
George Carlson.
Webb— Photo
Researchers.
John Barry. (right)
two
clarinets.
(Left)
position.
Costa (Top)
Doug Fulton— Photo Manos— Magnum.
Courtesy,
Ill 114 115 128-
F.
(Left) (right)
"Green White" by "Double Signal (red
Ellsworth
Kelly;
and amber)" by
(right)
Courtesy, Columbia-Princeton Electronic Center; photo by Manuel Hernandez; (bottom) J. Ross— Photo Researchers. Courtesy, Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.
Four tubas. Old woman alone in concert hall. Portion of an orchestra performing in concert. (Top left) "Sculpture Spatio-Dinamique" by Nicolas Schoffer; (top right) "Pleione" by Victor Vasarely; (bottom) "Exposure" by Bridget Riley.
Researchers;
Music
Portion of page from the score of an electronic composition.
130
©
Burk Uzzle— Magnum. Wide World; photo by Jack Thomell. (Top) Clyde Hare, Life, Time Inc.; (bottom) Burk Uzzle— Magnum.
105
129
photo by Hank Walker,
TWO
82 91
97
Villani; (lower left) Time Inc. Life,
Dan
James Meredith shot
PART
Ron
School of Music,
University of
Ilh-
Urbana campus. Grunsweig— Photo Researchers.
nois,
Costa Costa
Manos— Magnum. Manos— Magnum.
Courtesy, (top left) Musee National d'Art Modeme, Paris; photo, Galerie Denise Rene; (top right) Galerie Denise Rene; (bottom) Richard Feigen Galleries, New York and Chicago. Courtesy, (left) Sidney Janis Gallery, New York; (right) Howard Wise Gallery, New York.
Takis.
131 132 133
"Motorcocktail" by Jean Tinguely. "Spirale" by Alexander Calder. "Orange Disaster" by Andy Warhol.
134 135
"The Billboard" by George
136
"U.N. Painting" by Larry Rivers.
Courtesy, York.
137 138 139
"Harpe Eolienne" by Max Ernst. "Woman with a Hat" by Willem de Kooning. (Top) "Bateau de Peche" by Jean DubuflFet; (bottom) "Les Nanas" by Niki de Saint-Phalle. "Continuel-Mobile, Continuel-Lumiere" by Julio Le Pare. "The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even" by Marcel Duchamp.
Courtesy,
Segal.
(Top) "Magnifying Glass" by Roy Lichtenstein; (bottom) "Targets" by Jasper Johns.
Courtesy,
Alexander lolas Gallery,
Courtesy,
UNESCO.
New
York.
Harry N. Abrams Family Collection, New York; photo courtesy Leo Castelli. Courtesy, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York. (Top) Gian Enzo Sperone, Turin, Italy; (bottom) Leon Kraushar Collection; photo courtesy Leo Castelli.
140 141
Courtesy, Courtesy, (bottom) Courtesy,
Marlborough-Gerson
Gallery,
The Philadelphia Museum of Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection. Courtesy,
New
Alexander lolas Gallery, New York. M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York. (top) Saidenberg Gallery, New York; Alexander lolas Gallery, New York. The Tate Gallery, London. Art;
LIST
OF ILLUSTRATIONS Credit
Description
PART TWO,
continued "Convolute" by Mark Tobey.
Courtesy, Willard Gallery,
for Merce Cunningham" by Robert Rauschenberg. (Top left) "Great American Nude #76" by Tom Wesselmann; (top right) "The Party" by Marisol; (bottom) "Dr. Schweitzer's Last Mission"
"Trophy
by Oyvind Fahlstrom. "Study from Innocent
X 1962" by Francis Bacon. (Top) "Tete d'Homme" by Pablo Picasso; (bottom) "Three Piece Reclining Figure" by Henry Moore. "Cubi X" by David Smith.
William T.
New
Sisler Collection;
York.
photo courtesy Leo
Castelli.
New
All courtesy, Sidney Janis Gallery,
York.
Courtesy, Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London. Courtesy, (top) Saidenberg Gallery, New York; (bottom) Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York.
(Top) "9 Boules" by Pol Bury; (bottom) "Rainfall" bv Anthonv Care.
Courtesy, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York. (Top) Collection of W. C. Edwards, Dallas; photo courtesy, Lefebre Gallery, New York; (bottom) private collection, U.S.A.; photo courtesy Kasmin Limited, London.
"Moultonville III" by Frank Stella.
Nelson Gallery— Atkins Museum (Friends of Art Collection); photo courtesy Leo Castelli.
Stephen Toulmin. "Agglomeration of 135 Cvlindrical Shapes" by
David Farrell— London. Courtesy,
The
J.
L.
Hudson
Gallery, Detroit.
Pol Bury.
"The
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Collection; photo by Lefebre Gallery, New
Courtesy,
Staircase" by Pol Bury.
York.
"30 Batons" by Pol Theodore Puck. Colony of human
Courtesy, Lefebre Gallery,
Bur>-.
New
York.
Courtesy, Division of Visual Education, University of Colorado Medical Center.
cells
Courtesy, Division of Visual Education, UniverColorado Medical Center. Courtesy, Dr. John Kendrew; The Nobel Foundation, 1963.
in tissue culture.
sity of
©
Wire model of myoglobin. bacteriophage
Courtesy, Division of Visual Education, University of Colorado Medical Center.
Glass
dish containing colonies, each of which developed from a single human cell. Photo of cell from female fetal tissue showing Barr body. Photomicrograph showing effects of radiation on
Courtesy, Division of Visual Education, University of Colorado Medical Center. Courtesy, Division of Visual Education, University of Colorado Medical Center.
cells.
sity
Photomicrograph showing effects of radiation on chromosomes. Plaques of Western Equine Encephalomyelitis
sity of
Colonies
resulting
from
single
liarticles.
virus.
Langdon
Courtesy, Division of Visual Education, Univerof Colorado Medical Center. Courtesy, Division of Visual Education, UniverColorado Medical Center. Courtesy, Division of Visual Education, University of Colorado Medical Center.
Arthur Siegel.
B. Gilkey.
PART THREE Boy playing on a beach.
Richard Conrat. Rohn Engh.
Cranes
Dan
V.
J.
McGill.
flying.
Morrill.
PART FOUR Solar corona photographed at total eclipse.
Courtesy,
Mount Wilson and Palomar Observa-
tories.
Martin Ruber in 1962. Drawing of human embryo by Leonardo da
Beer— Pix from Publix. The Bettmann Archive,
Inc.
Vinci.
Erwin Schrodinger
1955. late- 14th-century
Irish
in
Frontispiece from manuscript edition of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Illustrations
designed
Gawain and
the Green Knight."
for
this
edition
of
"Sir
Times photo.
Courtesy,
Ron
The Trustees
Villani.
of the British
Museum.
CONTENTS
PART ONE:
SHOULD CHRISTIANITY BE SECULARIZED? A SYMPOSIUM 4
Introduction
Why
Christianity
Must Be
8
Secularized:
Harvey Cox
Why
Christianity Should
Not Be
Secularized:
22
E. L. Mascall
Does Secular Theology Have a Future?
38
Martin E. Marty The Need for a Theology of
the
World:
54
M. D. Chenu The Idea of Religion in Great Books of the Western World
70
PART TWO: THE YEAR'S DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ARTS AND SCIENCES 82
Music, Painting, and Sculpture:
Roy McMullen The Physical
158
Sciences:
Stephen Toulmin
CONTENTS
PART
TWO
continued
The Biological
196
Sciences:
Theodore Puck 238
Theology:
Langdon
B. Gilkey
PART THREE:
THE CONTEMPORARY STATUS OF A GREAT IDEA The Idea of Happiness:
V.J. McGill
272
with an Introduction by the Editors
PART FOUR: ADDITIONS TO THE GREAT BOOKS LIBRARY 310
Eclipse of God:
Martin Buber
What
372
Is Life?
Erwin Schrodinger
Sir
Gawain and
the
Green Knight
426
A
NOTE ON REFERENCE STYLE
the following pages, InWorld are referred
passages in Great Books of the Western by the initials 'GBWW,' followed by
to
volume, page number, and page section. Thus, 'GBWW, Vol. 39, p. 210b' refers to page 210 in Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations,
Volume 39
which
is
letter
'b'
Great Books of the Western World. The small page section. In books printed in single column, 'a' and 'b' refer to the upper and lower halves of the page. In books printed in double column, 'a' and 'b' refer to the upper and lower halves of the left column, 'c' and 'd' to the upper and lower in
indicates the
halves of the right column. For example, 'Vol. 53, p. 210b' refers to the lower half of page 210, since Volume 53, James's Principles of Psychology, p.
is
printed in single column.
210b' refers to the lower
Plato's Dialogues,
Gateway
to the
is
left
On
the other hand, 'Vol.
7,
Volume
7,
quarter of the page, since
printed in double column.
Great Books
is
referred to
by the
initials
followed by volume and page number. Thus, 'GGB, Vol. 39-57' refers to pages 39 through 57 of
the Great Books,
which
is
Volume 10
of
'GGB,' 10,
Gateway
James's essay, "The Will to Believe."
pp. to
PART ONE
Should Christianity
Be
Secularized?
Introduction
Why
Christianity
Must Be
Secularized
HARVEY COX Why
Christianity
Should Not Be Secularized
E. L.
MASCALL
n.
Does Secular Theology Have a Future?
^
MARTIN
E.
MARTY
The Need for a Theology of
M. D.
the
World
CHENU
The Idea of Religion
IN
GREAT BOOKS
OF THE WESTERN WORLD
j^^f^.mjjf^'^
THE CHANGING symposium on secularization The largely concerned with the face is
that Christianity puts,
and should
put,
before the world. Artists, since the be-
ginning
of
imagining
Christianity,
the
face
of
have Christ.
been Five
images are presented here, ranging from the primitive figure of the 8thcentury Celtic cross (lower right) to the
contemporary American sculpture by Doris Caesar (far right). Christ the Teacher is portrayed on the south portal of 13th-century Chartres Cathedral {far left) and Christ the Judge on the Russian icon of the 15th century (lower left).
The
right),
Christ on the donkey {upper
13th-century Swiss, was used in
Palm Sunday
processions.
FACE OF CHRIST
INTRODUCTION Religion has again become . "God is dead" appeared announcing a long
article
It makes the headlines. on the front page of Time
a popular subject. in large letters
on the
latest
departures in theology.
The meet-
ings of the second Vatican Council attracted a corps of reporters
and
fre-
quently received more attention, for example, than the sessions of the United Nations. Thirty years ago, religion and theology had very dubious
an intellectual subject in the university and excited no interest. Today, a "radical theologian" draws a crowd of two to three thousand status as
students.
A
generation ago, theology seemed moribund even to the speit. Today, there is no part of it that is not in an intellectual
ciahst within
ferment.
Among
rehgious leaders, the change
is
especially
marked
in the at-
toward the secular world. Secularism used to be viewed as the main opponent of religion. To "go with God" meant in some basic way to turn one's back on "the world, the flesh, and the devil." Recently, however, Christians of all denominations have been reconsidering the relation between the church and the world. There are demands for an utterly new relation. Some have even called for the secularization of titude that they take
Christianity.
In the past, secularization has always been associated with the eneIt has been urged as a way of eliminating the influence of the church. Secularization of the schools, for example,
mies or opponents of religion.
usually consisted in transferring their control from the church to the state.
Coming from churchmen, cal, if
the
demand
not actually contradictory.
for secularization
It is as striking as
seems paradoxi-
the declaration
by a
"man of God" that "God is dead." The publication of The Secular City by Dr. Harvey Cox
in 1964 first brought the attention of the general public to the issue. This book was originally intended as a study outline to provoke and incite the interest of theological students. But from the start it obtained a much larger hearing, and more than 200,000 copies of the book are now in print. It occasioned a many-sided discussion among theologians, which has since been published in book form as The Secular City Debate.
The question
many
of secularization provides a focal point for discussion of
questions brought to the fore by the
new
theology.
Our symposium
has been organized to explore them so as to reveal the principal issues in that discussion. First, of course,
What
meant by
is
the issue of secularization
and why should
itself:
be recommended for Christianity? On this issue, the sides are clearly drawn. Dr. Cox represents the affirmative position in favor of secularization. The opposing and is
secularization
it
Should Christianity Be Secularized?
negative side
is
represented by the Rev. Dr. E. L. Mascall,
ten the most sustained and detailed counterargument
who
has writ-
book The
in his
Secularization of Christianity. The question at issue involves the larger problem of the relation of the
church to the modern world, and particularly how the message of Christianity can be communicated to the contemporary secularized man. It was strikingly phrased by Pastor Bonhoeffer, victim of the Nazi concentration camp: "How do we speak in secular fashion of God?" Dr. Martin E.
Marty has frequently dealt with this problem in Christian Century, of which he is an editor, and his essay places the debate over secularization in its historical background and assesses its position and its chances for the future.
At issue
in the discussion are
such basic Christian doctrines as the the-
ology of creation, of the incarnation, and of the providential course of history. BonhoeflFer has again given direction to the discussion
adoxical statement that the time Christianity."
As precedent, he
Law
may have
by
his par-
arrived for a "religionless
refers to St. Paul's asking
whether observ-
necessary for justification. Since this question was satisfactorily answered in the negative by the primitive church, he
ance of the Jewish
is
asks whether today religion
is
For Bonadmittedly necessary, and Bonhoef-
at all a condition of salvation.
hoeffer, as for other Christians, faith
is
some ways a martyr to his faith. Hence his question raises the possibility of drawing a distinction between religion and faith. This possibility is explored by the Rev. M. D. Chenu, the French Catholic scholar known for his work in the history of theology. Throughout the discussion, one of the principal questions at issue is the meaning of religion. For the most part, however, the issue rarely becomes explicit enough to be discussed in and for itself. The final part of our symposium is, therefore, devoted to the idea of religion as it is treated by the authors in Great Books of the Western World.
fer
was
in
Secularization
is
not the only topic of discussion in the current renais-
To provide a wider view of the whole asked Professor Langdon B. Gilkey of the Divinity School at the University of Chicago to analyze recent developments in theology. His essay appears in Part Two. Eclipse of God, by the eminent Jewish theologian, Martin Buber, provides still another contribution to the current debate. His book discusses many of the themes prominent
sance of theological speculation. discussion,
we have
the new "radical theologians." As Dr. Cox has pointed out, there a close line connecting the theological problems of the secular city with those involved in the "God is dead" theology.
among is
HARVEY COX
Author of the widely discussed The Secular City, Harvey Cox is one of the most prominent of the "New Theologians." A frequent contributor to Christianity and Crisis, Harper's, Redbook, Motive,
The Cox
Christian Scholar, is
The Commonweal, and Junge Kirche, Dr. Church and Society in the Divinity
Associate Professor of
School of Harvard University. Born in Chester County, Pennsyl-
he was educated at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned an A.B. with honors in History in 1951, and at Yale University Divinity School, from ivhich he received the B.D. in 1955. He was ordained in the Baptist church in 1956, and in 1963 he received his Ph.D. degree in History and Philosophy of Religion from Harvard University. From 1955 to 1958 Professor Cox was Director of Religious Activities at Oherlin College, and from 1958 to 1963 he served as Program Associate for the American Baptist Home Mission Society. From 1962 to 1963 he was a Fraternal Worker for the Gossner Mission in East Berlin. Before going to Harvard, he was Assistant Professor of Theology and Culture at Andover-Newton Theological Seminary. Active in community organizations. Dr. Cox was a member of the National Council of Churches Commission for the Mississippi Delta Minisvania, in 1929,
the Steering Committee, Massachusetts Southern Christian Leadership Conference; and the Advisory Committee of the Christian Peace Conference. Dr. Cox was held in jail for five days after arrest in the South, while taking part in a civil rights demonstration. He lives in Roxbury, Massachusetts, with his wife and three try;
children.
AVhy Christianity Must Be Secularized innocent word "secular" has been the victim of a prolonged case The deserves reinstatement. of cultural deprivation. It
The English word
"secular"
is
derived from the Latin saeculum mean-
ing either a very long time or an epoch, a "world-age." As such
it is
neutral
no inherent sense of evil or negativity. However, early in the Christian centuries people began to use "secular" to designate this worldage or this world as opposed to some other or later world. Later, "secular" was used to designate those institutions and activities that fell outside the control of an increasingly powerful church. Still later, even priests who served in the everyday world rather than in religious orders were called "secular" priests, and still are in many places. This explains why, when property was removed from ecclesiastical control or when schools or hospitals were taken over by the state, the process was described as
and
carries
"secularization."
Thus, underlying the usage of the words "secular" and "secularize" in English,
many The first for
and lurking behind the unpleasant overtones these words have religious people, are at least two very questionable assumptions. is
otherworldliness.
holds that somewhere there
The second is
is
clericalism. Otherworldliness
another world which
is
higher, holier, or
which we all live. This assumption has little in common with Hebrew faith, if one excepts some isolated apocalyptic passages. The Jewish scriptures teach that this world is the one that God created, that he loves and is bringing to fulfillment. Otherworldliness of a sort can be found in the New Testament, but even there the other world is seen not as a place but as a new world-age, a new era which has already begun now in our era. The idea of two worlds— the "secular" one of inferior status— stems not from biblical sources but mainly from the Persian and hellenistic philosophies which formed the cultural atmosphere of the Mediterranean basin in the church's first centuries of life. There is little to commend it in our era, and it serves only to encumber the biblical faith with a dated world view which is at once foreign to it and also puzzling to people reared with a twentieth-century scientific
more sacred than the
mentality.
secular world in
Should Christianity Be Secularized?
The second or clericalist assumption implies the negative use of the word "secularization" to describe the divesting of ecclesiastical bodies of their properties and privileges. This criticism assumes that the church does in fact have some special inherent claim to social privileges, power, and property. It views the present earthly weakness of the church as abnormal and lamentable. It finds its ideal in those centuries when the church organized and unified the civilization of the West, a situation that can hardly be regained today. Those who oppose "secularization" in these two standard meanings, that is, the disappearance of otherworldhness and the reduction of the temporal power of the church, thereby unwittingly defend assumptions that many thoughtful Christians would question today. Our emerging ecumenical consensus of faith is that this world is the world God is renewing and redeeming, that our own history is the history in which God acts, and that the final triumph of God foreseen by the Bible will be a fulfillment of this world and no other. Likewise, we are increasingly relieved to see the church divested of the pomp and pretense which have given it a costly temporal prestige. The emphasis on the Servant Church both in the ecclesiological pronouncements of the World Council and in the documents of the Second Vatican Council attests to this fact. "Triumphalism" has been laid aside. Christians now more and more see themselves as a "People of
God"
called to serve this world, not as a colony of
privileged individuals designated for salvation in the next.
When
I
I intend it to mean both man's worlds with a resulting intensification of interest
use the term "secularization,"
loss of interest in other
in this one,
and the newly emergent
role of the
servant rather than as majority and lord. For
church as minority and
many
ment away from otherworldliness and away from nated society
is
the
people, this move-
ecclesiastically
domi-
occasion for hand-wringing and lamentation.
I
There can be no question that it poses serious problems for theology, but it also presents unprecedented new opportunities. Further, I do not believe these two movements are separable: otherworldliness was in part the sacral ideology of an ecclesiastically dominated society. Its hierarchical picture of the cosmos attributed to the church a key and powerful role in that cosmos, so the church naturally had a special interdisagree.
est in preserving that picture in people's minds.
A new
theology for a secu-
be produced when the church accepts its diminished temporal status and discards all hankering for a rosier past.
lar society will only
THE POSITIVE POTENTIAL OF SECULARIZATION
When
I
argued
in
my book The
notwithstanding the problems potential for
man,
this assertion
Secular City that secularization, it
creates, has
enormous
threatened and annoyed 10
many
positive
tradition-
Harvey Cox I also asserted, however, that this secularization caused in part by the impact of biblical faith on civilization. This assertion annoyed many nonreligious people and bothered some religious folk even more than my positive evaluation of secularization itself.
ally religious people.
process
is
It is somewhat surprising that postulating a link between biblical faith and secularization should have caused such a stir. The idea was not really new. It had been suggested several years before by Friedrich Gogarten in his book Verhdngnis und Hoffnung der Neuzeit: die Sdkularisierung als theologisches Problem ("The Fate and Hope of Our Time: Secularization as a Theological Problem"; Stuttgart, 1958). In that important work Gogarten said:
day is reaching its climax, and yet our thinking from assumptions which either know nothing about this secularization or else have a false conception of what has taken place in it and where its foundations lie. We can obviously only learn from it what must be learnt here if we understand that secularizatioti regardless of what may have developed from it in modem times, is a legitimate consequence of the Christian faith. (Emphasis added) Secularization in our
about
it
still
arises
Gogarten's argument
is
cally revealed values. It calls
for this world.
Thus
man away from
depen-
demigods, sacral kings, and
ecstati-
that Ghristianity calls
dence on the cycle of nature with
him
its
to
mature and rational responsibility
Christianity begins a process of "secularization" in-
cluding the desacralization of political structures and the disenchantment of nature.
These processes
in turn
form the bases
for our
contemporary
secular civilization. Without the desacralization of political structures,
genuine social change would be impossible. Divine-right monarchs and holy regimes do not lend themselves to change. Without the disenchant-
ment
of nature,
to the field of art in their
i.e., its
human
transformation from a dwelling place of demons
responsibility
and celebration, neither science nor
modern forms could have emerged. Alfred North Whitehead
once argued that the combination of the Christian belief in creation and the evolution of scholastic philosophy laid the groundwork for modern science. His position merely strengthens the case for those who see the secularization of the world not as a massive defection from faith but rather as a further step in the historic relationship of Christianity to culture. Secularization
is
the "defatalization of history."
It
puts the respon-
what happens next squarely in man's hands. What should theology do in the face of the secularization of our world? Three types of answers have begun to arise to this question in our time. The first group of theologians might be called the pruners. They wish to pare down Christianity to lit within the assumptions of what they take to be the modern scientific world view. Paul van Buren and the so-called
sibility for
11
Should Christianity Be Secularized? death-of-God theologians, Thomas Altizer and WiHiam Hamilton, typify this group. I find two difficulties with their solution. First, we can never be really clear about what "the" modern scientific world view is. Modern scientific humanism must contend with various forms of phenomenological philosophy and with a rich variety of marxist revisionisms if it wishes
view of the world. Also, for many of the most sophistiis understood to be operational and models of limited scope, and thus does not pretend to offer a
to supply a viable
cated scientists, scientific method to utilize
"world view." Second,
it is
theologically uncritical
and
nonhistorical. It assumes that
the doctrines of Christianity have a given and changeless content, that
meanings are not subject to historical development, and that theremust either be retained or discarded. It is significant that Altizer comes to the death of God from a previous preoccupation with oriental mysticism, Hamilton from a fondness for Karl Barth, and Van Buren from an attachment to British linguistic philosophy. None of these backgrounds could be expected to prepare these men to grasp the radically historical and developmental character of Christian doctrine. These thinkers are thus guilty of a kind of reverse fundamentalism. The "God" who is "dead" is the God of a very traditional and very orthodox Christian their
fore they
theism.
At the opposite pole, there are those theologians who feel that Chrismust be retained in its classical philosophical housing whether it
tianity
be scholastic or idealistic, or some other. They are the preservationists. An excellent and well-argued example of their work can be found in E. L. Mascall's The Secularization of Christianity. Oddly, theologians of this type agree with the pruners on what the "essential" components of Christianity are, but unlike the modernists they decide to defend rather than discard. They both agree on what "God" means, but the pruners say he is dead while the preservationists say he "exists." Preserving of course always entails a certain amount of pickling, and pickling prevents further growth. Hence, in order to establish their claim, the preservationists criticize not only the pruners, they also criticize those
engaged
The
in the further
development of doctrine and
third group of theologians includes all those
its
who
reinterpretation.
see Christianity
from a historical or developmental perspective. They deny the idea, held by both pruners and preservers, that there is some timeless and irreducible "essence" to Christianity. They understand it rather as a movement of people, a church moving through history with a memory and a vision, entering into riotously different cultural and social forms along the way. Among Roman Catholics, it was John Henry Newman in Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine'^ who first used the concept of docSee The Great Ideas Today 1966, pp. 407
12
fF.
Harvey Cox trinal development successfully, but it has been used since him by Karl Adam, Hans Kung, Leslie Dewart, and Bernard Lonergan. A related category among Protestants is the idea that all texts and doctrines are located
within a context of historical conditions and cannot be fully understood if
this context
is
overlooked.
Both the idea of the development of doctrine and that of historical criticism were opposed by conservative theologians when they first appeared, and are still viewed with suspicion in many places. Nevertheless, most theologians now concede that an accurate understanding of religious truth demands a knowledge of its Sitz im Leben. But even those
who
utilize the historical critical
method often balk
at taking the next
logical step in the process. This step sees not only the past
present as a field of doctrinal development.
It
but also the
sees the present
form of a
developing toward something else. Mallarme once said that the writer's task is "to give a purer meaning to the words doctrine as a stage in
its
of the tribe." Despite hopes of positivists to find for each
equivocal meaning, words are
alive.
word one un-
Their meanings are always a product
both of their former usage and of their present embodiment. This is even more true of doctrines. The nuances of meaning and language in a living religious community are constantly changing, and theologians must be attentive to these changes. Hence they find themselves not only elucidating doctrines but developing them and giving a purer meaning to the symbols of the community. I place myself within the third group in the above classification of current theological approaches.
we
I
reject as reductionistic
any suggestion that
should simply abandon various classical Christian doctrines as archaic
residues of the past. But
I
reject just as vigorously the notion that
should defend them in the form in which
we have
we
inherited them. In
would argue that it is the misguided eflFort to defend Christianity one or another of its classical forms (and the conservatives hotly diflFer with each other on which is "the" classical form) that unwittingly creates the very atheism it seeks to avoid. Atheism is always the shadow of some form of theism. Most atheists today, including those who still want to be fact, I
in
Christians, disbelieve in exactly the
same conventional picture
of
God
that orthodox theologians try so vigorously to defend.
SECULARIZING THEOLOGY then according HOWproceed an age in
to this historical-development
view does theology
of secularization? Secularization
means
that the
world of human history now provides the horizon within which man understands his life. Thus the task of theology is to rethink and develop the doctrines of biblical faith to engage this contemporary sensibility. Naturally, this will be a risky undertaking. But so was the valiant attempt 13
Should Christkinity Be Secularized? of the early Christian apologists to cope with the thought forms of late
hellenism.
So was
Thomas' splendid achievement
St.
biblical faith with the aristotelian tradition.
midst of a reaction against the gians
way
worked within the ambience
Though we
nineteenth-century
in
are
synthesizing
now
German
of philosophical idealism,
I
in the
theolo-
believe
future generations of theological historians will also chronicle their
work
as a brilliant accomplishment. It is fashionable among some theologians today to bewail Christianity's millennium-long alliance with hellenistic philosophy. Certainly it must be granted that this alliance created a theological frame of reference which
produced unnumbered difficulties in subsequent years. Still, hellenism informed the saeculum of the early church. If Christianity was to avoid becoming just one more Jewish sect, it had to enter into the only conceptual lingua franca available to
opment, and that was
criticize the church's hellenization
tieth century. In
today, however,
Rather
it
is
many ways is
in the early centuries of its devel-
it
both cheap and unproductive to from the safe distance of the late twen-
hellenistic. It
is
the synthesis was a brilliant one.
Our
task
neither to perpetuate that synthesis nor to deride
to forge a
new
it.
expression of the biblical faith within the
cultural categories of our day. In doing so
we
will find a study of the
Thomas, of the Reformers, and of nineteenth-century theology not only rewarding but indispensable. We study these classical theological achievements, however, not to pander their particular content but to learn their method, which was always to take the spirit of apologists, of St.
their age with
opens
utmost seriousness, to enter into it with zest. Paul Tillich Theology by stating that theology, which is
his great Systematic
etymologically derived from theos (God) and logos (meaning), must isfy
two basic needs:
It
must
tell
the truth about
God and
sat-
yet also speak
temporal situation. This is what the great classical theologians always did, and in so doing they demonstrated a confidence in the spiritual power of the Gospel and in its capacity to transform culture which seems to the
wholly lacking in the conservative theologians today. How do we begin to do the actual work of moving theology toward
needed "secular phase"? First we must be sure of our theological grounding. There are three major theological insights that provide the
its
toward our modern world and toward They correspond to the three persons in
basis for a positive attitude
the
process of secularization.
the
classical doctrine of the Trinity.
The first is that the God of the Rible does not operate only in through religious or sacred institutions but through events we might "secular." The liberation of the Israelites from Egyptian peonage, conquest of the land of promise, the defeat and exile of the Jews their deliverance from captivity are examples. Indeed, in this sense career of Jesus
is
secular
and has been assigned apocalyptic or sacred 14
and call
the
and the sig-
Harvey Cox nificance only because of the various prisms through
The
appropriated.
crucifixion
"God
recent years to say that
and
was a secular event. acts in history."
It
which
has been
it
has been a truism in
Still,
if
God
alive
still
is
would lead us to try to discern and this means in secular events.
active, the logic of this position
activity in our present history,
The second with
classical doctrine that necessitates
full seriousness is
our taking
this
world
the doctrine of the Incarnation. In Christ,
man
his
God
grime and blood, and in the parties and festivals of earth. Nor is the Incarnation to be understood merely as an isolated episode in God's life. It signifies that God is the One who is fully and irretrievably present in the life of men, that God takes our saeculum with life-and-death seriousness. A church which does not identify with the world, with the same thorough solidarity that God discloses himself as present for
does, betrays
The
its
in the
mission.
do with the traHoly Spirit and points more toward the interpretation of doctrines than toward the discernment of the action of God in third theological base of secular theology has to
ditional doctrine of the
the secular world.
It
suggests that our various inherited doctrines arose
speak to differing ages in the history of the world. be gained only as
in the church's effort to
Thus
we
a proper understanding of these doctrines will
involve ourselves in the continuation of this mission in changed
cir-
cumstances. Traditional theology teaches that the Holy Spirit reveals to believers the true
meaning
of the Bible.
Christians have interpreted the
meaning
see that the
we
ing arises as
of
any
same
But different generations of ways. We can
texts in contrasting
text or doctrine
is
not fixed or closed. Mean-
try in the light of altered conditions to
positions held in the past.
To
make
sense of
those faithfully involved in God's action
what theologians once called the "Missio Dei," the Holy new meanings and nuances in the classical doctrines. As the famous Pastor Robinson told the Pilgrim fathers when they set sail for New England, "God has yet new truth to break forth from his Holy Word." If God works in the world of secular events, and if it is the responsiin the world,
Spirit reveals ever
bility of his
people to discern his action,
this requires a
theology of the
secular. If the Incarnation suggests a worldly focus for theological work,
then
we need
doctrines
new
is
to think in secular terms. If the significance of the classical
not eternally fixed but open to interpretations that illuminate
concerns in history, this requires a secular theology.
any new interan element in historical development. But any theology which confuses a particular sacralized world view— be it Neoplatonic, thomistic-aristotelian, or idealist— with the essential biblical message is marked for extinction. But merely to stop defending antiquated conceptualizations of the faith is hardly sufficient. This does not
pretation of
its
mean
that the church should accept just
doctrines. Continuity
is
15
also
Should Christianity Be Secularized? Theologians must also venture upon
new
conceptualizations, expressions
which utilize the sensibility and the maniere d'etre of the age. Before showing how such a reconceptualization might proceed in one area of doctrine, ecclesiology, I wish to make two further remarks. of the faith
THE OPPORTUNITY FOR CONTEMPORARY THEOLOGY First, the contemporary theologian has a
certain advantage over world which has already been markedly influenced by biblical themes at the very core of its consciousness. As we have seen, theologians sometimes express this with the claim that "God works in the world and not just in the church." This same notion can also be expressed sociologically if one charts the historical sources of such modern phenomena as scientific tech-
the apologists, since he
is
working
in a
modern suspicion and the demand of even the most common people
nology, the social revolutions of exploited peoples, the of closed world views,
for a share in the decision-making process in their societies. All of these
movements spring
from the influence of Christianity on the world. link between Christianity and modern science, a link recognized by Whitehead, even though its sad record in such cases as Galileo and Darwin shows how far the church can depart from the implications of its own message. Arend van Leeuwen in his Christianity in World History (London: Edinburgh House, 1964) documents the role Christianity played in sowing the seeds of the current so-called awakening in the African and Asian countries. Michael Walzer in his The Revolution of the Saints (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965) traces the origin of radical politics and the idea of participatory democracy to the English Puritans. The fact that so many movements in our present world derive from in part
We have already noted the
biblical impulses
means
that the
modern theologian
faces a very different
challenge from the one presented to the church by hellenistic philosophy
and by the medieval rediscovery of Aristotle. His task should be easier. But it will be made even more difficult, indeed impossible, if he insists on clinging to previous philosophical frames of reference. If those philosophical positions are either scholasticism or some other derivative of classical Greek philosophy, he will be in an even more difficult spot, since the great theological challenge of today
is
to
make
sense out of change,
while the Greeks tended to see reality in terms of eternal being.
My second observation about the method involved in articulating a theology today relates to the pluralism and the intense historical consciousness of our time. There is no single encompassing world view today which commands anything
We
Hence we
like the universal prestige Aristotelianism or
probably never again have a single theology. can expect a conscious pluralism of theologies. Some theologians will
idealism did.
will
16
Harvey Cox
work with the various contemporary forms of marxism, others with phenomenology and existentialism, still others with the systematic ways of thinking about man and society emerging from social science. But this pluralism of theological approaches should not worry us. The second hallmark of our time is its consciousness of the provisional and historically conditioned character of
all
thought, including theology.
within the historical-development school believes he theology, or that his
is
the only
way
to
is
No
theologian
writing the final
speak in the modern world. This
and the and willingness to take risks in theological writing today which, though it may annoy many people, contributes to the liveliness and virility of the theological conparticular form of self-delusion belongs mainly to the pruners preservers.
There
is
therefore a certain freedom
versation.
SECULARIZING THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE
Whatwewould
it
mean
to secularize the
listen to the questions
If
message of the church today?
people ask most forcibly today,
we
discover they are not usually questions of cosmological meaning but of
human
significance and ethical value. Despite secularization and the temporal power by the church, people do expect it to provide ethical models and guidelines, and they are dismayed when it does not. loss of
The
tenor and style of a given age's criticisms of the church often suggest
indirectly
what people hunger
sort of loaf they are asking for
for
and do not get from
when
Christianity,
what
the church delivers a stone. In cen-
it hard for its moral laxity, its unseemly opulence, or its intellectual obscurantism. Today, however, the most articulate critics of the church attack it for its failure to act and speak decisively on the great moral issues of the age. Marxists have flayed it for blessing war and economic injustice. Dark-skinned people have derided it for condoning racial discrimination. Rolf Hochhuth in his play The Deputy criticized it for not coming to the defense of the Jews during
turies past, the church's critics hit
the period of Hitler's terror.
Despite the pointedness of these criticisms, what
is
significant in
them
worthwhile to make them. They obviously expect a word from the church about the moral issues of the day and are outraged when it is not forthcoming. In the United States, more people have dropped out of the church because of its cautious position on racial injustice than because they found it difficult to recite the Nicene Creed. Some theologians of course may deplore this concentration on the is
that people think
ethical
and claim that
their anxiety
and
is
it
obscures the "truth question."
justified in a
ethical terms.
come
it
The
period which understands
I
don't believe
itself in political
church's message must assume this contour.
to the "truth question" today
through the ethical question. In 17
We fact,
Should Christianity Be Secularized?
what "truth" means and what For theologians, mired in a scholastic conception of reality, truth is a quality belonging to statements which correspond to an objective essence. For the secular mentality, truth is valency, weight, experiential significance. The Gospel is true if it is dependable. To be a Christian is not to attach credence to propositions but to be among a people whose memories and hopes illuminate human experience and provide a sense of direction. I would submit that this latter view of truth, far from being a crass betrayal of the faith, actually comes much closer to the Hebrew notion of truth, amath, than does some abstract correspondence view of what it means for something to be true. A secular interpretation of the Gospel must be ethical, and in our corporately organized world this means it must be political, and worldly. When Dietrich BonhoeflFer said that the church must never be general in its preaching but must always be specific, must support this program, oppose this war, he was really asking for a secular interpretation of the Gospel. Later, when he suggested just before his death that we must search for a "nonreligious interpretation" of the Gospel, he probably had this political-secular interpretation in mind. To say that the secular meaning of the Gospel today must be ethicalpolitical does not mean it must be handed down in the form of moral principles. It means, rather, that the church needs to reorder its life so that Christians can come together to consult with each other about what God is doing now in the secular world, so that they may joyfully participate in this secular mission of God. The present action of God can only be discerned if people hear the recitation of what he has done in the past and celebrate their hope of what he promises for the future. Thus some kind of worship will take place in the secularized Christian church. It could well be that we will see a revival of some of the forms used by the very earliest Christians, gatherings which resembled family meals it is it
precisely here that the
means
to "believe"
more than massive
comes
whole
issue of
into focus.
ritual performances.
Thus the current
liturgical re-
church is on the right track but has a very long way to go. When we examine forms of church life, it is important to understand that none is in itself sacral. All forms of church life are historically conditioned, fashioned by the church in response to its need to live out its mission and speak its message to succeeding generations of men. Just as vival in the
traditionalist theologians
tianity"
make
make
a fatal mistake
with one or another of
a similar error
when we
its
when
they identify "Chris-
previous forms of expression,
we
all
identify "the church" with a particular
form of its life. But modernists who want to get rid of the church" are equally mistaken. The church must have some form, some institutional expression. Still, no form is eternal. Such things as parishes based on residential proximity, professional clergy, dioceses, historical
"institutional
Harvey Cox and denominations are all merely specific forms of church life, any one of which could be discarded if a more serviceable instrumentality could be found. councils,
THE TEST OF SERVICEABILITY a particular church institution's serviceability? But what wethe testaskof of every particular form church is
Today
this
must
of
life:
Does
custom, this pattern expedite or inhibit the capacity of Christians to
with the secular world? Only by living in such can Christians discern and give witness to the continuing action
live in critical solidarity
solidarity
of
God
for
man
But what
is
in the world.
the source of the criticism in the Christian's "critical
soli-
and most difficult issue that a secular theology must face: the problem of what theologians have usually called "transcendence." One of the most frequently repeated critidarity" with the world? This raises the final
cisms of theologians such as myself
who
dispense with otherworldliness
and Christendom ecclesiology is that we allegedly lose any dimension of transcendence and become absorbed without remainder in the natural world as such. Some critics claim we fritter away that indispensable point of leverage from which the present world may be judged and transformed, that
we become
"me-too" theologians.
Where
is
the point of
criti-
cal leverage in a viable theology of the secular?
Before responding to
this critical question,
that the traditional theologians
lem.
They believe
who make
it is
important to point out
this attack
that the "super-natural" realm or
face the same prob-
some
timeless truth
provides this critical perspective, but in actuality supernatural theologies
have time after time deteriorated into mere sacral legitimations of particular world views. Even more frequently, churches have criticized society not from "above history" but from behind it, from the perspective of some bygone era in which the position of the church, or of the values it thought important, seems to have been more secure. Although traditional theologies have a formal source of critical perspective, in actuality it often displays less real transcendence than their proponents admit. Still, the problem remains for the theologian of the saectilum: What is the source of the transcendence without which any theology loses its critical and renewing perspective? Amos Wilder has written.
we are to have any transcendence today, even Christian, it must be in and through the secular. ... If we are to find Grace it is to be found in the world and not overhead. The sublime firmament of overhead reality that provided a spiritual home for the souls of men If
until the eighteenth century has collapsed.
Meaning," The
& Ward,
New
—In "Art and Theological
Orpheus, ed. Nathan Scott (New York: Sheed
1964).
19
Should Christianity Be Secularized? But what
is
a transcendence "in and through the secular"?
We
cannot
The "overhead" is gone. The "depth" language of Tillich be no more than a new spatial imagery with the same prob-
sacralize the past.
turns out to
What then in our existence within history does point us toward the transcendent? At what place in his life is man lems the "overhead" once had.
touched by something which accosts him,
calls
him
to accountability,
is
not subject to his manipulative control?
Theologians today have begun to answer that question with the term The disappearing instant where all that was and is stands before
"future."
what is to be— this is the point where the transcendent touches secular man. There he senses infinite possibility, the need for choice, the reality of hope and mystery. In this respect, as in many others, modern secular man, whose horizon of intention is history itself, has more in common with biblical man than with "classical Christian man." The Jewish scriptures refer to God variously as "He That Cometh," the "God of Promise," and "the one who goes before." Early Christianity had a radically futuredirected orientation: the point of leverage for the young church was not a sacral past but a coming Kingdom. Likewise for theologians of the is seen as unconditionally open-ended, transcendence becomes temporal rather than spatial, and the church is viewed as that part of the world which lives already in the reality of that which is hoped for. As the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, "Faith is
secular today, history
the substance of things
hoped
for."
In political terms, this means the church's critique of society becomes radical rather than conservative. Its vision
been
lost
religiosity
but by what can yet be.
It
is
informed not by what has
summons man not
to return to a lost
but to move forward toward an authentic secularity. In calling
opposed to spurious types of secularity, the church questions the endowment of any particular secular society with ultimacy or finality. Secularity which is closed to the future has already become sacral, and this may be why theologians of the secular, from Gogarten on, have made a sharp distinction between secularity and secufor genuine secularity as
larism.
Whenever
the process of secularization
is
arrested or fixed at a
becomes secularism, a closed world view which must in turn be broken open. Thus the question of whether we can develop a viable secular theology today depends on whether theologians can reappropriate eschatology and make it once again as central to the life of the church as it was in the beginning of that life. Eschatology has to do with "the last things" or with the future. It is usually dealt with by theologians in a peripheral way. But Roman Catholic theologian Karl Rahner now calls Christianity "the religion of the absolute future," and Protestant theologian Gerhard particular point, this
Sauter argues that the "ontological priority of the future"
component
of biblical faith.
My
conviction, too,
20
is
is
the unique
that eschatology
must
"
Harvey Cox be utterly central to theology, that all doctrines must be seen in the light of faith's awareness of an unconditionally open secular future for which man is unreservedly accountable. When all the dogmas and institutions of the church are seen in this light, our task as theologians becomes clearer. It is neither to prune nor preserve the faith but to interpret and reinterpret it for succeeding epochs of men. In our time, it means we must take the risk the martyred German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer called for, "to speak in a secular fashion of God.
A
NEW THEOLOGY WILL
BE PRODUCED WHEN THE CHURCH DISCARDS ALL HANKERING FOR A ROSIER PAST
^^H
f
i
E. L.
MASCALL
was England in 1905. He received the B.A. degree from Cambridge and the B.Sc. from London, with First Class Honors in Mathematics, and also holds the D.D. degree from Cambridge and Oxford. Ordained in the Church of England in 1932, Dr. Dr. E. L. Mascall, the distinguished Anglican theologian,
horn
in
Mascall holds the unusual honor of twice being selected Bampton Lecturer, first in Oxford and then in Columbia University. He has also
been Boyle Lecturer
lications include:
in 1965-66. Dr. Mascall's principal
He Who
Is
(1943),
pub-
Christian Theology and
Natural Science (1956), The Importance of Being Human (1958), Existence and Analogy (1966), The Christian Universe (1966),
and The
Secularisation of Christianity (1965).
Long
associated
with Oxford University, since 1962 he has been Professor of Historical Theology in the University of London. Dr. Mascall works at King's College in
London.
22
AVhy
Christianity
Should Not Be Secularized
no more," Godphrases such is
"religionless Christianity,"
"God without God." When
as these are heard, as they are
avowed
on
all
sides today,
from
but of Christian ministers and theologians, it is not surprising that people sit up and take notice. What, they find themselves asking, can Christians possibly be meaning when they use such paradoxical expressions as these? Before discussing the movement of thought that lies behind them, it may be well to devote a little space to these phrases themselves. First, then, "God is no more." These words in fact form the title of a tempestuous book by Werner and Lotte Pelz which was published in 1963. Now when we say, for example, "Mussolini is no more," we normally the lips not of
atheists or skeptics
dead at the moment of speakis no more," because Lemuel Gulliver, as an actual person, never existed; the most we could say would be "If Lemuel Gulliver had ever existed, he would be no more by now." So when the Pelzes say "God is no more," they cannot be meaning "If God had ever existed as a real person, he would not be existing today."
mean ing.
that Mussolini
We
was once
alive
but
is
should not say "Lemuel Gulliver
Nevertheless, it is difficult to suppose that they intend their sentence to have the normal meaning, "God used to exist at one time, but he does not exist today." What in fact they seem to be meaning is that, in a metaphorical sense, the idea of God is "no more," that is to say that it is practically impossible for the idea of God to be formed in a human mind today, or, at any rate, that if it is so formed it will carry with it no feeling of relevance to human life. The statement thus becomes an assertion about contemporary human psychology; it will not imply that God himself (as distinct from our idea of him) does not exist, unless we make the further assumption that no being can exist unless contemporary people can form
the idea of lives.
Now
it or, it
having formed that idea, feel that
does seem to be true that, as
23
I
shall
it is
relevant to their
go on
to
emphasize,
Should Christianity Be Secularized? people at the present day find having formed it, to feel that it
God of
difficult to
it
is
himself does not exist unless
them are
by the
Pelzes,
many
Like
practically equivalent.
form the idea of
God
or,
relevant; but this will not imply that
we assume that beings and our ideas And this assumption is, I think, made
whether they are conscious that they are making
it
or not.
other people today they are making their minds, and the
minds of people like them, the criterion by which they judge the existence and importance of all other beings, even of God himself. If this discussion has seemed somewhat technical, it is none the less germane, for the assumption which I have exposed underlies most of the writing
whom we
of the thinkers with
are here concerned.
is derived from the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. As Alan Richardson has pointed out,^
"Religionless Christianity." This phrase
the
word
translated
tianity that
man
"religious" simply
objective, outward-looking,
as a whole. It certainly does not
less in the
this
is
by
little
sub-
and concerned with the
mean
Christianity that
is
life
"God without God." Dieu sans Dieu
may be made
of
religionit
in
right to claim Bonhoefi^er in their support.
of the Bishop of Woolwich's
dictory
individualistic,
normal English sense of the word, and those who use
way have
cisms
means
"ReHgionless Christianity" thus merely means Chris-
jective, or pietistic.
of that work,
title as this. It
is
the
book Honest it
of the French edition God, but, whatever criti-
title
to
hardly deserves such a self-contra-
may perhaps have been
suggested by the phrase
"Religion without God," which was originally applied to the system of
Comte in the early nineteenth century and which provoked the famous comment "Religion sans Dieu? Mon Dieu, quelle religion!," but one need only read Dr. Robinson's book to see that he certainly talks a great deal about God, whatever may be the precise meaning that he attaches to the term. What, we may inquire, is the conception of Christianity that lies behind such phrases as these just mentioned, and what is the significance of their use? Why is it that many people today defend what they describe as "secularized Christianity," and sometimes, as with Thomas Altizer, even as "Christian atheism"? And why is it that such descriptions, which would have been repudiated indignantly by Christians in the past, are now offered as containing the key to the church's message to men and women? the French positivist Auguste
THE "gODLESSNESS" OF THE WORLD be the Ourmovementpointthemustseventeenth starting
fact that since the rise of the scientific
in
more taken 1
for granted that "this
History, Sacred
and Profane (London,
century
world"
is
1964), p. 81.
24
it
has
become more and
the whole of reality and that
E. L. Mascall the total concern of man. Whether God and a future life are denied or not, it is certainly assumed that neither need be taken into account in the ordering of either individual lives or the life of the community as a whole. The tremendous transformation of civilization "this life"
is
explicitly
that has taken place as a result of the growth of scientific technology,
with
all
that
it
has brought in the
way
has conditioned our minds in such a
people
when they contemplate
of new comforts and new anxieties, way that it is no longer natural for
the world around
them
to see
as the
it
creation of a transcendent God, in
whom
true bliss are to be found; rather
appears to them simply as material
it
their ultimate
end and
their
by man. would be quite unjust to blame science and scientists for this, as if they were essentially Godless. From the seventeenth century to the present day there have been multitudes of scientists who were devout believers and for whom the discoveries of science provided ever fresh material for humble and marveling adoration of the Creator. In spite of what we can now see to have been stupid and unnecessary conflicts, in which church leaders were to blame not so much for opposing scientists as such but rather for allying themselves with the older and more conservative scientists against the younger and progressive ones, it is not from science that the main opposition to religion comes at the present for ever increasing exploitation
Now
it
What
however, is that the impact of scientific technology both individuals and communities has conditioned them to view the world simply as material for manipulation by technologists day.
upon the
is
true,
lives of
for the satisfaction of their this-worldly needs
God who
and conserves it. Much could be said about this from both the
this to the
sophical point of view, but this
concerned with
is
is
the reaction of
situation. In the past the
men have
beyond
and not
to see
historical
and the
creates
not the place for
many
it.
philo-
What we
are
present-day Christians to this
more farsighted and
conceived their task as twofold.
sensitive Christian spokes-
First,
they have labored to
convince their contemporaries that the discoveries of science, so far from
undermining the church's agelong beliefs, are fully compatible with them and provide widening realms for their application. Second, they have tried to work out and commend principles for directing the technological developments and organizing human society in such a way that human beings, as Christianity views them, shall be able to live in this world as God's children destined for eternal life with him. This task has been diflBcult, not only because technological development, on the scale and the rapidity with which it has gone on, has dazzled our minds by its achievements and overwhelmed them by its sheer size but also because the modern techniques of communication— newspapers, books, radio, television, and the whole industry of advertising and propaganda— have subjected us to an incessant process of psychological conditioning through 25
Should Christianity Be Secularized?
which
it
has
become second nature
to us to judge all
human
questions by
standards of value which, whether they are sordid or idealistic, are purely this-worldly in their assumptions. Intelligent Christians in the past— and many, too, at the present dayhave done all in their power to resist this process of conditioning, not because they looked upon "this world" as evil or unimportant but for precisely the opposite reason: that they believed it to be God's creation to be used for God's glory and transformed by his grace. It was this conviction, for example, that produced the great sequence of papal social encyclicals and the Anglican movement of social thinking that has extended from Frederick D. Maurice in the early nineteenth century through Charles Gore and William Temple down to the present day. For this body of thought, the world is neither irrelevant nor self-sufficient; it is material for transformation by the power of God acting in the lives of men and women. For this tradition, therefore, there is a very clear theology of the secular, that is to say, a branch of theology which is concerned with the things of "this world and with man as a member of it; it sees nature as avid for transformation by grace, and the secular as organically related to the eternal. It assesses all man's activities in "this world" and in "this life by its belief that he is created and sustained by God and has been redeemed by Christ for life in God. This is, as I have said, a theology of the secular, that is to say, a theology which has much to say about the secular order, but it is not a secularized theology. On the other hand, a theology which expresses itself in phrases such as those which I quoted at the beginning of this article— and of which typical exponents are the Bishop of Woolwich, Paul van Buren, Harvey Cox, and R. Gregor Smith-— is quite definitely a secularized theology, that is to say, a theology which accepts the secularized world's estimate of itself, which forces into line with that estimate such parts of the Christian tradition as it can, without regard to the violence which may be done to the latter in the process, and jettisons such parts of the Christian tradition as it cannot. In pursuit of this program, it is willing to redefine God in secular terms (Robinson), to give up talking about him (Cox), or even to give up belief in God altogether (Van Buren). What it clearly cannot do is to abandon all belief in Jesus of Nazareth if it is to retain the name "Christian" at all, though it is ready to go very far in that direc'
"
Thus Van Buren, while accepting the historical existence of Jesus and the fact of his crucifixion, discards almost the whole of the Gospel tion.
narrative as fictitious.
He
explains the church's belief in the Resurrection
John A. T. Robinson, Honest to God (London, 1963), The New Reformation (London, 1965); Paul van Buren, The Secular Meaning of the Gospel (London, 1963); Harvey Cox, The Secular City (London, 1964); R. Gregor Smith, Secular Christianity (London, 1966). Cf. also William Hamilton, The Neiv Essence of Christianity (New York, 1961); Thomas Altizer, The Gospel of Christian Atheism (Philadelphia, 1966).
26
E. L. Mascall as
having simply resulted from some mysterious and unparalleled "Easter
experience" of the primitive church just after the Crucifixion, which ex-
an outburst of myth-making, leading ultimately to the them, and which was communicated from one generation to another by a process analogous to infection by a contagious disease, although, on Van Buren's view, neither Jesus nor anyone else pressed
itself in
Gospels as
we have
has ever survived the event of bodily death.
Van
Buren's
is,
of course, an extreme position,
to attribute all the elements of
Christianity.
it
and
it
would be wrong
to all the exponents of secularized
Nevertheless, they agree in holding that in order to be
modern man Christian
belief must be reinterpreted so that concerned entirely with "this world" and "this life." Whether there are or are not a transcendent God and a future life, they are quite irrelevant to an updated Christian theology; this will be concerned entirely with the things of this world.
relevant to it
is
The
lengths to which this process of "reinterpretation" has to go in
order to retain anything of the language of the Christian tradition are
very remarkable indeed;'^ the changes in meaning that words are forced to undergo would be described by most people not as "reinterpretation" but as rejection. This whole process has been analyzed and criticized
Hugo Meynell in his book Sense, Nonsense and ChrisTo an independent judgment it will, I think, appear as the most
very radically by tianity.*
extraordinary failure of nerve in the realm of belief that the Christian
church has ever experienced.
Its
exponents have become so deeply con-
vinced of the impossibility of preaching a supernatural Gospel to the contemporary world that they are ready to refashion the Gospel to any extent
if
only they are allowed to go on calling
fore not surprising that they find themselves
it
Christianity. It
drawn toward
is
there-
a philosoph-
which in any case historical factuality is of no imporSuch a position is found in the existentialism of Martin Heidegger. They are not the first theologians who have found Heidegger's existentialism congenial to them. The well-known Biblical scholar Rudolf Bultmann had already convinced himself, by a ruthless application to the Gospels of the critical method known as form criticism, that nothing was really known about Jesus except that he had existed and had been crucified; everything else, he persuaded himself, was due to the myth-making propensities of the primitive church. He was, on the other hand, convinced, as a good Protestant, that the church's essential activity was preaching, and that the object of preaching was to bring one's hearers into a vital relationship of faith, a reorientating of the personality, which ical position for
tance.
3 Cf. the discussion of
Van Buren's
"reinterpretations" in E. L. Mascall,
sation of Christianity (London, 1965), pp. 85
4 London, 1964.
27
ft.
The
Seculari-
Should Christianity Be Secularized?
had
really nothing to
do with the truth of
actual occurrence of historical events.
intellectual propositions or the
To Bultmann,
therefore, the phi-
losophy of Heidegger, for which the whole of reality was to be found in
moment-to-moment existential decisions made by individual human subjects, came as a most welcome ally. If the Gospel stories could be taken not as narratives of historical events but as mythological material with which, by the technique of preaching, people could be confronted in such a way as to bring them to existential decisions, the Christian religion
could be
made completely immune
and
Thus
to attacks
from
historians, philoso-
and the extreme have found themselves drawn together in a holy alliance on the basis of existentialist philosophy; for both of them it is important to reconstruct Christianity in such a way that the Gospel narratives, and especially the supernatural elements in them, need not be taken as acphers,
form
scientists alike.
it is
that the secularizers
critics
counts of actual events.
SECULARISM AND THE BIBLE
There
is,
however, one consideration which
is
really fatal to the posi-
on to the name
tion of the Christian secularizers. In order to cling
they must believe something more about Jesus than that there was once a man with this name who was put to death by cruciof Christian at
all,
we know
nothing more about him than this it is not even him as a definite person. Many Jews were called Jesus, and not a few Jews were crucified; there may, for all we know, have been several who were both. To which of them are we to give our allegiance? In fact, both Bultmann and the secularizers do go a good way further than their professed principles should allow them. They are ready, on the whole, to accept the Gospel narrative as factual, provided the supernatural elements have been eliminated. This is in itself a highly suspicious circumstance, for it implies that the myth-making propensity of the primitive church led it to invent supernatural events right and left, but hardly ever to invent purely natural ones. However, there is something more damaging than this. When the demythologizing has been brought to its conclusion and the last shred of supernatural events has been removed, what is the figure, the human figure, of Jesus that remains? fixion, for if
possible to identify
The dreadful
truth
is
that
it is
the figure of a Jesus
in the supernatural. In spite of all that
correctly,
about Jesus as "the
man
we
who
are told,
for others," the fact
himself believed
and is
told perfectly
that Jesus him-
believed that there was a Father in heaven and that
it was his sudo the Father's will. The religion of the secularizers may be unsupernatural, but, on their own showing, the religion of Jesus was not. Have they any really valid claim to call themselves Christian, when, in the sense which they give to the word, Christ himself was not?
self
preme duty
to
28
I
IL
Jt^'CSa
"1?^
Should Christianity Be Secularized? Furthermore, it is extremely difficult to understand what grounds they can have, consistent with their own position, for the unique status which they agree with more orthodox Christians in assigning to Jesus. For these latter, believing as they do that Jesus is both God and man, that in him
human
nature
is
united to the preexistent and transcendent Second Per-
son of the triune Godhead, all if
the
men who have
it is
not
difficult to
see that he
is
unique among
ever been born and have lived on this earth. But
the whole notion of the supernatural
every respect like fact the best of
all
them
is repudiated, Jesus must be in perhaps conceivable that he is in because presumably, however many men there
other men. all,
It is
have been, one of them must have been the best (unless several were precisely equal in goodness), in the same sort of way that among all the elephants who have ever lived on the earth, one of them must have been the heaviest (unless several were precisely equal in weight). But this
not imply that Jesus was
would
from us in any essential way. It would certainly not imply that we ought to have a relationship to him that was difiFerent in kind from that which we have to all other men. It would not make him, as the man for others, essentially diflFerent from any other man who had given himself to the service of his fellowmen. Nor would it rule out the possibility that somewhere there would appear on earth another man who was as self-sacrificing as, or even more self-sacrificing than, he. If
appeal
is
made
diflFerent
to the Gospels in support of the uniqueness of Jesus,
to us from people who held which the secularizers repudiate. If it is said that we know by our personal experience of him that he is unique, it must be replied that if, after demythologizing the Gospel it
must be replied
that the Gospels
come
precisely that supernatural view of Jesus
record,
we
are left with nothing about Jesus except the fact that he ex-
and was crucified (and perhaps, not to press Bultmann too far, with a few further unidentifiable reminiscences as well), it is very difficult to see how we can identify the person of whom we have personal experience with the Jesus of the Gospel; how do we know that it is not Buddha or Krishna of whom we have this experience? And if, as thoroughly consistent secularizers, we hold with Van Buren that neither Jesus nor anyone else survives his bodily death, it is even more difficult to see how we can have any personal experience of someone who is not alive in bodily form on the earth today. The most that we could say would be that we are able to feel as if the Jesus of the Gospels was still alive and with us, but this would be nothing more than an interesting psychological fact about ourselves, namely the fact that we were able after reading the Gospels to construct for ourselves the image of a man, to whom we gave the name "Jesus," which we found uniquely inspiring. Now I am absolutely sure that the secularizing Christians have an experience of Jesus which is other than this; the way in which they speak and write about him shows it. But I am equally certain that they cannot account for this isted
30
E. L. Mascall it can be acwhich they pro-
experience on the grounds which they themselves allege;
counted
for only
by that supernatural view
of Jesus
fessedly reject.
Surprising as such a claim
have claimed
may
be,
many
in his very interesting
book The Secular
tics,"
Thus Cox,
City, has applied to the account
of creation in Genesis the description "the to the
secularizers of Christianity
to find the basis of their position in the Bible.
Disenchantment of Nature,"
account of the Exodus the description "the Desacralization of Poliand to the Covenant at Sinai the description "the Deconsecration
of Values."'"'
He
points out that for "pre-secular"
man
all
natural objects
and magical, all social officers and organs are also divine, and all the valuations which he has inherited are absolute and immutable. "Just as nature is perceived by tribal man both as a part of his family and as the locus of religious energy, so the political power structure is accepted as an extension of familial authority and as the unequivocal Both tribal man and secular man see the world from will of the gods. a particular, socially and historically conditioned point of view. But modern secular man knows it, and tribal man did not; therein lies the crucial diflPerence."'' I am somewhat doubtful whether the ordinary inhabitant of our secular cities— the girl behind the counter at Woolworth's are divine
.
.
.
fan— is very conscious of the relativity of the scale which he is a member; I think rather that he accepts them unreflectingly as part of the natural order of things and has a somewhat contemptuous attitude to those of lesser breeds outside his law. I fully agree that the Christian doctrine of the Creator-God makes it impossible to view any natural object or any human authority as intrinsically divine. But I cannot agree that the biblical view of creation is the first step in the movement toward complete secularization. I think we may see here one of those not uncommon instances in which apparently academic theological nuances have extremely practical or the average baseball
of values of the society of
implications. Cox's conception of creation
one. It sees the world as
who,
as
it
were,
owing
commands
it
its
is
a very
common
Protestant
existence to a sheer utterance
into existence as
by God,
something of a
On
totally
view might well seem that creatures could have no knowledge of God whatever and would therefore have to order their aflFairs as if he did not exist. It is possible to stress God's utter supremacy and "otherness" in such a way that, for all practical purposes, he might just as well not exist. Karl diflFerent
nature from his and having no real relation to him.
this
it
Barth's rejection of if it
all
forms of natural theology would lead to
were not supplemented by
his further assertion that
he wishes, reveal himself in arbitrary 5 Op.
cit.,
6 Op.
cit.,
pp. 21, 25, 30. pp. 25, 30.
31
and unconditioned
God acts.
this result
can,
when may
This
Should Christianity Be Secularized? possibly— though hoeflFer, so
am
I
not sure— underlie the famous sentence of Bon-
dear to the secularizers, "God
is
teaching us that
we must
live
men who
can get on very well without him." There is, however, another view of creation, which is common to Western Catholicism and to Eastern Orthodoxy, which sees the difiFerence as
between God and there
is
a relation
his creatures as consisting precisely in the fact that
between them.
It is
God and
the
entirely self-existent
and
quite emphatic that
creature are of radically different status:
God
is
and the creature is entirely dependent and finite. But it is dependent on God, without whose incessant creative activity it could not exist for one moment. Therefore it is in perpetual communication with God, and the very genuine, but relative and finite, autonomy which it enjoys is the consequence of, and is not contradicted by, its utter dependence on God. And it is, I would hold, this view that is assumed by the Bible and not an incipient secularism. When Gox describes the Genesis account of creation as "really a form of 'atheistic propaganda',"" I can accept this only if the word "atheistic" is meant to imply that the world is not divine, but not if it means that God does not exist or that he is irrelevant to the world's concerns. I believe that we touch here the basic difference between Protestant and Catholic Christianity, which underlies all their more obvious disagreements; it is a difference about the relation between God and the world, about the fundamental status of the creature. I would not myself have ventured to say, especially in these ecumenical days, that the ultimate outcome of Protestantism is practical, if not theoretical, atheism. But, since such an intelligent Protestant as Cox says so, I feel that this is one of the points at which dialogue is urgently necessary. It is paradoxical, but not unintelligible, that an unbalanced emphasis upon the absolute supremacy of God can end up self-sustaining,
entirely
in a virtual denial of his existence.
THE SECULARIST CAPITULATION to my central theme, that in their proposal to offer world a secularized version of Christianity, the thinkcriticizing have radically misunderstood the nature both
must now return
I
to a secularized
ers
whom
I
am
of the Christian Gospel
and of the present-day world.
It is
not surprising
that a certain initial success should attend a presentation of the Christian
own measurebe long-lived, and there are already signs that intelligent secularists have seen through it. There are also signs that some of its most vocal exponents have come to see that if you are going to secularize Christianity to this extent you had
religion that
ments.
7 Op.
I
cit.,
is
cut precisely to the present-day world's
cannot think, however, that
p. 23.
32
this success will
E. L. Mascall better keep the secularism
and drop the
Christianity. Right
beginning, the Christian church has been conscious that to challenge the assumptions of
was
deficient in
its
from the
was bound knew that the world it
its environment, for it understanding of its own predicament. Lacking the
man is the creature of God and yet a fallen creaand ignorant of the fact that in Christ God himself had come to redeem him, the pagan world oscillated between cynical hedonism and frank despair. The astonishing multiplicity and diversity of the religious systems which offered recipes for human salvation testifies to the desperation and impotence to which men and women were reduced. There was little in them to appeal to intelligent people; we may recall the famous remark of Edward Gibbon that "the various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful."* It was the achievement of the Christian church to rescue men from this bondage, and to show them that the partial truths which the \'arious cults contained were to be found in their fullness in the Christian Gospel. Christianity was both the destroyer and the residuary legatee of the pagan religions. clear recognition that ture,
Our
situation
is
very different, for the church today
is
confronted not
by a conflicting and competing multitude of rival religions but by a miasma of sheer Godlessness, which has disintegrated the Christian civilization of the Western world and has gone far toward swallowing up the ancient religious civilizations of Asia and the tribal religious cultures But different as our situation is, the task of the church fundamentally the same. It is that of bringing men and women from darkness and the shadow of death into the glorious liberty of the children of Africa as well.
is
God. The Christian attitude toward the contemporary world must be one neither of hostility nor of acquiescence but of discrimination and of
understanding. The total capitulation of the Christian secularizers to the is no doubt governed by the best motives; they are win people to a verbal acceptance of the Christian religion that they are ready to place the label "Christian" on everything that they
climate of the time so anxious to
see. But, objectively considered, this
apostasy. It
is,
is
a loss of nerve that
is
near to
we need to discover new ways of new situation, and a situation in which
of course, true that
presenting the Christian faith in a
we are confronted not by rival religions but by no religion is undoubtedly a new one in the church's experience. But for this very reason the utmost care and consideration are needed if we are not to defeat the very purpose for which the church
is
here.
have not attempted here to disprove the arguments which are directed against the truth of orthodox Christianity, though I believe I
8
The Decline and
Fall of the Roinan Empire, chap,
33
ii;
GBWW,
Vol. 40, p.
12b.
HUMAN
BEINGS SHALL BE ABLE TO LIVE IN THIS M'ORLD AS GODS CHILDREN DESTINED FOR ETERNAL LIFE WITH HIM
E. L. Mascall
My
they are in fact invalid.
reason
is
that the Christian secularizers
argument of this kind. Anyone who has tried to argue with tliem will have been exasperated by their unwillingness to face straight issues of truth and falsehood. Hardly ever is one
themselves go in very
little
for
told that such-and-such a belief
is
false;
it
is
always
"modem man
twentieth-century man, or secular man, or man-come-of-age)
is
(or
no longer
able (or willing, or prepared) to think in that way." There are, of course, newly discovered facts and truths about man and the world which need to be assimilated by Christian thinkers. There are new ethical problems, arising specially in fields as diverse as genetic studies, population plan-
ning,
and methods of war, whose solutions cannot be found
in the exist-
ing manuals of moral theology and which need the most frank and respectful cooperation of experts in
been done along these salutary
lines.
Christian
that
equipped and
many
theologians
baffled; this
is
Much work
fields.
In such a situation
sometimes
will
Christian gospel, cial
and it
insights; that will not only
and
inadequately
is
to
abandon
his dis-
be unfaithfulness to the
will also deprive his non-Christian fellows of the spe-
help that he might have been able to give them. In a situation as
novel as that of the present day, the thing that others is
feel
true about other experts as well. But the
worst thing a Christian can do in such a situation tinctive position
has already
inevitable, right,
it is
is
that
we
shall
is
keep our heads and not panic.
necessary above
And
it is
all
panic that
the most evident note of secularized theology.
modern world Christians should be tempted by the church's apparent lack of success, and that they should look back with a certain nostalgia to the days when Christianity was the avowed faith of whole nations and when as a matter of course all but the most courageous unbelievers took part in the worship of the church. But it may well be doubted whether there was in fact more deliberate, intelligent, and courageous religious practice in such times than there is today. Religious practice was often just as much a matter of social conIt is
natural that in the
to despair
it is now. And I am often filled with admirawhich many Cliristian layfolk order their lives (and not merely say their prayers and come to church), in spite of the psychological and other forms of pressure to which they are constantly subjected from the circumambient secular environment. It may very well be, as Fr. Karl Rahner has suggested, that the present diaspora-situation of the church— a condition in which Christians are a minority scattered throughout a secularized community— is only temporary and may yield to a new Christendom. Whether that will be so, and if so when, we are
formity then as the lack of
tion for the
way
in
not in a position to of surprises.
be very
The
tell;
history almost always proceeds as a succession
What we can be
diflFerent
sure about from the old ones.
is
that a
new Christendom
will
great Christian civilizations of the past— those of medieval West-
35
Should Christianity Be Secularized?
em
Europe and Byzantium— were the outcome
times from very mixed motives) of rulers, the church with
them
of the conversion (some-
who brought
as a matter of course.
their subjects into
The consequence was
that,
while the social organism as a whole bore quite genuine marks of Christian character, the religion of individual
run
all
the
way from
men and women
its
could
cynical or superficial conformism at the one extreme
to blazing sanctity at the other.
And even
so,
the basically insufficient
shown by the endemic conflict between West and by the Byzantine Caesaropapism in
character of the structure was
church and state
in the
the East. These particular forms of Christendom are most unlikely to be
repeated, for they went with a particular stage of social and political
development which was the correlate of a preindustrial and pretechnological economy. in what respects, twentieth-century man can be demore "mature" than his ancestors is not an easy question to
Whether, and scribed as
is it easy to say whether there is any intelligible sense in which he can be said to have now "come of age." On matters such as this, it is well to be prudently agnostic. Of one thing, however, I feel sure: When in future ages men look back upon our present century, they will see the movement to secularize Christian theology as an odd and transient phenomenon, only to be explained by a loss of nerve on the part of a group of well-meaning Christians, whose fear that the church had altogether lost touch with the contemporary world had led them into
answer, nor
frantic capitulation in a desperate attempt for survival.
j^-vSLii:
A«OOKFa»-tl*iKl.MMe»>QM«TUVWXVZliS9^B«TS«j
jsisrj
:'^ '^
W
d
E. L. Mascall
THE SECULARIZATION OF THE WORLD IS NOT A MASSIVE DEFECTION FROM FAITH BUT RATHER A FURTHER STEP IN THE HISTORIC RELATIONSHIP OF CHRISTIANITY TO CULTURE
37
MARTIN
E.
MARTY
Martin E. Marty, Chairman of the Church History field at the University of Chicago, was born in 1928 in West Point, Nebraska. Dr. Marty, an ordained minister, was educated at Concordia Seminary, Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary, and the University of Chicago, where he took a Ph.D. in American religious and intellectual history. Co-editor of Church History, the professional journal of the American Society of Church History, the annual
New
Theology, and Associate Editor of Christian is influential in shaping contemporary
Century, Dr. Marty's voice
theology. Dr. Marty has written,
Unbehef
among many
titles.
Varieties of
Rehgion and Social Conflict (1964), The Infidel: Freethought and American Religion (1961), and The New Shape of American Religion (1959). Dr. Marty lives in Riverside, Illinois, (1964),
with his wife and children.
38
Does Secular Theology
Have
a Future?
philosophers in nineteenth-century Germany claimed that they had succeeded in transforming religion into atheism. The French critic Ernest Renan, after he had surveyed their attempts, ad-
God-killing
vised people: Never believe a atheist.
The German's
German when he
religious impulse
tells you that he is an was always too profound, his
atheism too qualified to be convincing. Today's religious thinkers often claim to represent the advance guard of secularization. Now it is time to advise their readers: Never trust a theologian
when he
tells
you that he
has succeeded in secularizing religion. His rehgious roots remain too complex, his definitions of the secular too specialized to convey convenis by no means all That this is so becomes clear once we has developed. To understand it, we need to know the
tional meanings. In other words. Christian secularism
that
it
sometimes claims
consider
how
it
to be.
needs that it is attempting to satisfy. The beginning of the Secular Theology Episode can be traced to the end of World War II with the publication in Germany of Dietrich BonhoeflFer's prison letters. These letters appealed for a "religionless Christianity" in a world
of
German thought on
come
of age.
They summarized
religionlessness (by Karl Barth)
(by Friedrich Gogarten and others).
The movement
a generation
and secularization
to secularize religion
crested with the pubhcation in the early 1960's of Bishop John Robinson's
Honest to God, Paul van Buren's The Secular Meaning of the Gospel, and Harvey Cox's The Secular City. It took a dramatic turn in William Hamilton's radical godlessness and lives a less dramatic afterlife in recent works like R. G. Smith's Secular Christianity, Colin Williams' Faith in a Secular Age, and Lesslie Newbigin's Honest Religion for Secular Man. Frontier theologians have begun to move to other concerns, but the issues pre-
sented during this episode will remain as public disturbances.
The very
idea of secularizing anything religious seems startling.
Yorker writer
summarized
Ved Mehta,
after
from what we may take to be a characteristic New Theologian set himself the old task of and theology with reason and secularism, and doing so
their efforts
public point of view: "The
equating faith
New
he had visited representative radicals,
39
Should Christianity Be Secularized? without any sacrifice on either side— a task, in its way, no less tantahzing than squaring the circle."^ Tantahzing, indeed. For half a millennium religious leaders had fought a rear-guard action against secularization, tending to bless anything religious. Then, for half a century. Christian theologians attacked "religion" because
it
represented
human
striving,
which kept man from hearing the message of the Christian faith. It is only within the past five years that church people have been urged by theologians to bless the secular and told that this new attitude to secularity is not only no threat to faith but can enhance it. Secular theology claims that it has developed out of the logic of prophetic religion and its biblical momentum. The effort to bring together the world of religion and the secular had become urgent. While eventually and inevitably the debate centered on "the problem of God," it was demonstrably a debate over the human
lived off
based on analysis of the present. "We are not talking about the absence of the experience of God, but about the experience of the absence of God," wrote Hamilton.- In neither version was speculative metaphysfuture,
ics or
revelation the obsession. In either version not
phenomenon was
God
but the
human
the center of debate.
That theologians do their work in an age when they must speak of God's silence or eclipse or death means only that men are experiencing his absence. Religious thinkers
take such an epochal change in
would
fail in their
human
duty
if
they did not
Not to the accommodating spirit of traitorous theologians but to widespread public practice must be ascribed the warrant for the change in which the old cosmic backdrop, the ageless curtain of transcendence, had gradually begun to disappear from view. Theologian Rudolf Bultmann asked, in this mood: "Have you read anywhere [in the newspapers] that political or social or economic events are performed by supernatural powers such as God, angels or demons? Such events are always ascribed to natural powers, or to good or bad will on the part of men, or to human wisdom or stupidity."'* Clerics and laymen alike read the newspapers. Their vision need not be limited by the mentality these reflect, but their language is shaped by the common experience of their time which that menculture into account.
tality daily nurtures.
The new theologians were not content with the newspapers' vision. They wanted to move people beyond it. They advocated a secular style but loaded the term "secular" with
many
different
meanings and signifiit one way; when
cances. In their analytic and descriptive work they used
1
The
New
Theologian (New York: Harper
2 William Hamilton and Thomas
God (New
J.
J.
& Row,
1966), p. 209.
Altizer, Radical
Theology and the Death of
York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1966), p. 28.
3 Jesiis Christ and Mythology
(New
York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1958), p. 37.
40
Martin E. Marty it
turned up in their constructive and prescriptive writing it meant someVed Mehta thought they were trying to square the circle. But
thing else. there
is
new
another possibility: The
theologians
may be
providing us
with clues to move both beyond religion and beyond secularity. To follow up these clues, I will begin by considering the relation between religion secularity. We will then be able to see how the secularist movement answers to the need for radical religious change while it still remains
and
deeply "religious." Finally,
I
will
comment on some
possibilities for its
future development.
RELIGION ANDSECULARITY Theologians today sometimes give "religion" a dramatic definition. Ever since Barth spoke of "Religion as Unbelief," it has come to represent an obsolete and sterile individualism, an imprisoning metaphysic, a sacral sector of life, an appeal to God as problem-solver, an attempt at human self-justification. But suppose we de-escalate the usage back to the ordinary level where it incorporates faith and theology and where it deals with the whole human enterprise relating to the divine or the sacral or the ultimate. Is it possible for "religion" in this sense to be secularized? Secularity (and not secularism,
which
vocative definition from Bonhoeffer
is
not at issue here) received pro-
when he equated
it
with "the world
come of age." Van Buren styles the secular as empirical and pragmatic in method and mood. Harvey Cox gave it the most popular usage: Secularization
is
"the loosing of the world from religious and quasi-religious
understandings of
breaking of
all
itself,
the dispelling of
all
closed world-views, the
supernatural myths and sacred symbols."^
If
a world
needs a religious or quasi-religious understanding of itself, it is manifestly not secular. Thus, the reintrusion of a symbol like God— including a future God of hope who is waited for— or its equivalent would be a call for at least a quasi-religious
The majority
understanding of a world.
of recent theologians "identify"
process and tendency than with the religious.
more with the
From
secular
the public point of
view, they are unsuccessful. Religious institutions employ them.
They
write to and speak for religious audiences; few of their books are re-
viewed by laymen, to say nothing of "secular man." Some are bishops; they often wear clerical garb and bear ecclesiastical titles. Jules Monnerot once observed that a religion is seen as such only by those outside it; the religionless Christians are still Christians and have not extricated themselves from the circle of religious concerns. So it is legitimate to ask, "Can and should religion be secularized?" 4 The Secular City (New York: Macniillan, 1965),
41
p. 2.
Should Christianity Be Secularized? Five possibilities can be distinguished. Religion can indeed be secuif men play word games and change terms, giving them wholly
larized
new
meanings. Anything can then become anything. Despite occasional we can rule out this possibility,
frustrations over theological language,
since the theologians
do
tell
us what they have in
mind
in their use of
the terms.
The next two
choices are possibilities but are not in debate at this
time. Religious thinkers could develop a religion
and Christianity but which
is
humanism which remembers make absolutely no
content to
special or ultimate claims for the faith or for Jesus Christ. This eflFort
more.
appears every day: Jesus
No
is
a hero in a serial of heroes,
human
and nothing
theological claims are made.
Equally not at issue is an opposite extreme, in which radical religious change can occur with changed symbols. That is, men can contrive a
new
religion
and
call it a secular religion.
Such contrivances were "the
darling vice" of nineteenth-century French system-builders. But they, like their earlier
Revolutionary counterparts, usually ended in parodies
and found it necessary to erect new symbols like The Absolute Spirit or The Integrating Absolute or Divine Providence, any of which would embarrass the cool new theologian."' The remaining two alternatives are live. Unreflective religion can be of historic faiths
may retain symwhich have lost all cognitive import. They may see these symbols reduced to routine in service of new ideologies or practices. Much of the attempt to devise a Christian secularity is actually based on the theological judgment that this has happened in "folk religion" today. In Cox's terms, the product is a "quasi-religion," resulting not from "secularization" but from uncontrolled religious change. The new theology can then be viewed as a rescue operation from such mistaken "secularism." Social thinkers like Ernest Gellner and J. Milton Yinger have chosen to speak subtly transformed into unreHective secularism. People bols
in those very terms.
Finally, one can foresee the development not of religion-turned-secular but of radical religious change, controlled chiefly under the symbols of non-change, though some new symbols may arise. This is what has been occurring in secular-oriented theology. In concentrating on this develop-
have not answered the question of whether religion can be secuI only say that the people who speak of secularizing theology are not bringing religion to complete secularization. They are working for dramatic religious change— an effort no less radical and potentially
ment
I
larized;
more productive than attempts
at theological
squaring of the circle would
be.
5 For examples see D. G. Charlton, Secular Religions Oxford, 1963).
42
in France,
1815-1870 (London:
Martin E. Marty
THE NEED FOR RADICAL RELIGIOUS CHANGE Should men work religious The question can now be reformulated: secularity? two general for
change under the category of
sons.
The theologians
are
moved
Yes, for
by concern
first
rea-
for the Christian faith,
Those who speak of abandon the religious community. Second, humanist concerns are evident. The new orientation for
which they are apologists and
evangelists.
Christian secularity or Christian atheism do not
is ethically motivated. For these religious thinkers, vestigial from the presecular era as well as today's secular paganisms are inhibiting human freedom and love. They thus share the grand argument of the nineteenth-century God-killers who saw religion as the opium and the oppressor. In Marx's terms, they would interpret and change the world. They have carried theology from seminaries into the streets.
in theology
religion
The new theologians, make distinct
then, resist the attractions of straight-line
ism and
(if
human-
often imprecise) theological demands. Such
judgment that language is sometimes strident, it may be occasioned not only by narcissism (who can judge motives?) but also by the need to gain attention for a discipline which had been safely sequestered from life. efi^orts
are audacious, hardly deserving E. L. Mascall's
they represent a failure of nerve.
When
If their
they avoid straightforward humanism and
logical claims, their
work
is
marked by an attempt
make
special theo-
to locate properly
the scandal of the faith. Believing that the Christian call to discipleship is designed to confront them middle of the world, they would strip away the extraneous "religious dimensions of culture and help people seek a view of reality inside the circle of faith which is congruent with the views held outside: Only then would they come to the mandates and promises
does not
call
with a special
people out of the world but
demand
in the "
of faith.
That religious thought
in our time reflects our time should not surprise Theologians are "born secular" in a world in which most people most of the time make decisions the same way whether or not God exists. They us.
work
and pragmatic environment of American univerTrained in iconoclasm and exorcism, they oppose quasi-religions. They want men of faith to inaugurate change, wearied as they are of seeing four centuries of drift and of grudging adaptations or surrenders to secular autonomies. They seek a vantage point for criticizing subliminal, unreflective, and unproductive secularism. Thus they employ in the empirical
sities.
modern world: communism, The American Way of Life, etc. Most of all, they want to do what theologians of every age have tried to do: to speak
Christian norms to attack the "real" religions of the nationalism,
meaningfully to people
who
inhabit mentally furnished apartments dif-
ferent from those they lived in
when
the scriptures were
43
first
written.
Should Christianity Be Secularized?
Given such a charter, it is difficult to see how recent theology could have taken a diflPerent course; if the account sounds sympathetic, it should. My criticisms after a decade of involvement are from within and in no case evidence a desire for regress to an earlier religious moment. If the new theologians are to be faulted, it should be less for failure of nerve and more for inaccuracy in stating their purpose and lack of imagination
and
in describing the secular
settling for too
little.
DEBATE OVER THE FUTURE The new theologians Their
mode
porting.
They
engaged
are
of discourse
is
in a
debate about the future of man.
ordinarily prophecy under the guise of re-
analyze, assess,
and portray the human "prophetic
past,"
the present, and then they point to the future. Such an approach com-
them to make one-dimensional generalizations about the secular tendency of history which few empirical historians or social analysts would make. Their attempt to charter a view of human historical evolution as a sequence of all-encompassing epochs, each colored by a single embracing and inclusive mode of thinking and acting, recalls, surprisingly, the hopes of Hegel and Comte. Each epoch is somehow an integral and wholistic spiritual system. One basic norm of understanding colors it. There is a single social and cultural ideal of rationality. Whatever occurs counter to this charter must be overlooked or explained away as obsolete, pels
extraneous, or mutational."
Most secular world
is,
or
is
sociologists or historians would gasp on the point of being, loosed "from
The
religious understandings of itself."
Hegel had
at the idea that the
religious
theologians' vision
and quasiis
selective.
tendency of the world-spirit in his time. The Slavic people "remains excluded from our consideration, because hitherto it has not appeared as an independent element
to "rule out Siberia"
in the series of
from
his consideration of the
phases that reason has assumed in the world."
'^
Secular-oriented theologians have to exile most of the world to Siberia because they extrapolate from the main line of Western academic and technological-industrial development as normative for all dimensions of human spiritual fruition. "Just as if the world and its history had existed for our sakes! For everyone regards all times as fulfilled in his own, and cannot see his own as one of many passing waves ... If he looks for it come, and may help to bring it Jacob Burckhardt's complaint against his system-hungry contem-
change, he hopes that he will soon see about."
'^
6 This insight is developed from Walter A. Stroniseth, "A Society Without God?" Dialog, V, No. 4 (Autiniin, 1966), 282 ff. 7 The Philosophy of History,
GBWW,
8 Force and Freedom, ed.
H. Nichols
J.
Vol. 46, p. 319b.
(New
44
York: Meridian, 1955), p. 317.
in
"
Should Christianity Be Secularized? poraries
is
curiously fresh today.
Given such a passion
for one's
own
kind and stage of development, the
provisional descriptions of the empirical world under the category of the
secular only appear to be historical
and
reportorial.
The
man of when he does
secular
these theological depictions rarely appears on stage, and
he seldom recognizes himself in the portrait. The apparent reportorial inaccuracy about the human condition may alienate some "secular" men just as
it
may
lie
near the secret of the appeal to some adherents of sec-
ular-oriented theology;
pictures the world of
it
new
theologians' desires,
THE LIMITATIONS OF SECULARISM Christian secularity is of main themes of
a kind of Christian Utopian thought, a picture
the light of a longer hope projected significantly titled
and of the foreseeable future in backward into our time. In a book
today's world
The Future
as History, Robert Heilbroner provides a
which we deal from Bonhoefthrough Cox to Hamilton. "At bottom, a philosophy of optimism is an historic attitude toward the future— an attitude based on the tacit premclue concerning the kind of discourse with
fer
the future will accommodate the striving which we bring Optimism is grounded in the faith that the historic environment, comes into being, will prove to be benign and congenial— or at
ise that
to as
it.
it
least
phenomenon
of optimism as a phiminute period of historic time and geographic space," ^ seems to run counter to any careful depictions of overall human tendencies that can be gathered from the actual pluralist world and yet is not simply to be equated with Christian hope. Secular theology, in effect, tells us: The world for four centuries has been removing the shackles of superstition, religion, and quasi-religion. In the future it will purge itself further and may complete the purge.
neutral to our private
losophy of
life,
eflForts."
which "we
This
find restricted to a
At the end of the process
is
a kind of serene, carefree agnostic
who
and pragmatic modes of reasoning, characteristic of industrial-scientific society, are and will be all-embracing. This process toward such a fulfillment belongs to the prophetic momentum of cares for others. Empirical
Christian history. tion, to
engage
in
"historic attitude
Whatever
It is
our task to hasten the process, to fight ofiF opposiis, as Heilbroner says, an
mopping-up operations. Here toward the future.
else the
new
theology
is,
is
it
not agnostic.
The
effort to
evangelize for this faith seems legitimate and admirable, so long as those
who
are confronted with
it
the cost. Yet the effort in the secular provided
9 The Future as History
know what
is
occurring so that they can count
itself violates
the basic analytic definitions of
by the secularizing (New
York: Harper
46
&
theologians.
It
goes beyond
Brothers, 1960), p. 17.
Martin E. Marty problem-solving empiricism and
is,
Lowith has described phi-
as Karl
losophy of history, a "systematic interpretation of universal history in accordance with a principle by which historical events and successions
and directed toward an ultimate meaning."'" calls such endeavor "substantive" philosophy of history —a description that is logically inappropriate though it may be theologically appropriate. The philosopher of history does more than give an account of the past (e.g., the record of all of spiritual history under the category of "secularization"). He wants to deal with the whole of history. He are unified
Arthur Danto
employs historical data but does violence to empirical history as he seeks "meaning" and "significance" from a vantage which he could gain only if he knew the outcome of history. Not all philosophy of history is theology of history (though Danto argues that Mar.x and Engels wore theological spectacles, divining a divine plan without a divine being!). Secular
theology
is
a theology of history, since
God and makes
hopeful terms about
The proper name calls
it
that.
it
speaks at least in veiled or
ultimate claims for Jesus Christ.
for this part of the enterprise
"A prophecy
is
is
prophecy, and Danto
not merely a statement about the future,
.
.
.
a certain kind of statement about the future ... an historical statement about the future. The prophet is one who speaks about the future It is
in a
manner which
is
appropriate only to the past, or
present in the light of a future treated as a
may be
legitimate, but
it
is
who
speaks of the
fait accornpli."
Such
activity
hardly characteristic of the secular mode.
THE "religious" SIDE OF THE SECULARISTS The new theologians
are never disconcerted
when
the selective fea-
and inaccurate results of their reporting are pointed out to them. It takes no journalistic acuity, for instance, to demonstrate that superstition and paganism may very well be the real religions of the modern world— both in the developing nations and in the developed secular West —and we have no guarantee that the future will take this or that specific
tures
contrary form.
The
theologians' history of secularization with
projected backward"
is
not agnostic.
It
its
"hope
pays no attention to religious
been otherworldly, and is wants to retain a "religious" element transformed out of Christianity along with selective liberating features of secularity. "Secular man" is often a more confining model than he turns out to be in these prophecies. He has not turned out so well and is not turning out so well. Says the theologian: He needs the Christian hope
change
in cultures
provincial.
and
Most
of
where all,
religion never has
it
faith.
10 Meaning in History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957), p. 1. See also Arthur Danto, Analytical Philosophy of History (London: Cambridge, 1965), chap. i.
47
TO BE A CHRISTIAN IS TO BE AMONG PEOPLE WHOSE HOPES ILLUMINATE HUMAN EXPERIENCE AND PROVIDE A SENSE OF DIRECTION
Martin E. Marty In every instance, after the analytic description of the secular, the the-
ologian later "pulls rank"
when he
turns constructive. BonhoeflFer's "world
which we are later told God is telling us that we a world where we will find Christ. This is certainly secularity with a difference. Bishop Robinson questions quasi-religion but reimports Jesus and a kind of liturgy. Cox is aware that his reporting is not mere reporting. "Of course there are events and movements which momentarily raise questions about whether secularization has really succeeded in unseating the gods of traditional religion." ^^ But he lets the Utopian picture of The Secular City stand, even though not everyone is on schedule in it. And in that secular milieu. Cox wants the church to be "God's avant garde," something which is neither merely nor utterly secular. Even Hamilton repairs to Jesus and waits for God— activities which must be characterized as at least quasi-religious.
come of age" is one do not need God in
in
Numbers of the secular-oriented theologians give evidence that they know what they are doing. Paul van Buren recognizes that his secular man is an autobiographical portrayal which enlarges on the author's interest in language analysis. "Are we really being descriptive when we call the world secular? If so, it is a most imprecise description."^- And "late" Cox of 1966— as opposed to "early" Cox of 1965— has moved into a creative new stage which allows for a kind of metaphysics, a kind of myth, a God of hope as a possibility. Whether those who used The Secmanual for unburdening themselves of myth and religion can follow him into the new and more audacious phase remains to be seen. His career seems to bear out the difficulty of secularizing religion, of bringing Christian secularity into equation with either "mere" secu-
ular City as a
minimal definition or with "utter" secularity as a maximal one.^^ was clearly never an assay at Christian humanism. In every case a theological claim, usually based on covert metaphysics or overt appeal to revelation and faith-commitment, eventually appeared. The Christian tradition was appealed to as containing something regulative or normative, as holding the true impetus or momentum for "authentic" secularization, as possessing a secret which the merely secular man could not find by himself. The concept of secularization died the death of a thousand qualifications. Perhaps it would be well if we could follow David Martin's example in sociology and try to expunge the concept of "secularization from theology. It may be too late for that. But we can use the word with more care, recognizing with larity as a
The
secular theology episode
"
Martin that
it
is full
and makes sense 11 Op.
cit.,
of ambiguity, does not refer to a unitary process,
chiefly
when we imply on dogmatic
lines
"an analytic
p. 2.
12 The Secular Meaning of the Gospel
(New
York: Macmillan, 1963), p. 194.
13 The Secular City Debate, ed. Daniel Callahan pp. 181 f.
49
(New
York:
Macmillan,
1966),
Should Christianity Be Secularized? criterion for differentiating the real or
genuine element in religion from
the bogus." ^^
Unquestionably there are many accurate features to the theologians' Who would want to argue with the futuristic logic of industrial-technological development or contest the picture of widespread agnosticism in the academy or practical godlessness in the marketplace? He would be blind who would suggest that people make reporting on secularization.
religious decisions against the kind of cosmic
But the
scaflFold built
backdrop they once knew. from selective features of these changes is still frail
for prophets.
THREE SCENARIOS FOR THE FUTURE
The theologians, then,
at the start of their
work are rather
original in
their attempt to "travel light" in the matters of metaphysics
moratoriums on "God
lation, in their
talk" or their diffidence
and reve-
about tran-
scendence. They are writing scenarios about the future of man, as they believe
The
it
will
be and,
in part, as they
want
it
to be.
man
merely or utterly secular but foresees a Christian difference. Gabriel Vahanian speaks of "secularity as secular scenario does not leave
a Christian obligation." Arend van Leeuwen says that secularization may be "broadly described as the creative and liberating activity of the Word of God."''* This
is
prophetic, protestant language.
The
of the
figures
prophets and of Jesus as scorners of quasi-religion shadow the scenario. The secularizing theologians less regularly portray the whole complex of secular
life.
One
inner-city minister avers that their "utopian" picture
can be accounted for only because they tend to be "white Protestant Anglo-Saxon members of an affluent society who hold academic tenure." Their vision is colored by their exclusive acquaintance with "technologists,
planners, architects, civil rights leaders, academicians, folk-singers,
swingers." It
is
not the view people derive or foresee in a world of hunger,
war, hatred, misery, and hopelessness.
The
alternative religious scenario
is
equally problematic.
derives
It
from Paul Tillich's kind of definition of man as being somehow by nature religious and borrows from sociologists' and historians' accounts of the durability of the religious response, the mistrust of the category of secularization in the interest of "radical religious change." Since ligiosus at least will let
one bring up the subject of
a "hope projected backward" narily,
advocates of
religion,
Homo
many
re-
reveal
and foresee a religious human future. Orditend to draw their religious models chiefly
this future
14 In Penguin Survey of the Social Sciences, 1965, ed. lulius Gould (Baltimore: Penguin, 1965), pp. 169-82. 15 Christianity in
World History (London: Edinburgh House
50
Press, 1964), p. 332.
Martin E. Marty
Thus Mascall advocates the category
of "the supernatural"
from the
past.
—itself a
time-bound philosophical usage— as a kind of
first
step toward
theological cure.
The
man, his religiomore agnostic about the future, about future development; it is no less hopeful or open
third scenario deals with the "mixed" character of
secular past
and present. Such a vision
less a prioristic
is
and should commend itself to secular man for its honesty both in portraying man as he is and in implying that theological claims are to be made. From this vantage which hopes for culture and man "beyond religion and beyond secularity" the secular theologian begins to look conservative. He, too, draws his models for man from what he knows has been. Leslie Dewart, in his book The Future of Belief, goes beyond the sterility of the secular model and the obsolescence of the religious one in advising: "We should not place any a priori limits on the level of religious consciousness to which man may easily rise. In the future we may well learn to conceive God in a nobler way."^^ Such a scenario and program would see the recovery and development of the category of human spirituality and is open to a religio-secular development in culture and man. A new religious consciousness does not solve all theological problems or problems of faith; many of us would want to be protestants in relation to future religious constructs as we are toward present ones. But stimulation of such a consciousness is validly related to the most urgent questions in
humane and
The theologians
theological
of secularity,
life
today.
with Comtian
passion, like to
In this
game
We
men have appeared so and the town-religious into the numbers and epochs, the inevitable question
say, three kinds of cultures or
beyond the
far.
tribal-primitive of
stop at three?
Why
let
our version of the latest
tell
us that,
have moved city-secular. arises:
Why
become the ultimate?
THE CHRISTIAN TEST: JESUS CHRISt's "oTHERNESS"
Most of the examples in
this essay
came from
Protestant Christianity;
they could as well be drawn from recent Catholicism, and there are many parallels in Judaism. It would be well to suggest only what is for Protestant and Catholic Christians who have been engaged in developing secular theology. Their test will have to do with Jesus Christ, who has remained central throughout the recent theological episode.
ahead
Giinther
Bornkamm
has summarized the Jesus of this movement: "Jesus
belongs to this world. Yet in the midst of ness. This
is
manifold expression to 16
(New
it
he
is
of unmistakable other-
the secret of his influence and his rejection. Faith has given
York: Herder
17 Jesus of Nazareth
this secret."^' Secularizing theologians
& Herder,
(New
1966), pp. 184
York: Harper
& 51
f.
Brothers, 1960), p. 56.
have given
MEANING
ARISES AS WE TRY TO POSITIONS HELD
MAKE SENSE OF IN
THE PAST IN THE LIGHT OF ALTERED CONDITIONS
Martin E. Marty eloquent witness for twenty years to the
and last sentence of this and consolidate their gains,
first
saying. If they are to sustain their witness
they will soon have to produce more compelling descriptions of his "otherness." Call such questions revelational or philosophical; call
them
Men
have
quasi-metaphysical: they have been bypassed or suppressed. carried the secularization of theology as far as
"belongs to this world." Regress to "religion"
it is
need
go: to a Jesus
who
out of the question. His
"otherness" is to be witnessed in the ongoing debate about the future of man, one which points beyond religion and beyond secularity.
M. D.
CHENU
Father M. D. Chenu, scholar and a priest of the Dominican order, was born in 1895 at Soisy-sur-Sei7ie, near Paris. He studied philosophy, theology, and history in Rome from 1914 to 1920. For
twenty years he was Professor of Theology at the Dominican seminary of Le Saulchoir and was rector from 1932 to 1942. Since 1946, Father Chenu has been affiliated with the Sorbonne, where he has had charge of the courses concerned with the history of civilization in the
Middle Ages and the history
of theology.
He
has also taught at the bistitute of Medieval Studies in Montreal. He served as a theological expert at the Second Vatican Council
member
newly established Vatican Secretariat for his scholarly works he is perhaps best known for his Introduction a I'etude de saint Thomas d'Aquin (1950), translated in English under the title Toward Understand-
and
is
a
'Non-Believers.
ing Saint
of the
Among
Thomas
(1964).
He
has also published La theologie
est-
une science? (1943; Eng. trans. Is Theology a Science?, 1959), La theologie au douzieme siecle (1957), Pour une theologie du travail (1955; Eng. trans. The Theology of Work), St. Thomas d'Aquin et la theologie (1959), and L'Evangile dans le temps (1964). Father Chenu lives in Paris at the Dominican Convent of
elle
St.
Jacques.
54
The Need
for a
Theology of the AVorld Whether we agree with
it
or not,
it is
an obvious fact that the world
become "profane" and desacrahzed: the city henceforth qua city is secular. The theologian has joined the sociologist and the historian in making an objective analysis of the situation. Each in his own way seeks the causes of the phenomenon, in order to understand it and gain a just estimate of its extent, its import, and its truth. has
This
is
not the place to present even summarily such an analysis.
sufficient
to
recall,
It is
with Dr. Cox, the conclusions which have been
reached. Desacralization has been most visible in the political domain, especially in the relation
between churches and
states.
Here, in
fact, secularization
has been brought about as the result of a deliberate and often brutal
The states have demanded, conquered, and proclaimed their independence from the organized religions which had sacralized power and long directed political life, for good or bad. struggle for power.
become more radical as more widespread; it has reached into the daily life of all. The whole basic domain of life and health, hospitals, the medical profession itself, were formerly more or less directly under the direction and charity of religious organizations. They now fall under the care, the laws, and the offices of the civic community. Social welfare, aid to the sick and the aged, family and child aid, recreation, were all once the scene of the presence and effectiveness of religion (and they still are in nonindustrialized regions). Today, Pope John XXIII pays tribute to the Declaration on the Rights of the Child (1959) and to UNESCO, while Pope Paul expresses solidarity with the work and hope of the FAO. The basic human groups— in family life, in work, in economic management—the right of property, and the prestige of authority, all were once under the protection of religion. The oath was long the guarantee, before In the twentieth century, secularization has
well as
God
or the gods, of one's loyalty to society. Today, the political order
stands on
its
own,
it
has
its
own
values,
and
longer resolved by referring them to religion.
55
political
problems are no
Should Christianity Be Secularized?
The
sciences, the psychological
purged themselves
little
by
and
and history have
social disciplines,
during the past century of metaphysical
little
methods and the speno longer has recourse to a "first cause"; existentialists and Marxists denounce a God used as a stopgap for our ignorance, inadequacies, and failures. The biological rhythms, despite their mystery, are becoming desacralized: legislation con-
influences in order to ensure the
autonomy
of their
truth of their proper object. Scientific causality
cific
cerning the "purification of to regulation,
and sexual
women"
is
totally obsolete, fertility
life itself is
is
subjected
demystified.
The highest values of the human patrimony— justice, equality, fraterpeace— emanate from the collective conscience of peoples. They are more and more shared in common over and beyond the beliefs, the di-
nity,
and the conflicts of religion, which are often the causes of segreHumanity is coming to have a universal conscience or a "catho-
versity,
gation.
such as religion never achieved. Although the checks to this claim, both in fact and in ideology, are lamentable and overwhelming, the prospect and hope for it are making effective appeals to the masses themlicity"
selves,
who have now
Industrialization
and of
this
progress,
new
it is
entered into history.
the
common denominator
"civilization."
relations with others.
feeds humanization. biguity of
of all these developments
man
The
man— in
technical it
limited
transformation of matter,
its
an individual
his life as
as well as
Industrialization provokes, develops,
painful ambiguity of
its
results
is
and
only the am-
himself. In discovering the laws of the universe, in con-
trolling the forces of nature, in constructing the world, self;
he becomes more man.
truly
man
The
and Nor is
result of scientific
realm of economics. By and in
also a transformation of
is
in his
As the
increasing in both quantity and intensity.
to the material it
is
as the aristocratic
Homo artifex Homo sapiens.
technical development of
man
has
and
now
Homo
man
fulfills
him-
technicus are as
reached the point where
the machine has replaced the tool. As a result there
is
not only a greater
productive capacity but also a qualitative change in the relation between man and nature. The tool is only an extension and multiplication of mus-
The machine is an embodiment of intelligence itself, which upon the matter of industry a quality of human autonomy. Man has discovered how to make nature produce without any direct human intervention the effects that he wants. The machine itself can repair the damages resulting from accidents. A new nature, produced by the technical genius of man, has been superimposed upon the original nature.
cular power.
confers
This
is
a
new
fact that arouses in
man
a
new awareness
of himself.
Man
and knows that he is the demiurge, the "creator" of the world; he constructs it, he directs it, for good or bad, as its master. This new civilization is correctly called a civilization of work, since it is a civilization in which work is the decisive operation by which man becomes man in humanizing
is
56
M. D. Chenu nature.
Work,
objectified in the machine,
depends less and less on the depends less on the forms and
worker with his intentions and projects; it immediate norms of his body and soul. Work has become depersonalized; man, his eyes, his hands, his imagination, and, added to all that, his "craft," no longer leave their mark. The worker has become Homo artifex of an entirely different cast from the craftsman. The image of the world, even for the unlearned, now has a character of mobility, plasticity, and potentiality, such as it never had before. At all levels, there is a sense of change and progress and, along with it, a feeling of power in the rule of man inaugurating a new era of humanity. In this wondrous and dramatic condition, man is brought to question the meaning of his action in constructing the world, to inquire about his destiny,
which seems unlimited, although he himself
is
limited in his
In this questioning, which often reaches the point of anxiety, it is history itself which becomes mysterious: Sociocosmic myths may try to express the mystery of the future, but, for the Christian, the God of nature frailty.
reveals himself as the
WHY RELIGION
Lord
IS
reveals himself Godentered
NOT FAITH Lord of history by the by becoming man. That
as the
into history
faith,
of history.
the whole of Christianity.
history
is
"sacred,"
God
is
and humanization
fact that is
he himself
the heart of our
a historical personage. Henceforth, of
any kind becomes the suitable
place for divinization.
For a clearer understanding of the originality of this fact, it is useful between faith and religion —between faith, the "theological" virtue, and religion, the "moral" virtue. Religion, in the formal sense of the word, is the virtue by which we to appeal to the classical theological distinction
relate our actions
and our existence
to the Divine. (Religio, according to
a rather uncertain etymology, derives from re it,
+
our actions and our whole existence gain a
ligare
new
=
to bind.)
From
dimension, different
from our relation to terrestrial realities. The justice that I practise in the contracts I have with my partners is different from the "religious" justice according to which I am indebted to the God who created me and to whom I owe a debt of homage. So too, the love that I have for my neighbor, and for my parents, my wife, and my children, can be valued for itself, but I can also consider it as an echo and an expression of the GodLove, the source and prototype of all love— a love including a "sacred" value.
Religion as such emanates from man.
Its
aim
is
he recognizes— although lived
acknowledgment
in
of a
to satisfy the
needs he
meaning of which a prereflexive way— by basing them on the divine Being. In referring them to God, he
experiences in his thought and in his actions, the
57
full
Should Christianity Be Secularized?
and hopes. For that reason, he surrounds them withdraw these terrestrial reahties from current usage, and also from the investigation of reason. These needs proliferate in great variety and differ according to time and place, person and environment. Among their manifestations various types can be distinguished which differ greatly in object as well as in the sacralizes these needs
with "signs" and
rites that
value of their sacralization.
aimed
religion,
The
sociologists of religion speak of a "useful"
at reaching mysterious forces, a religion of "fear,"
aimed
our fears and guaranteeing a measure of security, a religion of "homage," based on a feeling deep within that reflects a divine absoat alleviating
"communion," which is the highest because the man's aspirations and raise him above himself. The common denominator of these needs and religions is the fact that they ascend from man to the divinity. They are represented, one might say, by vertical images; one looks "up to heaven," as the supreme source of our satisfaction. The sense of what lies beyond death, with its fears and hopes, underlies our feelings, our imagination, our acts, and our
and a
lute,
religion of
absolute comes to
cults.
fulfill
In brief, religion
is
made by man in this ascension. The unbeliever God is a projection of consciousness of
will say that the consciousness of
The Marxist systematizes this interpretation and calls it "alienation." Whatever it is, this religion springs from the nature of man— from his instincts, whether reasonable or not, and from his aspirations, whether consistent or not. It is a natural religion, inscribed on the intelligence and heart of man. It remains so despite its subsequent expressions and the deviations, degradations, or alienations of which the history books are full and which extend from the animistic religions of the primitive peoples down to the civilized "deism" of the eighteenth century, and beyond.
self.
Faith, as such, proceeds in exactly the opposite way. Considered phe-
nomenologically, the act of a believer has a totally different inspiration
from the
religious act just described.
the Christian.
The New Testament
The Gospel
itself
suggests this to
rarely speaks of "religion"
and then
seemingly only with great caution. The early Christians were sharply aware of the difference that the Christian faith had introduced into the
world of Faith
is
"religion."
man ascending toward the Divine. It is the and of communion with a personal God, who on his enters into conversation with men and establishes a com-
not the action of a
act of response to
own
initiative
munion
in love. In
accord with the logic of love,
this
God
enters into the
and makes himself man in order to bring this act to its full reality. Divinization thus comes by means of a humanization. All this may seem to the unbeliever nothing but myth or illusion, but it is the very object of faith and governs its design and structure. In faith we are dealing with an event. We are no longer in nature but in history. One day, God became man and entered into the history of life
of the "other"
58
D. Chenu
A/.
men. History becomes the proper dimension with
its
ness.
Love
needs.
response.
is
God
is
freely bestowed, on
To be
for this act,
and not nature
not conceived or called for because of his useful-
a Christian
is
to
my
be
side as well as his, through
in relation to a
my
free
fact— the fact of Christ
—to a history, and not to a morality, a law, a theory, or a cult. Because of this divine immersion, divinization comes through the community of men, over and above the individuals and their good will. Humanity on the march is the subject of this plan, or "economy," as the Greek fathers called it. The Man-God sums up all values, whatever their source. He achieves the realization of a fraternal humanity in the ontological plenitude of a collective consciousness— in what Paul calls the divine "pleroma."
By
faith,
the personal history of the believer
is
inserted
and he becomes a collaborator in bringing the creator's design to its fulfillment. Whereas the man of religion gropes for the link between transcendence and immanence, the man of faith escapes the uncertainty of both false transcendence and false immanence. It has been said that Christianity is not a religion. This statement is paradoxical by current standards. Yet it forcibly expresses the irreducible originality of Christianity in comparison with other religious phenomena. If I approach God through a sacralization of natural forces whose mystery troubles me and goes beyond my understanding, I will contribute to acts of worship which express a religion. But these acts as such have nothing to do with the "witness" of the Word of God, in communion with the mystery of the dead and risen Christ. It is just here, in the very midst of authentic grandeurs, that I run the risk of yielding to dehumanizing transfers, to improper lures, to magical acts, to clerical castes, and to all into a "sacred history,"
the forms of alienation.
This distinction between the two virtues, this disjoining faith and religion, is made today in the midst of the desacralization of the world. Under the pressure of this fact, we must undertake a new criticism of the sacred and of religion as a of the world,
and
rite,
a cult, a representation
as a belief that
is
socially transmitted.
and explanation We must revise
the sacral foundations of the faith.
Given the relation between the two, it is clear that this criticism should lead to a purification of faith. Such a result is one of the implications of the reform undertaken by the Vatican Council of the Catholic Church in proclaiming, in its statement on atheism, the primacy of mystery over institution. Still more important, the move marks a return of the primitive sense of Christianity as a radical initiative. Christianity by its nature demands the desacralization of the world in the sense of purging it of its
gods and demons. In making the world an object of creation exterior to God, Christianity delivers the world oxer to man and makes possible both experimental science and technology. One may wonder whether the
Hindu, the Buddhist, even the Islamic religions will be able 59
to resist for
Should Christianity Be Secularized? long the invasion of the technical and industrial mentality. Christianity full consent to it, since it is the Word of God addressed to man, and not an emanation or relation (re-ligio) of nature to God. Faith and religion are not on the same level. Thus, within the church, we must distinguish the community of salvation in the mystery of the Man-God from the sociological institution with its conceptual, functional, and ritual
can give
apparatus.
Faith consents to the decline of the sacred insofar as
nature of
its
fertility.^
Desacralization
false divinization as
lines of force.- It
is
is
an idolatry of
its
it
demystifies
powers, rhythms, and
present in the Old Testament as one of
development, since nature and the world are placed in the hands of
who was
its
repeated failures, a law of Christian
also, despite its
man
created as their sovereign.
Faith does not proceed formally by "sacralization"; if it did, it would indeed be the "opium of the people." On the contrary, it calls upon man to live fully in the world, to take charge of its construction, and to give full scope to his hopes. As has been said, religion is "nostalgic" for a return to origins, which annuls history, whereas faith is "prophetic" in its understanding of history and its economy. Paradoxically, men speak of the absence of God and of his uselessness
and claim that "the believer shares with the unbeliever a certain brotherhood of weakness before the absence of God." Of course, this formula must not be taken literally, since in that case it would imply either a complete dislocation of theology or a camouflaged atheism. We must say, however, that it is not by diminishing the world that one increases God's chances in the world; it is not by denying the autonomy and terWe must restrial values of man that one converts him to Jesus Christ. not support God with the weakness of man and with his psychological, moral, political, or even his religious shortcomings.
It
is
true that the
weakness of man, ontologically, counters the "sufficiency" of man by having recourse to the strength of God, but here it is the mystery of the ManGod, weak and suffering, that takes charge of the human situation. But
1
Pope Paul has said that true science has demystified and desacralized the phenomena of nature; it has helped to purify the faith of its dross, of certain superstitions, and certain complexes arising from fear and insecurity. (From an interview with Cardinal Leger, reported in Le Monde, July 18, 1963.)
2 "The whole concept of alienation found its first expression, in the West, in the Old Testament concept of idolatry. The essence of what the Prophets call idolatry is not the fact that man adores many gods instead of one. It is rather that the idols are the work of man; they are things, and man adores what he has himself created. By doing this, he transforms himself into a thing, he transfers to the things he has created the attributes of his own life, and instead of recognizing himself as a creative person, he is in contact with himself only indirectly according as his mission in life is fixed Buenos Aires, 1962).
on idols."— E. Fromm, Marx's Concept of
60
Man
(Mexico and
M. D. Chenu it is
also true that the
powerful
man
is
like the
presence of God.
God
is
no need to "To reduce of apologetics. for the sake minor of a reduce it to a status of God," Thomas perfection reduce the is to creature the perfection of the Aquinas, the master of classical theology, declared in a famous formula. present within the world that
is
coming
of age,
and there
is
MAN, THE CO-CREATOR Ghristian The But
is
defined by his faith in the coming of
God
this faith implies a certain vision of history, that
man
is
into history. to say of the
The ground underlyand hence to God the Creator. Faith is the geometrical locus of communion between man, the being-in-the-world, and God, the being-come-into-the-world. In fact, according to dogma, the incarnate Word is identical with the Word that construction of the world by
ing faith
is
the radical relation of
in evolving time.
man
to creation
created the world.
We
must purge our conception
obscures
it.
Creation
is
of creation of the infantile imagery that
not the linear prolongation of an act that
God
per-
beginning of the world and that has long since ceased. Creation is the permanent, present act by which beings are themselves in act. Man, at the summit of evolution, is the creature who, with intelli-
formed only
gence and
at the
will, freely takes
over the creative enterprise of God.
not create a fully developed universe and then place
man
over
God it
like
did
an
angelic spirit over heterogeneous matter or like an alien spectator before
an alluring and overwhelming landscape. God has called man to be his co-worker in the progressive organization of the universe, in which he is the image of God, the demiurge and conscience. Man is precisely and primarily the "image of God" in this association with his Creator by which he is the master and constructor of nature. Thus it might even be said that man is the "co-creator" of the universe, although, strictly speaking, this is theologically inaccurate. He is charged with the task of assembling and recapitulating in himself the whole series of being. The lowest beings are obviously incapable of intelligence and
by themselves to their creator. and love, is the demiurge of that
love and hence are incapable of returning
Man,
in his freedom, with intelligence
return.
God
no longer sought in the inspiring and unfathomable fantasies phenomena. He is no longer, as Cox says, "a cosmic policeman," sanctifying the existing distribution of power and guaranteeing a universal law. Henceforth the meaning of human existence and activity appears only at the heart of a concrete experience of the human person, and not in eternal imperatives, preestablished, unchangeable, and improperly divinized. For the Christian, the historicity of man, of which we now have is
of natural
become aware, corresponds
to the historicity of
61
God
in Christ, the
Man-
Should Christianity Be Secularized?
God. Christianity is not an abstract system meant to explain the world, nor the model of an "order" which we are supposed to copy or restore. Christianity is the history of salvation, a history carried out by the People of God, within the freedom of the Gospel, and as an effect of freely bestowed love. The evolution of the world is coexistent with its creation, and Christ takes it up in view of a "new creation." Existence, the community, ever-expanding human history, have become the objective expression of the communication of God with man and of man's response.
THE AMBIGUITY OF SECULARIZATION doctrine of creation, vision The Incarnation— each on own and this
of history, this theology of the
all
its
three together— help to resolve
the grave ambiguities of secularization pointed out clarified
by Dr. Marty. In
fact,
the doctrinal
and
by Dr. Mascall and
practical misunderstand-
on these three points explain why Christians and
ings
their churches for
over three centuries failed to understand or even perceive the
movement
and causes of the world's transformations and man's new condition in it. The churches were engaged in carrying out a countermovement; inspired by nostalgia for the bygone corpus christianoruni, they attempted "restorations" after each "revolution." The first and basic mistake was a failure to understand the humanness and Christian truth of the industrial "revolution." As the Dutch theologian J. C. Hoekendijk has said: "When the first stone of the modern industrial cities was laid, the Church was absent from the ceremony." There is no point in giving way to a bitter indictment. It is urgent, however, that we learn from this experience a renewed understanding of the Gospel and the elements of a theology of the world in its secular dimension. Secularization is a menace, even a defiance. But it is not to be met by a frightened self-defense that is content to denounce the sinister failures of the secularized world: two world wars and a profound economic depression within a single generation. It must be met by a loving confidence in this new man, whose undertakings are a conscious expansion of creation, an advance of history, and a wealth of material for the Man-God to make into a "new creation."
way for the search for the causes that The ambiguity begins where humanization entails
Secularization has cleared the reveal man's mastery.
the
autonomy
of science
with the gods.
Man
has built, and this
Autonomy
is
the methods of
Human
is
the worst sort of idolatry.
and proper the sciences, and
right
in the
management
of social affairs, in
in the responsible exercise of freedom.
values have a consistency of their own, a "profane" consistency,
at the heart of faith
their
and of conscience. God then disappears along
himself becomes man's god within a world which he
own
laws,
under the lordship of Christ. Human values have nature, from society, and from history, and
drawn from
62
M. D. Chenu an ecclesiastical power to sacralize them. The basic which for more than a millennium have been more or less inspired and directed in the West by the church, have become the common good of humanity as such. Man is learning the laws of his nature as he discovers and exploits the laws of nature. The world there
is
no need
elements of
exists,
for
human
society,
and Christians are recognizing and discovering
act of constructing
it
it
as
it
is,
in the
today.
The church no longer has to take in hand the conduct of civilizations and the progress of peoples. It has rather to sow in them the leaven of the Gospel. It must collectively pledge its faith, its hope, and its charity —its "political charity," as Pius XI said— in service to the construction of a fraternal humanity. The church is no longer power; it is service. Its task is not to build on its own initiative and at its own expense a "Chrisworld such as it is in the process of was imprisoned in Germany and writing his letters on a Christianity disengaged from "religion," the worker-priests in France were giving a new look to the church, a church stripped of her paraphernalia, and turned toward the new industrial man. Of course, we must not yield to an over-optimistic appreciation of secularization. We then run the risk of closing secularization in upon itself and turning it into a secularism. We then lose the disinvolvement, the contemptus mundi, that the hope of heavenly beatitude suggests that we have for earthly affairs. We would also distort secularization which, in its power, puts the mystery of man to the test and holds itself open to what is beyond itself. At a time when God seems to have become useless for the world of scientific and technical efficiency, man may perhaps have a new chance of seeking God for himself, and not for his usefulness. It is not a question of looking for God at the end of our deepest experiences as a solution for insolvable problems. We must create within ourselves a "space for questioning," so that we may wait for God as an appeal, as an "event," or as a creative word, that awakens in us new possitian world," but to Christianize the
construction. At the time Dietrich Bonhoeffer
bilities of existence.
We
have a proof of
this
view of secularization
in the position that the
churches in their current renewal have taken on the layman. In
fact,
for the case of the special ministry, the believer or Christian
identified
A layman
is
save
man marked by secularity. The edge and become, at least in French, deprecatory. The word derives from the Greek laos = people. And it is with the "layman."
word
is
an old one, but
a people that
body
is
it
had
is
as
such a
lost its
the partner of the
Word, the witness of the message, the comes to be structured with a min-
of Christ in history. This people
istering hierarchy,
but
this structural distinction
does not reduce at
the irreducible, ontological dimension of the Christian. tures of laicite within the church
with
this
and
primary truth, although
it
63
in
profane politics
may be obscured
all
The misadvencannot do away for a time.
God
Should Christianity Be Secularized?
by means of a people through generations of continuis the logic of the Incarnation. It too was the part of the truth contained in the medieval ideal of a corpus christianorum and of a Christianity that was very worldly in its clericalism. The role of the layman in building the Kingdom of God is, consequently, not a secondary one of serving the clergy. It is a constitutive role in a regime of true evangelical responsibility, which is not at all reduced by the need for doctrinal obedience and discipline. The layman is essential for the work of evangelization precisely because he is involved
enters into history
ous incorporation. Such
with the profane. The conditions for the universal influence of the grace of Christ are set by neither a theocratic imperialism, a premature sacralization, nor a clerical
mandate.
The definition of the lay believer includes secularity as its specific quality. The relation to the world belongs to his very constitution. It is part of the constitution of every Christian, just as
it is
of the
church which has
being in the world and in history. Nevertheless, it is important to insist that this secular relation must be a Christian relation: the Christian must not only participate in the humanization of the world but he must also its
collaborate in the evangelizing mission of the church.
emphasis upon the statements of Dr. Cox,
wrong
we can
By placing
this
avoid an improper and
secularization.
Since secular values enter into his very constitution, the Christian
within the church, both individually and collectively, needs the world.
"The church knows how richly she has profited from the history and development of mankind." These are the opening words of one of the most significant and most debated paragraphs of the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World promulgated by the Vatican Council (n. 44). Throughout its history, the church has advanced through exchange with diflFerent cultures. Today, more than ever, "when things are changing very rapidly, and ways of thinking are exceedingly various she must rely on those who live in the world, are versed in diflFerent institutions and specialties, and grasp their innermost significance in the eyes of both believers and unbelievers." Note that the last clause says "believers and unbelievers." It is the "profaneness" of the world that is in question: "to be living in the world" entitles one to intervene in the dialogue. Are not the passion for Christian liberty and the concern for religious freedom tributaries of the aspiration for freedom expressed by the modern conscience? Has not Christian universalism been advanced by the expansion of Western civilization and the march toward world unity? Do not Christian brotherhood and the feeling for the poor owe not the purification of faith indebted to the democratization of culture? Has not the deeper understanding of the
something to socialism?
Is
mystery of the church been favored by the movement for secularization? The church notes with gratitude, the Council declares, "that in her com64
M. D. Chenu no less than in her individual sons she has received a variety from men of every rank and condition."
munity
life
of help
HOW FAITH Faith
then
SAVES RELIGION
is
not only a purified religion, a higher religion of
homage
and communion, freed of its alienations and the elements that weigh Faith introduces a radical novelty into the universe of religion. down. it would be degraded if it were reduced— as is unfortunately fact, faith In the case— to even a purified religion. too often this case, we can ask, what will happen to religion? Will not the In desacralization, which we have admitted, wind up by eliminating all "sacredness" from human life and even from Christianity itself? Have not we said that the Christian sanctifies the world without having to "consecrate" it? Are we not then brought to a religionless Christianity, at least as Bonhoeffer
understood
it?
not only in the tragic pessimism of BonhoeflFer that faith is built up and exalted on the ruins of religion. Under the pretext that faith is an evangelical absolute, it is quite a common thing to deprecate all religious It is
God,
values: the feeling of relation to the transcendence of a creating
the expression in a cult of this "dependence," the tragic sense of the con-
and of man's insuperable saves religion only by removing
dition of a creature
limitations. It
said that faith
it
as
though
cannot be
it
were "the
cancer of faith."
does so by constantly criticizing its mental, cultural, and social behavior. This occurred at the beginning of faith, in Israel and the primitive church. It is
true that faith saves religion, but
it
In Christianity, faith cannot be separated from religion. Christianity it were a way of living, within religion, the conflict between and religion. Let the dimension of faith disappear, and all that remains is that religion of which human science has shown the conditioning and the decline. From this point of view, Christianity itself is only a limited cultural reality, limited both geographically and sociologically. But let the pole of religion disappear, and all that is
as
faith
is a vague aspiration or a personal conviction. The Christian presence in the world will not be carried out for lack of support
remains
from a confessing community.^ It
must be said that
religion, transfers
tianity
is
it
faith does not eliminate religion. Faith takes
to the
mystery of Christ, and so
not purely a faith as
is
shown by
1965), p. 142.
65
it.
up
Chris-
the fact that, as a humaniza-
3 P. Ricoeur, "Sciences humaines et conditionnements de tellecttiels catholiqiies (Paris,
sanctifies
la foi," in
Semaine des
in-
Should Christianity Be Secularized?
God, it lives by faith under a human regime. The whole economy Man-God, which a moment ago led us to differentiate faith from religion, leads us now to admit the normal coherence of faith and religion. There is no question here of arbitrarily juxtaposing faith and religion by means of the sociological notion of the "sacred." Faith has a religious tion of
of the
dimension
just
because
of representation
and
it is
a
human
action. It calls for objective values
intellectual formation, for symbols, rites,
and
insti-
tutional realization.
The elements
of
worship— the sacraments— must
also
be included within
the purview of faith. Besides their symbolic function, they are efficacious representations of the "mystery" of the original divinization; they continue in history the divinizing process.
The people
of faith constitute the
"body of Christ." Sacraments provide it with structure. In this, faith borrows from religion its elementary Nature rites— adoration, intercession, communion, repasts, sexual initiation— but only in order to be faithful to
its
object, the "mystery" in history of the continuity of the people of
God. As a result, these sacraments are not only "sacred" acts as part of a cult but they are also effective signs of divinization in the community of believers remembering the evangelical "events." Faith must constantly be on the alert to keep these sacraments— these worshiping and moral "practices"— up to their intended meaning: the life of Christ in us and in communion with our brothers. Always at issue with "religion," faith is ever inventing new relationships with religion and with the world and nature. The psychological, cultural, social, and national conditions of religion provide it with ground to grow in, but they also threaten to suffocate it. Religion by itself is never clear about itself and its operations. One can without injustice ascribe to it the deviations of superstition and magic, the ritualistic clear conscience, search for the marvelous, "absenteeism" from the world, and "alienation." Therefore, in helping man to hasten his historical and ethical coming-of-age and in working toward the religious disalienation implicit in the process of desacralization, human progress is working toward a purification of religion. it is a theology of the world that faith must elabobe a theology of God-come-into-the-world. Before all, we must uphold the unity of the divine design against that dualism which has made its way more or less consciously into the mentality and practice
In the final analysis,
rate
if it is
to
and which appears theologically in the disjunction of nature from grace. The building of the world is not on one side and the advent of the Kingdom of God on the other; terrestrial involvement on one side and, on the other, Christian life with its hope of heaven; nature taken in hand by humanity is not on one side and, on the other, grace superimposed upon nature from the outside; the city is not on one side and the church on the other, separated like two nations by a border where rights of Christians
66
M. D. Chenu and powers meet
in conflict; creation
is
not on one side and, on the other,
the Incarnation.
On
the other hand, the building of the world and the advance of
Kingdom
man
God. Neither nature nor history is capable of revealing the mystery of God; the Word of God comes "from above" through the initiative of love freely giving itself in communion. Grace is grace, and profane history is not the source of salvation. Evangelization belongs to another order from that of civilization. To feed men is not to save them, even though my salvation imposes upon me the duty to feed them. To advance culture is not at all the same as converting one to the faith. Over and above its visible signs, the church remains an original community, with its own internal laws, in the world in which it is immersed. There is no question of the world
do not by themselves
result in the
coming
of the
absorbing a "secularized" church, whose historical succession
it
of
then takes
over.
Yet this does not mean that the "secular city" with all its human undertakings—the control of nature, the mounting conscience of nations, the cultivation of the mind, and the education of the heart— is nothing but
an occasional and extrinsic condition for the individual and collective
life
of grace. These terrestrial goods provide points of contact for the Gospel
and develop
in
man
positive dispositions
toward an incarnation of the
they have what classical theology describes as obediential potency. The Lordship of Christ and the presence of the Spirit are real in them and discernible by the eyes of faith. If Christians read the signs divine
life;
aright in this world that
is
wondrous
in
its
perience the surprise— a fortunate surprise
if
transformation, they can ex-
they are secure in their faith
which has reached the surThey can experience management. and in knowledge love— of recognizfraternal are moved by surprise if they prise—a joyful ing grace at work among non-Christians. For the presence of the Gospel is realized through the questions of men. Such is the logic of the Incarnation. "The Incarnation of the Word does not represent only the historically unique appearance of God in the world, but also, more than this, the acceptance of the world by God and finding that they are in dialogue with this world
—of autonomy
its
admission to him, that
sealed and sanctioned
The
is,
the eschatological consecration of the world,
by the Resurrection."^
position presented here
is
admittedly an optimistic view of the
if many Catholics and world and of history. It then, I would In conclusion, about it. reservations Protestants have certain theology on the role of Greek expressions of like to cite one of the finest in the become, that man may man so Christ, the creating Word become
should cause no surprise
4 These are the words concluding the article "World" in the Handbuch Theologischer Grundbegriffe, ed. H. Fries (Munich, 1962).
67
Should Christkinity Be Secularized? world that he humanizes, a power for divinization. It is a text in which Clement of Alexandria evokes the myth of Orpheus; the Church Fathers were less scrupulous than we in having recourse to myths as a way of giving expression to the "mystery." Here
The Word
of
God
abandoned the
has
is
the text:
now
and the cythera—
lyre
instruments without soul— to conciliate
by means
of the
Holy
Spirit
the whole world gathered up in man;
He makes as
use of him
an instrument of
many
voices
and, accompanying his song
on
He
this
instrument that
is
man.
plays to God.
SCHOOL
KS&
HrREACHINC
II3S
P.C.W.
5l2>y'
\y ^>
Eb SERVICE 8e>)>*x5!>/W] 8IS>)' K.EVEG
A.B0NNOR
"f:
M. D. Chenii
A CHURCH WHICH DOES NOT IDENTIFY WITH THE WORLD WITH THE SAME THOROUGH SOLIDARITY GOD DOES BETRAYS ITS MISSION
M'^/^m^
THE IDEA OF RELIGION IN GREAT BOOKS OF THE WESTERN WORLD That the idea of rehgion
is both difficult and complex is evident from by the various contributors to our symposium. complexity of the idea, however, has not emerged. There are two
the discussion of
The
full
reasons for
this.
and
Christianity,
One
it
is
that
four writers share a
all
to this extent they
have more or
common
less the
belief in
same idea
of
Then, second, the analysis of the idea has been no part of their task, except incidentally; they have touched on the idea only in relation to their arguments about secularization. The extreme complexity of the idea begins to appear only when one attempts to register the range of its meaning. William James was one of the first to make religion an object of scienreligion.
tific
study, in the
set forth in
The
modern sense
of the term.
The
results of his study are
Varieties of Religious Experience,
first given in Edin1901-2 as the Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion. Attempting to circumscribe his subject in Lecture II, James observes that it would be simpleminded and misleading to think that all that is meant by "religion" could be caught in any "single principle or essence." It is, he
burgh
in
claims, a conception as
complex
"many
may
characters which
as that of
government and comprises
alternately be equally important."^
Yet in order to delimit and locate the subject of his investigation, he does attempt to state at least the minimal meaning of "religion." It is the concern of men, he claims, "so far as they apprehend themselves to stand
whatever they may consider the divine."- Even this minimal interpretation at once raises the question whether religion necessarily connotes a relation to God. People do sometimes speak of atheistic communism as a "religion," although theoretically it is committed to denying the existence of God. James himself recognizes that "there are systems of thought which the world usually calls religious, and yet which do not positively assume a God."^ As examples, he cites "Emersonian optimism, on the one hand, and Buddhistic pessimism, on the other." Both, he claims, are "in many respects identical with the best Christian appeal and response." From this he concludes that "we must from the experiential point of view call these godless or quasi-godless creeds 'religions'; and accordingly when in our in relation to
we speak of the individual's relation to 'what he conwe must interpret the term 'divine' very broadly, as de-
definition of religion siders as divine,'
1
The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: The New American Library World Literature, Inc., 1958), p. 39.
2
Ibid., p. 42.
3 Ibid.
70
of
The Idea noting any object that
He
is
of Religion in Great
godlike,
whether
finally stipulates that "the divine shall
reality as the individual feels impelled to
it
Books
be a concrete deity or
mean
for us only
not.""*
such a primal
respond to solemnly and gravely
and neither by a curse nor a jest."'* James is certainly right in observing that the term "religion" is sometimes used without reference to God. John Stuart Mill, for example, in his essay The Utility of Religion, attacks Christianity and supernatural religion in the name of what he calls the Religion of Humanity: "The sense of unity with mankind and a deep feeling for the general good may be cultivated into a sentiment and a principle capable of fulfilling every important function of religion and itself be justly entitled to the name."^ So characterized, religion seems to differ not at all from morality, and the religious man is indistinguishable from the morally good man. The precise relation between religion and morality is, indeed, subject to controversy. Men disagree on whether religion is possible without morality as well as on the extent to which morality is possible without religion, James takes a position widely held, at least in the Western tradition, when he declares that religion supposes some relation to morality and yet also contains "some elements which morality pure and simple does not contain." In fact, at the end of his long investigation of the manifestations of religion, when he comes to "reduce religion to its lowest admissible terms, to that minimum, free from individualistic excrescences, which all religions contain as their nucleus," he retains the notion of a "proper connecThus he retains a reference to the divine
tion with the higher powers."^
understood as a being not only different from
man
but higher than him.
pagan as well as Christian, agree in supposing that religion connotes some reference to the divine. In fact, the main object of attack is what is taken to be a false belief in God or the gods and its deleterious effects upon men's actions. Lucretius in the pre-Christian world expresses the most passionate hatred for religion: its teachings are false, and the actions it leads men to commit are horrible and evil, such as Agamemnon sacrificing his daughter Iphigenia on the altar at Aulis (On the Nature of Things, I, 80101; GBWW, Vol. 12, p. 2a-b). For Lucretius, religion is compounded of fear based on ignorance. It can and must be overcome by rational understanding of the way things operate without any divine intervention. His attack upon religion is throughout an attack upon the belief that the divine has any power over the affairs of men. Religion, as he understands it, is permeated with belief in the gods, but it is a false and ignorant beAll the great
4
Ibid., p. 44.
5
Ibid., p. 47.
and
classical attacks
upon
religion,
6 Ed. George Nakhnikian (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1958), p. 72. 7 Op.
cit.,
pp. 380, 383.
71
Should Christianity Be Secularized? lief
that should be dispelled.
Gibbon
is
more
tolerant than Lucretius but
claims of religion are false.
He
belittles religion
no less certain that the by the ironic, even sar-
and improbabilities of its beliefs. he describes them among both pagans
castic, description of the inconsistencies
Yet at the center of these
beliefs, as
and Christians, there is always some reference to a belief in a god. Although religion for him may amount, in fact, to no more than a human belief and invention, it claims to be more than merely a purely human moral code. For both Marx and Freud, religion
is
an
illusion.
They would account
for the genesis of this illusion in diflferent ways, but both agree that the illusion lies in the belief that there
is
a
god who governs the world and
judges man.
The upholders acteristic note
of religion, of course, frequently maintain that
is its
reference to God. Augustine
observes that the Latin language
is
is
its
char-
typical of these.
poorer than Greek in that
it
lacks
He any
one word to denote the piety and reverence or the worship and service (cidtus) that is due to God alone. In his time, the word "religious," like "pious," could still be applied to the relation one ought to have toward one's parents and country. It seems clear that he would have preferred to restrict "religion" to mean "nothing else than the worship of God" {The City of God, X, 1; GBWW, Vol. 18, p. 299b). Augustine's wish, of course, has since come true. Both words in their ordinary and normal usage now
God. and upholders, the notion of religion within the tradition of Western thought usually connotes some reference to God. But once we pass beyond this minimum, what religion is depends upon where one stands. It is one thing to those who embrace the religion and accept its belief, and quite another thing to those who reject it or who remain uncommitted. The range or scope of the idea varies accordingly. A good example of this diflFerence is provided by the distinction between religion and superstition.
refer to man's relation to
For both
its
detractors
RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION the claims of religion are held to be false and belief in
an illusion, break down and disappear. Both, as contrasted with true knowledge, are dismissed together as false, and religion thus reduces to the status of superstition. Freud's writing clearly reveals such a tendency. Freud sums up his final position on religion in the closing pages of the New Introductory Lectures on Psycho- Analysis. He places totemism and
If the
distinction
between
religion
and superstition tends
it
to
animism in the same line of development as the belief in a supernatural God. All are equally manifestations of religion, it seems; religion, he 72
The Idea
of Religion in Great
Books
an attempt to get control over the sensory world, in which we are placed, by means of the wish-world, which we have developed inside us as a result of biological and psychological necessities. But it cannot achieve its end. Its doctrines carry with them the stamp of the times in which they originated, the ignorant childhood days of the human race. Its consolations deserve no trust. ... it seems not so much to be a lasting acquisition, as a parallel to the neurosis which the civilized individual must pass through on his way from childhood to maturity" (GBWW, Vol. 54, p. 878c). In short, rehgion, for Freud, is an infantile illusion. There is, claims, "is
no basis for distinguishing religion from superstition. Nor would there be any point in doing so, although Freud notes that certain manifestations are still "called superstitions" and contrasted with religion (ibid., p. 877b). In his view, "the truth of religion may be altogether distherefore,
regarded"
(ibid., p. 878c).
For the able from
religion,
religious,
however, superstition, far from being indistinguishcontrasted with it as its polar opposite. Thus, ac-
is
cording to Aquinas, religion the honor and service that
is is
the virtue by which man renders to God due him (Summa Theologica, II-II, Q81,
A4). Superstition, on the other hand,
is
described as a vice— the very op-
posite of virtue. Religion, for Aquinas, establishes a
norm
for
what man
God. One may depart from this norm either by excess or defect. Irreligion is the vice opposed to religion by defect, in that through contempt and irreverence one fails to render to God what is his due (ibid., II-II, Q97). Superstition is the vice opposed to religion by excess. It is not that superstition "worships God more than the true religion," Aquinas wTites, since superstition is not just too much religion, but rather that "it pays divine worship to whom it is not due or in an undue way" (ibid., II-II, Q97, Al). Thus to worship the creature rather than the one true God is the superstition of idolatry. So also to worship God falsely or in a way that leads neither to his glory nor to man's subordination to him is
owes
to
likewise superstitious (ibid., II-II, Q98, Al-2).
In this account,
what
is
common
to
notion of divine worship. This by
Aquinas, to characterize religion. rected to the true
God
in the
He
both religion and superstition is the is not enough, according to demands in addition that it be di-
itself
proper way.
If,
however,
we were
to limit
our understanding of religion to worship alone and put to one side
its
and manner, then we could speak of superstition as a religion. The difference for the religious man would then involve the distinction between false and true religion. But whichever way we make the distinction— whether between religion and superstition, as Aquinas does, or between true and false religionit still presupposes that truth can somehow be reached in matters of religion. If this were impossible, there would be no way of distinguishing religion from superstition, since for this we must be able to distinguish object
73
Should Christianity Be Secularized? worship of the true
God from
that of the false, or true from false religion. on the conviction that religious knowledge is possible; in other words, that men can know the true God and can distinguish what is true about him from what is not. For those who make the distinction, there must be something that counts as a criterion of truth in
The
distinction rests
religion.
Such a criterion poses an especially difficult problem for those who base their religion on a supernatural source, that is, a religion believed to have been established by revelation from a source that is by definition beyond the reach of man's natural powers. Within Christianity, which is such a religion, one formulation of the criterion has received wide acceptance. Pascal, who, it must be remembered, was not only a devout Christian, but also a great mathematician and physicist, has a v^ersion of it in the eighteenth of his Provincial Letters which quotes both Augustine and
Aquinas.
The
founded on what might be called the principle of the unity whole and no matter how many kinds or parts of truth there may be, nor how diverse the methods of attaining these parts, they are all consistent with one another; no proposition validly established as true in one field can be inconsistent with any proposition validly established as true in another. Pascal shows how this principle can be used as a rule for determining the truth in religion. There are "three principles of our knowledge," he writes, "the senses, reason, and faith," each with its own object and its own degree of certitude. "And as God has been pleased to employ the intervention of the senses to give entrance to faith (for 'faith cometh by hearing'), it follows, that so far from faith destroying the certainty of the senses, to call in question the faithful report of the senses would lead to the destruction of faith. We conclude, therefore, from this, that \\'hatever the proposition may be that is submitted to our examination, we must first determine its nature, to ascertain to which of those three principles it ought to be referred. If it relate to a supernatural truth, we must judge of it neither by the senses nor by reason, but by Scripture and the decisions of the Church. Should it concern an unrevealed truth and something within the reach of natural reason, reason must be its proper judge. And if it embrace a point of fact, we must yield to the testimony of the senses, to which it naturally belongs to take cognizance of such matters" (GBA\^\V, rule
is
of truth: Truth forms one coherent
.
.
.
Vol. 33, p. 163a-b).
As applied It
to religion, this rule,
should be noted,
it
does not prove the truth of any religious doctrine;
to ascertain
which interpretations of
say: "So general
is
this rule that,
it
are false.
according to
is it
purely negative. only enables one
Thus Pascal goes on to St. Augustine and St.
Thomas, when we meet with a passage even in the Scripture, the literal meaning of which, at first sight, appears contrary to what the senses or 74
The Idea
of Religion in Great
reason are certainly persuaded
of,
we must
Books
not attempt to reject their
testimony in this case, and yield them up to the authority of that ap-
parent sense of the Scripture, but
we must
interpret the Scripture,
and
seek out therein another sense agreeable to that sensible truth; because, the
Word
of
God
being
which
infallible in the facts
it
records,
and the
information of the senses and of reason, acting in their sphere, being certain also,
it
follows that there must be an agreement between these
sources of knowledge.
And
as Scripture
may be
ways, whereas the testimony of the senses
uniform,
is
two
interpreted in different
we must
in these
matters adopt as the true interpretation of Scripture that view which cor-
responds with the faithful report of the senses"
(ibid.,
support of this position, Pascal cites Aquinas:
"Two
served, as Augustine teaches.
The
without wavering. The second
is
first is,
pp. 163b-164a). In rules are to
be ob-
to hold the truth of Scripture
that since
Holy Scripture can be
ex-
plained in a multiplicity of senses, one should adhere to a particular explanation only in such measure as to be ready to abandon
it if it
be proved
Q68, Al; GBWW, Vol. 19, p. 354b-c). Augustine's account in The Confessions of his search for the true
with certainty to be false"
(I,
by employing
reli-
he Manichaeism. The books of the Manichees, he tells us, contained much about astronomy and were "fraught with prolix fables, of the heaven, and stars, sun, and moon." Augustine, region
tells
was able
of a dramatic appeal to this rule. In fact,
it,
to reject his belief in
"compared some and found the former the more probable." His belief was considerably shaken, but he was persuaded to continue with the sect by the promise that their learned Bishop Faustus would be able to resolve all his doubts. On finally meeting him, Augustine found him eloquent, but "utterly ignorant of liberal sciences"; and he could not satisfy Augustine's desire to see that "the account given in the books of Manichaeus were preferable, or at least as good" as that given by the astronomers. The failure to meet this test
membering what he had studied
of the astronomers,
things of theirs with those long fables of the Manichees,
blunted his "zeal for the writings of Manichaeus," and, since he "despaired yet more of their other teachers," he writes that all the efforts came utterly to an whereby he "had purposed to advance in that sect .
end" (Confessions, V,
iii,
3-vii, 13;
GBWW,
.
.
Vol. 18, pp. 27c-30c).
RELIGION AND KNOWLEDGE described is a cognitive test. It supposes that we have genuine knowledge and also that religion achieves some kind of knowledge, although it may involve more than knowledge alone.
The attained
test just
test supplies a criterion of religious truth only if religion makes statements which can then be compared with what we know from other
The
sources.
75
Should Christianity Be Secularized? For a
it is no test at all, since he doubts the and reason. His defense of religion, in the Apology for Raimond de Sebonde, operates on a different principle. It aims to destroy man's trust in both the senses and reason so that he may rest secure in his faith alone. The difficulty with this approach is that it leaves us with no rational basis for adjudicating between the claims of different and opposed beliefs; religion becomes a blind option. It is not surprising, then, that Montaigne, in all his many accounts of religious beliefs, makes little, if any, attempt to distinguish religion from superstition. The cognitive test is also no criterion for those who hold that religion cannot claim any knowledge about the way things are but can only tell us what we ought to do. In this case, religion is understood as making no statements that are comparable with established scientific truth. Such a position with regard to religion differs from that taken by either Aquinas or Montaigne. Unlike Aquinas, it holds that religion makes no statement about the way things are that can be compared with scientific knowledge. Unlike Montaigne, it maintains that men can and do attain to genuine
skeptic, like
Montaigne,
truth of both the senses
knowledge. can distinguish two variants of
scientific
We
that religion
is
this position.
not a cognitive activity at
no knowledge comparable with
all
One
takes the form
and, hence, a fortiori, con-
Another form is not knowledge; it holds that religion does contain knowledge, but knowledge that is practical, and not theoretical; it tells us what we ought to do, and not the way things are. Kant provides a paradigm example of this second position in his work Oil Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone. Kant defines religion as "the recognition of all duties as divine commands." Religion, as involving divine commands, obviously contains some relation to God. But Kant insists that there are no "special duties having reference directly to God"— no "courtly obligations over and above the ethico-civil duties of humanity (of man to man)." He also maintains that religion contains no theoretic knowledge of God: "In religion, as regards the theoretical apprehension and avowal of belief, no assertorial knowledge is required." Not even knowledge of God's existence is demanded: "This faith needs merely the idea of God, to which all morally earnest (and therefore confident) endeavor for the good must inevitably lead; it need not presume that it can certify the objective reality of this idea through theoretical apprehension." All that religion requires, according to Kant, is the minimum assertion that "it is possible that there may be a God," understood as "the object towards which our morally legislative tains
scientific truth.
as radical as this. It does not deprive religion of all claim to
reason bids us strive."^
8
On
Religion Within the Limits of Reason Alone
1960), p. 142.
76
(New
York: Harper
&
Brothers,
The Idea
of Religion in Great
Books
anythmg more is required than the duties of man Kant the mark of superstition: "Whatever over and above good hfe-conduct man fancies that he can do to become well-pleasing to God is mere religious illusion and pseudo-service of God."** Any departure whatsoever from this maxim is "pseudo-service of God (superstition)."^*^ He goes on to say that "it is a superstitious illusion to wish to become well-pleasing to God through actions which anyone can perform without even needing to be a good man (for example, through profession In fact, the belief that
to
man
constitutes for
of statutory articles of faith, through conformity to churchly observance
and
True religion requires nothing more than doing For this, conscience alone is all that is needed: "Conscience needs no guide; to have a conscience suffices." ^Religion still involves knowledge, according to Kant. But it is a knowledge, through conscience, of moral duty, and not a knowledge of God. Indeed, Kant emphasizes morality so much that it has been claimed that the reference to God in his definition of religion is almost an afterthought. For some, however, religion consists in having a certain kind of experience that is unique, having nothing to do with any knowledge that can be communicated either of the way things are or of what we ought to do. There is nothing in the idea of religious experience as such that requires it to be completely disjoined from any kind of knowledge. In his account of the varieties of religious experience, James is almost exclusively concerned with what he calls "faith-states"; yet he is also convinced that religion involves creeds and "a positive intellectual content," ^^ that is, it lays claim to knowledge. discipline, etc.)"^^
one's duty for duty's sake.
RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE
Many reports is
exist of
what purport
to
be religious experiences.
of special interest in these accounts
is
porting an experience of the transcendent God. occurs in nature, that
time and place. Yet it
it
is, it is
that
some claim
The experience,
something that happens to
carries with
it
men
to
What be
re-
of course,
in a certain
the conviction that there
is
more
in
than any purely natural event can provide.
James himself had such an experience, after he had begun work on his book on religion and while he was on a walking tour in the Adirondacks.
He
tells
of the experience in a letter to his wife, dated July 7,
1898:
9 Ibid.,
p. 158.
10 Ibid., p. 160. 11 Ibid., p. 162.
12 Ibid., p. 173.
13 Op.
cit.,
p. 382.
77
Should Christianity Be Secularized? ...
I
have had an eventful twenty-four hours.
serve for the party, and quite unexpectedly to
out one of the most memorable of I
was
in a
wakeful
mood
all
.
.
My
.
me
guide had to
the night turned
my memorable
experiences.
before starting, having been awake since
and I may have slept a little during this night; but I was not aware of sleeping at all. The guide had got a magnificent provision of firewood, the sky swept itself clear of every trace of cloud or vapor, the wind entirely ceased, so that the fire-smoke rose straight up to heaven. The temperature was perfect either inside or outside the cabin, the moon rose and hung above the scene before midnight, leaving only a few of the larger stars visible, and I got into a state of spiritual alertness of the most vital description. The influences of Nature, the wholesomeness of the people round me, especially the good Pauline, the thought of you and the children, dear Harry on the wave, the problem of the Edinburgh lectures, all fermented within me till it became a regular Walpurgis Nacht. I spent a good deal of it in the woods, where the streaming moonlight lit up things in a magical checkered play, and it seemed as if the Gods of all the nature-mythologies were holding an indescribable meeting in my breast with the moral Gods of the inner life. The two kinds of Gods have nothing in common— the Edinburgh lectures made quite a hitch ahead. The intense significance of some sort, of the whole scene, if one could only tell the significance; the intense inhuman remoteness of its inner life, and yet the intense appeal of it; its everlasting freshness and its immemorial antiquity and decay; its utter Americanism, and every sort of patriotic suggestiveness, and you, and my relation to you part and parcel of it all, and beaten up with it, so that memory and sensation all whirled inexplicably together; it was indeed worth coming for, and worth repeating year by year, if repetition could only procure what in its nature I suppose must be all unplanned for and unexpected. It was one of the happiest lonesome nights of my existence, and I understand now what a poet is. He is a person who can feel the immense complexity of influences that I felt, and make some partial tracks in them for verbal statement. In point of fact, I can't find a single word for all that significance, and don't know what it was significant of, so there it remains, a mere boulder of impression. Doubtless in more ways than one, though, things in the Edinburgh lectures will be three,
.
traceable to
.
.
it.
Dante's experience with Beatrice, as related in
its
beginnings in the
Nuova and carried to completion in the vision of God in The Divine Comedy, can also be interpreted as a transcendent experience. In terms
Vita of
it,
in his
14
Charles Williams has elaborated what he
book The Figure of
The Figure
of Beatrice
calls
"romantic theology,"
Beatrice}'^
(New
York: Farrar, Straus
78
&
Giroux, 1943).
The Idea
of Religion in Great
Books
In Augustine's account of his conversion there are at least two incidents same kind of experience. One is the
that deserve to be counted as the final
moment
of decision
decides to
finally
become
when,
after years of
doubt and torment, he
a Christian. It occurred at a time of particular
when he
felt self most divided against self; he believed the docby the church, yet he could not bring himself to enter it; "Give me chastity," he prays, "only not yet." He withdrew from his friends to a garden in order to consider and lament his condition. There,
anguish,
trines taught
he
tells us:
heard from a neighbouring house a voice, as of boy or girl, I know and oft repeating, "Take up and read; take up and read." Instantly, my countenance altered, I began to think most intently, whether children were wont in any kind of play to sing such words; nor could I remember ever to have heard the like. So checking the torrent of my tears, I arose; interpreting it to be no other I
not, chanting,
than a chapter
command from God, I
should
find.
.
.
.
to
open the book, and read the
Eagerly then
I
first
returned to the place
where ... I [had] laid the volume of the Apostle ... I seized, opened, and in silence read that section, on which my eyes first fell: "Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh," in concupiscence. No further would I read; nor needed I: for instantly at the end of this sentence, by a light as it were of serenity infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away— Confessions, VIII, xii, 29; GBWW, Vol. 18, p. 61a.
The
other occurs after his conversion, while he
is
discoursing with his
mother, looking out upon the garden of their house at Ostia.
We
were discoursing then together, alone, very sweetly; and "forand reaching forth unto those things which are before," we were enquiring between ourselves in the presence of the Truth, which Thou art, of what sort the eternal life of the saints was to be, which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man. But yet we gasped with getting those things which are behind,
the
mouth
tain, "the
of our heart after those heavenly streams of
fountain of
life,"
dewed thence according
which
is
Thy
foun-
"with Thee"; that, being be-
to our capacity,
we might
in
some
sort
meditate upon so high a mystery.
And when our discourse was brought to that point, that the very highest delight of the earthly senses, in the very purest material light, was, in respect of the sweetness of that life, not only not worthy
even of mention; we, raising up ourtowards the "Self-same," did things bodily, even the very heaven,
of comparison, but not
selves with a
more glowing
by degrees pass through
all
aff^ection
79
Should Christianity Be Secularized? whence sun and moon and
stars shine vipon the earth; yea,
we were
soaring higher yet, by inward musing, and discourse, and admiring of
Thy
we came to our own minds, and went beyond we might arrive at that region of never-faihng plenty,
works; and
them, that
where Thou feedest Israel for ever with the food of truth, and where life is the Wisdom by whom all these things are made, and what have been, and what shall be, and she is not made, but is, as she hath been, and so shall she be ever; yea rather, to "have been," and "hereafter to be," are not in her, but only "to be," seeing she is eternal. For to "have been," and to "be hereafter," are not eternal. And while we were discoursing and panting after her, we slightly touched on her with the whole effort of our heart; and we sighed, and there we leave bovmd "the first fmits of the Spirit"; and returned to vocal expressions of our mouth, where the word spoken has beginning and end. And what is like unto Thy Word, our Lord, Who endureth in Himself without becoming old, and "maketh all things new"?-Confessions, IX,
23-24;
x,
GBWW,
Vol. 18, p. 68a-c.
The value of such experiences, even leaving aside the question of whether or not they are necessary for religion, has been the subject of
much
discussion.
religion
Some argue
and the only evidence
that they constitute the very essence of for
its
truth.
James notes that these mystical
states are usually "absolutely authoritative over the individuals to
whom
they come." But he also points out that "no authority emanates from them
which should make
it
a duty for those
cept their revelations uncritically."
provide evidence that there so "break
down
sciousness based
gious
men may
comparable involves
15 Op.
is
stand outside of them to acthat he allows
is
that they
not "only one kind of consciousness" and
the authority of the non-mystical or rationalistic con-
upon the understanding and the senses
alone." ^'' Reli-
disagree about whether or not religion attains knowledge
to scientific
knowledge, but
more than knowledge
cit.,
who
The most
alone.
pp. 323-24.
80
all
would
certainly agree that
it
PART TWO
The
Year's Developments
in the
Arts and Sciences
Music, Painting, and Sculpture
ROY McMULLEN The Physical
Sciences
STEPHEN TOULMIN The Biological
Sciences
THEODORE PUCK Theology
LANGDON
B.
GILKEY
^'I
ROY McMULLEN Roy McMuUen was horn
in
Gays
Mills, Wisconsin,
on
May
9,
He
received his B.A. from the University of Oregon in 1935 and his M.A. in English Literature from the University of 1911.
California at Berkeley in 1941
and was a teaching fellow
at the
from 1939 to 1941. He served as a glider pilot and intelligence officer in England and France during World War H, and after the war he joined the staff of the New York Herald Tribune in Paris, where he still lives. Since 1963, he has been a latter institution
consultant on the fine arts for the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
has been a contributing editor of Art editor of the
combined magazines High
America, and he has written on music, arts for the
News and
He
the European
and Musical and the visual
Fidelity
literature,
Herald Tribune, House Beautiful, Realites, ConnaisHe is the author of a forthcoming
sance des Arts, and Horizon.
book on Marc Chagall.
82
Music, Painting,
and Sculpture
Thomist philosopher The and rather ruthless
and historian fitienne Gilson, in a recent little book disarmingly entitled The Arts of the Beautiful, remarks that "one can seldom be completely wrong when speaking about art, for the truth about art is so manifold that it would be sheer bad luck to miss the target completely." I hope he is right, for the present article will be defensible neither as an exhaustive survey nor
(we are too close to my examples for that). indeed be merely a kind of "speaking about art." More specifically,
as a definitive evaluation It will it
will try to
show
that the great ideas of the ^^^estern tradition are last few and sculpture; and I know that to seem predestined to miss the target com-
thoroughly relevant to what has been happening during the years in
modern music,
some readers such an aim
painting, will
pletely.
Both conservatives and avant-gardists acteristic of twentieth-century art
is
may
object that
precisely the fact that
what it
is
char-
has broken
and frequently thumbs its nose at, the Western tradition. I would if by "tradition" we mean— sticking to my three arts— such formal, stylistic, and referential phenomena as the key system in music, optical naturalism in painting, and the heroic human image in sculpture. The great ideas— as listed in the Syntopicon of Great Books of the Western
with,
agree,
W^or/rf— constitute a tradition in a deeper sense— so "tradition"
may
much deeper
that
not be the right word. These ideas are not styles, pro-
and opinions; they are terms, topics, and problems about which man has been talking for more than two thousand years. As such, it seems to me obvious that they can still be relevant to art, even though the continuity (by which we usually, if unconsciously, mean the Renaissance continuity) of artists' attitudes toward many of them has been broken. There exists, however, a far more troublesome objection to my undertaking. In one of its forms it is stated by Gilson, in the book from which I have just quoted. Art, he declares flatly, "is not a kind of knowledge not a manner of knowing"; it belongs in "the order of making." Then, cedures,
Western
.
83
.
.
Music, Painting, and Sculpture
almost as
on
if
he were objecting
specifically to the present article,
he goes
to say:
...
do not think
I
who
I
am
betraying the real intentions of most of
by saying that their chief concern is to something that can be talked about. In order to succeed, they have to interpret an act of production as if it were an act of expression and of communication.
those turn
write about
art,
into
it
Susan Sontag, in her Against Interpretation, and Other Essays, takes
same position when she refers to the critical search for meaning as a "revenge of the intellect upon art." In Sign, Image, Symbol, edited by Gyorgy Kepes, the American abstractionist Ad Reinhardt publishes some maxims which include: practically the
Messages
in art are
Explanation
Knowledge Learning
A few
years ago, in his
ported the typical not.
New
in art in art
in art
is is
is
The Tradition York painter
not messages.
no explanation. not knowledge.
not learning. of the
New, Harold Rosenberg
as saying, "Art
is
re-
not, not not not
." .
.
Such remarks are of course just the most recent manifestations of a current of opinion which has been flowing, largely through France and Germany, ever since the eighteenth century, when aesthetics as a distinct discipline was born— or christened, anyway. Sixty years ago, it was already fashionable to maintain that a work of art does not mean but simply is. Debussy, asked by an earnest conductor how the soloist should "interpret" the principal theme of Prelude a I'apres-midi d'un faune, said it was merely about "a shepherd playing the flute, his hind end in the grass." In 1854, Gerard de Nerval announced that his half-mad poems "would lose their charm in being explained." In 1836, Theophile Gautier gave currency to the notion of art for
art's sake.
In 1790, Kant, in the midst
about the loud singing of hymns by his neighbors, afiirmed that music "speaks by means of mere sensations without concepts, and so does not leave behind it any food for reflection" (Vol. 42, p. 535d). of complaining
.
He
.
.
did grant that painting "can penetrate
(p. 537a), but
I
.
.
.
into the region of ideas"
imagine he would have promptly withdrawn that conces-
if he had foreseen the twentieth century's nonfigurative trends. There have always been, to be sure, other opinions. Skimming through aesthetic history, we are reminded that the ancient Greeks and Romans derived a surprising amount of intellectual comfort from the cruder forms of the theory of art as imitation. In the Middle Ages, allegorical meanings
sion
were discovered in just about everything. Renaissance theorists often went in for mystical analyses of proportions. While Kant was writing, 84
Roy McMuUen neoclassicism and rationalism were occupying other, and usually less acute, minds. In 1793, the painter Jacques Louis
David issued
a
most
unphilosophical philosophical manifesto (cited by Lionello Venturi in his History of
Art Criticism):
artist must ... be a philosopher. Socrates, able sculptor; J. J. Rousseau, good musician; the immortal Poussin, tracing on canvas the most sublime lessons of philosophy— these are so many witnesses who prove that the genius of the arts must have no other
The
guide than the torch of reason.
In the nineteenth century, idealism and then empathy found favor. In our own era, Freudian and Marxist interpretations have been widely used.
and philosophical modes of thought have been applied in books like Susanne Langer's Philosophy in a New Key and Feeling and Form. Since World War II, information theory has interested a number of writers on art. Yet I can think of no formal aesthetic theory that might serve as solid protection from the slings and arrows of Reinhardt, Gilson, Miss Sontag, and their historical allies, including Kant, although Gilson denounces him as a philistine. The plain fact is that music, painting, and sculpture as such— in their "pure" states, that is— are not at all "a manner of knowing." As such, they do indeed, as Kant says, speak 'Tjy means of mere sensations," and so they cannot be said to actually communicate concepts. In the chaos of our routine consciousness, even the most effective sonata, picture, or statue intervenes at first as a mere sharpening of emotional focus and perhaps a vague awareness of order, followed by a posthypnotic feeling of having been unusually attentive, unusually alive, for a few moments. All this may be very agreeable. But how can we talk about ideas of any sort, let alone the great occidental ones, in
Modern
scientific
to symbolism, with impressive results
such a context?
Common
it seems to me, supplies the only possible answers. no sensible critic today would try to construct a complete replica in conceptual language of a musical composition, a painting, or a statue. That sort of enterprise went out of fashion, I should guess, about when the last heroic-biography interpretation of Beethoven's Eroica was given up (the position of the "Funeral March" made the protagonist die too soon anyway). In the second place, art is by no means the only much-discussed human experience which cannot really
In the
first
sense,
place,
be translated into conceptual language. A theory like that of Gilson, which— at least in the passage I have quoted— seems to tell us to be silent about the unutterable in a painting by Victor Vasarely or an opera
by Gunther Schuller (I am about to mention both), should also stop all the talk about sex and weather. After all, the most industrious critic of sex cannot ever have experienced more than half of what he is talking 85
Music, Painting, and Sculpture about, unless he happens to be a since
we
new
Tiresias (GIT, 1966, p. 355);
are always in weather, recapturing
it
in
words
is
and
rather like
melody while hearing another. Yet we do talk each other about sex and the weather. Obviously— as Gilson concedes in passing, and as indeed his book itself demonstrates— an experience which is not as such "a manner of knowing" can become a subject or an object of knowledge. Kant was right in saying that music trying to recall one intelligibly to
speaks "without concepts," but wrong in concluding that leave behind
it
any food for
Also, a plain fact
of the sort
I
sculpture as
The realm
such— in
"does not
.
.
.
nearly always overlooked in abstruse arguments
have got myself
of
venience for
is
it
reflection."
into. It is
their isolated
simply that music, painting, and
purity— are
just philosophical fictions.
which Kant puts them is only a condiscussion, since during our experience of them we cannot "mere sensations"
escape from our
human realm
in
of conceptual language. Indeed, without
concepts there could be no music, painting, and sculpture; a Percheron
cannot react
to,
or even recognize,
Rosa Bonheur's "Horse Fair"
"as such."
(Hence, although saying so here is uneconomical, I find a semantic confusion in all accounts of the aesthetic activity of animals: their "art"
One can
be, and certainly should be, against judgments and which shut ofi^, and eventually become substitutes for, a full sensuous appreciation of the aural and visual arts. One can insist, again, that these arts do not communicate concepts. One can argue that the relevant ideas can only be very general and, so to speak, openended (which is exactly what the great ideas are). But finally one cannot be against interpreting these arts in words. Man's mind, being human, refuses to function in any other fashion. is
not ours.)
literary paraphrases
THE H O M^ AND THE WHAT Although
there are
many ways
in
which the great occidental ideas
can be relevant— always and inevitably with the help of words— to current music, painting, and sculpture, two broad categories of "how" can .
be made out. In the first, the words are chosen by the artist and integrated with the work; operas and songs are the most common examples, but one
and pieces of sculpture that refer to literature or which are not just tags— which are as much a part of the work as a libretto is of an opera. In the second category, which of course often overlaps with the first, the artist leaves the choice of interpretative words pretty much up to his listeners or viewers, although he may, especially if he is a composer, supply explanatory notes written by himself or by can also
bear
cite paintings
titles
an authorized critic. Here the common examples are nondescriptive instrumental music and abstract painting or sculpture. Perhaps we can never be sure of having got a particular work tied 86
Roy McMullen most relevant great idea. All good art is open to more than one and masterpieces are open to many. But the truth is that we still know very little about the psychology of art, and I would not dismiss the possibility (although it could reopen the whole argument about communicating concepts) that aural and visual works can function to the
interpretation,
as fairly exact analogies, or sensuous metaphors, for verbal thinking. If
accept the notion of psychosomatic illness,
why
should
we
we
reject the
notion of psychosomatic, or somatopsychic, art? Personally, I find that certain pieces of modern music in particular may be experienced as if
they were working models of general ideas (it helps, I grant, to have read the program notes). How such models may operate is described by Erwin Panofsky in his fascinating essay Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism (the italics are his):
Modern
contrast to
psychology, in
Gestalt
much
nineteenth century and very
in
the
doctrine of the
harmony with
that of the
thirteenth, "refuses to reserve the capacity of synthesis to the higher faculties of the
human mind" and
stresses "the formative
the sensory processes." Perception
itself
is
now
powers of
credited— and
I
quote— with a kind of "intelligence" that "organizes the sensory material under the pattern of simple, 'good' Gestalten" in an "effort of the
organism
to assimilate stimuli to its
own
organization";
of expressing precisely what
^
all
Thomas
which is the modern way Aquinas meant when he wrote: "the senses delight in things duly proportioned as in something akin to them; for, the sense, too, is a of
kind of reason as
I
am
is
not positive that
Vol. 19, p. 26b).
But
every cognitive power."
Thomas Aquinas meant
at least the
precisely
passage does illustrate
all
of that {see
my
belief that
the great ideas of the Western tradition can be relevant to twentieth-
century
art.
In fact, in this particular context every reference to the
Great Books listed in the Sijntopicon under the term Sense is to the point. We can now move on, without feeling too heretical, into more specific illustrations. These will be drawn from the productions of several recent seasons, partly to compensate for the omission of my subject from previous volumes of this series and also because my three arts do not
have publication dates like those of literature— a picture or a song may be in existence for quite a while before one gets a chance to see or hear it. And that last fact reminds me to remind the reader that these illustrations are being supplied by an appreciator who has been living in and working out of Paris for a number of years. I do not think that this
1
and Art," Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 1943, idem, "Perceptual Abstraction and Art," Psychological Review, LIV (1947), 66 ff., especially p. 79 (Note by Professor Panofsky).
R. Arnheim, "Gestalt
pp. 71
fF.;
87
.
Music, Painting, and Sculpture has
much
aflFected
my
awareness of
thoroughly international today. But
since they are
artistic trends,
has certainly affected
it
quaintance with particular works. Even with the help of television, color prints,
painting,
and specialized
and sculpture has
there are always limits on
be rather provincial
in
to
how
discs, the radio,
be informed, and
in order to
and when he can
comparison with
all
ac-
publications, a critic of music,
go to things far
my
He is thus apt to who can be snugly
go.
literary critics,
cosmopolitan in their armchairs.
WORDS, MUSIC, AND COMMITMENT
TOmore
Thomas Aquinas
turn from
venerable opinion that opera addicts there
nonaddicts
is
little
there
is
is
and prima donnas may seem know, a widespread and already
to tenors
than a bit absurd. There
is,
I
the fool
among
the
arts.
Even among
disposition to take a libretto seriously,
general agreement with
and among
Dr. Johnson's scorn for
the whole enterprise as "an exotick and irrational entertainment." Hardly
anyone assumes that an operatic composer can have the sort of active commitment to general ideas which is taken for granted whenever a man of letters
is
discussed.
Yet the evidence of such commitment has never been scarce.
want to know how a sensitive mind at the ment thought and felt about liberty, listen
close of the
Age
If
you
of Enlighten-
"O welche Lust" chorus Wagner's Tristan und Isolde you can hear an efiPective, if not quite orthodox, introduction to Schopenhauer's thoughts on will, along with some clear anticipation of Freud's speculations about Eros and death (Vol. 54, pp. 790a-791d). The music of Verdi was so closely associated with the Risorgimento that the slogan "Viva Verdi" became the recognized equivalent of "Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re D'ltalia." At least one nineteenth-century opera— nowadays no longer heard in its entirety— can be called a national liberator, for the Belgian revolt of 1830 began after a performance of Auber's La Muette de Portici. And certainly, to cite two classics of our own era, one cannot call Berg's Wozzeck and Schoenberg's Moses und Aron intellectually frivolous. The first plunges deep into the nature of man and of evil; and the second is a musical inquiry into problems of religion, true knowledge, and artistic communication During recent seasons, no new opera has been comparable in terms of musical quality to the masterpieces I have just mentioned, and none to my knowledge has provoked a war of independence. However, two works thoroughly committed to serious ideas— and highly praised by critics from all over the world—had their first performances last year in West Germany. One was Hans Werner Henze's The Bassarids, which was presented at the Salzburg festival. The other was Gunther Schuller's to the
of the prisoners in Beethoven's Fidelio. In
88
Roy McMuUen The Vmtation, which had
its
premiere at the Hamburg State Opera it will have been heard, if present
(by the time these words are in print plans
go through,
at
the
new Metropolitan
in
New
York's
Lincoln
Center).
as
Henze merits attention for several reasons. At forty-one he has emerged beyond question the most la\ishly gifted composer of the postwar
renaissance. In fact, he is the first German composer since Richard Strauss to have a truly wide— rapidly becoming worldwideaudience. But at the same time, perhaps because of his talent and his
German
he has become a rather troubling example of the young musician
success,
of the twentieth century trying to find a free, personal style in the midst
modern and
of both
He began
academic schools. under the influence of the scholarly, conservative
traditional
his career
Paul Hindemith and especially of Igor Stravinsky, still
neoclassical in outlook.
Then
the
who
Young Turks
at that time
of
was
German music
discovered the twelve-tone series of Arnold Schoenberg, whose works as decadent and Jewish by the Nazis. In 1952, Henze brought forth a completely serial opera, Boulevard Solitude, which told in terms of today's Left-Bank Paris the Manon Lescaut story; and his success was such that he was promptly hailed as the leader of the German, even the European, avant-garde. But then, in 1953, he suddenly committed what many of the more extreme modernists still feel was an act of desertion: he moved to the island of Ischia (eventually to Naples) and fell in love with Italian melody. He began to fear that the more strict kinds of serialism would, in his own words, "lead music into the grayness of dry algebra and destroy the ability to represent the most
had been banned
simple of authentic musical events."
His next opera, Konig Hirsch, and his Five Neapolitan Songs revealed work since then has been
a rejection of orthodox avant-gardism; and his
what he dismiss
calls "freely
it
invented music."
as fluent eclecticism. If
you
If
you are unsympathetic, you can it is very hard to dislike
like it— and
—you can describe it as a sensuous, translucent synthesis of everything from a bit of jazz to Italian opera, Wagner, and even Massenet, strung between the poles of Schoenbergian counterpoint and Stravinskyan neoclassicism.
a
His other operas, besides The Bassarids, are Der Prinz von Homburg, Kleist's play; Elegy for Young Lovers, with a
moody work based on
by Chester Kallman and the poet W. H. Auden (the librettists for The Rake's Progress); and the comic Der junge Lord, for which the young poet Ingeborg Bachmann did the libretto. He has also composed five symphonies, the cantata Novae de Infinito Laudes, several ballets, and a long string of minor works. Available on records are Five Neapolitan Songs, sung by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau; excerpts from Elegtj for Young Lovers, with the same singer; and the five sym-
text
Stravinsky's
89
Music, Painting, and Sculpture phonies, with
Henze himself conducting
Berhn Philharmonic. The Konig Hirsch.The libretto for The Bassarids, again by Auden and Kallman, is simply The Bacchantes of Euripides (Vol. 5, p. 340) brought up to date— or rather, given all sorts of dates. The principal characters and the plot of the play are kept: the puritanical young Theban king, Pentheus, who is determined to stamp out the worship of "this new god Dionysus" (p. 341d), is tricked by the god himself into attending an orgy of the Bacchantes, or Bassarids, and is torn member from member by the possessed women, who are led by Agave, daughter of Cadmus and mother of Pentheus. Old Cadmus, however, is the only personage in Greek robes. Pentheus is dressed as a medieval ruler, Dionysus appears first as a Valentino-type sheik and then as Beau Brummel, blind Teiresias is an English clergyman in dark glasses, and Agave wears an elaborate nineteenth-century gown. The run-of-the-mill Bassarids are beatniks and Bardots who are equipped with flashlights for their insane hunt for their victim. The settings mix classical Greek with Baroque and modern, and include television antennas. The music— with the exception of a comic intermezzo which is painfully uncomic— is by far the most dramatically pointed and emotionally Fourth Symphony
stirring that
is
the
also the second-act finale of
Henze has
so far written.
He
is
much
kinder to voices than
most of today's avant-gardists are, and he provides his cast with some beautifully traditional arias and fine choral numbers. But the orchestral part
is
the important thing, so
much
so that at times, in principle although
not in the actual sound, a return to Wagnerian music drama
The
entire opera
without a break for
is
implied.
mammoth four-movement symphony which runs two and a half hours. This abstract structure may have
is
a
been suggested to Henze by the example of Berg's Wozzeck, which is based very precisely on instrumental forms, and it can be regarded as simply a kind of scaffolding— helpful to the composer during the organizing of his material, but of no concern to the listener. In fact, however, it is capable of becoming, at least after a few hearings, a working model of the ideas in the libretto, for the two themes of the traditional symphony can represent the fundamental conflict between Pentheus and Dionysus. I do not mean to suggest that these themes are all-important in the work, nor that Henze is old-fashioned. He is very good at handling the complex rhythms and patterns of timbres favored by post-World War n modernists. But he is clearly doing some thinking as well as some music-making in The Bassarids.
What
the thinking
2 Readers interested
is
about
is
arguable, of course, but not very
in the recordings
mentioned in this article should consult their under different labels in different countries,
local dealers. Discs are often released
and some may have
to
much
be imported.
90
The
is still often the important so that at times a return to
orchestral part
thing, so
much
Wagnerian music drama
so.
In the opera as in Euripides' play there
between man and
is
a struggle
is
implied
between mind
the animal in him, between the rational
and sense, and the irrational. The irrational wins, partly because the rational overestimates its own power and underestimates that of the enemy, and partly because that is how things are: the gods are jealous and vengeful. Possibly
Henze was unconsciously
attracted to the subject for personal
reasons; in his art he has experienced a struggle of sensuality
between the temptations
those of the puritanical rationalism in the dodecaphonic
and
knows from whole people can indeed be hypno-
system. And, at the terrible level of national history, he
having grown up tized
under Hitler that a
and possessed by the
irrational.
Henze and was something of a boy prodigy, has back of him an astonishing amount and variety of musical experience. He was a boy soprano in his native New York, and then a boy flutist. At fourteen he picked up the French horn and two years later began a professional career with that instrument which took him from the Ballet Theatre to the Cincinnati Symphony and then back to New York, where he remained with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra until 1959. He has taught both privately and at the Manhattan School of Music and at Yale. Last year he was appointed president of the New England Conservatory of Music. His interests include folk music, the Ars Nova of the fourteenth century, jazz, and the most recent avant-garde developments. His Horn Technique was published by the Oxford University Schuller,
who
is
a year older than
Music, Painting, and Sculpture Press in 1962. He has been a writer, radio commentator, conductor, and the organizer of the concert series called "Twentieth-Century Innovations." He is an admirer of Duke Ellington, Count Basic, Dizzy Gillespie,
Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, John Lewis and the Modern Jazz Quartet, and he has coined the phrase "third stream" to describe a kind of
music that combines the subtlety, spontaneity, and rhythms of jazz with the dynamics and structures of the modern twelve-tone classical system. His more than fifty compositions include concertos, symphonies, songs, jazz pieces, and a good many fantasies in which he exhibits his interest in unusual tone colors. The range of his eclecticism can be heard in the delightful Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee, composed eight years ago but just recently given a fine recording by the Boston Symphony under the direction of Erich Leinsdorf. One of the Klee pictures is evoked with the microtonal eflFects of Arabic music. The other studies are serial but are full of delicate blends of jazz and traditional timbres. Particularly successful is the one based on the painter's famous "Twittering-machine," now in the New York Museum of Modern Art. In view of all this, the raw vigor of The Visitation may have surprised
some
listeners.
The
three-act libretto, written
by Schuller
himself,
is
based on Franz Kafka's novel The Trial; you might say that it is intended to focus for present-day Americans the Kafka nightmare of unmotivated injustice and human isolation. The place is an ordinary city somewhere in the United States. The baritone protagonist is a young colored man
named
Carter Jones,
whom
Negro have become undefined because of attempts over the years to adapt himself to the dominating social order. He simply wants to lead a decent life in an indecent society." Jones, like the central character in the Kafka story, is accused of a vague crime by vague accusers. He is taken to a cotton warehouse by a group of white men, who subject him to a sort of trial and then beat him. He loses his apartment and his job, and appeals in vain for the help of friends, lawyers, and a preacher. At the end the gang of white men murder him with a shovel and bury him. The music is as raw and violent as the libretto, and quite naturally
whose personal and
Schuller describes as "the type of
racial characteristics
of the "third-stream" kind. In fact, the idea for the libretto appears to
have occurred
to Schuller not only
because of
deep sympathy
his
the civil-rights struggle of American Negroes but also because he
been asked
for
had
compose a twelve-tone jazz opera for Rolf Liebermann, the Hamburg Opera and himself the composer of a thirdstream Concerto for Jazz Band and Symphony Orchestra (recorded several years ago by the Chicago Symphony under Fritz Reiner). The use of Negro music— mostly from a jazz septet improvising in the midst of to
director of the
the full orchestra— suggested that the opera
itself
ought to deal with
the problem of the relations between whites and
92
Negroes. Schuller
Roy McMullen and reinforced the orchestral interpretation crowd noises emerging from loudspeakers Helped by many theatrically effective vocal
added some Negro
spirituals
of white violence with taped
back of the theater. numbers, the whole mixture not only miraculously held together but became a complex musical statement about problems of justice which have been the concern of Western thinkers ever since at least Plato's day. I wonder if Dr. Johnson, who in his Tory fashion was a stout believer in inalienable rights, might not have changed his mind about opera if he could have seen The Visitation. He once startled "some very in the
grave
men
at
Oxford" (Vol.
44, p.
363b) by proposing a toast "to the next
insurrection of the Negroes in the
An
oratorio
is
West
Indies."
a kind of opera without scenery, costumes, or acting,
is a kind of seems the place to mention the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ According to St. Luke, by the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. The work was a sensational success in performances in Cracow, Warsaw, and Venice last year, and was recorded by the Cracow Philharmonic Orchestra and an excellent group of Polish singers under
and the
traditional musical setting of the Passion of Christ
oratorio.
Hence
this
Henryk Czyz. The surge forward in Polish art
the direction of
since the relaxation of political control
in 1956 has been as striking in music as in painting and the movies. Several Polish composers— notably Witold Lutoslawski and Tadeus Baird— have acquired international reputations during the last five or six years, and their styles have suggested that musical innovation was about to
monopoly of the non-Communist world. Penderecki, who is still only thirty-four and whose first important opus dates only from 1958, is the latest and by far the most spectacular of these new men. He has attracted attention by composing for such unconventional "instruments" as typewriters, files, saws, and sirens, and by insisting on unusual techniques in general; a violinist, for example, may be instructed (by means of a new system of symbols instead of standard notation) to play stop being a
on the
tailpiece or
behind the bridge,
to use the
wood
instead of the hair
bow, or simply to treat his instrument as a small drum. The result is often an extreme form of what Schoenberg called Klangfarbenmelodie, "tone-color melody," in which a single note is made expressive merely by changes in timbre. In Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima, composed in 1960 and now also available on discs, such techniques led to a work of the
of rare emotional concentration— a long, almost intolerably restrained
and the sound of something falling through a vast psychic space. The composer maintains, however, that his break with the past is largely technical; and the eclecticism in his St. Luke Passion shows that he means what he says. The new work is manifestly by the same Penderecki who wrote the orchestral sob broken
by ominous clucking and
clicking
Threnody. Long, swaying, fluttering passages in the orchestra 93
may blend
Music, Painting, and Sculpture imperceptibly with the singing voices, or be broken by a dramatic
and then the shouts and hisses of the crowd mocking Jesus. Quarter tones add subtlety to the parts for soprano and strings. The basic structure is atonal and serial, and the melodic line leaps and dives sometimes in the post- World War II manner. But there is a lot of traditionalism mixed in with the modernism (in addition to the fact that the Passion form itself takes us back a couple of centuries). The basic phrase in the series is b-Rat, a,c,b; and since in the German nomenclature our Z^-flat is b and our b is h, the theme of the whole work is b-a-c-h— used by Bach himself in The Art of Fugue and by many later composers as a tribute to the author of the sublime St. Matthew Passion. Penderecki adds Gregorian elements and some reminiscences of medieval mysteries and occasionally allows his music to become definitely tonal. The text, in Latin, includes not only the Gospel narrative but also the Stabat Mater, some Psalms, and material from the Roman Breviary for crash, or turn into a thin whistle
Good Friday. Some of the
effects are a trifle obvious,
and some are
to
my mind
too
operatic for the sacred subject matter. Also, with the passage of time,
modern elements may begin to sound weakness rather than the strength it now seems to be. But there can be no denying that this St. Luke Passion is religious music on the old, grand scale, informed by profound feeling and thought. Moreover, it is a great deal more than just the music of a Western cult. Penderecki has said, and he makes the listener feel, that the work is simultaneously about the sufferings of Christ and the sufferings of modern man, at Auschwitz and many other places. It is a meditation on an eternally contemporary tragedy. The Venice festival, which offered the musical tourist a chance to hear the St. Luke Passion, a thoroughly Roman Catholic work by a composer from a Communist nation, also offered a thoroughly Communist work by a composer from a Roman Catholic nation: Luigi Nono's A floresta e jovem e chea de vida ("The forest is young and full of life"). This piece was not a success, but it is worth mentioning because of its connection with the question of an artist's commitment to the great the mixture of traditional and like a
ideas of the Occident.
Nono, who was born circles in
1950 as a
in
serialist
Venice
who was
in at
emerged in avant-garde and poetic (he later background quickly asserted
1924,
once
strict
married Schoenberg's daughter). His Italian itself, however, and much of his music is in one way or another vocal; I say "one way or another" because he has experimented with magnetic tape and with the range of sound effects possible between electronic music and the electronically transformed human voice. Among his noteworthy works are Polifonica-Monodia-Ritmica and Incontri, both recorded, the opera Intolleranza 1960, which created a scandal at its
94
Roy McMuUen by Federico Machado, and Giuseppe Ungaretti. I want to stress that I consider him a composer \sith a \er}' original talent, a lot of artistic courage, and a rare kind of integrits'. Xevertheless, A floresta e jovcm c chea de vicia is an embarrassing affair— in no less than six languages. The title is from a remark by a rebel in Angola. About half of the text is deri\ed from an article in Fortune, b%' Herman Kahn, about escalation and the cold war. There are also quotations from Fidel Castro, Patrice Lumumba, Vietnamese and \'enezuelan Communists, an anonymous Berkeley student ("Is this all we can do?"), two Italian workers, and an anon^-mous anti-automation worker in Detroit ("If the struggle does premiere Garcia
in \'enice,
Lorca,
Paul
and complex Eluard,
settings of poetic texts
Cesare
Antonio
Pavese,
not begin here in the coal mines in the auto steel electrical industries there shall be no freedom'"*.
Some
of this material
tape through loudspeakers, fortissimo; some
by four
is
is
delivered from
chanted, sung, or shouted
The accompaniment is pro\ided by taped sound, and a row of large, limber sheets of metal— similar to those which ha\"e long been rattled in theater wings to create thunder. The conclusion of the text, in Italian, is to the effect that the United States is an international murderer and liar. But the actual live singers.
a clarinet electronicalh' amplified,
whole piece on the listener is boredom, reliexed only a little bv some interest in the unusual equipment and, if the listener is not a Communist, bv some irritation or amusement at the extreme intellectual Lefts abilitv to be just as bombastic and hammy as the extreme nonineffect of the
tellectual Bight. I
am
sure that
work and
that he
themes of
justice
Xono was is
absolutelv sincere
and peace. But here he
for their o\\'n sakes;
when he undertook
this
capable of composing con\incing music on his big
he
is
is
obviously not evoking ideas
simplv trving to use them for propaganda.
He
music is bv its verv nature positixe and general in its effects rather than negative and specific: it was almost certain to sound hollow and ludicrous when required to sav something against automation and the United States. Xono can of course dismiss these comments as mere e\"idence of American prejudice. I think he would be \\'iser, howe\er, to ask himself if he is serving also appears to ha\"e forgotten the plain fact that
his
own
cause effecti\eh'
\\'e all is
to
know
seem
b\" \\Titing ineffecti\e
music.
songs whose Ivrics are so familiar that to hear the tune
The German composer Giselher Klebe phenomenon in his Missa Miserere nobis, vears ago but has only recentlv come mv way.
to hear the words.
does a nice \ariation on
this
which was written three The familiar Latin words of the Mass are wTitten into the score, but instead of being sung they are "recited" by eighteen wind instruments. The mysterious, rather mvstical effect is heightened bv contrapuntal means and especiallv bv a careful choice of tone colors: "Kijrie eJeison" 95
Music, Painting, and Sculpture
ABOVE, VLADIMIR USSACHEVSKY IN ROOM 317, ELECTRONIC MUSIC CENTER. RIGHT, N.Y.C.
PRO MUSICA ENSEMBLE Music, since it is a time art, is particularly suited to experimenting with the many aspects of change. It has undergone transformations ranging from the audio to the visual, and in many cases the change has obliterated the visual aspect of a musical production
'
Roy McMullen is
recited
by the
with "Gloria
in
flutes,
oboes,
and
clarinets; the brass section
comes
excehis Deo", the trombone chants "Credo in
in
unum
Deum." The h-a-c-h phrase used by Penderecki occurs again here, in "Dona nobis pacem." The whole work might indeed have been accepted by Thomas Aquinas as a sensuous model of ideas. Klebe, who was born in 1925 in Mannheim, deserves to be better known beyond the Rhine than he now is. He is the author of several ballets
and operas and
like Schuller
has done an interpretation of Klee's
"Twittering-machine." His music for Goethe's are simply recited) has
Roman
Elegies (the
poems
been recorded.
CHANGE AND CHANCE as the reader has probably SO easy way toward what Gilson far,
noticed,
calls
I
have been taking the
turning art into "something that
can be talked about." The operation becomes more
difficult
not have the help of words supplied, or implied, by the
when we do
themselves—when we leave the category of vocal music, for instance, and start trying to talk about purely instrumental, or "absolute," music. But even here the great ideas can be shown to be relevant. The trick is to concentrate on ideas which are sufficiently general to go well with artists
abstract works.
jw
«
^^^^^H
jii Mii |k^H '
i-'
11 ^^^^^^^B ^^^^H Hi II
^^VMB'9
Ps I'^^^K
Music, Painting, and Sculpture
An
interesting
compared with
example
is
traditional
modern art, when European art, can of
the idea of change. All of
nineteenth-century
course be thought of as a sensuous working model of this idea. Twentiethcentury musicians, painters, and sculptors allow us to hear and see, to feel in our nervous systems, the accelerating process of Western history; they affirm with Heraclitus that reality is a flux— that we never step in
same water twice in the stream of time. They thus disagree with who was impatient enough with the notions of Heraclitus to remark that a "man of sense" will not believe "that all things leak like the
Socrates,
a pot, or imagine that the world (Vol. 7, p. 114a). Music, since
experimenting with the
many
is
it
a is
man who a time
has a running at the nose"
art,
is
particularly suited to
aspects of the concept of change, plus the
related idea of chance.
Here
it is
necessary to review some twentieth-century artistic history
in order to appreciate If
we
what has been happening during the
last
few
years.
are willing to ignore temporarily, merely for the sake of the argu-
ment, a large number of emotional factors, it is possible to see in the twelve-tone system developed by Schoenberg around 1923 an attempt to construct a musical model of being and becoming. If it were not for the date, one could imagine that he
had been reading the Syntopicon
(Vol. 2, p. 198a):
For the ancients, the basic contrast between being and becoming (or between the permanent and the changing) is a contrast between the intelligible and the sensible. This is most sharply expressed in Plato's distinction between the sensible realm of material things and the intelligible realm of ideas. Being, or the permanent,
by the
is
which
well represented in the Schoenbergian system
an arrangement (it can be thought of as a "theme," but the word has to be shorn of any suggestion of a melody), series itself,
is
for a given composition, of all the twelve notes of the system; this ar-
rangement sition
is repeated over and over again throughout the given compowithout any alteration of the intervals between the notes. How-
becoming, or the changing, is also represented in the system: the may be used horizontally (as a melody, that is) or vertically (in chords); it may occur, at any of the twelve possible pitch levels, forward, backward, upside-down, and backward upside-down— in a total of fortyeight forms. And the analogy with Plato's distinction is reasonably close, ever,
series
for in practice the initial series— the model of the idea of being, or the permanent— is for the average listener pretty much a purely intellectual construction; what he actually hears is the continuous variation— the working model of the idea of becoming, or the changing.
Toward Atlantic
the close of the 1940's, serial composers on both sides of the were seized by what might be called, to keep our Platonic
98
Roy McMullen analogy
alive, a
rage for pure being. They began to employ rows not
only of tones, as Schoenberg had done, but also of tone colors, time
and instrumental attacks. The rage went a little too was some talk of "totalitarian" trends in musical circles, and within a few years a number of lyrical spirits— Henze, for example— seceded from the avant-garde. But the idea that music can be an aspect of the "permanent" in reality, much as mathematics can be, is values, intensities, far for
many
tastes; there
attractive to many cool, modern minds. The American composer Milton Babbitt, now
still
of
Music
at Princeton,
is
and Professor
fifty-one
generally credited with having written the
although at the time— 1948— accomplishment did not attract much attention in the wide world. Babbitt is an expert mathematician as well as an expert Schoenbergian, and his music is notable for the elegance of its detail. Among the works which date back to his heroic 1948-51 period, and which are all available on discs, are Composition for Four Instruments, Composition for Viola and Piano, Composition for Twelve Instruments (the austerely abstract titles are characteristic), and the song cycle Du. Among his more recent things are a large orchestral piece, Relata, and Philomel, for soprano and magnetic tape. Refinement and order are apparent
first
"totally organized" serial composition,
his revolutionary
everywhere, and in the best pieces there is a quality that suggests intellectual processes crystallized into sound. Is it all a little too cerebral and cold? Perhaps it is, but Babbitt thinks that people will discover an emotional content in his
work when they come
to
know
his
new
musical
"you get a telegram in Swahili telling you your dearest friend has dropped dead, how can you have an emotional reaction?"^ While he is waiting for the ordinary public to learn his language, he is happy to remain one among the growing number of American composers who regard the university rather than the commercial concert hall as their natural habitat. The university provides him with the language.
"If,"
he has
said,
which he has been led logically by (I shall have occasion to mention him again in this connection). He has also made it clear that the campus suits his uncompromisingly intellectual attitude toward his art:
equipment
for electronic music, to
his rationalist
approach to composing
There must be a verbal responsibility and a verbal discourse about music today. There must be a dissemination of ideas. I would rather be known as an academic composer as opposed to a commercial composer.
.
.
.
The milieu
of the professional world, of the per-
former, the orchestra manager, the
artist's
representative
is
inappro-
There is no communication between us. We are in the university because it is the only place where we can function.* priate to me.
3 High Fidelity, October, 1966, p. 107.
4 The
New
York Times Magazine, September
99
11, 1966, p. 55.
Music, Painting, and Sculpture
The dangers
in
such an attitude are evident. But so long as the world
more
of commercial concerts continues to be star performers
than in
new
music,
it
interested in
money and
can scarcely complain of being
ignored by living composers.
move
In France the
music was made withdrew this fiendishly difficult work from public performance, and he has since turned away from its strict serialism toward much more free and personal methods of composition. But I think it is still fair to say that he belongs
by
into totally organized serial
Pierre Boulez, in 1951 with Polyphonic X.
He
later
those modernists who think of a piece of music as more a kind of permanent intelligible structure than a kind of perpetual sensuous change. His most recent work, written for a chamber orchestra and entitled Eclat, does indeed begin as if it were sort of improvising itself and might finally decide to be just a model of the following lines in Plato's
among
Theaetetus (Vol.
7, p.
517d):
am
about to speak of a high argument, in which all things are said there is no single thing or quality, but out of be relative; motion and change and admixture all things are becoming relatively to one another, which "becoming" is by us incorrectly called being, but is really becoming, for nothing ever is, but all things are becoming. I
to
.
The rhythm, slow,
now
as
.
.
always in the work of Boulez,
rapid, sometimes suspended.
extremely free:
is
The tone
colors
now
change con-
But gradually all of these musical atoms are pulled together, something like a condensation and then a small explosion— an eclat— at the last minute, and the listener is aware that the process of becoming has brought a definite form into being. Boulez, who at forty-two has lost none of his energy and his famous bad temper, is having so much success as a conductor these days (of stantly.
there
is
Parsifal at Bayreuth,
be apt
among
other exploits) that the general public
and writer. eaux and Le Marteau
poser, animator, teacher,
Le
may
contemporary music as comAmong his recorded works are sans Maitre, both for voice and and the early Sonatine, for flute nuptial and Pli selon pli, both for
to forget his services to the cause of
Soleil des
orchestra; Structures, for two pianos; and piano. Also noteworthy are Visage voice and orchestra, and Doubles, for orchestra. He has recently resigned as the organizer and director of "Domaine musical," the principal avant-
garde concert series in Paris. His pupils are
now
taking their places as
European postwar generation of composers. He is the author of numerous essays (a collection of them has been published under the title Releves d'apprenti) and of a book, Penser la musique aujourd'hui, which is both a blast in favor of the independence of the modern composer and a study of modern techniques of composition. Like Babbitt, part of the second
100
Roy McMullen he is an expert mathematician who believes firmly that music is a science as well as an art; but, again like Babbitt, he sees no conflict between creative imagination and rational technique. On the last page of his book he writes: "Technique is not really a dead weight that one must drag around. ... It is the exciting mirror which the imagination forges
which are reflected the imagination's discoveries." like to point out that the reader can disagree with my opinions about specific works without worrying me. He can declare, for example, that all he can hear in a piece by Boulez is the buzz of a perpetual "becoming" which never gets around to becoming an intelligible "being"— a form that sticks in the mind. The model of "being," he can maintain, exists merely in the paper score and never becomes audible. None of this, I repeat, would worry me, for it would not destroy my argument that the great ideas are in one way or another relevant to contemporary art. However, I should be surprised if the reader were to disagree with my opinion that the great idea of chance is specifically relevant to what has been happening lately in modern art, particularly in music. During many centuries Western composers felt that their discipline had nothing to do with the fortuitous, the contingent, the casual, the incidental, the adventitious, the merely accidental. They accepted, probably without being aware that they were doing so, the
for itself
Here
I
and
in
should
contention of Plotinus, among many other thinkers, that "chance has no means of producing, has no being at all" (Vol. 17, p. 347d). Today the attitude of many musicians on this question has undergone a radical .
and very conscious
.
shift.
Actually, the shift has been under art.
.
It is implicit in
way since the beginnings of modern poem of Stephane Mallarme, "Un
the strange last
Coup de Des
jamais nabolira le Hasard" ("A Cast of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance"). In 1913, Guillaume Apollinaire wrote down scraps of his friends' cafe conversation, tested a few by singing them, and then assembled them into poems. There is an element of chance in the "ready-made" sculpture of Marcel Duchamp, in many of the stunts of the Dadaists, and in the automatic writing and the assemblage of "found objects" practiced by the Surrealists. The idea has been mixed up with ideas about the modern artist's creative liberty and irrational spontaneity, and also with the theories— not always interpreted correctly by artists and critics— of probability and indeterminacy developed by modern scientists. Another part of the mixture has come from very ancient notions about the influence of the fickle goddess Fortune on human life. Much of all this went unnoticed by the general public until the 1950's.
number
of artistic fields, the idea of chance, along with a lot suddenly became prominent. There was the Action painting of Jackson Pollock and other artists of the New York AbstractExpressionist school; although it was rarely an actual result of chance,
Then,
in a
of related ideas,
101
:
Music, Painting, and Sculpture it
often
seemed
and
to be,
in art
seeming
is
important.
A
little
later
came
which Action Duchamp and the
the paintings and "objects" of Robert Rauschenberg, in
painting was combined with the apparent nihilism of
Dadaists in such a fashion as to confuse dramatically the old distinction
between the
The
and the chaos
necessity, or order, of art
and
of "life"
so-called Theater of the Absurd, represented chiefly in the
"reality."
work
of
Samuel Beckett and Eugene lonesco, added a philosophical tinge to the
new
and then came the partly theatrical, partly "environmental" term is said to have been coined by the American painter Allan Kaprow), in which much is left to chance and improvisation. A wildly improbable and unmotivated kind of farce began to appear in American novels. Music was a little slow to reflect the trend but has since more than made up for its tardiness. How are we to explain the scope of this cultural phenomenon, which has disconcerted many quite sophisticated modern critics in about the way Pentheus was upset by the new cult of Dionysus? The absurdity of a world war, which had much to do with the original Dadaist satirical climate;
Happening
(the
use of chance, can scarcely explain the popularity of chance today. Professor Wylie Sypher sees an attempt to explore
some age-old prob-
lems of art criticism Far from being anarchy, the new painting and the new music inemergence of foiTn from the formless, of necessity from accident, of music from noise, of purpose from purposelessness, of art from the random.
tently study the
•'>
Calvin Tomkins also sees some intellectualism but stresses the link with the pre-1914 attitude of
Duchamp:
A
good deal of the new
to
make
its
appeal
art
both in
less to the
lectual level of this appeal
not carried out in a
is
spirit of
this
rarely exalted,
it
is
if
the intel-
more often than
mockery, iconoclasm, or sheer bump-
removed from the
tiousness not far
country and in Europe seems
eye than to the mind, and
hilarity that
Duchamp aimed
at.8
Boulez takes rather the Tomkins
We have
but with a burst of disapproval:
line,
learned, from Nietzsche, that
Dada, that Art
is
dead;
we know
it
God
is
dead, and then, from
very properly; there
is
no need
days before the Flood and attempt— at whatever cost— to supply us with pedantic demonstrations which were once
to return to the
brilliant.^
5 Book Week, 6 The
New
book The 7 Penser
la
May
9,
1965, p. 14.
Yorker, February 6, 1965, p. 38. The article is reprinted in Tomkins' Bride and the Bachelors (New York: The Viking Press, Inc., 1965).
musique aujourd'hui (Geneva: Editions Gonthier
102
S.
A.,
1964), p. 21.
Roy McMullen There critics
much to be said for all three points of view, according who are required to report on avant-garde festivals.
is
to the
Last year, during the festival at the Maeght Foundation in St. Paul de Vence, France, I happened to be present during the composition of some
which was destined for a performance by company. The composer was John dance his and Merce Cunningham switch a small radio set rapidly from one was to Cage, and his method record on tape snatches of classical and another European station to and loud squeals and broadcasts, news songs, music, jazz, popular composition via four complete heard the I later squawks. A few hours the music for the another evening, like it. On loudspeakers and did not
of the
new "music
of chance,"
ballet consisted of
Cage
telling pointless stories in a
thunderous voice
over the four speakers. I did not like that either. However, some months earlier I had heard some of the same composer's Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano, written full of a
genuine,
if
between 1946 and 1948, and had found them
slightly askew,
charm.
Such experiences bracket reasonably
ment
of Cage,
who
is
well, I think, the actual achieve-
partly a professional clown, partly a
man
of
slender but highly original musical talent, and entirely an avant-garde intellectual. He is rather surprisingly a pupil of Schoenberg, and also of
Henry Cowell, who extended and refined the invention of piano "tone clusters" (obtained by hitting the keys with fists and forearms) and added such now-common tricks as plucking the strings by hand. The "prepared" piano is a further extension of such unorthodox techniques: Cage modifies the timbres and pitches of the instrument, in ways for which the listener is totally unprepared, by the addition of hairpins, bolts, coins, rubber bands, erasers, ashtrays, and other small objects to the strings. But this innovation has become a minor thing, one gathers, from the point of view of Cage the clown and Cage the intellectual. His compositions (several of them have been recorded) have become in recent years more and more just demonstrations
the American composer
music can be created from a chance mixture of noises and silences. This notion is linked to a notion that art is anything that happens in a situation in which we expect art: hence if we happen to be waiting for music in a concert hall and somebody toots an automobile horn outside, the toot becomes music. In fact, the silence that follows the toot also becomes music. Such doctrines have made Cage at fifty-five the acknowledged leader not only of one group of today's musical ex-
of his notion that
tremists but also of
many
other artists— particularly in painting, sculpture,
and the theater— who are committed to the partly Dadaist, partly serious enterprise of exploring the zone between form and formlessness, between the necessary and the accidental.
The ambiguity become
quickly
in this enterprise
irrelevant.
is
such that our usual artistic criteria himself is hard to judge. His
And Cage 103
Music, Painting, and Sculpture
Li
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L^r
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FRAGMENT FROM A PAGE OF BULENT
AREl's STEREO ELECTRONIC MUSIC NO. 1, which shows some aspects of the changes performed in the transcription of music when it comes to an electronic composition
musical talent and musical experience make you slow to think he is not in earnest, and his clowning makes you wonder if he is not just trying to pull your leg— in
which case you are presumably required to humor and a camp taste. I shall simply
exhibit an avant-garde sense of report, therefore, that for
Paul de Vence
me
last year, the
at least his theory does not
work; at
St.
audience, myself included, was certainly in
a situation in which art
was expected, but the jumble of radio broadcasts The explanation seems to me quite obvious it is simply that Cage overlooks the fact that art contributes to the creation of what he calls an artistic situation. That first toot of an nevertheless turned out to be non-music. :
automobile horn outside a concert hall may indeed, for a split second, have the vividness and form of music because the audience inside was expecting music. But with the second toot the psychological situation is no longer expecting music from that outside and so chance noises remain just chance noises. The sort of objection I am making can be raised against nearly all of the recent neoDada, neo-Duchamp experiments. One ready-made object in a sculpture show may seem to be a piece of sculpture, but a large number of such
changes; the audience source,
objects will
who
are
the sculpture-show type of expectation (for all visitors determined avant-gardists) and will therefore be non-
kill
not
sculpture.
Must we conclude
that Plotinus
was
right, at least so far as
art
is
concerned, in maintaining that chance "has no means of producing"?
104
'
Roy McMuUen The answer feeling
is
will of course
that the
word
is
depend on what we mean by "chance." My being used a bit loosely and too often in art randomness and spontaneity; and so
criticism these days for all sorts of
propose to continue the discussion under the heading of other ideas— without, however, excluding chance altogether. I
ITINERARIES FOR SUPPOSEDLY FREE WILLS have suggested (not too heavily, I hope, for after all music is music before it is something that can be talked about) that the serial system as conceived by Schoenberg can be thought of as a model for both being and becoming, for both the permanent and the changing. By emphasizing the series itself, composers eventually arrived at the sort of totally organized, mathematically impeccable music which can be thought of as pure, frozen "being"— and which has the defect, for many people, of being very hard to follow by ear. I now want to talk about what emerged when composers put the emphasis on the variations of the initial series of notes. The result was a kind of music which seems to be perpetually "becoming," and which is usually referred to as "aleatory" or "aleatoric." The adjective is now too well established to be avoided, but it is not very satisfactory. "Aleatory," from the Latin aleatorius, "of a gambler," and ultimately from alea, a dice game, is defined in my Webster as "de-
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Music, Painting, and Sculpture
pending on an uncertain event or contingency as to both profit and loss" and also as "relating to good or especially bad luck." Most of the aleatory music being produced today has nothing to do with luck and is equally remote from the kind of blind chance Cage is interested in. It is rather a return to the ancient idea of associating the performer,
and hence
to a
with the composer in the process of making music. It is not quite the same thing as improvisation, but it is a reminder that improvisation was for centuries and until quite recently a great and ex-
degree the
listener,
citing part of our musical tradition. The fact is that before about 1800 a composition was never played or sung exactly as written; the performer was expected to add ornaments and indulge in a good deal of very per-
The prelude and
sonal interpretation.
"aleatory" forms. In the seventeenth
the toccata were once thoroughly
and eighteenth
centuries, harpsichord
accompaniments were nearly always partly invented by the players. So, of course, were cadenzas, as recently as the Brahms Violin Concerto. Modern aleatory music diflfers from the older sort in having its "improvisations" built into the composition and, so to speak, forced
performers.
It is
necessity— of
man moving by
those are rather big words, cially in
works
upon the
thus a model of the great Western ideas of free will and
choice into a predestined pattern.
had better add
I
right
away
And
since
that often, espe-
procedure yields nothing solemn jam session by a very with perhaps an ultrasophisticated rhythm section. The
for small instrumental groups, the
more philosophical than the cool jazz outfit,
random elements
Hoat, as
it
eflFect
of a
were, inside serial or post-serial forms. In a
dozen musicians may be obliged to follow exactly the rise and fall of the notes in the score, but will be required to improvise such elements as loudness or softness and the duration of a sound or a silence. Thus much of the emotional drive in the music, like that in jazz numbers and flamenco songs, may depend upon the ability of the performers to sense each other's moods and pick up cues rapidly— as, in non-musical life, one free will has to operate within limits set by other free wills. In works for large orchestras, most of the randomness must of course come from the conductor and be a choice of rehearsed material. Karlheinz Stockhausen's Klavierstiick XI (Piano Piece XI), which was composed in 1956 but not performed until the next year, is generally listed as the first example of modern aleatory music, although the idea was already in the air in both France and Germany. The score of Klavierstiick XI is a single large sheet on which are arranged the nineteen "sequences" of the piece, each marked with its own tempo and other typical piece, half a
indications of the usual kind for the interpreter.
whatever sequence
his eye falls
to the indicated nuances.
but
this
time he
is
He
on and plays
it
The
pianist begins with
without paying attention
then selects another sequence at random,
not permitted to ad
lib
must follow the instructions marked on the 106
the first
tempo and
intensity; he sequence played. In his
Roy McMullen he follows the markings on the second, and so on through the nineteen sequences, if he plays them all. He may stop when he wishes, or when he has played any sequence twice. Other combinations of nuances and notes— other itineraries through the composition—are possible; in fact, although certain elements recur, one might play third
random
Klavierstiick
selection,
XI every evening during an
entire festival without
its
ever
sounding
like a repetition. Since that pioneer work, Stockhausen has continued to explore the
possibilities in
freedom of interpretation. His Plus Minus, which
I
heard
is practically little more than fourteen pages of notes and symbols— of raw musical material waiting for performers to become the author's co-composers. These were two pianists and two percussionists last year (apparently almost any number can play), and they were ob-
last year,
viously well supplied with free will.
The
percussionists spent part of
and pouring water out of hit the glass now and then with the small leafy branch of a tree. Meanwhile, one of the pianists might blow a small whistle for a long while and then get up and bang the lid of his "prepared" instrument. The second pianist had little to do besides scraping a stick slowly along one string and getting up to start
their time scratching a large
pane
of glass
casseroles into three yellow basins.
One would
a tape machine.
As this account may have suggested, Stockhausen has been afFected —too much for his own good, in my opinion— by some of Cage's ideas. At thirty-nine he still seems far more interested in experimentation than in actual composition. But that he has had many bright ideas of his own cannot be denied. One of them led to the remarkable Gruppen fiir drei Orchester, in which three masses of instrumentalists, led by three conductors, surround the audience and engage in an elaborate game of confrontation, absorption, and counterpoint. He has done valuable research in the electronic studios attached to the Cologne Radio. Among his recorded works are Zeitmasse, Zyklus, and Refrain. The last-named is a particularly subtle mixture of silences— perhaps the most eloquent kind of musical "becoming"— and the timbres of pianos, wood blocks, celesta, ancient cymbals, vibraphone, cowbells, and glockenspiel. The American composer Earle Brown, born in 1926, perhaps ought to be ranked ahead of Stockhausen as a pioneer in aleatoric music. He also has been influenced to some extent by Cage, but not— at least not in the pieces I have been able to hear in Europe— in the direction of blindchance mixtures of noise. In fact, although he has done a good deal of
work with tape music,
his sensitive
musical sounds reminds
handling of more or less conventional then of Debussy— an aleatoric
me now and
Debussy, of course. Available on records are his Music for Violin, Cello and Piano, Music for Cello and Piano, and Hodograph. Performed recently in Paris was his Calder-Piece, for four percussionists; the reason 107
Music, Painting, and Sculpture for the title
is that a large, heavy, red-orange and rather sluggish "mobile," created by Alexander Calder for this specific composition, stands in the middle of the concert stage and acts as "orchestra conductor": the per-
formers, that of the
is,
vary the tempo, the intensities, and the sequence of parts
work according
ing forms. Given a
stifiF
speed and positions of the gadget's revolv-
to the
breeze, the music might therefore be called partly
a product of chance. But during the performance
I saw and heard there was not even a draft from the air conditioning, and so the drummers had to push and beat the mobile into action (and then duck and sidestep to avoid being hit as the thing gathered speed). My conclusion was that the piece was a demonstration of free human wills starting a chain reaction— or possibly a model of Duchamp's notion that one person's chance is not the same as another person's chance. Anyway, the timbres and rhythms were constantly interesting, and the whole business had a fine quality of tension and risk.
THE LISTENING EYE AND THE SEEING EAR Aleatory music
raises a thorny little question about which both modernand modernist composers are usually prudently silent. We can get at it by assuming that we hear a piece of this music only once and that we have no program notes to tell us that it is aleatoric. Will it sound aleatoric? I am afraid I must admit, on the basis of personal experience and with a bow toward Gilson and Kant, that it will not, at least not to any striking degree. There may be an eflFect of spontaneity, ^
ist
critics
of on-the-spot creation, but result of
markings
we
cannot really
in the score; after
know
that kind of
that this
is
not the
can be heard in the music of Mozart, Rossini, and dozens of other pre-modern composers. We must hear, as a minimal requirement, two performances, preferably not very widely separated in our memories, if the piece is to become for our unaided ears even a ghost of a sensuous working model of the great ideas of
all,
eflFect
chance and of freedom of the human
will;
and
of
course the opportunities to do so are rare in concerts and nonexistent, so far as
I
know, on records.
In the concert hall, however, the eye can usually save the situation for
an ear deaf to concepts; in addition to reading the program notes we can watch the performers exchanging cues and doing other things which reveal that the music is the result partly of randomness and partly of freely chosen itineraries through the written composition. This simple fact, I suspect, is the principal reason for something that might have surprised Schoenberg: from an emphasis on the "becoming" aspect of serialism and then on chance and will, composers have gone on to an emphasis on the visual
aspects of performance. That there are other reasons for the
evolution can be granted;
it
is
not confined to aleatoric music,
108
it
is
Roy McMuUen perhaps related to a long-term trend which began with the mane-tossing Romantic virtuoso, and it has parallels in other modern arts. But it is
among composers of the random sort, as I may have suggested in my accounts of Brown's Calder-Piece and Stockhausen's Plus Minus. Other examples are at hand, for most of the avant-garde evenings I have experienced during the past year have included at least one number which crossed the border that used to separate concerts from theatrical, vaudeville, and sporting events. Mauricio Kagel's Match is fairly typical of the trend. The contest particularly noticeable
referred to in the sionist for referee.
title is
between two
cellists,
Following a "score" which
who is
are given a percus-
actually a collection of
stage instructions, the cellists hurl glissandi and pizzicati at each other, laugh insultingly, and occasionally pretend to doze in boredom. Meanwhile, the "referee" indulges in virtuoso passages on his large battery of percussion instruments, throws dice on the xylophone, gives confusing
and finally blows a whistle to stop the match. At the saw/ heard in Venice, the cellists used a large assortment of Italian gestures to add an extra dimension to the foolery. Kagel, who was born in Buenos Aires in 1931, has had a varied career as conductor, professor, composer, and avant-gardist in Argentina, Europe, and the United States. Since 1957, his headquarters has been Cologne, where he has been the principal member of the group of experimenters around Stockhausen. Among his recorded works are the aleatoric String Sextet and Transicion II for piano, percussion instruments, and two tapes. Concerning Match, he has said that his intention was to persuade the listener to ignore, little by little, the sounds and noises being produced and to notice only the behavior of the musicians. He succeeded perfectly with me; I have at this moment no memory at all of having heard something during the Venice performance. V^hy should a composer have an intention so oddly destructive of the conventional point to his activity? I can only guess. Perhaps Kagel merely wished to transpose to the level of farce Keats's line about the sweetness of unheard music; if so, he succeeded again with me, for I did find the performance amusing in a nonsensical way. He may have wished to experiment, as artists have been doing throughout the twentieth century, with the notion of the power of absence in art, another notion which dates back at least to Mallarme. Or perhaps Match is simply a working model of Aristotle's observation that "the greater stimulus tends to expel the less" (Vol. 8, p. 685d). As such it is undeniably efficient. Luciano Berio's Circles, for voice, harp, and two percussion complexes, is an entirely different matter, although in the seven years since its creation it has become something of a minor classic in the theatricalconcert genre to which Match belongs. It has been described as follows in a program note by the composer: orders to the
cellists,
performance
I
109
Music, Painting, and Sculpture based on three poems by e. e. cummings: numbers 25 ."), 76 ("riverly is a flower swarms .") and 221 ("n[o]w the how dis[appeared] cleverly world .") of the Collected Poems. The order of the poems in the composition is 25-76Circles
is
("stinging gold
.
.
.
.
.
.
221-76-25; poems 76 and 25 thus appear twice, at different moments musical development. My aim was not to compose a series of vocal pieces with instrumental accompaniment, but rather to in the
work the three poems
into a single form, in
which not only the
dif-
ferent levels of meaning, but also the vocal action and the instru-
mental action (in the widest sense of the term) would be strictly conditioned, even in a concrete way, by the phonetic qualities. The harp and the percussion instruments, that is, develop or provoke certain specific characteristics of the vocal action,
and vice
The
the structure of
theatrical aspect of the execution
the work, which possible to
is
inherent
is
in
essentially a structure of actions. If
make such
listened to as theater
a distinction,
and
to
would say
I
be seen
it
versa.
were
that Circles
is
still
to
be
as music.
Mezzo-soprano Cathy Berberian, harpist Francis Pierre, and percussionJean-Pierre Droulet have performed the M^ork frequently in both Europe and America in recent years, in my experience with the assistance of percussionist Jean-Claude Casadesus, and they have become expert at conditioning each other's "actions" on the stage. Miss Berberian recites, whispers, shouts, and sings (the range of her voice is extraordinary) the ist
poetry.
A
held vowel
may be developed in the plunks and liquid may merge with the brittle rattle
the harp; a held consonant
siftings of
of a small
drum. Some of the "structure of actions" is reduced to her gestures; some of it seems to drift and tick spontaneously out of the instruments as she
among them. who was born in Italy
circles slowly
Berio,
in 1925,
today almost as well known in
is
the United States as in Europe, having taught at the Berkshire Music Festival, Mills College, Harvard,
New
and the
Juilliard School of
Music
in
York, in addition to acting as a musical director and advisor. In
1954, he
became
a director of the Studio di Fonologia Musicale of the
network and thus had an opportunity to develop his pure sound. Among today's modernists, he is notable for his ability to produce music which is at once very advanced and very direct in its appeal to ears and emotions. His recorded works include Circles, Serenata I, Differences, Sequenza (with the brilliant flutist Severino Gazzelloni), and Visage. In the recorded Italian national radio
interest in the analysis of
version of Circles, the invisible Miss Berberian naturally loses
her theatrical impact, but not quite as
much
as
one might
much
of
think, for the
microphone adds emphasis to the way the instruments "develop or provoke certain specific characteristics of the vocal action, and vice versa." 110
^.
4.
kr*^*sid^
y
Music, Painting, and Sculpture
MATHEMATICS AND THE ELECTRONIC FUTURE
Whereas
the struggle with the manifold aspects of the ideas of
change, being, becoming, chance, and freedom has led some
modern composers into the realms of the concert-drama, the concertvaudeville, and the concert-game, it has led others deep into the realm of higher mathematics (from which they sometimes emerge again in the realm of games). Music has of course been associated with mathematics since ancient times, and not merely for technical reasons. In his eloquent passages on the nature of the universe, Plotinus makes almost no emotional distinction
between the two
disciplines (Vol. 17, p. 76a):
For who that truly perceives the harmony of the Intellectual fail, if he has any bent towards music, to answer to the sensible sounds? What geometrician or arithmetician could fail to take pleasure in the symmetries, correspondences and principles of order observed in visible things?
Realm could harmony in
Today, however, partly with the help of computers, composers have become so involved in such problems as those of probability and of continuous and discrete quantities that a more relevant comment from the Great Books might be Fourier's "mathematical analysis has outrun observation" (Vol. 45, p. 183a).
Such analysis has certainly outrun hearing for most concert-goers, it has become, to borrow Babbitt's word, Swahili to the general. Also, even for adepts it is often more a matter of avant-garde composers' techniques than one of significant form. Can we therefore safely ignore it, on the grounds that anyway the proof of a musical mathe-
myself included;
matical proposition
is
in the listening? I
suppose
we
can, just as
we
can,
and usually do, ignore the recipe for an interesting dish. But doing so here would deprive me of another opportunity to suggest that Kant was mistaken in thinking that music provides no food for reflection. Iannis Xenakis is one of the most enthusiastically mathematical and also one of the most musically gifted of the new European calculating composers. He has had a curiously unconventional career, even for an avant-gardist. At Athens, where he was born in 1922, he studied mathematics and eventually obtained a diploma from the Polytechnic School. He then went to Paris, where he studied architecture with Le Corbusier and music with Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, and Ohvier Messiaen. For twelve years he was an assistant to Le Corbusier; he participated in the creation of such monuments of modern architecture as the Dominican monastery of La Tourette, France, and the public buildings at Chandi-
He himself conceived the Philips Pavilion for the Brussels World's Fair of 1958 and composed for his building a piece of tape music: Interlude Sonore. By that time he was also the author of several garh, India.
112
Roy McMullen works for orchestra, of which Metastasis and Pithoprakta have been corded.
Among
his instrumental pieces since
then are
Nomos
x.
re-
Strategic,
and Eonta. He has taught composition at the Centre d'Humanisme Musical in Aix-en-Provence and at the Berkshire Festival in Massachusetts. He has just created in Paris a group of experts to study mathematically the nature of musical phenomena everywhere in the world; among the other members of the group are several professors of aesthetics, psychology, and mathematics; the scientific adviser of IBM-France; and the anthropologist and structuralist Claude Levi-Strauss. I mention these facts because Xenakis has sometimes been unfairly suspected of adding mathematics to his music just for fun and mystification. His arguments can be followed up to a certain point even by nonmathematicians. has
He
maintains that the destruction of the tonal system
the art of music in dire peril of falling to pieces, that Schoen-
left
is bound to be by the mind and ear, and that aleatoric music is largely an unsuccessful attempt by composers to turn their problem over to performers. He believes that we must forget our old-fashioned notions of notes, scales, chords, and all that and think instead of a music formed of clouds of small sounds— clouds which he compares to the sound of hail or rain on a roof and to the sound of thousands of grasshoppers. The task of the composer, then, is to shape these clouds of buzzing indeterminacy into something that makes sense to our minds, ears, and emotions. How is he to go about this task? In much the same way, according to Xenakis, that a statistician goes about making sense of a crowd of unpredictable indixiduals, and a physicist goes about making sense of particles: by the use, that is, of mathematical equations— in particular
bergian serialism or some other sort of linear polyphony too complex to be followed
those that deal with probability.
begin to have trouble. Are the equations merely the composer's shaping a cloud of sound? No, evidently they are meant to be somehow a part of the finished composition. Are they to be regarded as
Here
I
tools for
Western music or for those emerge from Schoenbergian serialism? No, they are not quite that, for they are too complex to make sense to an unaided ear: some have to be worked out on electronic computers. How, then, are we to apprecisubstitutes for the traditional structures of
that can
ate the music?
My
is to assume that Xenakis is actually two artists an anti-academic composer who insists on the importance of sheer sound and on the magic that lies beyond technique— on what he calls "meta-music." As such he is in the line of Hector Berlioz, Debussy, Edgard Varese, and Messiaen. But he is also a composer who sets algebra to music in the way other composers set words; he is a creator of songs and chamber operas with mathematical poems and librettos. As such he can be fully understood, I think, only after some study and with the
personal method
in one.
He
is
113
when
the
ordinary public learns the
new musical languages, the concert halls as we know them now will have a hauntingly lonely look
help of pretty elaborate program notes. As such, however, he
is
squarely
modern descendant of Aristotle's "so-called Pythagoreans," who ". in numbers seemed to see many resemblances to the things that exist and come into being" and who "supposed the whole heaven to be a musical scale and a number" in
an ancient tradition of
his native Greece;
he .
.
.
.
is
a
.
.
.
.
(Vol. 8, pp. 503d-504a).
The Xenakis who is the meta-musical continuator of Varese and Messiaen has composed some of the most exciting sound patterns to be heard in today's concert halls. I particularly recommend Eonta (it has recently been recorded), in which a vast sound-cloud rises from practically all of the strings of a piano and encounters an adamantine cloud emanating from two trumpets and three trombones (this brass section was doubled for a recent Paris performance). The composer translates the and likes to have it printed in the syllabic Cretanused in the Linear B texts discovered at Knossos. He suggests that the piece should be listened to with the eyes closed. Xenakis the Pythagorean sometimes offers clues to listeners who feel up to following what I think of as his hidden librettos. In Pithoprakta, he has explained, the densities of the clouds of stringed-instrument sound were calculated with the help of the well-known distribution law of S. D. Poisson, and "the slopes of the glissandi" were worked out according to a formula of K. F. Gauss, J. G. Maxwell, and Ludwig Boltzmann. The title
as "beings
Mycenaean
solo cello piece
which
"is
"
script
Nomos
x
is
described as "symbolic music" with a structure
outside of time and
is
based on the theory of groups." The work
is
therefore dedicated "to the imperishable achievements of Aristoxenus
of
Tarentum, musician, philosopher, mathematician and founder of the
theory of music; to the mathematician fivariste Galois, founder of the theory of groups; and to Felix Klein, his worthy successor."
114
Roy McMuUen Mathematical music might be expected to lead naturally to electronic music, in which the composer has full control over the "performance" and
and need not worry about the ability That it has any great degree can be attributed, I suppose, to a lingering
"interpretation" of a composition
of a musician's fingers to follow the Poisson distribution law.
not done so to
sentiment for the looks of the old instruments (their sounds are easily duplicated electronically), to the scarcity of fully equipped recording centers,
and
of course to our interest in
human
singers
and instrumentalists
—listening to loudspeakers in a concert hall can be a melancholy experi-
How long will these and other restraints continue to work? For a good many years, I would guess; and the guess does not greatly depress me, in view of the poor quality of most of the electronic music I have heard. However, an excellent piece is produced now and then, and there are some records on the market which suggest what the electronic future may be like when and if it arrives. Several years ago the Paris research studio set up by the French national radio network produced Boulez's £tude II, Xenakis's Diamorphoses, and some interesting things by Pierre SchaefiFer, the inventor of musique concrete. From the studio of the Cologne Radio has come Stockhausen's Gesang der Jiinglinge. The Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center has given us Vladimir Ussachevsky's Creation— Prologue, Ilhan Mimaroglu's Bowery Bum and Le Tombeau d'Edgar Toe, Otto Luening's Gargoyles, and Babbitt's Composition for Synthesizer. From the University of Illinois have come Kenneth Gaburo's Lemon Drops and For Harry. The discs have appeared under various commercial labels.
ence.
what we see in some composprefer to have no com-
Opposed
to
this picture,
ers
munication with the professional world, the performer,
the orchestra manager,
choose to function university
in
campus
and the
Music, Painting, and Sculpture
IN
OPPOSITION TO BISHOP BERKELEY
of the great Western ideas which I have been attaching to modern music can be attached also to modern painting and sculpture, and I have already attempted some of the attaching— in talking about
Several
Cage, for instance. However, they are peculiarly relevant to music because music is a time art. It is so in many ways. It has a clock time for
performance and a felt time for listening (five minutes of Nono are longer than five of Berio). It has tempo, of course, and beaten time. It has an arrival time for each of our ears, a fact of which we have been re-
minded by
stereo records. It has, for
most people, rather more of
his-
time than other arts have: it preserves associations. All of this complex temporality encourages composers to construct models of change, being, becoming, and chance. torical
Painters and sculptors do not have this sort of encouragement; they have to appeal to the philosophical imagination by means of works whose primary mode of existence is that of things— things in the sense in which the stone Dr. Johnson kicked was a thing. It seems fair to recognize this situation, and it seems doubly fair when we notice that many
modern
painters
and
sculptors, unlike their illusionist nineteenth-century
predecessors, are inclined to stress their arts' primary
They
mode
of existence.
are inclined, for instance, to demonstrate in favor of the reality
matter— that "unknown somewhat" which aroused the scorn of Bishop I do not find that there is any kind of efiFect or impression made on my mind different from what is excited by the term nothing" (Vol. 35, p. 428b-c). One can wonder if he would have said that after seeing some of the art shows of the 1960's. Perhaps he would have, for of course today's painters and sculptors do not actually of
Berkeley and of which he said: "...
method is simply to make us vividly conscious what we commonly assume to be matter. They repeat, according to their temperaments and their opportunities. Dr. Johnson's historic Harwich kick and confident "I refute it thus" (Vol. 44, p. 134d), Here, and in the rest of this essay, the method I have been using for speaking about music had better be modified. I can perhaps do more with the relevance of the great ideas to the visual arts by saying a bit more about general trends, at the cost— my space being limited— of saying less about each artist and very little about specific works. The refute his argument. Their
of
latter are available
everywhere, at least in reproduction, whereas pieces
of contemporary music are not.
Let
me back up "Mona
for
some perspective on the idea
of matter. If a viewer
Lisa" shifts his attention from the smile, a
first consequence be some fresh awareness of Leonardo's paint as paint. If a listener ceases to concentrate on the recurrence of a theme in a Beethoven symphony, or on the tonal axis, he is likely to have a parallel experience;
of the is
likely to
116
Roy McMullen
may hear Beethoven's visitor who goes through
he
sound as just sound. A museum Greek sculpture in reverse chronoawareness of stone as stone increasing as he and less realistic pieces. An admirer of old
characteristic
a
logical order will find his
room
of
moves toward the earlier houses may tell you that when a beam
is
not carved into decoration, but
merely structural, the appeal of the wood as wood is stronger. Shakespeare's "Sa, sa, sa, sa" (Vol. 27, p. 275c) sticks oddly in my mind partly, is
I
suppose, because
it
is
breath of Lear. In sum,
not dissolved in the semantical;
we
can guess that the mere
it
the very
is
existence of twentieth-
century abstract painting and sculpture, atonal music, functional archi-
and obscure poetry has produced
tecture,
in us a
quickened and more
sensuous consciousness of the basic materials that go into works of art of
any kind. Such "materialism" just a psychological
aesthetic ambiguity.
in today's painting
and sculpture
is
partly
by-product of modern ideas of form, reality, and of the artists involved are only inadvertently
Many
kicking at Berkeley's argument.
There
however, nothing very inadvertent in the materialism advowho have been flourishing in Europe and the United States since World War II. Among these, one of the finest, and the most aggressively matter-minded, was the American David is,
cated by the sculptors in metal
Smith,
who
died two years ago— at the age of only fifty-nine and at the
He was of course much else besides a He had begun working in welded metals as early as 1933,
height of his imaginative powers. materialist.
and was influenced by the abstract Constructivism developed during and just after World War I by the Russians Vladimir Tatlin, Naum Gabo, and Antoine Pevsner. He was something of a Surrealist, a critic of society, and a homespun humorist. He was an ardent symbolist who gave his creations such titles as "Cathedral," "The Rape," "Tanktotem," and "Portals." The pieces finished just before his death show him preoccupied with architectonic qualities and with a very personal, almost Mannerist animation of space; blocks, cylinders, and beams of steel are assembled so as to leave each element off-center and apparently ready to contradict its structural function. But in everything he did there is the same vigorous emphasis on the need to face up to the reality of raw matter. "Possibly," he once said, "steel is so beautiful because of all the movement associated with it, its strength and functions. Yet it is also brutal; the rapist, the murderer and death-dealing giants are also its offspring." There is nothing very inadvertent either in the kicks aimed in the general direction of Berkeley
by Jasper
much more in the
than a materiahst; he
neo-Dada game
is
Johns,
New
established as the old master of the
who
at thirty-seven
York avant-garde.
one of the
less
He
is
now
too
is
tiresome strategists
of trying to confuse art with non-art, he has a
knack for composition, and on the few occasions when he has made the attempt he has demonstrated that Pop need not be a soggy classical
117
Music, Painting, and Sculpture
with the values of an other-directed consumer society.
art of agreeing
But
matter
his
is
patches of paint
particularly striking.
call attention to
In his recent pictures, certain
themselves as examples of the traditional
well-done morsel, while others have the impasto and brush tracks of Abstract Expressionism. To these techniques he adds assemblage and collage: the paint serves as a
background
a coat-hanger, a broom, a kitchen chair,
and
for such objects as beer cans,
wooden
letters,
a ruler, a door,
a silk-screen reproduction of a scrap of a newspaper.
In France, the undisputed champion
among
the materialists
is
still
he has begun to show an interest in pattern as well as stuff and texture. During the past twenty years, he has "painted" with mud, tar, asphalt, manure, butterfly wings, putty, clinkers, and old sponges; and even in his more conventional moods he has used varnishes and enamels to produce the crackles which most
Jean Dubuffet, although
at sixty-six
painters spend their lives trying to prevent.
men, and Paris
by drawing
in the
has frequently increased
manners
also
show I
He
of children and caveby issuing truculent statements. In an introduction for a few years ago, he wrote:
the impact of his matter
a
wish to
attention to the fact that
call
my
represent
pictures
Many
people will without doubt recognize this right away, but one cannot take too many precautions in order to be understood, especially in these times of infatuation with abstraction. Nothing soil.
.
.
.
here of that
The
critic
sort.
Nothing but pieces of
Peter Selz quotes
him
soil
.
.
.
as saying:
I
see no great difference (metaphysically, that
I
spread and a
cat, a trout or a bull.
My
paste
is) is
between the pastes
a being as these are.
Less circumscribed, to be sure, and more emulsified;
much
its
ordinance
mean, foreign to us, humans, who are so very circumscribed, so far from being foiTnless (or, at
is
stranger,
least,
stranger certainly;
think ourselves to
I
be).'^
I am not sure of the proper label for the philosophical tendency here being adumbrated, but I am pretty sure Bishop Berkeley would have disapproved of the implications. In any event, the eminent art theorist and psychologist Rudolf Arnheim disapproves. In one of his recently collected essays, he cites DubuflFet
and then comments: Here the
realistic
tendency reveals
itself as
the relinquishment of
the active grasp of meaning that characterizes man's relationship to reality
when he
is
in full possession of his
mental powers.
.
.
.
The
painter cultivates his pastes and fluids as a gardener cultivates the
8
The Work
of Jean Dnhuffet
(New York: Museum
118
of
Modern
Art,
1962), p. 63.
Roy McMullen he becomes a breeder and trainer. He no longer produces images And the matter he is creating with the refined chemicals of a late civilization is the world before the Creation, the attractive infinity and variety of the chaos. It is the escape from the duty of Perhaps, then, man— the final refuge and the final refreshment .^ we are witnessing the last twitches of an exhausted civilization
soil;
but matter.
.
.
.
.
Just about the only reason for
we
possibility that
hope he can
are nearing "the nadir
again." This view seems to
me
is
the
touch in order to
rise
find in the situation
we must
too apocalyptic and too
of outraged response the foxy DubuflFet
is
.
much
the kind
often trying to provoke in
Arnheim does touch here on an important which can be seen accomplishing itself in the work of Dubuffet and to some extent in that of Johns. Raw matter is used to shatter old-fashioned "form" and illusionist "realism" in the name of a more real "realism." This new realism turns into abstractionism, and then the raw matter becomes so real that a new kind of form and figuration seems called for if the whole business is not to skid out of the domain of art altogether. It may seem that no amount of form and figuration can keep us from being too strongly aware of asphalt and butterfly wings as just asphalt and butterfly wings— as non-art, that is. But on this point, Gilson, in a book earlier than the one I have already cited, has some illuminating comment: conservative viewers. But
tendency
in
modern art— a
cycle
Everything hangs on what Focillon has so admirably called the Anything "formal vocation" of each and every kind of material .
can be used by the
artist,
.
.
but the choice that he freely makes of a
certain material will determine to a large extent the nature of his
futvne work.
To be
bilities latent in
sure, the painter
is
the sole judge of the possi-
the material he has decided to use.
Still,
when
all is
and done, the formal vocation of a painting material has both its possibilities and its limits. This is the moment the causality attributable to their matter becomes a determining factor in the genesis of the works of art.'" said
The problem,
then,
is
simply to discover the formal vocation of asphalt
and steel. What kinds do these kinds of matter "want" to become? From the point of view of the practical artist— and of the practical critic— the question can often be partly answered by a process of elimination: a block of steel, for example, being hard to work, does not have much of a vocation for becoming a realistic nymph; if it is forced to do so, the result may seem more a tour de force than a work of art. There is an implication here
and
butterfly wings, or of thick impasto, or of iron
of forms
9 Towards a Psychology of Art (London: Faber & Faber, Ltd., 1967), pp. 190-91. 10 Painting and Reality
(New
York: Meridian Books, Inc., 1959), p. 72.
119
Music, Painting, and Sculpture
wide Hmits each kind of artistic matter is already a kind impose on it another stage of individuation. And with this imphcation we approach a long chain of philosophical speculation which began with Aristotle (see Syntopicon, GBWW, Vol. that within very
of form, waiting for the artist to
3, p.
69a-b).
SPACE, PLACE, EXTENSION,
THE VOID, AND MAN agrees that a fresh emphasis on space
Everybody
as
is
the emphasis on matter in the general ambiguity of
important as
modern painting
and sculpture. Yet the notion
of "real" space remains, in the words of William James, "a very incomplete and vague conception in all minds" (Vol. 53, p. 626b). So does our notion of the relations of consciousness to space— "the problem," to quote James again, "known in the history of philosophy as the question of the seat of the soul" (p. 139a). About all I
can
say, then,
is
that in the next
few pages
should
I
like to call attention
very incompletely and vaguely to the "real" space in current art objects
and
at the
same time
talk at greater length
about the question of the
seat of the soul in the twentieth century. In other words,
I
shall
be
talk-
ing mostly about the sort of space in which people feel assured or uneasy,
purposeful or disoriented, expansive or constricted, significant or insignificant. Painting
and sculpture are
of course not the only expressions of
may suggest it, and and the novel. We may feel it in the sciences, particularly in modern physics and psychology. But painters and sculptors have an advantage over musicians, novelists, and scientists in being able to depict space, and an advantage over architects in not having to worry about practical questions. These speculations need to be qualified by an admission that aesthetic space, and perhaps the scientific sort as well, is largely conventional. A void is a void, a not-something defined by an arrangement of somethis
so
kind of psychic space; obviously, architecture
may
other
arts, in
particular music
an arrangement
thing. Appreciation of such difficulty.
congenitally blind
who have suddenly been
our "natural" vision of space silhouettes
is
learned with considerable
Observations of the behavior of infants, and studies of the
we make
out
is
comparable
when we
able to see, suggest that to the misty confusion of
concentrate on a distant scene.
for adults with years of practice, the ability to realize a void
be more limited than we normally suppose, discover ley
when
went a
many would-be
as
Even
likely to pilots
Perhaps Berkefurther than the facts warranted, but he was on the right
they take their
little
is
track in suggesting that
we
first
depth-perception
tests.
by same manner
learn to perceive "distance or outness"
means of "a connexion taught us by experience that words of any language suggest the ideas they .
120
.
.
after the
are
made
to stand for"
Roy McMullen (Vol. 35, p. 420d). It
would seem
to follow that
an
the warnings of Gilson and Kant, has a bit of the
art critic, in spite of
same
right to speak of
the different expressions of space in different eras that a literary critic
has to speak of the different conceptions to be found in poetry and the novel. Space "language"
On
this basis
I
is
vague, but legible.
shall risk a pair of generalizations.
From
the Renaissance
until the twentieth century a very important (although not the only)
trend in all the major Western arts was toward a psychic space which was anthropocentric, fully "realized," rational, static, and framed. In the modern era, a very important (although not the only) trend has been toward a psychic space which is incompletely "realized," nonrational, dynamic, and unframed. I should say that in the old aesthetic space at its best and most typical, the average person has a vivid sense of exactly who, what, and where he is and hence feels reassured, at home, reasonable, and rather weighty. In modern aesthetic space at its best and most typical, the average person is apt to have a vivid sense of having emerged somehow into the open and hence feels a bit lost, or perhaps serene, or excited by the unknown, and in any event rather immaterial— in more
than one sense. It seems to me that the rejection by Copernicus in 1543 of the notion that everything revolved around the earth has inspired a certain amount
about the way our ancestors felt about themselves. This frequently takes the form of elaborating on the assumption that manWestern man, that is— suddenly discovered the humiliating truth that he was a mere speck in space, and a peripheral speck at that. Now of course one can find some literary evidence that supports this assumption; man is said to be a reed, a mere fly in the eyes of the gods, the weakest of the animals, and so forth. But most of this is in a tradition that goes back a of over-think
long
way
before 1543.
And
if
we
The produced between 1543 and
ingly different impression.
sculpture
turn to the visual
arts,
we
great majority of pictures
get a strik-
and pieces
of
late Romanticism suggest that
diminished and peripheral, that in fact he was feeling more important than at any other period in his history. His psychic space was decidedly anthropocentric— a void around a portrait or a
man was
not feeling at
all
statue of himself. It
was
artistic
of
also, particularly in painting,
conventions can
world
art.
The cave
do— probably artists
a remarkable
example of what
the most remarkable in the history
and Lascaux were good at been exaggerated by and excellent at expressiveness,
of Altamira
verisimilitude in general (although their skill has
our surprise at their ability to paint at all), but they fumbled the problem of realizing space. The Egyptians devised conventions which are so crude we are obliged to assume a temperamental or religious repugnance for foreshortening. Chinese landscapists, especially those of the Sung dynasty, were fascinated by deep space, but 121
Music, Painting, and Sculpture their methods of reaHzing it were usually no more exact than a high point of view, a screen of foliage, and mist in the distance. In short, the importance of the discovery of the laws of mathematical perspective
be overstated. For the first time measuring and realizing voids in his imaginacorner. At last he had before him a picture-
in Italy in the fifteenth century cannot
anywhere, tion, right
man had down to
a
way
of
the last
universe that was consistent and subtle enough to
fix
the position and
distance of objects, and hence the situation of the self in psychic space.
In early-Renaissance examples of perspective, and in the treatises which often accompanied them, one can
still
catch a faint residue of a
and mystical exaltation which was once quite
philosophical,
scientific,
as strong
as the aesthetic interest.
This space
is
rational in an expressive as well as a mathematical
way;
makes the viewer feel that the world is an order. It achieves this effect, however, usually by being a framed illusion which suggests the theater, and nearly always by being static: it rests on the assumption that an implication of the passage of time— of movement by the viewer or the represented figures and objects— is incompatible with a full and exact experience of space. To come suddenly upon a picture by a great space-realizer like Piero della Francesca is to feel as if a clock has been stopped and you have been ordered not to budge. How, he seems to be asking, can you realize exactly where you are if you and the things you see are in motion? The question cannot be asked in the same fashion by a sculptor, of it
course, but in a lot of pre- 1900 statues there
than potential, movement which
is
is
an
effect of frozen, rather
the equivalent of the characteristic
perspective stillness in pre-1900 painting.
Last year in Paris, there were opportunities to see the work of four masters— Pablo Picasso, Mark Tobey, Willem de
twentieth-century
Kooning, and Alexander Calder— who have contributed greatly to the modern psychic space which has replaced the one I have
creation of the
been discussing. None of the four is exactly news, but not to mention in the present context would be both unjust and misleading. Picasso's Cubism is usually, and of course correctly, described as the decisive blow against the types of figurative forms which became dominant in painting after the Renaissance. But it was just as decisive for the voids for which the old forms had served as points of reference. It thawed the frozen world of mathematical perspective into fragments and facets which could be spread out on the flat canvas; it forced the viewer to shift his angle of vision constantly and to contemplate a temporal series of episodes within a single pictorial area. To be sure, one can feel that the price paid for this dynamism was high; Cubist and much of post-Cubist just
them
pictorial space
is
relatively nonrational, thoroughly disrespectful of the
human
image, and very incompletely realized— in
exactly
where you
are.
But one can scarcely 122
it
you cannot know was too
feel that the price
Roy McMullen high: a sensitive viewer "lost" in this space.
And
is
apt to be more hberated and challenged than
for such a view^er there
is
historical
drama
in the
thought that the chief inventor of this space— the man who has done more than any single artist has ever done to change our notions of art— is at the age of eighty-six still painting and still having one-man shows. Cubist space, however, that
is,
still
the Renaissance frames;
recalls
it
still,
has structures arranged so as to imply an awareness of the limits
of a picture. Tobey,
who
is
nine years younger than Picasso, went on to
destroy that awareness. In his most characteristic paintings, an overall— or rather, allover— pattern of strangely organic microscopic elements ex-
tends the void as far as the imagination can see (hence these paintings are often quite small, there being infinitely large).
no point
sample of the
in enlarging a
The microscopic elements
vibrate slightly before our
is none of the Cubist implication of a point of view and therefore no implication of a chronological order. Following a distinction made by Locke (Vol. 35, p. 159b-d), we might say that Tobey 's space is a sensuous model of the idea of duration and that Picasso's Cubist space is a model of the idea of time. However, I should add that for Tobey the idea of space is more a religious than a philosophical idea. On the occasion of a Paris retrospective show a few years ago he remarked:
intent eyes, but there in motion,
The dimension
that counts for the creative person
creates within himself. This inner space
the other, and
it is
of inner space as
A number
of
is
the privilege of a balanced
he
is
of outer space
.
.
is
the space he
closer to the infinite than
mind
to
be
as
aware
.
comments might be made on the
attitude this implies, but
they might take us out of the great ideas of the Occident and into those of the Orient.
De
Kooning,
who was born
space-artists. In his
in 1904, represents another generation of
work, as in that of
stract Expressionists, the
few
many
of his fellow
traces of mathematical
and
New
York Ab-
rational space
which can be found in Cubist fragments and facets are obliterated by the furious brushwork of the artist in action, and the resulting picture space
is
as subjective as the spaces
with gestures.
It is also
we
create in the air
when speaking
unusually aggressive. Whereas the space of Tobey
always seems far away, that of de Kooning (his pictures tend to be large) seems close enough to envelop the viewer. Calder, who will soon be seventy, has been amusing and charming the modern world for such a long while that we may be in danger of overlooking his genius and assuming that his mobiles and stabiles are just natural products of the period. In a
were invented Duchamp) can be regarded ticular (they
way
as
they are. The mobiles in par-
back as 1932 and were named by working models of half of what I have
as far
123
Music, Painting, and Sculpture
been talking about
in this article; they
evoke almost as well as music
does the ideas of change, becoming, and chance, and they create space which is completely unframed, incompletely realized, completely dy-
namic, and
Two
full of
a delicately calculated unreasonableness.
(if that is the word) Anthony Caro and the painter Francis Bacon, have recently made brilliant demonstrations of how relevant the idea of space is to contemporary art. And each of them has raised again the old question of how relevant the idea of man is— the humanist's idea of man, that is. Caro was the young-sculptor-of-the-year in 1966 on both sides of the Atlantic, with important works on view at the Venice Biennale and the London sculpture triennial and a small stream of articles about himself in the art-conscious American press. I call him "young," for although he is now forty-three his present mature and very successful style is only seven
British artists, the sculptor
years old.
Before 1960, he was a figurative artist working in bronze, partly under the influence of the British master Henry Moore. Then he went to the United States, that he
had
met David Smith and other
abstract artists, recalled
from Cambridge, and returned to England to start a new career in welded iron, aluminum, and steel. The style he developed is a kind of Constructivism which is so abstract, so austere, and apparently so elementary it has been variously labeled as "minimal," or "ABC," or "primary" sculpture. It is certainly about as far from old-fashioned heroic statuary as one can get. A characteristic work may consist of a few metal rods, beams, and plates distributed seemingly at random on the ground and covered with bright paint. The viewer is apt to conclude at first glance that there is little matter and no form. But if he lingers near the contraption he may find himself walking around and through it, squinting from different angles from one element to another, and getting involved generally; and he may then discover that the "matter" is mostly a zone of unframed, nonrational, and dynamic space which is constantly emerging from formlessness into different forms as he attempts to "realize" it— to get his bearings. He may discover, that is, that he is somewhat in the role of a modern musician choosing itineraries through an a degree in engineering
aleatoric composition.
Bacon,
who had an
impressive
show
in Paris last year,
is
of course an
He was born in 1910 and therefore belongs to the generation of British painters who were influenced by Expressionism, Surrealism, and the violent distortions of the human figure produced by Picasso in the 1930's. Since World War II, he has also been influenced entirely different sort of artist.
by photographs: not the artistic kind but such things as candid (preferably blurred) news shots of people in the midst of gestures and grimaces, and the famous studies of motion made by Eadweard Muybridge in the nineteenth century. He has combined these influences 124
Roy McMullen with a personal vision of humanity which is one of the most genuinely alarming in contemporary art, and also with a talent for creating an
immediate emotional impact— for what he "giving the sensation without the
calls,
citing
Paul Valery,
boredom aroused by the
fact of the
transmission."
In most of his paintings, a single personage, sometimes naked, always is caught in a smudged, twisting movement that makes the wounded and rotten. A reptilian mouth may be open in a nightmarish scream. The colors— mauve, green, brown, red— are applied with savagely bad taste, and usually some lines and scribbles are added in a partly transparent dead white. The space, however, is more disturbing
hysterical, flesh look
than anything
more
else.
Occasionally
it is
designed to induce agoraphobia, but
modern rule, it is an airless box. Freenclosed in what appears to be a glass cage
often, breaking the general
quently the personage
is
inside the airless box.
Are Caro and Bacon furthering what conservative critics have called the dehumanization of art? I do not think so. Caro's sculpture is of course not of the sort he calls "people substitutes," but it calls strongly for the participation of actively curious people it comes close to being do-it-yourself art. And Bacon's paintings do not exclude man at all; they simply suggest that he is still unredeemed. Toward the close of the chapter on the idea of space, the editor of the Syntopicon observes (Vol. 3, p. 817d): :
Whatever may be thought of the ether as a physical hypothesis, still remains whether action can take place at a distance through a void or must employ what Faraday calls "physical lines of the problem
force" through filled space.
Greek sculptor (again that may be the wrong word) who shows his work regularly in Paris, has been wrestling in his own fashion with this problem. His ambition, in his own words, is "to get away from art and nearer to invisible forces." For the past seven years, his invisible force— actually his sculptural material— has been electromagnetism, which he uses to suspend or agitate needles and other objects magically in midair. He is happy to be able to avoid in this way what he calls "the dead iron of falsely modern sculptors." His trouble has been that the distance across which his action takes place is relatively short and that the "real" space in his works tends to be overly occupied by equipment which looks suspiciously like dead iron and which distracts the imagination's attention from the invisible sculpture. Last year, being Greek, he arrived at a Pythagorean remedy: most of the pieces on exhibit emitted a musical sound when the action at a distance was taking place. One might have, and perhaps should have, visited the show
Takis, a forty-two-year-old
blindfolded.
125
Music, Painting, and Sculpture
FROM OBJECT TO FORM TO OBJECT his memoirs, Wassily Indents of the modern
Kandinsky describes one of the germinal
acci-
period, an incident comparable to the laboratory
chances from which modern science has occasionally profited. The time was apparently the very end of the nineteenth century, some ten years before the first abstraction, and the place was the painter's studio in Munich. He had been working outdoors and had returned at dusk, his mind "entirely plunged" in the day's accomplishment. Suddenly he noticed, leaning against the wall, a picture which was "unutterably beautiful, completely irradiated with an interior light," but in which the depicted object was unrecognizable. A second look revealed that the marvel was merely one of his own figurative works, and by the next morning the magic had faded:
Even when and
I
turned
it
on
its side, I
also the blue light of the
definitely that objects
The anecdote
is
re-found the object each time,
dusk was lacking.
were injurious
to
my
painting
then realized
I .
.
.
often stopped at this point, at least in the versions
admirers of abstract
by
Kandinsky, however, in his intelligent, earnest,
art.
rather humorless way, continues:
A frightening
abyss opened beneath my feet, while at the same time an imposing responsibility was offered to me and all sorts of ques-
tions arose, of
which the most important by
far was:
What
should
replace the object? ^^
What indeed
except form? (See Vol.
2,
p.
527c-d.) That answer
is
of
course almost as hard to think about as Kandinsky 's abyss, but abstract painters
and
their friendly critics
have on the whole held to
it
throughout
the twentieth century. Partisans of the geometrical sorts of abstractionism,
which are sometimes more difficult to explain than the lyrical and expressionist sorts, have even on occasion let it be understood that the form of a painting might somehow be a visual metaphor for Form in the Platonic sense (Vol.
ment appears
7, p.
382a-c,
among many
other passages). This argu-
be based on a deep misunderstanding of what Plato was talking about, but I mention it to show the level at which discussion has been conducted. During the last few years, however, with the return to favor of Monto
under such labels as Hardmust never concede that what one is doing has
drian's type of geometrical abstractionism
Edge and
Structural (one
been done before), a tendency has appeared to drop the notion of form and to defend a painting as being itself an "object." The up-to-date answer, 11 Michel Seuphor, L'Art abstrait (Paris: Maeght, 1950), p. 18.
126
Roy McMullen that
to Kandinsky's anguished question
is,
that his represented object
is
should be replaced by a cool refusal to imagine any kind of referent in a
work of visual art. This answer, in various degrees of explicitness, has been common for some time among far-out sculptors and neo-Dadaist or Pop practitioners of solid collage, but finding it in a realm where one used to come and go talking of Plato still seems a little odd. Frank Stella, who at thirty-two has become one of the leaders of the new geometrical school in the United States, can serve as one of several possible representatives of the current I have in mind. Referring to his elegantly simple diagonals, chevrons, and triangles, he has said: I
always get into arguments with people
old values
in
who want
to retain the
painting— the humanistic values that they always
If you pin them down, they always end up assomething there besides the paint on the canvas. My painting is based on the fact that only what can be seen there is there. It really is an object. Any painting is an object and anyone
find
on the canvas.
serting that there
who
is
up to the objectness making a thing. All that should be taken for granted. If the painting were lean enough, accurate enough or right enough, you would just be able to look at it.^gets involved in this finally has to face
of whatever
it
This can be regarded, as the ultimate
and
He
that he's doing.
is
is
one wishes to be a philosophical troublemaker, consequence of the doctrine that the non-
if
logical
literary arts can speak to us only by means of sensations and cannot leave behind them any food for reflection. Or perhaps it should be regarded as merely a heretical oflFshoot of that doctrine, as a kind of Gnostic reductionism stemming from the true faith. In any event, I am tempted to reply as the American critic John Canaday has in a similar context:
The weakness is,
In
fact, to
anything
argument that
in the
simply, that art
is
art
is
a purely visual experience
not a purely visual experience. ^^
pick up the argument with which
is
a purely visual experience.
ceptualists, symbolists,
and devotees
We
I
began
this article, scarcely
are incorrigible animists, con-
of the pathetic fallacy. Baudelaire's
Correspondances is a factual as well as poetic statement of the situation in which our possession of a reflective language puts us:
La Nature
est
un temple ou de vivant
piliers
Laissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles;
L'homme y
passe a travers des forets de symboles
Qui I'observent avec des regards
familiers.^*
12 Art News, September, 1966, p. 58.
13 The
New
14 Nature out;/In
is it
York Times, International Edition, February 27-28, 1965,
p. 5.
which hving pillars/Sometimes allow confused words to slip man passes through forests of symbols/Which watch him with familiar
a temple in
glances.
127
SCULPTURE SPATIO-DINAMIQUE BY NICOLAS SCHOFFER
BY BRIDGET RILEY, EMULSION ON CANVAS, 1966
EXPOSURE,
128
PLEIONE, OIL
BY VICTOR VASARELY,
ON CANVAS, 1961-63
GREEN WHITE, BY ELLSWORTH KELLY, OIL ON CANVAS, 1967
'double signal (red and amber)," by TAKIS, 1966
130
131
"SPIRALE," BY
At
UNESCO
ALEXANDER CALDER, 1962 in Paris, near the
Conference building
'orange disaster," by ANDY WARHOL, SILKSCREEN ON CANVAS, 1963
133
THE BILLBOARD," BY GEORGE SEGAL, PLASTER, WOOD, METAL, AND ROPE, 1966
134
MAGNIFYING GLASS, i^v^iv^^^SvX ^/S-:v:v//i^:-S^:
TARGETS, BY JASPER JOHNS, ENCAUSTIC AND COLLAGE ON CANVAS, 1966
BY ROY LICHTENSTEIN, oil on canvas, 1963
:
a
.^^
SA:J.U I\
U.N. PAINTING,
136
BY LARRY RIVERS, OIL ON CANVAS
(;
o
"haRPE EOLIENNE," by
max
ERNST, MIXED MEDIA, 1963
137
WOMAN WITH A HAT, BY WILLEM DE KOONING, OIL ON PAPER, 1966
BATEAU DE PECHE,
BY JEAN DUBUFFET, GOUACHE, 1964
LES NANAS,
BY NIKI DE SAINT-PHALLE,
GROUP VIEW, 1965
CONTINUEL-MOBILE, CONTINUEL-LUMIERE
140
BY JULIO LE PARC
THE BRIDE STRIPPED BARE BY HER BACHELORS, EVEN BY MARCEL DUCHAMP
141
"convolute," by mark tobey, tempera, 1966
TROPHY FOR MERGE CUNNINGHAM,
BY ROBERT RAUSCHENBERG, COMBINE PAINTING, 1959
GREAT
AMERICAN
NUDE
BY TOM WESSELMANN, ACRYLIC ON CANVAS, 1965 #76,"
"dr. Schweitzer's last mission" (variable environ-
mental painting), by oyvind fahlstrom, tempera on eight metal boxes, ten cut-out boards, fifty magnetic cut-outs in metal and vinyl, 1964-66
144
til
r
1
"the party," by marisol, mixed media and mirror, 1965-66
x"
"
"•'*
i
'study
146
from innocent X
1962," by francis bacon, oil
on canvas
TETE D HOMME,
BY PABLO PICASSO, ON CANVAS, 1964-65
OIL
THREE PIECE RECLINING FIGURE, BY HENRY MOORE, BRONZE, 1961-62
> \
CUBI X, BY DAVID SMITH, STAINLESS STEEL, 1963
\
l^f*"^^
148
'9
BOULES," BY POL BURY,
'rainfall," BY
WOOD
ANTHONY CARO, PAINTED
STEEL, 1964
149
MOULTONVILLE
BY FRANK STELLA, FLUORESCENT ALKYD AND EPOXY PAINT ON CANVAS, 1966
III,
Roy McMullen
And
since nature usually fails to create "objects" that persuade us that
"only what can be seen there
impossible for a painter.
is
there," I
He must
brushwork, for instance, since otherwise in the "object."
He must
am
inclined to think the operation
eliminate every trace of individual
we
a\oid, of course,
are apt to find his personality
any shapes that might be taken
be analogical or symbolic. He must simplifv into nothing the relations and of the parts to the whole, for otherwise we are apt to see an order in the picture and to start talking of Plato again. He must a\oid anv hint of a conxentional frame, for otherwise he may set oflF those aesthetic responses which have been conditioned by traditional art. Now Stella is evidently aware of these difficulties. He works, to use the current okay term, in a very "minimal" fashion; he is quite clearly trying to paint what Hazlitt said somebody said Turner painted, "pictures of nothing, and very like." But for me at least he does not succeed; for me there is "something there besides the paint on the can\'as." There is, to begin with, an obvious statement to the effect that in a painting one ought not to see something besides the paint on the canvas, and here I am not just reaching for a paradox: such a pictorial statement by a talented young man in the richest country in the world in the second half of the twentieth century offers plentv of what Kant called "food for reflection." It implies an almost total rejection of what Stella calls "the old values the humanistic values," not only in art but in our culture generally. It seems to me, therefore, that what he is really attempting to say in his unconxincing theorizing about "objects" and "things" is that his work cannot be judged by the old criteria for painting. This is certainly true. It is true, howe\er, not onlv of Stella's work but also of the work of other to
of part to part
.
.
.
geometrical abstractionists— of that of Ellsworth Kelly, for instance,
more
who
Mondrian. It is true of Mondrian's work, the success of which can be accounted for neither by old-fashioned aesthetic theory nor bv Mondrian's own somewhat foggy metaphysics. The plain fact is that \\e do not know enough about perception to explain abstract and other kinds of "minimal" or "structural" art; we do not know why, in the words of Thomas Aquinas, "a form existing in the senses is somewhat a principle of knowledge" (Vol. 20, p. 1034a). More investigations in the is
a
direct heir of
line of those
described by Arnheim in his collected essavs are needed:
more inquiries into such and elementary "images
visual
phenomena
and ground," Such inquiries might
as "fields," "figure
of significant life situations."
help us to disco\"er in the diagonals and triangles of Stella certain values
which, perhaps unconsciously, he
is
trying to substitute for those
old humanistic ones.
151
bad
Music, Painting, and Sculpture
ASSORTED OBJECTS AND IDEAS
IN
MOVEMENT
During the past two years, there have been large exhibitions of optical, or Op, art
and of
kinetic art
in— among other places— Paris,
New
York, Boston, Berkeley, San Francisco, Venice, London, Brussels, Glasgow,
and Tel Aviv. Here,
then, is one of the liveliest aesthetic trends in the world today. I say "one" because I am going to speak about the whole thing under the general label "kinetic." My authority for doing so comes from an excellent recent book (in a magazine format) on the subject: entitled Kinetic Art, it consists of four scholarly essays by Stephen Bann, Reg Gadney, Frank Popper, and Philip Steadman. At the start of his essay. Popper explains his intentions, and incidentally describes the whole trend very neatly: I personally am prepared to use the expression "kinetic art" for works ranging from abstract illusionist pictures whose repetitive patterns are designed principally to create illusory movement to the most complex electronic three-dimensional constructions, which are dominated by mechanical movement. ... I shall divide the field into three main areas: kinetic works in "virtual" movement, threedimensional works in "actual" movement and two-dimensional works in "actual" movement. The first category must also be divided into works whose movement is purely illusory and works whose virtual movement is engendered by movements of the spectator, by his active intervention or manipulation. The three-dimensional works must be divided into those which, in their similarity to machines, appear to be predictable, and those which have been called "mobiles" and are propelled by air currents. In addition, the question of randomness and predictability will arise in relation to two-dimensional works in actual movement— projections or reflections of moving forms upon screens or walls.
All of these categories
were
in existence long before the twentieth century.
movement was represented by theatrical machines, mechanical toys, marionettes, human automatons, and more or less successful colororgans. "Virtual" movement was represented by illusory eflFects on facades,
"Actual"
tricks
with mathematical perspective, eye-dazzling drawings, and painton blades so as to change as the viewer changed his
ings distributed position.
However, with a few exceptions
(the color-organ
things were not intended as works of art; they were
meant
is
to
one), these
amuse, or to
demonstrate optical theories. Also, they usually referred to movements
and structures
to be found in nature, or in man. Today's kinetic works, although frequently playful, are intended as art and are nearly always abstract. Their twentieth-century ancestors were created by Calder, the
Constructivists, the Cubists, the Dadaists,
Three of the best
artists in
and Mondrian.
the category of actual
152
movement
(all
of
them
Roy McMullen occasionally turn to the virtual kind) are the Belgian Pol Bury, forty-five;
the Hungarian Nicolas SchoflFer,
One
forty-two.
fifty-fi\e;
and the Swiss Jean Tinguely, and the virtual is the
of the best in mixtures of the actual
Argentine Julio Le Pare, thirty-nine. Two of the best in the virtual category are the British Bridget Riley, thirty-five; and the Hungarian Victor Vasarely, fifty-nine. Miss Riley works in London, the others in Paris.
who
Bury,
moment
at the
is
my
favorite
among
the kinetic three-
dimensionalists, continues into abstractionism the ancient tradition of
the makers of
human automatons. He
conceals small electric motors and
behind his tableaux and inside his usually wooden pieces of sculpture, hooks the discs by means of string and wire to the filaments, spheres, and rods visible on the surfaces of the works, and runs each apparatus at a speed so slow as to be almost imperceptible. The results are models of
discs
the
mo\ ement
of the
life
force at the levels of the virile reflex, of the
heliotrope turning toward the sun, of something
unnameable
In spite of his interest in mechanical principles. Bury
Some
in the line of Aristotle.
their cycles of rest,
slow
life" (Vol. 54, p.
in the ocean.
clearly a vitalist
if you watch them through can also be taken as models
of his machines,
and
stir,
rest again,
of Freud's conjecture that instinct
organic
is
is
"the manifestation of inertia in
651d).
whose work seems
me
and emoand visionary whose eyes are fixed on the distant day when ultramodern art and ultramodern science will merge, he hopes, to form a new philosophy, even a new religion. In the introduction to one of his several exhibitions last year he wrote: SchoflFer,
tionally rather unsatisfying,
is
more than probable
It is
to
intellectually interesting
a craftsman
that our notions of duration, beginning,
end, limit or threshold are to be revised. that the universe as
much more
man
imagines
it is
It is
more than probable
only one part of an ensemble,
macro-systems and micro-systems possessing difand even timeless ones, animated by a sort of respiratory movement with an infinitely variable rhythm, nourishing each other mutually, having certainly neither beginning nor vast, of
ferent time structures
end— in
short,
an ensemble whose complexity would be far beyond we are of our narrow space-time carapace. Our
us, prisoners that
we must return to beyond us and guides us at the same time, the only one that gives to man, by the intermediary of man, a substance superior to man.
only chance art,
the only
He began
is
our intelligence. ... At this point
human
action that goes
dynamic and incompletely by means of open, right-angled structures of brass and aluminum. He then added transparent or translucent plexiglass and colored light patterns moving in cycles at variable, sometimes random speeds. More recently he has been experimenting with what he calls as a neo-Constructivist, creating
realized space
153
Music, Painting, and Sculpture
"chronodynamism" and "micro-time" by means of flashes of colored light which are rotated mechanically and speeded up by means of mirrors: the idea is to saturate with signals the moment between the emission of a signal of motion and the moment we perceive it. This should help to crack our space-time carapace.
Tinguely has become an international celebrity in the years since 1960,
when one of his machines committed suicide at the New York Museum of Modern Art, and so there is not much to say about him that has not been said
dozens of media, including television. Two points about his me worth some emphasis. First, although
in
recent work, however, seem to
the machines are just as futile as they used to be, they do not look quite as crazy; they
most of those
do not wave as much junk in the air, they run better, and have seen have been painted. Second, this new— and very
I
relative— sober look brings out strongly the fact that Tinguely, in addition
and a Swiss toymaker of genius, is that rare thing, a artist. His zany "sculpture" cannot be appreciated at all in terms of volume, mass, structures, texture, and form. Once you get past a simple description, you can talk about it only in terms of ideasideas about the state of art, about technological progress, about alienation, about the death of our civilization, and of course about farce. Here, I submit, is at least one case in which no critic can be, in Miss Sontag's to
being a
satirist
purely conceptual visual
slogan phrase, "against interpretation."
With Le
Pare,
we may be
who won
a grand prize at the Venice Biennale last year,
entering an age of absolute innocence, absolute democracy,
and absolute anonymity in art. His attitude toward his work can be summarized by quoting from a manifesto of the Paris Groupe de Recherche d'Art Visuel, of which he is a cofounder: Although our experiments may still have the traditional appearance and bas-reliefs, we do not situate plastic reality in the realization of a work or in emotion, but in the constant relation existing between the plastic object and the human eye. Making the plastic object move will modify the preceding data by the addition of time. However, we do not envisage movement as of paintings, sculpture
.
soliciting an
emotional response or as a demonstration, but as a
.
.
new
visual proposition.^"'
That seems clear enough: lots of phenomenology, and no ontology at all. In carrying out this program, Le Pare resorts principally to brightly polished metal, fashioning
it
into boxes of shifting patterns of light
and
shade, into distortion mirrors, and very often into strips which are sus-
pended so works are
enjoy them 15
Bann
et
an aseptic autumn breeze. His amusing, and sometimes beautiful, and anybody can have seen a cat doing so, apparently in exactly the same way
as to flutter like silver leaves in
cool, mildly :
I
al..
Kinetic Art
(St.
Albans, England: Motion Books, 1966), p. 52.
154
Roy McMullen that
I
was.
They
are,
however, open to some serious objections. One
responds to them more physiologically than imaginatively. As art they are jot above sunlight on water; they do not involve that transfer from one substance to another— that implied metaphor— which contributes to
only a
the pleasure in conventional painting and sculpture.
do
Miss Riley's carefully calculated and drawn waves of virtual movement inv^olve that sort of implied metaphor, since they are quite con-
ventional pictures. Moreover, she has anticipated the kind of criticism
have
just directed at
Le Pare and has
replied to
it
in
words
I
as well as
pictures:
... I have always believed that perception is the medium through which states of being are directly experienced. (Everyone knows, by now, that neuro-physiological and psychological responses are inseparable).
them
.
.
.
The
basis of
a particular situation
situation
is
my
paintings
is
this: that in
each of
stated. Certain elements within that
remain constant. Others precipitate the destruction of
themselves by themselves. Recurrently, as a lesult of the cyclic
movement is
of repose, disturbance
and repose, the
original situation
re-stated. ^^
Here we are back again with Thomas Aquinas' belief that "sense is a sort of reason" (Vol. 19, p. 26b), and so I will say nothing about "neurophysiological and psychological responses" except that Miss Riley provokes both kinds with unusual intensity. She is one of the few kinetic artists to manage, without the use of actual movement, to introduce enough time in a work for the production of simple musical effects— cycles of "repose, disturbance and repose." Movement in the work of Vasarely is entirely of the virtual kind, and in the great majority of his paintings it is little more than a shimmer around a zone of color or within a superimposed pattern. The fact is that this cool, fastidious artist is in many ways closer to the first generation of geometrical abstractionists, and through them to traditional painting, than he might like to admit. There is, however, something in nearly all of his recent pictures which in the future, perhaps the distant future of Schoffer's microsystems and macro-systems, could become more revolutionary than the dazzle of an optical mixture of shapes. We can get at what I mean by noticing that whereas a painting by Van Gogh has a seamless, organic unity, a painting by Vasarely has an assembled, rational unity: a Van Gogh is a sensuous model of the idea of the One; a Vasarely is a model of the idea of the Many. In other words, Vasarely 's pictorial "language," unlike that of Van Gogh or of any other artist I can think of at the moment, is noncontinuous both within itself and with any given picture; it consists 16 Art News, October, 1965, pp. 32-33.
155
Music, Painting, and Sculpture
and squares, which are without and brushwork and which can be extracted from a particular work and used in a diflFerent combination. And my point is that such elements are exactly the sort of code desired by some of our new artistically inclined electronic computers, which will probably never be able to learn to paint in the unique, private, organic language of Van Gogh. We can dismiss as irrelevant the fact that Vasarely did not intend his discrete language for computer use when, several years ago, he invented it. In cultural history, the machines come when we call them, even though we do so unwittingly. of small colored elements, usually circles distinctive matter
CONCERNING THE HISTORY OF ART
When
a critic begins to prophesy, he can
has reached
its
natural end. Let
assume that
me wind up
his article
with a comment on
some remarks by the American art historian James S. Ackerman, in a paper published in another anthology edited by Gyorgy Kepes. After an evolutionary "process" which
insisting that the theory of
in political history
is
is
"sheer mysticism in the history of the arts,"
often used
Ackerman
says:
But allowing, for the sake of discussion, that the chronological sequence established by archaeological method justifies a metaphor of process,
we
observe that
it
is
also necessary to
suppose that the
some purposeful and orderly pattern. If it were meaningless flux and change, we could not pretend to make sense of it. That the pattern of so-called development is purely metaphorical is demonstrated by our inability to project it into the future. An economist can predict with some confidence the eff^ects of a change in the monetary structure, but we have no idea where Abprocess obeys
stract
charts
Expressionism
and
is
"going."
We can
only construct chronological
assess the art of the past
by hindsight. This method provides us with an index showing which works of art were most influential. If it stopped there it would be unassailable, but inevitably the influential becomes the important. ... So it appears that the patterns of development that we construct are unrelated, and may even be antagonistic, to the distinction of quality. i'^
The remedy
for this evil, Ackerman suggests, is to concentrate on the uniqueness of each work of art and to study the intentions of an artist Hving in a particular place and period. He adds that the ultimate justifica-
tion for the use of such a
remedy
is
the fact that
"we
are
committed
to
a conviction as to the positive value of individuality."
17 The Visual Arts Today (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1960), pp. 262-63.
156
Roy McMullen I mention these opinions with no intention of agreeing or disagreeing with them, for to do either would take us beyond the scope of this essay. What I wish to point out is that the great ideas of the Western tradition
are relevant not only to
modern
art
art in general. In the course of less
but also to modern thinking about than a dozen sentences, Ackerman
takes firm positions on a dozen important matters
which have been the hundreds of years. He is of course aware that he is doing so, and he may be right in each instance. But it can do us no harm to remind ourselves that Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Tolstoy, Bacon, and Hobbes, among others, might have disagreed. subjects of debate
among powerful minds
for
BIBLIOGRAPHY Arnheim, Rudolf, Towards
a Psychology of
London: Faber & Faber, Ltd., 1967. Bann, Stephen, Gadney, Reg, Popper, Fr.\nk, and Steadman, Philip. Kinetic Art. St. Albans, England: Motion Books, 1966. BouLEZ, Pierre. Penser la musique aujourd'hiti. Geneva: Editions Gonthier S. A., 1964. Releves d'apprenti. Paris: Editions du Art.
.
Seuil,
1966.
GiLSON, Etienne. Painting and Reality. York: Meridian Books, Inc., 1959.
New
The Arts of the Beautiful. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1965. Kepes, Gyorgy (ed.). Sign, Image, Symbol. New York: G. Braziller, 1966. The Visual Arts Today. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1960. Lancer, Susanne K. Feeling and Form. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1956. Philosophy in a New Key. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1942. .
.
.
157
Panofsky, Erwin. Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism. New York: Meridian Books, 1957.
Inc.,
Rosenberg, Harold.
New. New York:
The Tradition (Evergreen
of
the
Grove
ed.)
Press, Inc., 1961.
Selz,
Work of Jean Museum of Modern
Peter. The
New
York:
Dubuffet. 1962.
Art,
Seuphor, Michel. L'Art ahstrait. Paris: Maeght, 1950. SoNTAG, Susan. Against Interpretation, and Other Essays. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc., 1966.
Tomkins, Calvin. The Bride and the Bachelors:
Art.
The Heretical Courtship York: The Viking
New
in
Modern
Press,
Inc.,
1965.
Ventuhi,
Lionello. History of Art CritiTranslated by Charles Marriott. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc.,
cism.
1964.
STEPHEN TOULMIN This year,
we have asked
Dr. Stephen Toulmin, Professor of
Philosophy and the History of Ideas at Brandeis University, to discuss recent developments in the physical sciences from his special vantage point as a philosopher of science.
was born in London in 1922. He was a Fellow Cambridge University, where he took his first degree in mathematics and physics, returning after World War n for graduate work in philosophy under Ludwig Wittgenstein. Subsequently, he was for five years a University Lecturer in the Philosophy of Science at Oxford University. As Professor of Philosophy and head of the Philosophy Department at Leeds University, he planned and established courses on the development of scientific thought for students of all departments. As Director of the Dr. Toulmin
of King's College,
Unit for the History of Ideas of the Nuffield Foundation, Dr. his wife. Dr. June Goodfield, won acclaim for their
Toulmin and
production of educational films about science. A prolific author. Dr. Toulmin has collaborated with his wife in the writing of The Fabric of the Heavens (1961), The Architecture of Matter (1962),
and The Discovery
of
Time
(1965),
which together comprise the
three volumes of the series The Ancestry of Science. His other books include: Night Sky at Rhodes (1963), Foresight and
first
Understanding (1961), The Uses of Argument (1958), The Philosof Science: An Introduction (1953), and Examination of the Place of Reason in Ethics (1950). He has also contributed many papers to learned journals.
ophy
158
The
Physical Sciences
INTRODUCTION Physical
theory
is
at
questions as
once the oldest and the newest of man's intellectual science, men have asked such
From the very beginning of "What common elements go
enterprises.
objects of the world?"
and
"How
to
make up
all
did the universe begin?" So
the material it is
no mere
fancy to see a real intellectual continuity linking the physics of the present
day back
to the
before 500
b.c.
men like Thales and Anaximander, in Ionia we sometimes overlook that continuity, we do
thought of
Indeed,
if
which have taken place in up to the year a.d. 1840, for instance, the English name for "scientists" was "natural philosophers"; and, at some of the older European universities, the professors of physics are to this day referred to as Professors of Natural Philosophy.^ (The very word scientist was coined by William Whewell— a well-known philosopher of science and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge— in an address to the 1840 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.) Accordingly, when so distinguished a 20th-century physicist as Werner Heisenberg, the original architect of quantum mechanics, finds it useful to quote Anaximander in order to throw light on his own views, historians of science need not be particularly surprised. On the contrary, they may be tempted to comment: "Plus ga change, plus cest la meme so largely because of certain verbal changes
the course of history. Right
chose."
Working
scientists themselves,
to take the long view.
At the
however, do not always find it so easy fundamental theory, the rapidity of
level of
change during the last ten years has been dizzying and all-preoccupying —so much so, that the very word fundamental is beginning to seem ironical, and even misleading. For the strength and stability of our scientific understanding no longer depends on the absolute immutability of its theoretical "foundations." In the world of science, as in the worlds of society and technology, the second half of the 20th century is proving to be a period of "perpetual revolution," and scientists are learning to
1
Thus Newton's great work, Natural Philosophy;
GBWW,
for example,
Vol. 34.
159
is
entitled
Mathematical Principles of
The Physical Sciences live
with that
In the last resort, the strength of physical science
fact.
comes, not from indubitable axioms, but from the variety and multiplicity of
its
points of contact with the world of Nature
in the 19th century,
men
and Experience. Whereas,
interpreted any challenge to the classical prin-
of Newtonian science as a threat to man's whole intellectual dominion over Nature, 20th-century scientists have come to see the problem of deciphering Nature's "language" as an unending one— one that calls for a continual efiFort of intellectual construction and improvisation, the nearest approximation to ultimate truth being a system ciples
of ideas that has (It is
no accident
up
to
now
resisted all serious efforts at
its falsification.
that, at the present time, the philosophical doctrines of
Karl Popper's The Logic of Scientific Discovery should have methodological slogans of many working scientists.) Still,
become the
policy of studied improvisation does encourage a certain
this
shortness of view. Thus, the Professor of Experimental Physics at the
University of Oxford (D. H. Wilkinson) began an account of the state
by presenting "the traditional list" of fundaon reading fairly carefully, one discovers that the "tradition" in question dates from the years 1948-60. Similarly, Professor M. Schwartz of Columbia University, New York, introduced an authoriof particle physics in 1966
mental
particles;
tative survey of neutrino physics in 1965 with a three-page "Historical
Survey" in which the earliest papers cited dated from the years 1957-59. In this branch of physics, at any rate, the 1940's count as prehistory, and the current era can be dated only from 1963-64. Meanwhile, within the whole grand enterprise of physics, we seem to
be marching bravely down the Road to Babel. The "division of labor" has fragmented the scientific profession to a point quite disconcerting to the onlooker. For example. Professor Laurie Brown of Northwestern University, an eminent particle physicist, confessed in Physics Today (February, 1966) that
when
.
.
.
challenged
...
to write
particle symmetries to physicists specialists,
I
who
an
article explaining unitary
are not fundamental-particle
hesitated.
and, in the same issue of the journal, Professor Sidney
Bludman
of the
University of Pennsylvania reported fears that the dozen or two theoreti-
who
apply quantum field theory to the physics of elementary becoming "an isolated band of specialists like specialists in general relativity"— comprehensible only to each other, and out of comcal physicists
particles risk
munication even with their fellow physicists. So,
in
appraising the current year's developments in the physical
sciences, there are
of these
is
two quite
one might adopt. One view and the professional fragmenta-
different strategies
to accept the short-range
160
Stephen Toulmin
and
tion of physics as inescapable,
to rest content with cataloging for the
general reader the most striking innovations within one or another special-
would be a legitimate— though far from easy— task of popularization, of the sort that contributors such as George Gamow and Jeremy Bernstein have undertaken brilliantly in earlier volumes of this series. The alternative strategy is perhaps more foolhardy, yet in its own ways equally worthwhile it is, to look and see whether one cannot "embed" the present state of the physical sciences into a longerterm historical setting, and by so doing weave together into a more coherent intellectual fabric the different kinds of development currently ized subdivision of physics. That
:
taking place in frontier areas of physical thought.
For the purposes of this year's survey, we shall adopt the second of these two strategies. There are in fact special reasons why that choice may be particularly timely in the present year. For, reading between the lines of the current scientific literature, one detects an intensifying uncertainty
and anxiety— even,
an
air of crisis— about the present theoretical fundamental physics. The uncertainty was made quite explicit in the Nobel Lecture given by Professor Richard Feynman of the California Institute of Technology, on the occasion of receiving his share in the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physics. Having described the trains of thought by which he had come to propose the theoretical innovations in quantum electrodynamics for which he won his prize,
at times,
situation in several branches of
Feynman I
said:
think that
(this)
theory
of electrodynamics
is
And, in a March, 1966,
way
simply a
under the rug.
article
I
to
sweep the
difficulties
am, of course, not sure of
.
.
.
that.
on "Space Inversion, Time Reversal and Tsung-Dao Lee— who himself Physics with Chen Ning Yang— began:
Particle-Antiparticle Conjugation," Professor
shared the 1957 Nobel Prize in
The more we
learn about symmetry operations the less we seem understand them. At present, although still very little is known about the true nature of these discrete symmetries, we have, un.
.
.
to
fortunately, already reached the
unhappy
state of
having
lost
most
of our previous understanding.
Even in physical cosmology, which The Great Ideas Today last year,
for
and
difficulties:
shift"
Professor
notably, about the proper interpretation of the "red
phenomenon, which has been
central to speculations about the
antiquity of the universe ever since the intellectual situation in theoretical physics
no doubt, be too
Hermann Bondi surveyed
the year 1966 brought fresh doubts
strong.
1920's.
To
suggest that the
was getting out
of
hand would,
But equally without any doubt, physicists are 161
at
The Physical Sciences the present time in a basic concepts
dreamed
more
mood
radical,
to consider reappraisals
and
revisions of their
comprehensive, and far-reaching than anyone
of ten years ago.
worth standing back for a change, to look at the present crisis in physical theory as one episode in the continuing history of scientific thought, and to ask whether the longer-term history of "natural philosophy" throws any light on our current problems and quandaries. Do the diflBculties facing physicists today have parallels in earlier phases of scientific thought? Or are those difficulties unique, both in their general form and in their particular details? These are questions to which the historian and the working scientist may, for quite understandable reasons, react in quite different ways. To the historian, the essential thing about all revolutions— whether political or intellectual— lies in the fundamental challenges they present to men's loyalties, and the manner in which they are eventually resolved. To the actual participant, on the other hand, his own particular revolution will naturally appear quite unique: he will see it as arising out of some one specific conflict situation, and needing to be resolved in its own particular incomparable way. Yet may we not legitimately look at the patterns of our particular "revolutionary situation," for once, with one eye on the general lessons It is
May
of history?
number
not "revolutionary situations"
of general types?
The point
is
worth
fall into
raising,
a certain limited
whether we are con-
cerned with situations of social conflict or with moments of basic lectual doubt.
So
let
us start this survey by looking at one broad area of
physics where, throughout the last ten years, the sense of
gradually
become
acute;
and
let
more
clearly
what exactly
crisis
has
us consider whether, in this area at any
rate, the history of earlier transformations in physical
reveal
intel-
at issue
is
on
theory
may
help to
the frontiers of theoretical
physics today.
THE ULTIMATE CONSTITUTION OF MATTER conviction behind the of phenomena and the variety of The material things, men could discover by rational inquiry a more limited that,
number
"flux"
permanent "elements"— the "units" out of which all material and whose permutations and combinations underlay the changing phenomena of the natural world— is as old as philosophy itself. It formed one strand in the pre-Socratic debates' about the One and the Many; it preoccupied Plato, notably in the Timaeusr also Aristotle, whose four "elementary qualities"— the Hot and the Cold, the Moist and the Dry— dominated medieval thinking on the subject; and it has been a of
things were composed,
^^
2
GBWW,
3
On
Vol. 7, pp. 448b-d; 458b-460b.
Generation and Corruption, Bk.
II,
chaps,
162
i-iii;
GBWW,
Vol. 8, pp. 428b-431a.
Stephen Toulmin recurrent theme in
modern
scientific
thought from the time of Gahleo and
Descartes onward.
From century
debate has moved on, with the search for To begin with, philosophers sought for the ultimate "elements" of things in abstraction from the familiar substances of ordinary life: everyday experience of to century, the
"ultimate units" penetrating to deeper and deeper levels.
and liquid, airy and fiery materials formed a starting point for more abstract, theoretical categories— earth and water, air and
solid their fire.
Before long, the suspicion arose that the ultimate material units
would be found only year
a.d.
Galileo
1600
at the level of the invisibly small,
this belief
and since the
has been widely taken for granted. Although
and Descartes, Newton, Boyle, and Locke had no positive or on which their theories
direct evidence for identifying the "corpuscles"
were based, they shared a conviction that the familiar properties of macroscopic things must eventually be explained in terms of physical interactions between such minute constituent "corpuscles." During the 19th century, it at last became possible to give some plausible estimate of the size of the smallest actually existing particles,
and these came, in the case of the chemical elements, to be known as "atoms"— which begged the question whether they were truly ultimate, indivisible, and so "atomic." By the beginning of the 20th century, it was becoming clear that even those elementary particles represented only one stage along a path of continuing subdivision: they, in their turn, were composed of still smaller "subatomic" units— and during the subsequent sixty years, those smaller units have come to be known by the equally question-begging name of "fundamental" particles. For the first thirty or forty years of the century, the hope remained bright that Anaximander's problem might yet be solved finally, with the identification of a very few such permanent and universal fundamental particles.
Many
of us
recall the confidence
who
studied
physics
at
school
in
the
1930's
with which the most up-to-date textbooks looked
forward to this situation: all the essential phenomena of physics, it seemed, would be explained by the interactions of a handful of basic units.
ranged from two— if one counted only and the electron—to five, if one counted in also the uncharged neutron, the "positive electron" or positron, and the unit of electromagnetic energy or "photon." Meanwhile, the new mathematical theories developed by Heisenberg and Erwin Schrodinger in 1925-27, under the names of "quantum mechanics" and "wave mechanics," appeared to account for the existence in Nature of just those few fundamental units; so the confidence was not really, at the time, open to serious criticism. For the moment, the demands of intel-
The number
of such particles
the primary electrically charged material units, the proton
lectual tactics required physicists to exploit all the possibilities of a theory
163
The Physical Sciences on protons and electrons, and on the mathematics of quantum mechanics, before pressing home any skeptical doubts— however of matter based
well founded in history— against the claim that this particular combination
would represent the very last word in fundamental physics. Immediately after World War II, there was a burst of new research as a result of which the situation rapidly became more complex. Even before the war, the Japanese physicist Hideki Yukawa had argued for the existence of a further type of particles, generally referred to as "mesons." Their existence was now rapidly confirmed— and confirmed
with embarrassing abundance, since the particular mesons Yukawa had actually predicted were only the second or third type to be observed in practice.
By
Wilkinson
more
the early 1950's, particle physics
calls
its
"traditional" period;
or less "fundamental" particles
or to as
many
as twenty-five
if
like
was entering what Professor
by
this
had already
Gamow
time,
the
number
of
some twelve, (The Great Ideas Today 1962) arisen to
one continued to count as two distinct kinds particles carrying opposite electric charges, but otherwise identical. The years 1960-61 saw a further burst of thirty (fifty-nine diJBicult
even to
new discoveries. The twelve distinct kinds rose to some by Gamow's criterion), and from that point on it has been keep count. By 1964, the standard estimates were in the
forties; in 1965,
the figure ninety
is
quoted; while Professor Wilkinson
himself estimates the variety of subatomic particles at "about two hundred." In the fleeting, transitional world of the bubble chamber and the
cosmic-ray discharge which high-energy physicists study, particles exist for minute fractions of time (less than one million-millionth of a second, in
some
cases) in a profusion of sizes
and forms that we are
as yet far
from exhausting.
The
resulting intellectual situation cannot be accepted as satisfactory.
As a matter of the
number
itself,
logic,
no doubt, one might argue that any multiplicity
of "fundamental" material units
is
in
equally mysterious: in
the existence of four distinct kinds of ultimate matter
self-explanatory than the existence of four hundred.
is no more As a matter of
physics, however, this proliferation of particles
is a source of understandable embarrassment. True, the embarrassment has not been wholly un-
mixed. As Bernstein explained in The Great Ideas Today 1965, certain mathematical patterns and symmetries have begun to emerge which link the properties of
many
of these different particles
into
recognizable
them characteristically having either eight or ten members. (All the mesons having a "spin" of 1 display one recognizable pattern in their masses and other properties, all the hyperons having "spin" of 3/2 display another such pattern, and so on). "families" or "representations," each of
Yet the very existence of such mathematical patterning in the properties of the subatomic particles poses further problems tions.
As Professor Wilkinson
and prompts new ques-
says, in the conclusion of his recent survey:
164
Stephen Toulmin It really
seems
as
though
we may now be approaching an
empirical
ordering of particles analogous to that of atoms in the periodic table. [But] as yet
we have no
understanding
why Nature
as to
has chosen
invariance under SU(3), SU(6) or perhaps U(12) [the mathematical representations in question] for her scheme. We as yet have no idea about the detailed underlying construction for [all these particles] analogous to our understanding of the structure of the various atoms in terms of electrons
and nuclei and
of nuclei in terms of neutrons
and protons.
And what
is
beginning to be quite uncertain
is
whether, in their present
forms, the intellectual tools at the disposal of theoretical physicists— e.g., the mathematics of
quantum mechanics— are capable
of providing a
way
out from the present confused situation in particle physics, by establish-
new and deeper understanding
ing the
physicists
would now
like
to
achieve of the "sub-sub-units" (such as "quarks") out of which these
hundreds of "sub-units"
may
prove to be composed.
THE RECURRENT PROBLEMS OF ATOMISM
We
have seen how the general problem of "fundamental units" has been arising for theoretical physicists in the 1950's and 1960's. We must now ask: "Is our current quandary entirely unparalleled? Or have men been in similar situations before?" In fact (we shall see) there is reason to think that men's recurrent attacks on this general problem have had broadly the same form in all epochs: the ambition to make consistent sense of the multiplicity of
phenomena
in terms of a limited dramatis
personae of material "elements" or "atoms" has involved always the use of similar intellectual strategies
types of difficulty. Indeed,
and has encountered at all stages similar identify and characterize two
we can by now
which have arisen regardless of the specific subject matwherever a limited repertory of "units" or "atoms" has been invoked to explain a multiplicity of phenomena. These two problems can be referred to, respectively, as (a) the Problem of Interactions, and (b) the Problem of Levels. Let us consider them in turn. familiar problems ter,
THE PROBLEM OF INTERACTIONS system of ideas having a close resemblance The ideas current physical first
science since a.d. 1600
in
to the "atomistic"
was introduced by
the Greek philosophers Democritus and Leucippus during the 5th century
B.C.
As with
all
the theories of the Greek philosophers— especially
those whose doctrines have
come down
to us only in
fragmentary form-
it is
impossible to argue that the atomism of Democritus and Leucippus
was
identical either in doctrine or
even in general aim with the similar165
The Physical Sciences theory. Nor can we even atomism was intended primarily as a physical theory, since their intentions were also, demonstrably, in part epistemological: they were just as interested in answering the question, "How do we know anything about the world?" as they were the question, "What is the world made of?" (The same is true, incidentally, of
looking doctrines of any
Galileo's
modern "corpuscular"
any confidence that
assert with
atomism:
like
their
Democritus, Galileo clearly sketched the
dis-
between "primary" and "secondary" qualities formulated definitively only in Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, in 1690.)^ Yet, in part at least, Democritus' intentions do certainly seem to have been physical: that is, aimed at explaining the familiar properties of material things— hardness, brittleness, flexibility, and so on— in terms of the behavior of the constituent "atoms" out of which those material objects were supposedly made. A difficulty arose at the very outset. For the atomism of Democritus, like that of Epicurus and Lucretius later, comprised both a positive doctrine and a negative one. Positively, it asserted that the ultimate constituents of material things were invisibly small and perfectly solid atoms, of countless different shapes and sizes; but, negatively, it also asserted that these atoms could interact with one another only upon contact or impact.^ No other types of interaction could be admitted into any "atomistic" explanation: in particular, no influences could be exerted across the void tinction
separating the atoms.
One result It
of this negative doctrine
was quickly pointed out by
Aristotle.
limited very sharply— and probably excessively— the sorts of behavior
capable of explanation in atomistic terms. For instance, on an atomistic theory of this original type, one could readily understand the occurrence of two states of matter: namely, the solid state in which the atoms of a body were presumably jammed together, with their sharp corners firmly interlocked, and an alternative state in which they were completely dissociated so as to form a vapor or gas. It was less easy to understand, on this account, the occurrence of the intermediate, liquid state— and still less,
the violent stresses created
volume was converted
into vapor
by
when heat,
a liquid kept in a restricted i.e.,
"boiled."
On
Democritus'
account, Aristotle insisted, the atoms of a material substance should, on boiling, simply unhitch their corners
much
the
same volume
will explode
was
right.
when
The
from one another, while occupying
as before; whereas, in fact, a tightly sealed kettle
the water in
it
turns to steam. (And, in fact, Aristotle
characteristic properties of the fluid state cannot
be ex-
plained in terms of a naive atomistic theory of the traditional Greek type;
even now, they are not 4
GBWW,
fully understood,
though they evidently involve
Vol. 35, p. 134c-d.
5 Lucretius,
On
the Nature of Things,
I,
166
483-634;
GBWW,
Vol.
12, pp. 7a-8d.
Stephen Toulmin
somewhat complex
interactions of a
quantum-mechanical type between
the constituent molecules of liquids.)*^
This objection turned a spotlight on a central and recurrent problem
by all atomistic theories. For both Democritus and Epicurus, the axiom that atoms could influence one another only upon impact or contact was an essential one; and, to begin with, the natural philosophers
raised
who
revived the older atomistic theories in the seventeenth century
precisely the
Leibniz,
same assumption
attacking
the
in their
principles
of
own
made
"corpuscular" systems. Thus
Newtonian physics
in
his
cor-
respondence with Samuel Clarke, objected to Newton's hypothesis of "gravitational attraction" on the ground that this force was supposed to act directly between the sun and the earth, across vast distances of space— and such a notion, he retorted, must be "either miraculous or imaginary." So, from the very beginning of modern science, all attempts to explain the properties of the material world in terms of simple atoms at once gave rise, in turn, to the reciprocal problem, how such unit-atoms could possibly interact with one another. In classical Greece, many philosophers considered this shortcoming fatal to atomism of all kinds. The Stoics, for instance, argued that the theoretical subdivision of objects into component unit-parts could no more help us understand their overall properties than the reduction of a house its component bricks would enable us to understand architecture. Atoms, as a concept, were useless and purely hypothetical: instead, we should understand the properties of material things only by considering
to
their inner "tensions," "tones," "harmonies,"
and
"patterns," for
it
was
these that maintained their characteristic structures in regular working order.
To begin with, accordingly, the two classical pictures of material made up of an aggregate of individual atoms, and as made up
things— as
of certain patterns maintained
by inner tensions or forces— were regarded
as rivals.
The
first
man
to conceive of a consistent
compromise, combining the
strong points of traditional atomism with those of the Stoic theory,
was
Isaac Newton. As corrected and reformed by Newton, the "corpuscularian
philosophy" ceased to assume that the atoms were separated by a physically neutral void,
and could
interact only
when
they touched;
fundamental "particles" of Newton's theory interacted continuously, even when a great distance apart, through the medium of attractive and repulsive forces. The prime example of such a "central force" was the force of gravitation, but Newton considered that four or five other types of central forces might between them explain the remaining physical properties of things. Electrical forces were presumably one such type; the forces of surface tension and cohesion another; those of instead, the
6
On
the Heavens, Bk.
Ill,
chap,
vii;
GBWW, 167
Vol. 8, pp. 396d-397a.
The Physical Sciences chemical combination perhaps a third; and so on. In such terms as these, at last extend a fundamentally atomistic theory to embrace all
we might
phenomena which
those
under Yet
its
traditional
Greek atomism could not
easily bring
wing.^
this extension
could be purchased only at a price. After
of the original virtue of
duction of every
new
atomism had been
its
very simplicity.
all,
much
The
intro-
type of "central force" represented another seem-
ingly arbitrary intellectual hostage. As
any mechanical theory
to explain
Newton
how
readily admitted, failing
material particles can transmit
such forces across the intervening distance separating them, we should end by doing little more than demonstrate the mathematical form of the
phenomena. For complete intellectual satisfaction (it seemed) some further explanation would be needed. So it has been in other cases, whenever the method of "analysis into units" has been used as a scientific strategy. In the 19th century, for instance, John Dalton— who had been brought up as a physicist and meteorologist— found a way of extending Newtonian ideas into the field of chemistry, so producing what many school textbooks even today call
own atomic ideas in detail, important to recognize that he got them through Newton, rather than directly from Democritus.) Yet, once again, the hypothesis of "material units" immediately gave rise to difficulties about their interactions. It the atomic theory. (To understand Dalton's
it is
might well be helpful
to relate the observed proportions in which quantisubstances entered into chemical combination to theoretical combinations of unit-atoms at an invisibly small level; but this by
ties of diflFerent
itself
did nothing to answer the further question,
why some
sets of
atoms
will join together into molecules, in certain preferred proportions, while
others decline to join.
Dalton and his immediate followers simply ducked the question, by imagining that the atoms of diflFerent substances were equipped with hooks and projections of diflFerent shapes and arrangements. But this
was only an
intellectual dodge, like those that the
and
Greek atomists had
merely postponed the fundamental problem. And indeed, the diflBculty was a real one: though Dalton's chemical atomism had great intellectual power, the facts of valency— the particular combinations in which diflFerent chemical elements will in fact combine into compounds— had to be taken for granted. Granted gravitation, Newton could demonstrate the geometrical forms of the planetary orbits, the resorted
to,
it
phenomena
of the tides, comets, and much else; but the operation of gravity itself remained a mystery. So now, granted the hypothesis of valency, Dalton could explain the simple proportions in which chemical
7 References to Newton's as well as other discussions of the problem of action-at-adistance can be found in the Syntopicon under Mechanics 6di2).
168
Stephen Toulmin are formed, but the nature of the interatomic bonds remained be explained. The basic elements of his system thus comprised not merely the material atoms by themselves but rather the material units
compounds
to
together with their interactions. Parallel situations have arisen since, not only in the physical sciences but also in biology. In the early years of the 20th century, for instance, geneticists liked to think of the individual "genes" in a "chromo-
units by which all the inheritable characteristics were supposedly transmitted— as strung together alongside one another like the beads of a necklace. Each individual gene then had its own distinctive job. It was presumed to act in its own independent way, and its relationship to its neighbors was one of mere proximity. Once again, this pure atomism soon proved too simple to be true. As the facts of genetical transmission were studied more closely, the relationships between unit-genes in the germ cell and manifest characters in the living organism (hair color, shape of nose, etc.) turned out to be more complex. It soon became necessary to suppose that neighboring genes influenced each other's overt expression: by "buffering" or enhancing one another's action, pairs of genes located in the same region of the chromosome produced effects on the eventual form of the adult organism different
some"— the fundamental
of organisms
from the sum of their individual effects. The same thing is happening at the present time within molecular biology. It is a dozen years now since Francis Crick and Jim Watson deciphered the spiral-staircase-like structure characteristic of the nucleic acid macromolecules out of which genes and chromosomes are composed; and for the first ten of these twelve years it was assumed, once again, that each chemical "step" in the Crick- Watson "staircase" produced its own specific effect within the cell. (See Gamow, The Great Ideas Today 1962, pages 198-204.) It was supposed, for instance, that a "step" composed of the three bases— uracil, adenine, and guanine— side by side, would function always as a location where glutamic acid would be synthesized. In the last two years, however, it has become apparent that here too the relationship between adjacent "steps" is more complex. They modify one another's actions, in the same way that genes do. Just what substances are synthesized at any point on a macromolecule, and in what quantities, depends in practice not only on the base units located at that point but also on the patterns of their interactions.
THE PROBLEM OF LEVELS
Seen
in historical perspective,
theory than a strategy.
The
atomism thus turns out
scientist's task is to
is
by
"atomistic"
be
less
a
and phenomena: one way he can attack this methods of analysis— that is, by asking himself how
of processes, properties,
task
to
explain a given class
169
The Physical Sciences the interactions of invisibly small material sub-units might explain those phenomena. As Plato foresaw in the Timaeus,^ this strategy has worked most efiFectively in physics and chemistry, as a way of accounting for the properties of homogeneous substances— e.g., cohesion and density, it has been less helpful to physiologists, whose problems have to do with the complex and heterogeneous structures of living organs and organisms. But, in well-chosen cases, scientists moving into a new area of inquiry will continue to find Still,
an atomistic strategy the natural first choice. won by opening gambits alone, and, in science
chess games are not
also, one good strategy deserves another. Even where the atomistic approach has led to quick results, its very success has posed new problems. The intellectual strength of Newton's key idea of "central forces" acting
between
his unit-particles, like that of Dalton's valency bonds between the chemical atoms, faced scientists with another more fundamental problem. Yet this new problem could not be dealt with on the original level. Newton
explained cohesion, surface tension, electric and magnetic attraction by
assuming central forces; Dalton explained the laws of chemical combinaby assuming valency bonds; and so on. To account for those explanatory factors in their turn, it was necessary to go beyond the original level of analysis. And one legitimate move has been to ask: "Can we not simply repeat the original, atomistic move, but on a finer scale?" If the behavior of man-size objects is explained by the interactions of component tion
particles one-millionth of their size, or less,
may
not the laws governing
those interactions themselves be explained in terms of subparticles onemillionth as small again?
Newton^ hinted at the need for such a second-stage atomism, in attempting to explain the mechanism of gravitational attraction in terms of imagined "aether-corpuscles," lighter and finer than the smallest maparticles. In fact, the problem of gravitation has not hitherto responded too well to this approach, but elsewhere the move has paid off handsomely. Indeed, the most spectacular aspect of 20th-century quantum theory has been the way it has made coherent sense of things that 19th-century physics and chemistry took for granted without explanation. "What forces hold atoms together in a crystal lattice?," "How can the molecules of a gas bounce oflF one another in a perfectly elastic way?," "Why do atoms of different chemical elements combine in the proportions they do?": a hundred such questions— unanswerable at the classical, 19th-century level— have found elegant explanations at the "finer grained" level of quantum theory and "subatomic" particles. Not that the physics of subatomic particles takes us back from the compromises of Newton and Dalton to the original atomism of Democritus terial
8
GBWW,
Vol. 7, especially pp.
9 Principles, Bk.
Ill,
465d^66a.
Gen. Schol.;
GBWW,
Vol. 34, p. 372a.
170
Stephen Toulmin
away from whereas 19th-century physicists and chemists had to make dozens of independent assumptions about the properties and interactions of every variety of unit "atoms" and "molecules," all these assumptions are now intelligible in terms of a single system of laws and principles operating at the finer, subatomic and Epicurus: on the contrary,
it
represents a step farther
the pure atomism of the Greek philosophers.
Still,
level.
We
can measure the difference of level between the 19th-century and the 20th-century ("quantum") subdivision in either of two ways. On the one hand, it is a matter of scale and dimensions: the simpler molecules are commonly around onemillionth of a centimeter across, while the nuclei of atoms are around one ("molecular") subdivision of matter
million-millionth of a centimeter across. But, for
many
purposes, the
each level are more significant. By physical standards, the gravitational interaction of the sun and the planets is— despite its enormous range of action— an extremely weak one; the cohesion and chemical combination by which the atoms of solid bodies hold together act at an intermediate range and have an
relative strengths of the interactions operating at
intermediate strength; but, to explain
how
the protons and neutrons
The Physical Sciences making up difiFerent atomic nuclei hold together, we must invoke a special kind of short-range "strong interactions" acting only between the most massive of the fundamental particles— the so-called baryons. In describing the properties of matter on the molecular and subatomic levels, concen-
on the strengths of the relevant interactions keeps us nearer to our actual experimental evidence. For, although 20th-century physics
trating
built around a theoretical picture of matter with a "grain" size of around one million-millionth of a centimeter, the actual experiments of which this picture is an interpretation involve bombarding material targets with progressively more penetrating beams, and so interfering is
with progressively stronger bonds.
Our
about the actual sizes and shapes of subatomic particles one degree more indirect and inferential than our beliefs about the binding energies and interactions acting on the subatomic scale. Up to now, the construction of ever more powerful accelerators has led to the discovery both of ever stronger interactions and of ever more minute particles. But it might well happen that a further increase in accelerator power will lead directly only to a better understanding of subnuclear fields and interactions, without revealing any new beliefs
and systems
are, accordingly,
—and
yet more minute— building-blocks of the universe. Already, indeed, some people suspect that the more transitory and uncommon of the 200odd known fundamental particles may represent artificial by-products of our bombardment of matter. This point is more than a metaphysical one. From the beginnings of atomism (we saw) there were grounds for hesitation. And throughout the history of science there has existed a parallel tradition of ideas whose supporters were unconvinced of the reality of the material unit-atoms— unconvinced, at any rate, that we could properly regard the ultimate constituents of material things as (in Newton's words) "solid, massy,
by God in the beginning he pleased, and enduring without
hard, impenetrable, moveable particles" created in
such
sizes,
shapes,
alteration at his
and numbers
as
will.^'^
This objection was voiced in antiquity by the Stoics, but it did not end with them. Just as Newton had to improve and correct the classical Greek system, by introducing "central forces" between his particles, so Newton's
own
successors and followers were not
all
of
them equally happy about
model. For instance, Ruggiero Boscovich (an 18thcentury Croatian Jesuit from Dubrovnik) put forward a "field" theory capable of explaining everything covered by Newton's "particle" theory. his "billiard ball"
The
efiFects of "impenetrability," he argued, can be attributed equally an extremely strong repulsive force acting at the so-called impenetrable surface of a body; so Newton's "hard, massy particles" could be re-
to
10 Optics, Bk.
Ill;
GBWW,
Vol. 34, p. 541b.
172
Stephen Toulmin interpreted
as
geometrical points,
surrounded by strong, but highly
was taken up by Joseph Priestley and Michael Faraday, and it survived through the 19th century alongside the "billiard ball" atomism of more orthodox Newtonians such as Dalton.^^ Even James Clerk Maxwell— though his own personal attitude toward "molecules" was literal-minded— conceded this much to Faraday: that one could consistently account for collisions between solid molecules as eflPects of local repulsions around point centers of force, acting according to an inverse fifth-power law. The intellectual difficulties afflicting literal-minded atomism were so endemic that an intelligent minority of 19th-century scientists remained even more skeptical than Faraday: the French chemist J. B. A. Dumas toward the middle of the century, and the German Nobel Prize winner, Wilhelm Ostwald, in the years around 1900, were only two in this distinguished minority. And their skepticism had some real justificalocalized, repulsive forces. This idea
The
tion.
idea of
static, solid, self-sufficient unit-bricks
could never
tell
the whole story about physics and chemistry, nor even a rich enough part-story to provide genuine intellectual satisfaction. all
along the
line,
a great
many phenomena
On
the contrary,
called for explanation in very
different terms: for instance, in terms of "patterns," "structures," "equi-
librium states," and the
like.
So when,
in
the years following 1925,
quantum mechanics and wave mechanics gave a new and striking coherence to our physical understanding, it was significant that those theories had as much in common with the original ideas of the Stoics as they did with those of the Epicureans. The essential thing about an atom, on the new theory, was its characteristic "eigen states" or "patterns of stability"; and these stable states determined the activities of the atom quite as much as its structure. Within quantum mechanics, a unit-particle was defined in terms of its actions and interactions, rather than in terms of
its
spatial location
and boundaries; so giving a new application to is where it acts" it
Alfred North Whitehead's claim that, since "a thing
now
follows that "everything
is
everywhere."
The atomistic tradition— from Democritus and Epicurus, through Newton and Dalton, to Heisenberg and Schrodinger— accordingly has two distinct aspects. At each step in this sequence, men have considered matter as subdivided with a still finer "grain"; yet, at each stage, more has been involved than the mere replacement of larger "units" by
smaller ones. For, considered as natural philosophies, each successive
form of atomism has represented a major step away from
immediate major conwhile 20th-century quan-
predecessor. Newton's theory of "central forces" was a cession to the anti-atomistic ideas of the Stoics;
11 For Faraday, see Experimental Researches in Electricity;
850b-855c.
173
its
first
GBWW,
Vol. 45, pp.
The Physical Sciences turn mechanics
is
an almost complete fusion of Stoic and Epicurean ideas. in quantum mechanics a way is
Or rather, to put the point more exactly: shown of exploiting, at one and the same of the Stoic
and Epicurean
At a methodological
level,
strategies,
time, the intellectual advantages
which began
indeed, this
is
as outright rivals.
the deeper significance of the
notorious "wave-particle" duality, which gave rise to so
much
perplexity in
we
consider the electrons, protons, and other entities of contemporary physics as unit-particles, they represent the present-day the 1920's. If
heirs
of
Dalton's chemical
atoms, the
the atoms of Democritus; but,
we
if
17th-century "corpuscles" and
only considered them under this
aspect, such entities could never account for all that our theories in fact use
them
to explain. If
we
consider them alternatively under their
other aspect— as "wave phenomena," with characteristic "eigen states" or "harmonics"— they have a very diflFerent ancestry: one which leads back through the force-fields of Faraday and Boscovich, by way of Newton's "central forces," to the "tensions" and "harmonies" of Stoic matter-theory. Put into this historical perspective, the wave-particle duality surely loses some of its mystery. Neither a pure atomistic theory nor a pure Stoic theory has the explanatory power we demand from a 20th-century account of the ultimate constitution of matter. One way or another, the strong points of the rival traditional strategies
had eventu-
be combined, and— from a methodological point of view— the most notable feature of quantum mechanics is the success with which it has brought off this integration. ally to
THE 1880'S AND THE 1960'S:
A
A
COMPARISON
historical perspective will also help us to diagnose
"intellectual crisis" of
which
more
exactly the
physicists are currently aware.
half-a-dozen diflFerent signs suggest that
we may
For
escape our present
if we are prepared to accept a further "change of level" —as profound and far-reaching in its own way as the change from the classical physics of Newton, Dalton, and Maxwell to the 20th-century physics of Einstein, Bohr, and Heisenberg. To appreciate this comparison, we need to go back eighty years and compare the situation in physical science in the years following 1886 with that which faces us today.
quandaries, only
The year 1886
is
a useful index in several ways.
the year in which the
German chemist Winkler
To begin
with, that
was
discovered germanium,
and demonstrated that it was the "missing element" (of atomic weight 72) for which a space had been left in Mendeleev's Periodic Table of the chemical elements. ^^ This discovery confirmed Mendeleev's funda-
mental 12 For
classification
as
strikingly
as
the identification of the
Mendeleev's reflections on his discovery,
174
see
GGB,
Vol.
8,
pp.
"omega 440
ff.
Stephen Toulmin
minus" (fl— ) particle
at
Brookhaven National Laboratory
in
1964 con-
firmed Gell-Mann's classification of the diflFerent "fundamental particles."
For the analogies underlying Mendeleev's table led to a whole series of predictions about the missing element: as well as an atomic weight of 72, it should have a specific gravity of 5.5, it should react ^^^th oxygen to form a dioxide of specific gravity 4.7, combine with chlorine and fluorine to form a tetrachloride and a tetrafluoride respectively, and combine with carbon and hydrogen to form a tetraethyl with a boiling point of 160°C. and a specific gravity of 0.96. All these predictions, and others, corresponded with the observed properties of the newly prepared germanium as exactly as anyone could reasonably demand. (Incidentally, thin, semiconducting slices of crystalline germanium form the crucial parts of the transistors around which so much contemporary electronic technology has been developed.) It was by precisely similar arguments that the existence and properties of the "omega minus" particle were predicted. The mathematical patterns relating the properties of the diflFerent "fundamental particles" included one "tenfold representation": an equilateral triangle, whose apex should correspond to a type of particle never hitherto observed. (See Bernstein, The Great Ideas Today 1965.) The particles in question should have a mass of about 1,680 mev., a negative electric charge, and a determinate set of "quantum numbers"; and they should decay after a very short lifetime, into one of three highly specific pairs of other particles. Once again, the Brookhaven investigation turned out precisely as theory had foretold, so lending tremendous weight to the Gell-Mann scheme of "imitary symmetries," which some physicists had been inclined to regard as a mere mathematical fancy. Still, the discovery of the "omega minus" particle represents as much a challenge as a success. Between 1880 and 1900 the loose ends and paradoxes of physics simply accumulated, and none of them was satisfactorily resolved until the whole structure of the science had been rebuilt on the finer, quantum or subatomic level. Mendeleev's recognition that the multiplicity and variety of seemingly diflFerent chemical elements conceals deeper mathematical patterns was a great achievement; yet no physical basis could be plausibly suggested for those patterns until after the turn of the century. For all that 19th-century scientists could tell, each of the ninety-odd elements had been created by God independently, and their resemblances had no e.xplanation other than his will. (That was in fact Maxwell's view.) Only a very few scientists still had any respect for William Front's guess— back in 1815— that the diflFerent chemical atoms were all ultimately built up from hydrogen, so few people in the 1880's seriously looked forward to a time when Mendeleev's periodicities might be explained by the "subatomic" structure of the atoms. For the time being, the characteristic properties of the diflFerent elements 175
The Physical Sciences were accepted
and independent: the periodicities were highly remained purely empirical. there was trouble about radiation, as well as in the
as arbitrary
interesting so far as they went, but they
By
the late 1880's
theory of matter. This arose, notably, over the theory of perfectly radiating ("black") bodies. Classical 19th-century principles led to no single, for determining what fraction of the energy rabody would have any particular wavelength or frequency: the standard calculations all ended in a formula which diverged to infinity at one end of the scale or the other. And even when Max Planck introduced his initial "quantum hypothesis" of 1900— according to which radiant energy was always emitted by a hot body in "packets" of a size proportional to the frequency— this was offered in the first place only as
consistent formula
diated by such a
an arbitrary mathematical adjustment to Maxwell's almost as a "fudge."
physical significance
Its full
theory:
classical
was not apparent
Einstein's demonstration in 1905 that electromagnetic energy
until
in fact
is
transmitted and propagated in the form of electromagnetic corpuscles, or "photons."
In matter-theory and radiation-theory alike, our current situation closely resembles that in the 1880's. The two hundred-odd "fundamental par-
and "resonances" listed by Professor Wilkinson display both a and a periodicity like that of the 19th-century chemical elements. The parallel between the discovery of germanium and the discovery of the omega minus particle is not trivial: as Professor Wilkinson emphasizes, the omega minus particle no more explains the symmetries of Gell-Mann's classification than germanium explained Mendeleev's periodicities. Furthermore, the very properties covered by ticles"
multiplicity
Gell-Mann's symmetries are themselves
what mass the omega minus
still
We
arbitrary.
particle should have,
can infer
by analogy with the
masses of other particles in the same tenfold representation. But, once again, such analogies hold only within a given representation: why any of the particles have the masses
On
yet say.
the contrary,
if
and other properties they
unitary symmetries in a mathematically perfect way, all
do,
we
cannot
the particles involved conformed to the
we might
expect
those particles in a given representation to have exactly the same
masses, instead of differing slightly
among themselves— to
this extent, the
actual patterns of properties observed differ marginally from those
which
our limited theoretical understanding would suggest.
Meanwhile, the current
Feynman
difficulties in
the years before Planck and Einstein.
dynamics seeks electrons) afflicted
electrodynamics that preoccupy
parallel those in the theory of electromagnetic radiation in
to explain
The quantum theory
how movements
give rise to electric forces
by equations whose
and
of electro-
of charged particles fields;
but
it
is
at
(e.g.,
present
solutions threaten to diverge to infinity as
obstinately as the equations of "black-body" radiation did in the 1880's
176
Stephen Toulmin
Wheeler of Princeton Tomonaga, has developed mathematical techniques which achieve some kind of a match between theory and observation in quantum electrodynamics; but the devices employed —e.g., the so-called technique of mass renormalization— are for the time being as much of a mathematical dodge as Planck's original quantum and
1890's.
Feynman, together with
his teacher
University and the Japanese physicist
(By this technique, the calculated values of certain key parameters in the theoretical equations are replaced by measured values, at a point in the calculations where, otherwise, the mathematical solutions hypothesis.
of those equations
would diverge uncontrollably.) For the time being, is not to be scorned, any more
the success of renormalization techniques
than Planck's interim "quantized emission" theory of 1899; but when Feynman describes the techniques as "sweeping the real difficulties under the rug," this is not just modesty. For, once again, physicists can hardly rest content with the present state of
quantum electrodynamics:
must hope that future discoveries
rather, they
will reveal the underlying physical
significance of "renormalization" in the
way
that Einstein's discovery of the
photon did for Planck's "quantization." What, then, could physicists hope for from a fresh change of level? The development of quantum physics between 1900 and 1926 resolved all the fundamental difficulties of late- 19th-century physical science —Mendeleev's periodicities, the actual values of the "atomic weights," and the divergent equations in radiation theory— within a single system. Rutherford and Bohr's simple picture of atomic structure, mathematically reinterpreted by Schrodinger and Heisenberg, demonstrated just what combinations of protons, neutrons, and electrons could be expected to form stable chemical atoms; and the same framework of theory demonstrated also the underlying significance of Planck's radiation. True, there
Despite the best
way
were arbitrary elements
eflForts
quantum theory
in the
new
of the late Sir Arthur Eddington,
has yet been found of showing
why
of
theory also.
no convincing
protons (the commonest and
most stable positively charged particles in our region of the universe) should have a mass 1,840 times as great as electrons (the commonest and most stable negatively charged particles). Yet, so long as the total list of fundamental particles was only half-a-dozen long, this lesser arbitrariness was a vast improvement on the late- 19th-century situation. This immense increase in coherence and reduction in arbitrariness was the most refreshing thing about the physics of the 1920's and 1930's, but those very merits have once again been lost in the 1950's and 1960's. The complexity and arbitrariness facing us at the quantum, or subatomic, level are as irreducible as those which scientists had to deal with at the molecular level in the 1880's and 1890's. So the question arises: Will the next step onward from the two hundred-odd particles of contemporary physics— all of them fundamental, but some more fundamental than 177
The Physical Sciences others— be as drastic as those taken between 1900 and 1930, in order to get behind the ninety-odd different chemical elements of 19th-century science? This general, and basic, question has a number of more specific corollaries. For instance, where physicists after 1900 explained the properties of their former "atomic" units (each of them around one-millionth centimeter in size) in terms of new, "subatomic" particles with dimensions of
around one million-millionth centimeters, must we now expect to find a "sub-quantum" unit or units with characteristic dimensions and forces of interaction as different again from these? Must the "grain," or discrimination, of our fundamental physical picture soon be increased— say— a further one million times? If this is so, nobody can yet see how it is going to be done. At this time, the only serious theory about possible subconstituents of the subatomic particles (the theory of "quarks") lacks any observational basis. For the moment, our sense of the intellectual needs of theoretical physics is equaled only by our sense of its difficulties; and one would give a good deal to read now the survey of current physics in The Great Ideas Today for 1987.
DO WE NEED A
Given
NEW SUB-QUANTUM MECHANICS?
a fresh "change of level" in our fundamental picture of Nature,
what other changes must we expect? Will there be other consequential amendments to our ideas about space, time, matter, and the rest? Once again, there are reasons for thinking that the changes in store for us may be quite drastic; and the year 1966 saw a revival of speculation about the form which these changes may take. At the center of this debate lies an issue which has been argued with vigor and feeling for some forty years. Ever since Heisenberg introduced his new quantum mechanics, the question has been discussed: "Can quantum mechanics be accepted as giving a final description of Nature?"
new system dismissed the remaining men whose minds had been formed too long, and whose capacity to come to terms with new ideas was restricted by middle-aged "hardening of the categories." Despite his own contribuIn the 1930's, supporters of the skeptics as old fogies— as
tions
to
20th-century physics, for instance, Einstein was never fully
reconciled to Heisenberg's theory: his objections were concerned with
To we renounced in principle the possibility moment at which a particular radioactive
the standard interpretations of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.
accept as
final
a theory in which
of predicting (e.g.) the exact nucleus would disintegrate— Einstein argued— meant introducing an un-
acceptable element of chance into the very foundations of physics. "The
Good Lord may be
subtle,
but he
is
not malicious," he commented:
"He
does not play with dice."
The young Turks condemned
this attitude to
178
quantum mechanics
as
Stephen Toulmin
mere conservatism, motivated by nothing better than a "nostalgia for classical causality." And the matter seemed to them satisfactorily tied up by John von Neumann— the brilliant and versatile mathematician and formerly associated with the positivistic philosophers of the
scientist,
Vienna Circle. Von Neumann produced a mathematical proof, according to which the uncertainty principle could not be circumvented by introducing additional "hidden variables" into the quantum-mechanical description of nature: any assumption that those phenomena whose prediction the uncertainty principle ruled out might nevertheless be the determinate effects of unobservable, "hidden" causes thus appeared to contradict the rest of quantum mechanics. And the idea of throwing quantum mechanics overboard as a whole, just when it was demonstrating its vast intellectual power, seemed at the time inconceivable. Even ten years ago, orthodox supporters of quantum mechanics were still adopting the same confident attitude toward the skeptics. The proliferation of "fundamental particles" had scarcely got under way; the von Neumann proof was still in the front of people's minds; and there were not yet any very solid reasons for questioning whether Heisenberg and Bohr had, after all, provided the ultimate principles for any meaningful physics— since their principles apparently defined both the fundamental structure of nature and the final limits to our powers of observation and discrimination. (The direct influence on physics of Viennese positivism is evident in the argument that entities and processes below the level of obsertxibility must, in the nature of the case, be regarded as meaningless.)
To
this
very day, indeed, there
physicists
who
great to be imperiled
much more yet
afflict
And
is
a substantial
body
regard the intellectual gains of the
in the
way
of orthodox
quantum
last forty years as too
by premature skepticism, and who would tolerate of mathematical complexity and arbitrariness than
us before calling the basic principles of the theory in question.
certainly— one must allow— quantum mechanics will retain an en-
during place in physics for
"sub-quantum"
level, just as
theoretical physics
many
whatever happens
purposes,
Newtonian theory
still
at
a
does in large areas of
and astronomy.
Current embarrassments in theoretical physics
are, however, encouragbe more tolerant of heterodoxy. By now, questions about the ultimate adequacy of quantum mechanics are no longer universally unacceptable, and the debate is taking a new and more constructive turn. At the center of the revived discussion lies the ambition not so much to reject quantum mechanics as to work through it, beyond it, and out the other side. Perhaps the limitations which the uncertainty principle places on the simultaneous measurement of different variables may indeed be quite genuine at the quantum level: but perhaps, at a deeper level, relations— and even mechanisms— may yet be discovered which will
ing
many
explain,
physicists to
among
other things, the scope of the uncertainty principle
179
itself.
The Physical Sciences True,
it is
still
quite unclear
what form such a deeper system
of ex-
planation might take. Various possibilities are being explored. For in-
David Bohm
London
University still suspects that the von and that the idea of "hidden variables" can be reinstated without abandoning the general framework of quantum mechanics; or alternatively, he argues, the step to a sub-quantum level may perhaps involve going behind Heisenberg's whole system— by developing a brand-new mathematical system, to which current quantum mechanics is only an approximation. (This is what happened to Newtonian mechanics in the step from the classical to the quantum level.) Perhaps the different varieties of "fundamental particles" represent— so to say— stance,
Neumann
proof
is
of
fallacious,
the possible stable forms of vortex or tidal
charge or energy:
and
this idea
his associates in Paris.
wave
in a universal "sea" of
has already been developed by
Perhaps
we need
J.
P. Vigier
a theory of spatial relations
based not on numerical or "metrical" relations but on "topological" ones. Perhaps .
.
.
What will come of all these inquiries is still an entirely open question. And what attitude we adopt to them will depend on our point of view. From the tactical, practitioners' standpoint, it may still appear quite premature to pursue such questions in any but the most speculative and light-hearted spirit: only from the historian's or philosopher's viewpoint need such questions of longer-term strategy have any appearance of urgency or immediate relevance. The one new factor in the late 1960's is this: Doubts about the finality of quantum mechanics, dismissed in the 1930's as reactionary obstructionism, are now beginning to be somewhat
more
respectable.
180
Stephen Toulmin
NEUTRINOS AND ASTRONOMY general terms, the current problems about "fundamental particles"
Inmay
be the 20th-century version of a recurrent quandary; but,
a specific level, there
is still
room
for plenty of incidental surprises.
at
And
one quite unforeseen development in the physics of the 1960's has been the elevation— one might even say the apotheosis— of the most humble and insignificant of all the fundamental particles: the so-called neutrino.
"The
last shall
be
first."
Until about five years ago, the neutrino was
the Cinderella of particle physics.
existence
Its
was suspected
as early
1930-31 by the Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli, but until the late 1950's this suspicion was based entirely on negative evidence. Devoid of all rest-mass, carrying neither an electric charge nor magnetic poles, the neutrino seemed to many physicists to be little better than a dodge as
for cooking the theoretical account. When a neutron within an atomic nucleus turns into a proton— or vice versa— the difference in electric charge is carried away by a positive or negative electron: but the total energy
and "spin" involved in the process could be conserved (it was found) only if some other, uncharged, and seemingly unobservable particle were emitted from the nucleus along with the electron. For a generation, nobody paid much attention to this "invisible man": the neutrino or "neutral little one," as Enrico Fermi christened it, lay low and said nothing. Indeed, for positivistic thinkers,
who regarded
the "unobservable" as next thing to
the "meaningless," the need to accept the hypothesis of neutrinos— simply to act as undetectable "energy-thieves"— was only doubtfully preferable to
abandoning the conservation of energy
in the case of the nuclear trans-
formations concerned.
new developments reawakened interest in the was realized that the neutron/ proton reactions by which neutrinos were supposedly created might, under certain circumSome
ten years ago, two
neutrino.
First,
it
be quite frequent events: indeed, they might provide the dominant source of energy from high-temperature stars and galaxies. (Of this we shall say more shortly.) Then, in 1956, C. L. Cowan and Frederick Reines of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory actually succeeded in "detecting the undetectable." They did not, of course, actually record the path followed by a neutrino in its passage through their equipment, as one can do with many types of particles there is no way in which a neutrino can leave such a continuous trace, since it lacks both mass and electric charge. But (they argued) if neutrinos were brought into existence in certain familiar nuclear reactions, then— once in a while— the reverse processes should take place, with incoming neutrinos initiating the transformation of nuclear particles in their turn. The task was therefore to stances,
:
detect these reverse changes.
181
The Physical Sciences At any earlier time, the search for these very occasional events would have been hopeless. But the sheer volume of particles produced by present-day particle-accelerators, and the sheer bulk of the detection apparatus now available, have at last made it possible to weave a net in which occasional neutrinos can be "caught." The word "occasional" is the operative one: of all the neutrinos reaching the earth from the sun and stars, we can expect only one in ten billion to be "captured" during its passage through the earth— all the rest will stream through it and out the other side as though it were "transparent" to them. Yet, given even this seemingly infinitesimal probability of reaction, the task of observing a neutrino-initiated reaction required only determination and suitable equipment. Using a mammoth liquid detector, and the flood of particles coming from the extremely powerful nuclear reactor at Savannah River, Georgia, the Los Alamos team observed nuclear reactions of just the kinds to be expected occurring at the rate of one or two an hour. And whenever this happened, surplus energy and spin appeared, which could be accounted for only as the contribution of an incoming neutrino. If neutrinos had originally been capable of stealing energy, at any rate they were also capable of paying it back. For the most part, then, physicists now believe, neutrinos stream around the universe, passing through solid material objects without let or hindrance: but, if we have patience, ingenuity, and large-scale apparatus, they can be detected. Taken together, these two complementary insights explain why the new subject of "neutrino astronomy" has suddenly become so intriguing and promising— yet so tantalizing. What could we hope to find out from it? And what prospect do we in fact have of detecting and identifying neutrinos originating from other heavenly bodies? Astronomers have two main hopes. These concern (1) the direct evidence neutrinos might provide about the interior conditions within stars, and (2) their use as a source of evidence about the more general properties of galaxies and the historical development of the cosmos. The late Sir Arthur Eddington, whose popular science books were such a distinguished feature of the period between the World Wars, was greatly puzzled about the problem of discovering what goes on in the interior of the sun and stars. Evidently, he argued, we could never hope
was to devise which might serve as an "analytical boring machine." For we could have no evidence about the stars (it seemed) except the light which comes to us from them, and that light comes to us directly only from their outer layers. If scrutinized and interpreted with sufficient care, even that light alone could provide answers to many of to observe these processes directly: our only hope, therefore,
some
theoretical arguments
our questions— since every detail in spectrum of a plied messages about those outer layers. But
below those
star's light carries
im-
what goes on behind and
layers? Until just recently, Eddington's conclusion appeared
182
Stephen Toulmin inescapable: for lack of any direct evidence,
mere inference. There was only one
we were
driven back onto
The light which reaches us from the commonly originated deep within its interior.
qualification.
outer layers of a star has
But, in working its way outward from the central furnace, it has lost all marks of its origin. The light-energy originating in the sun's core, for instance, initially takes the form of high-energy X-ray photons; as they jostle their way through the surrounding matter, these original photons are broken up into some two thousand "daughter" photons apiece; by the time they escape into the surrounding space, they will be changed beyond recognition— and, on an average, a million years will have gone by. So what finally reaches our telescopes from the sun's core will be, at best, a minute chip off the initial X-ray photon, and it will be a million years
out-of-date at that.
where the idea of a neutrino-detector comes in. For, on present some 7 percent of the sun's total radiant energy consists not of light (photons) but of neutrinos; and these neutrinos, created within the depths of the sun's core, immediately escape outward at the speed of light, unhindered by the matter in the sun's outer layers. So, instead of Eddington's imagined analytical boring engine, we might— in principle— use neutrinos as an observational boring engine. And, if the neutrinos from the sun could be detected and studied as effectively as the sun's light is (using telescopes and spectroscopes), we might then hope to monitor directly the processes within the sun's interior that Eddington despaired This
is
calculations,
of observing.
While our proximity to the sun makes it overwhelmingly likely that be the first to be detected, neutrino astronomy could
solar neutrinos will
also tell us
much
more.
We
could hope, for instance, to learn a great deal
from studying the general cosmic flux of neutrinos crisscrossing the interstellar space, or from detecting the streams of neutrinos emitted by individual heavenly bodies— notably, the collapsing stars known as supernovae, such as those observed by Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. For neutrinos probably play a critical part in the processes by which chemical elements are built up, and energy evolved, within the interior of the stars; and they seem to have a role of peculiar importance during the plunge into final flare-up by which a very hot star becomes a supernova. And since, in their turn, the processes of chemical evolution and stellar collapse are crucial to understanding how galaxies develop more generally, any prospect, however slight, of detecting neutrinos from remote stars, or from the interstellar regions, whets astronomers' appetites. For some time yet, however, this prospect is likely to remain merely tantalizing. The task of detecting neutrinos from the sun, though taxing, no longer seems insuperable; but, to intercept the general background of interstellar neutrinos, our observations must probably be one hundred 183
Stephen Toulmin times more sensitive again. As for supernovae, a single collapsing star
would produce a stream of neutrinos detectable, using present techniques, only if it were within a distance of some ten thousand light-years: i.e., within our own galaxy. And since such a flare-up can be expected to occur in
any particular galaxy only about once a century, the prospect of studyis (to say the least) not a very immediate
ing neutrinos from a supernova
On top of these difficulties, there is another one: neutrinos of astronomical origin will not be easy to distinguish from the general
one!
background of neutrinos created in the earth's own atmosphere and surface layers. So when Russian physicists argue that the best place to build a "neutrino telescope" would be on the surface of the moonwhere atmospheric background radiation would be no trouble— that suggestion need no longer strike us as a mere Jules Verne fantasy. is
For the moment, the neutrino astronomer's only serious object of study the sun. Even here, the practical problems are formidable enough.
On
theoretical
grounds, astrophysicists believe that the sun's central
which most of the neutrinos are created, occupies only onehundredth of the diameter of the sun's 1/2° visible disc. If we are to confirm this expectation by observation, we must measure the direction from which solar neutrinos are coming to an accuracy of one-hundredth core, in
of 1/2°:
i.e.,
1/200°.
much
To
those familiar with optical telescopes, this does
have an angular hundred times as great— the two-hundred-inch telescope on Mount Palomar has actually achieved a resolving power of less than one-tenth of a second of arc: i.e., of 1/10 X 1/60 X 1/60, or 1/36,000°. With neutrinos, however, it is another matter: even to manage an angular accuracy of better than 1° we must
not sound
of a
demand: the best
optical telescopes
discrimination, or "resolving power," at least one
construct a vast and complex detection-apparatus— such
as
the
two-
thousand-ton mass of concrete, containing a carefully devised array of
which Professor Jack Keuffel of the University of bury half-a-mile below the earth. And, up to now, every single proposal for detecting solar neutrinos has rapidly become a major
detectors and counters,
Utah plans
to
engineering project. to date, are those devised by R. Davis Brookhaven National Laboratory, and by Frederick Reines of the original Los Alamos team which detected neutrinos at Savannah River. Both their experiments rely on the same general principle: namely, that of constructing the largest practicable detector so far underground that side effects from atmospheric neutrinos can be effectively discounted.
The most promising experiments,
of
Davis proposes to fluid
install a
(perchlorethylene,
or
tank containing 100,000 C2CI4)
in
a tunnel
gal. of
dry-cleaning
some 5,000
ft.
below
ground: he calculates that incoming solar neutrinos will collide with chlorine nuclei in the perchlorethylene often enough to convert a detectable proportion of them into a radioactive form of the gas argon
185
The Physical Sciences (A^"^).
This gaseous argon will be collected from above the fluid and
pumped
into a counter: there— if the solar neutrinos
intensity— its radioactive decay should give rise to
each day. The Reines experiment it
will
employ
have their expected some five "counts"
a rather different technique:
will use scintillation-counters to detect electrons or
when incoming
mesons produced
solar neutrinos collide either with lithium target-slabs,
or with the surrounding rocks of the earth's crust. of scintillation-tanks
measure— at any
By using
a large array
and photomultiplier tubes, it should be possible to roughly— the directions from which the particles
rate
are entering the detection apparatus.
Even
in this simple situation, the task of
measuring the rough direction
immense complications. The Reines apparatus is now being constructed jointly by scientists from the University of Witwatersrand and from the Case Institute at Cleveland, Ohio, and will be located 10,000 ft. below ground in a gold mine near Johannesburg. It will present an area of some 1,500 sq. ft. to the incoming particles: all of this area comprising sophisticated and experimental detection-equipment. of a neutrino source involves
its designer refers to this as being merely "a small pilot model" intended to establish the principle of the experiment. Before he can hope to measure the directions of incoming particles with an accuracy of 1°, a larger array of detectors will have to be constructed, three times as sensitive as the pilot model. Even then, the prospects of detecting neutrinos from more distant bodies than the sun will remain extremely slight. If only— astronomers dream— we could study neutrinos coming to us from supernovae in galaxies other than our own! Then we might begin to learn something. Yet, under the most favorable circumstances, to "catch" the neutrinos from one such supernova per year, from the very nearest of other galaxies, we should need (Reines estimates) a detector with a volume of ten billion metric tons. The fact that anyone should have taken the trouble to make this particular calculation at all is a measure at once of the theoretical promise— and of the practical frustra-
Yet
tions—involved in the budding science of neutrino astronomy.
COSMOLOGY Neutrinos
AS AN
ALL-EMBRACING SCIENCE
are tantalizingly hard to study, yet astronomers have one
further reason for being curious about them. This arises out of the special problems of physical cosmology, about
The Great Ideas Today
which Bondi wrote
in
1966. For, once created, neutrinos have so minute
a chance of being "captured" that they seem to offer us a particularly good
index of "cosmic history"; some astronomers even look to the general flux of neutrinos between the stars as a possible basis for estimating the overall "age" of the universe.
And
certainly,
if
we
could interpret the
neutrino flux in these terms, that would be an important contribution to
186
Stephen Toulmin physics. For, hitherto,
most speculation
in physical
cosmology has
re-
volved around one single line of evidence— namely, that derived from the study of the "red shifts" in the light spectra from distant galaxies—
and everything has depended on the proper interpretation of that slender evidence.
Many 1920's:
made by Hubble back in the coming from the fainter and presumably more has its whole pattern of spectrum lines shifted toward
readers will recall the discovery that the light
distant galaxies
the red end of the spectrum, with the result that
all
the lines reappear in
normal sequence, but with measurably longer wavelengths. This observation has generally been interpreted as evidence that the galaxies in question are receding from ours at exceedingly high speeds, though other interpretations are possible. For quite a number of years, therefore, it seemed that the galaxies were receding at velocities directly proportional to their distances; and the extent to which the spectrum hnes were shifted was, by and large, in direct proportion to the diflFerences in the apparent their
magnitude
of the galaxies— the fainter the image, the greater the extent
Now, however, the analysis of the "red shifts" is running up difficulties. Even apart from the shortage of real evidence, physical cosmology is a science with some very special intellectual problems: if there is any task more difficult than that of collecting of the shift.
against
new
evidence about the state of the universe ten billion years ago, it is the task of interpreting that evidence. For our purposes here, it will be worth considering the current problems of cosmology against a wider historical
background, since even during the last year new evidence about the "quasars," and fresh doubts about their "red shifts," have akeady carried the debate beyond the point where Bondi left it in his survey a year ago. The special intellectual problems facing cosmology, as contrasted with most of the physical sciences, arise from two facts: (1) that it is an all-
embracing science, and
(2)
that
create problems of interpretation
it
is
a historical science.
which do not
arise in
These
more
facts
straight-
forward physical sciences.
The all-embracing ambitions
of cosmology
those of astrophysics, with which
Astrophysics
is
it
is
mark its questions oflF from ways closely associated.
in other
concerned with the properties and behavior of certain
families of astronomical objects— stars, star clusters, nebulae, clouds of
gas and so on— each one of which can be considered for purposes in isolation. By piecing together his observations about different individuals, the astrophysicist builds up some more general conceptions of the various special types of celestial objects— "red giants,"
interstellar scientific
"white dwarfs," and the
rest;
and then goes on
to consider
what
his
evidence implies about each of them in terms of the general physical principles of, say, gravitation, electricity, and magnetism. (During the last fifteen or twenty years, Fred Hoyle and his colleagues have used just
187
The such arguments to explain
Phijsical Sciences
how
the heavier chemical elements
may be
progressively formed out of primordial hydrogen within the interiors of the stars.) Cosmology, however, is preoccupied with a very diflFerent class of questions. Its central aim is not to generalize about individual types of celestial objects but to theorize about the entire universe— considered as a single, all-embracing entity. If
cosmology searches
ing "universally"
for universal truths, these are not truths apply-
to all relevant instances),
but rather truths about "the universe." Yet the history of physics demonstrates that the "totality of the universe" is not a straightforward object of study, about which we (i.e.,
can hope to make simple factual discoveries; and the difficulties to which such comprehensive ambitions always expose us are worth investigating here. For although, ever since Thales, the desire to establish what hap-
pened
beginning" has been a recurrent motif of science, cosmologihave repeatedly encountered similar difficulties; and these diflSculties have arisen equally, whether we consider the "entire universe" as an object extended in space, or whether we ask questions about its entire duration in time. Either way, what at first appear to be straightforward questions of fact soon become inextricably entangled with theoretical and conceptual decisions of our own making. "in the
cal inquiries
The puzzles
that arise over the totality of space are traditionally sym-
bolized by the paradox of the arrow. Suppose
we imagine
the entire
spatial extent of the universe isolated for scientific scrutiny— on a par with
any other object of study— this
will involve, in effect, considering
it
as en-
closed in a boundary. Such a recipe for "isolation" causes no trouble
when we concern
ourselves with any sub-part of the cosmos:
we can
consider the solar system separately from the rest of the universe, the
moon separately from the we attempt to do the same for
earth and
rest of the solar system,
But
the entire universe, paradox results:
if
we can
on.
specify no procedure for marking off a "boundary" which will
"isolate" the
we draw
cosmos
as
an object of study.
On
will lie within the totality of space,
the contrary, any boundary
and the region which
outside such a boundary must belong to the cosmos as lying inside like to
and so
it.
What, then— the
traditional question
much
goes— would
encounter "the boundary of the universe"? Suppose
lies
as the region it
be
we came up
an arrow at it: would it bounce back, as hard and elastic wall? Would it simply disappear into nonentity without trace? Or what else could we possibly imagine happening? ^^ The paradox of the arrow may be criticized as a mere dialectical trick, but the problems to which it draws attention are genuine enough. The great German philosopher Immanuel Kant, for instance, began his
toward though
this it
boundary and had struck an
fired
infinitely
13 Lucretius' version of the paradox
is
in op.
188
cit.,
958-87; pp. 12d-1.3a.
Stephen Toulmin
academic career
than a metaphysician: he was writing as much about astronomy and dynamics as he was about necessity, reahty, or understanding in general. Indeed, the young Kant was the Fred Hoyle of his day: his Universal Natural History (1755) expounded an "evolutionary" system right
up
to the
as a physical cosmologist rather
age of
forty,
cosmology having extraordinary resemblances to the theories developed in more detail by later astronomers such as Herschel and of physical
Hoyle.
These cosmological arguments of Kant's were based on the fundamental and applied then— uncritically, as Kant himself later said— to support a sweeping and comprehensive history of the cosmos. Only after his reading of David Hume had precipitated the elaborate process of self-criticism that led to the Critiques did Kant come to realize quite how much those arguments had taken for granted. Earlier, he had speculated about the totality of the cosmos in a largely uninhibited manner, but now he was compelled to doubt whether questions about the totality of space or time could legitimately be raised within science at all. And, in a famous section of his Critique of Pure Reason that deals \\dth the so-called antinomies, Kant showed clearly how all attempts to handle scientifically such notions as "the boundary of space" or "the beginning of time" lead inescapably to paradox." Taken on their own level, Kant's critical arguments have never been countered. Indeed, perhaps they cannot be. Significantly, physical cosmology has revived during the 20th century, not in response to fresh observational evidence, but rather as a by-product of Einstein's work on relativity. For the theory of relativity escapes from the paradox of the arrow, by inviting us to construct a physical representation of the universe which has no boundary, yet which nevertheless has only a finite volume; and the fundamental choices within cosmology today are choices between rival relativistic "world-models." These relativistic "models" or "representations" may not be intuitive or easy to visualize. Still, the hope is that they can be given a coherent and consistent mathematical treatment, within which we can establish a satisfactory history of cosmic evolution. How does such a "world-model," or theoretical framework, tackle the problems of space and time? One of its functions is to provide us with fundamental definitions, or measures, of extension and duration. It does this, not by identifving landmarks or milestones in empirical or historical terms: rather, it does so by laying down a basic "grid" or "mesh" of spatial and temporal coordinates. In this respect, the alternative "worldmodels" of cosmology resemble alternative projections in cartography. No one of them is uniquely the truth, but some yield more lifelike doctrines of Newton's physics,
14
GBWW,
Vol. 42, pp. 135a-137c; 152a-d; 160b-163a.
189
The Physical Sciences pictures than others: the choice
the facts of observation but
own
those facts, and of our
between them
is
not imposed on us by
a decision to be taken in the light of intellectual purposes. In consequence, when is
statements about the total "size" or "age" of the cosmos are based on any one particular world-model, they have to be treated with extreme caution: features characteristic of that particular "model" or
"map"
of the
cosmos can too easily be mistaken for features of the astronomical world which that model is employed to represent.
The
mistake can be illustrated concisely in the case of mean by the phrase "the age of the will be recalled how the discovery of the "red shift" sup-
risks of this
What do
time.
universe"?
It
cosmologists today
ported a picture of the entire cosmos as expanding violently outward, with all the visible galaxies receding from one another like so many
fragments of a hand grenade. initial state of affairs
a
into
much
when
all
What
was then asked) had been the
(it
these galactic fragments were compressed
many
smaller overall volume? According to
physicists,
has to be imagined as one in which the entire cosmos formed a single nuclear "fireball," devoid of all specific form, and the this state of affairs
universe acquired initial
its
present structure and appearance only after an
cataclysmic phase of expansion.
The moment
at
which the
ex-
pansion of that primitive fireball began could also, it was concluded, be regarded as the beginning of time: the cosmic time-scale thus had a natural starting point, represented
by the
instant at
matter and radiation was compressed into the
all
which the
totality of
minimum volume
initial
of the fireball.
Yet
arguments leading back to that creative cataclysm involved a and extrapolation. For, suppose one regards the onset of the cosmic expansion as a genuine historical event, a paradox similar to the paradox of the arrow immediately arises: just as about any imagined boundary of the cosmos, we can ask, ". and what lies outside?"; so, about any supposed beginning of all things, we can ask, ". and what happened before?" Indeed, the argument by which the expansion of the universe is used to define an "absolute" scale of time significantly resembles the argument by which the properties of an "ideal gas" are used to define an "absolute" scale of temperature. Near the all
large element of abstraction
.
.
.
.
absolute zero of temperature, the grid-lines in our temperature-representation are spaced quite differently from the
way
they are in the realm
of everyday experience;
ature-scale
comes
to
and the seeming "barrier" by which our temperan end at 0° absolute is a fiction created by our own
theoretical procedures.
Suppose, then,
and imagine an pressed into a
we
project back the apparent recession of the nebulae
initial "singularity,"
minimum volume:
cedures will involve an element of
when
the whole universe
in this case, too, artifice, for
190
we
was com-
our theoretical proare not compelled to
Stephen Toulmin this extrapolation in any one, unambiguous way. In the case of the most distant galaxies yet observed— the "quasars"— for which the red shift may be equal to, or greater than, the initial wavelengths of the spectrum lines affected, real difficulties of interpretation arise. Interpreting their red shifts naively, we could scarcely imagine the wavelength
make
of
any particular spectrum
line to
be more than doubled— with, the
in-
tense "Lyman-alpha" line in the hydrogen spectrum (normal wavelength 1,216 A) being shifted to 2,432 A. For the extent of the red shift
^
must,
A.
at first sight,
be equal to the
ratio,
(velocity of recession)/ (velocity of
and when 8k, the change of wavelength produced by the shift, became equal to X, the original wavelength, the velocity of recession would seemingly have reached its maximum possible value: i.e., the light);
velocity of light.
On closer examination, however, this naive interpretation turns out to be too simple. In point of fact, several of the newly discovered "quasistellar objects" or "quasars"— discussed by Bondi in The Great Ideas Today 1966— have spectra whose lines are shifted by amounts 8X more than twice their original wavelength X. (In three well-authenticated cases, the Lyman-alpha line is observed at 3,663 A, at 3,776 A, and at 3,792 A respectively.) Now, no physicist would read these observations as meaning that the galaxies concerned were receding at more than twice the velocity of light, as implied
by the simple formula
—X =—
.
On
the contrary,
it
turns
c
out from a more careful analysis that no unique formula can be given relating the red shift
—X
and the recession velocity
v.
Given a more thorough theoretical analysis, the red shift for a galaxy with any given velocity of recession can be calculated unambiguously only with one chosen world-model. What is true of all other physical quantities is, therefore, true of time also: once we get far enough away from the world of familiar experience, we can give a meaning to such terms as temperature, velocity, time,
etc.,
only in the light of our
own
theoretical decisions and conceptual redefinitions. In considering nearby
we
can treat the red shift as the effect of one definite velocity of recession, whatever our theoretical "representation" or "worldmodel"; but once matters are pressed to the crucial point at which 8X galaxies,
approaches X and the velocities of recession are comparable with the velocity of light, new decisions and definitions are required— and the precise interpretation to be put on the more extreme red shifts depends on those redefinitions.
This crucial point has been reached observationally only in the last two years, with the discovery of "quasars." So it is no accident that, at the
present time,
astrophysicists
and cosmologists are beginning 191
to
The Physical Sciences handle their concepts with a new modesty and caution. Until quite recently, astronomers would confidently plot graphs showing how the velocof recession of different nebulae
ities
and
galaxies
depended on
their
distances, taking the legitimacy of a particular "world-model" for granted.
Now, we
them drawing the same graphs but labefing them differently What was previously presented as a "velocity"/ "distance" graph is now treated as showing a relationship between "red shift" and "apparent magnitude." For astronomers can measure the apparent magnitudes of galaxies and their red find
—in terms of
other, directly observable magnitudes.
using telescopes and spectroscopes. Both the distances of remoter galaxies and their velocities of recession, on the other hand, are (as Professor G. C. McVittie puts it) "theoretical constructs built up out of observables such as red-shift, apparent luminosity and angular diamshifts directly,
about model universes, such terms as distance and if possible, be avoided. There is far too much ambiguity connected with them and far too much need for qualification whenever they are mentioned." eter." In thinking
velocity of recession "must,
COSMOLOGY new
This
AS A HISTORICAL SCIENCE
caution
is
something which need come
as
no surprise
to
philosophers and historians of science. For, here again, physical
cosmology
reenacting a sequence already encountered in other
is
ences: namely,
all
sci-
those sciences whose questions and subject matter
are essentially historical.
In chemistry, zoology, geology, political theory, and elsewhere, specu-
around a limited range of alternative theoretieach case, the operative question initially appeared to be
lation focused at the outset cal models. In
the following:
"Has the established order of things
(a)
preserved
its
present form throughout an unlimited period of past time? Or, alternatively (b),
was
stead
has
(c),
it
it
brought into existence at some initial moment? Or, inrun through a recurrent sequence of cyclical changes
between extreme conditions?" In classical Greece, the idea of a historic creation was advocated in Plato's Timflew^— though how far for literal, or for mythical purposes has been a matter of argument ever since. ^' As against Plato's creationist (or big-bang) cosmology, Aristotle was the original proponent of a steady-state theory and criticized the idea of a creation
in
time in terms
cosmologists of our
who
own
that
strikingly
anticipate
day.^" In his turn, Aristotle
was
the
steady-state
criticized
by the
around the myth of the eternal return a vision of a cyclical cosmos swinging between extremes of fire and earth— radiation Stoics,
15
GBWW,
built
Vol. 7, p. 447b-d.
16 Phtjsics, Bk. VIII, chaps,
i-ii;
GBWW,
Vol. 8, pp. 334a-337b.
192
Stephen Toulmin
and matter— resembling the "oscillating world-models" of current cosmology.^' And, to begin with, these three types of model were applied indiflFerently to explain the origin of the earth, or of
organic species, or
of the state, or of the heavens.
One
and scientists dealing with have found ways of relating
after another, scholars
diflFerent aspects
their ideas and more directly. And if we consider ho\\' such historical sciences as geology and zoology came to stand on their own feet, we again find one recurrent feature: the more completely the science in question based itself on observations, the less room it retained for the simple, all-embracing models of its earlier phase. Geology and zoology have thus ceased to be preoccupied with puzzles about the
of the historical process
theories to the evidence of observation
initial
creation of the earth or of
life:
rather, their subject matter
is
now
the step-by-step development of the earth's crust and of different living forms. And, over the next
fifty
years,
one
may hazard
a guess that physical
more and more with the successive phases of past astronomical history; and that it will look back on the passionate theoretical debates of the 1950's as something which the science had to outgrow in achieving its intellectual maturity. cosmology similarly
will
concern
itself
Perhaps the most significant parallel to the recent history of cosmology can be found in the development of geology. From 1790 to 1807, a violent theoretical debate between the supporters of James Hutton and A. G. Werner held the center of the intellectual stage. Werner and his followers regarded the testimony of the Bible— notably, the scriptural traditions about a universal flood— as of serious significance for geology; so they placed a major emphasis on water as the prime agent responsible for geological change. Hutton,
by
contrast, regarded the earth's
displaying a physical equilibrium, maintained in
its
crust as
present, stable form
through a delicate balance between water and heat, with the upthrust from volcanic action always counterbalancing the wearing-down by rain,
and the sea. Hutton could see in the geological evidence "no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end": in this respect, he followed Aristotle and based all geological interpretation on the assumption of a steady state. Werner, on the other hand, was a creationist, who believed that the biblical creation had left a detectable mark on the face of the earth. Between dogmatic supporters of these two extreme positions, no accommodation was possible. So, when the Geological Society of London was established
rivers,
in 1807,
its
founders set partisan debate aside in favor of more piecemeal,
empirical studies.
supporters of
all
They would' accept
contributions
theoretical suggestions or none.
17 See, for example, Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, VI;
293d-294a; 297b-c.
193
(they said)
And, by the
GBWW,
from
1830's, these
Vol. 12, pp. 275a-b;
The Physical Sciences empirical studies had so accumulated that Charles Lyell could produce a
comprehensive analysis of geological history which was applauded by advocates of both theories.
We can, accordingly, leave the topic of physical cosmology with this one outstanding question in mind: "Is cosmology, too, on the verge of changing from a speculative to a piecemeal science? Is the new wariness displayed by cosmologists like McVittie and Bondi a sign that the passionate theoretical debates of the 1950's are a thing of the past; and
about the origin of the cosmos progressively give way to development? Will cosmology, in consequence, be more and more rewritten in a way which avoids reference to the totality of space and the beginning of time, and rely rather on the piecemeal study of relations between physical magnitudes which are more directly obwill theories
theories about cosmic
servable?" Shall its
we
(in
a phrase) find the history of the cosmos replacing
creation as the focus of astrophysical and cosmological inquiry?
this topic, also, it will
year 1987.
be interesting
to read
The Great Ideas Today
On
for the
Stephen Toulmin
BIBLIOGRAPHY Bludman,
S.
McViTTiE, G. C. Fact and Theory in Cosmology. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1961;
ElemenXIX, No. 2
a. "Unified Theories of
tary Particles," Physics Today,
95-122. P. "Neutrino Astronomy," Scientific American, CCVII, No. 2 (August, 1962), 91-98. Popper, K. R. The Logic of Scientific Discovery. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1959. Reines, F. "Neutrino Astronomy," Science Journal, II, No. 10 (October, 1966), 84-89. Reines, F., and Sellschop, J. P. F. "Neutrinos from the Atmosphere and Beyond," Scientific American, CCXIV, No. 2 (February, 1966), 40-48.
(February, 1966), 55-57. Causality and Chance in Modern Physics. New York: Van Nostrand, 1957. Bohr, N. "Can Quantum Mechanical Description of Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?," Physical Review, XLVIII (1935),
esp. pp.
Morrison,
BoHM, D.
695-702. BoscoviCH, R.
J. A Theory of Natural Philosophy (Venice, 1763). Translated by J. M. Child (1921). Cambridge, Mass.: M.I.T.
Press, 1966.
Brown,
M. "Quarkways
L.
to Particle
Sym-
S. The Physics of the Stoics. New The Macmillan Co., 1959. Schmidt, M. "Large Red Shifts of Five Quasi-
Sambubsky,
metry," Physics Today, XIX, No. 2 (February, 1966), 44-53. Einstein, A., Podolsky, B., and Rosen, N. "Can Quantum Mechanical Description of Physical Reality
York:
Be Considered Complete?,"
Basic
York: 255-64.
Green,
Books,
Inc.,
1964;
pp.
"Observational Aspects of and Telescope, XXXI (April, 1966), 199-202. HoYLE, F., and Burbidge, G. R. "The Problem of
the
Objects,"
Journal,
If.
Ltd., 1962.
Sky
Quasi-stellar
Astrophysical
Progress in Physics (1965), pp. 61-75. Singh, J. Great Ideas and Theories of Modern Cosmology. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1961. Toulmin, S., and Goodfield, J. The Architecture of Matter. London: Hutchinson & Co.,
C.
L.
Cosmology,"
Sources," (1965), 1295
Schwartz, M. "Neutrino Physics," Reports on
Physical Review, XLVII (1935), 777-80. Feynman, R. "The Development of the SpaceTime View of Quantum Electrodynamics," Physics Today, XIX, No. 8 (1966), 31^4. Gardner, M. The Ambidextrous Universe.
New
stellar
CXLI
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The Discovery
of
Time.
New
York:
Harper & Row, 1965.
Van Melsen, A. C. From Atomos New York: Harper & Row, 1960.
Scientific
to
Atom.
micro-ohjets dans J. P. Structure des r interpretation causale de la theorie des quanta. Paris: Gautier-Villars, 1956. Von Neumann, J. The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1955. Wilkinson, D. H. "The 'Elementary' Particles," Science Journal, II, No. 3 (March, 1966), 31-40.
American, CCXV, No. 6 (December, 1966), 40-52. Kahn, C. H. Anaximander and the Origins of Greek Cosmology. New York: Columbia
ViGTER,
University Press, 1960.
Lee, T.-D. "Space Inversion, Time Reversal Conjugation," and Particle-Antiparticle Physics Today, XIX, No. 3 (March, 1966), 23-31.
NOTE TO THE READER For background material on cosmological
Professor Toulmin has amply demonstrated that Great Books of the Western World
speculation, the reader should consult Chapter 102 on World. The first topic collects the
an abundance of material on the and philosophy of science. The reader
provides history
references to discussions of diverse conceptions of the universe, while Topic 4 deals with the origin of the world, and Topic 7 with the size
studying further the theory of atomism will find Chapter 21 of the Sijntopiinterested
in
helpful. It provides, under systematic index to the passages dealing with the theory of atomism. Topic 5h, in particular, enables the reader to locate the arguments for and against the existence of
or extent of the universe.
atoms.
stein himself.
con
especially
Element
should not be forgotten that GateGreat Books (Vol. 8, pp. 485-560) contains the Einstein-Infeld account of the history of physics from Newton down to EinAlso,
5, a
way
195
it
to the
THEODORE PUCK
This year tve have invited Dr. Theodore T. Puck, Professor and
Chairman
of the
Department
of Biophysics at the University of
Colorado Medical Center and a Research Professor of the American Cancer Society, to review recent developments in cellular biology. Dr. Puck is also Director of the Eleanor Roosevelt Institute for Cancer Research. He was born in Chicago in 1916 and was educated at the University of Chicago, from which he received the B.S. degree in 1937 and the Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry in 1940. Dr. Puck was associated with the Department of Medicine there until 1947. In the years 1947-48, he was a Senior Fellow of the American Cancer Society at the California Institute of Technology. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Chemical Society, and many other learned organizations. Dr. Puck has authored or coauthored more than 122
scientific articles
bacterial
and
dealing with prevention of airborne disease, mammalian cell growth, genetics,
virus metabolism,
and radiobiology. Dr. Puck, who has held visiting professorships at Indiana University, Yale University, and the University of California, was Heidelberger Lecturer at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Harvey Society Lecturer, Squibb Lecturer, Annual Research Lecturer for the Council on Research and Creative Work, Karl F. Muenzinger Lecturer, and, in the summer of 1966, a member of the Physics Division of the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, where part of this essay was developed. He was the recipient of the Lasker Award in 1958, the Borden Award in 1959, and the General Rose Hospital Award in 1960. Dr. Puck has also held research grants from the National Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, United States Public Health Service, which enabled him to undertake some of the studies described in his essay.
He
lives in
196
Denver, Colorado.
The
It
Biological Sciences
become increasingly clear during the past decade that biology undergoing a new and revolutionary development. The sequence
has is
of recent events in this science resembles in gro\\'th that
many ways
the explosive
took place in ph)sics at the turn of the century.
The new
discoveries in biology already promise to be at least as far-reaching in their eflFects as those achieved in physics, the
most advanced of the ex-
perimental sciences.
The basis.
new biology is that it has a new theoretical time a fundamental set of concepts and operations is
principal feature of the
For the
first
available that appHes to all living organisms
and that explains much of and
their biological behavior in terms of the basic elements of physics
chemistry— i.e., atoms, molecules, and their energies of interaction. Of course, whole universes of knowledge still remain to be discovered in biology. Nevertheless, the situation now appears fundamentally different
from anything that has gone before. The new theoretical structure explains many properties of life that were previously mysterious and also provides extremely effective new tools for securing even greater understanding. It is the purpose of this essay to review briefly, and with a minimum of technical detail, the nature of these new conceptual advances in biology and to indicate some of their future implications for man. All living organisms consist of cells (Fig. 1). Each of these fundamental building blocks
is
the site of a fantastically complex set of chains of
chemical reactions, operating serially and in parallel, exquisitely synchronized and coordinated with one another. These chemical reactions go on continuously, and they contain intrinsic control systems that con-
meet the needs imposed on each cell by its changing external and internal molecular environment. For example, energy-rich molecules and molecules needed as building blocks are constantly being pumped into the cell; waste products are being ejected; carbohydrates and other fuels are being oxidized by a set of cyclic reactions producing new energy-rich molecular stantly adjust the velocities of the individual steps to
forms capable of enormously rapid and
efficient
energy release
when
and an incredibly large variety of different proteins, fats, nucleic acids, and special molecules, like hormones, are continuously being synthesized and degraded.
needed;
197
The
Biological Sciences
FIG. 1.— A COLONY OF HUMAN CELLS GROWN IN TISSUE CULTURE. THE LIGHT AREA IS THE NUCLEUS, WITHIN WHICH ONE OR SEVERAL SMALL BLACK DOTS OR NUCLEOLI ARE VISIBLE. EACH CELL IS ABOUT 0.001 CM. IN RADIUS. CELLS MUCH
LARGER AND MUCH SMALLER OCCUR IN LIVING ORGANISMS. SOME SINGLE-CELLED PROTOZOA ARE ABOUT 0.01 CM. LONG AND CAN BE SEEN WITH THE UNAIDED EYE, WHILE BACTERIAL CELLS COMMONLY ARE 0.00001 TO 0.0001 CM. LONG
This bewildering array of chemical processes underlies tions of living behavior
all
manifesta-
and makes possible locomotion, reproduction,
many kinds to environmental stimuH, ability to synthesize an enormous variety of complex specific molecules, and presumably even the phenomena of memory and consciousness. Thousands of different single reactions go on even in the simplest living cell. Because this constant flux of molecular transformation makes possible the myriad acreactions of
tivities
of living organisms,
it
worthwhile to examine some of the
is
characteristics of chemical reactions in general, in order to understand
how
it is
that cells can carry
on the chemistry of
life.
THE CHEMISTRY OF THE NONLIVING WORLD matter consists of atoms connected together by specific bonds into called molecules. The atoms are about lO"*^ cm. (i.e., 0.00000001 cm.) in diameter, and any number of these can combine to
All .
entities
produce molecules of almost any conceivable size, shape, and arrangement, provided, however, that the basic rules of molecular combination are obeyed. These rules assign to each atom a valence or combining affinity for
other atoms.
The distance between two bonded atoms,
the
energy needed to break the bond, and the angle between any two bonds formed simultaneously by any atom, are reasonably well fixed within limits that can be calculated. Therefore, the architecture of any molecule is
When two atoms approach sufficiently closely, assume a new distribution in space which may or valence bond, uniting the two atoms. (Quantum
a well-defined concept.
their outermost electrons
produce a force, mechanics can explain the
now
bond formation in terms of up by the bonding electrons which charged nuclei of the bonded atoms,
details of this
the dynamic pattern in space taken
includes both of the positively
198
Theodore Puck but such details are not needed for this discussion.) Most atoms tend spontaneously to form valence bonds with other atoms and so become incorporated into molecular aggregates. Except for the rare gases, like helium or neon, free atoms are rarely found in nature.
The molecules of common substances, like those of water, sugar, plastic, or alcohol, consist of specific atomic combinations which are quite stable at room temperature. However, this does not necessarily mean that such molecules represent a condition of maximum stability, i.e., the lowest energy state that can be formed from the given atoms. For example, under ordinary conditions the carbohydrate, paper, is stable in air. Yet the paper can react with oxygen by burning and, in so doing, releases a great deal of energy. As a result, the atoms of the paper and of the
oxygen are regrouped to form the new molecules, carbon dioxide and water, which do constitute the lowest energy state for the atoms of C, H, and O. At room temperature, the atoms of carbon inside the molecules of paper are not free to enter into combination with the atmospheric oxygen because their valence bonds are already occupied by the original carbohydrate structure. If energy could be supplied to break or at least weaken these bonds, they would be activated, i.e., they would achieve a
The carbon atoms could then more energy activation. The amount of energy
condition where reaction can readily occur.
unite with oxygen and, in the process, liberate a great deal
than that needed for their initial needed to start a chemical reaction is called the activation energy and most commonly supplied in the form of heat. When any material
is is
molecules and their constituent atoms increase their random motions in all directions. With continued rise in temperature, individual bonds are at first stretched and then broken as the atomic vibrations and molecular collisions become stronger. New chemical combinations can heated,
its
then arise as the individual atoms are freed sufficiently to seek
new bond-
ing partners. It is
important to understand that when a material such as paper or is ignited by a lighted match, the energy produced by the flame
gasoline is if
not sufficient to activate
all
the fraction of molecules
energy than was
of the molecules in the mixture.
which
initially applied,
is
the energy so liberated activates addi-
tional molecules, thus causing a self-sustaining condition to
The
effect of heating
is
Since activation energy
However, more
activated reacts to release
be established.
illustrated in Figure 2. is
transmitted randomly from molecule to mole-
heterogeneous mixture of reaction products may be obtained in the course of the blind collisions which occur in the heated mixture. In the melee of random encounters, virtually every atomic bond
cule, a highly
in any molecule of the mixture may become free to react, and many of the bonds so formed will again be broken. Therefore, ordinary chemical re-
199
The
Biological Sciences
ENERGY BARRIER
NERGY BARRIER
o o -•oo o
o
o o
•
o
o».
-U J^^ LOW TEMPERATURE
HIGH TEMPERATURE
A FIG. 2.— SCHEMATIC REPRESENTATION OF HOW A CHEMICAL REACTION WHICH LIHERATES ENERGY STILL NEEDS AN INITIAL HEAT INPUT (ACTIVATION ENERGY) IN ORDER TO START. UNLESS THE MOLECULES ARE INITIALLY RAISED IN ENERGY TO THE TOP OF THE BARRIER, THEY CANNOT FALL DOWN TO THE FINAL ENERGY STATE EVEN THOUGH IT IS LOWER THAN THE INITIAL ONE. AS THE MOLECULES FALL DOWN FROM THE BARRIERS, THE VARIOUS ENERGY LEVELS, EACH REPRESENTING A DIFFERENT MOLECULAR STATE OF THE COMPONENT ATOMS, BECOME FILLED. OTHER THINGS BEING EQUAL, THE LOWER THE ENERGY LEVEL OF ANY STATE, THE GREATER THE PERCENTAGE OF THE FINAL PRODUCTS
actions,
even when they are started with highly purified reactants, can
yield a mixture of diflPerent products; in the case of paper, these
may
include carbon (soot), carboxylic acids, ketones, aldehydes, alcohols, and carbon monoxide, as well as the ultimate combustion products, carbon dioxide and water, which constitute the lowest possible energy states of the atoms involved. If the starting materials contain many diflPerent substances, the reaction products
course, the lower
down on
may be even more
heterogeneous.
[Of
the energy scale any newly formed molecule
lies (see Fig. 2), the greater is the probability that it will remain as an eventual reaction product, since the energy needed for its reactivation
be greater than that required for energy-richer forms. That is why chemical reactions tend to go spontaneously in the direction which pro-
will
200
Theodore Puck duces a net liberation of energy. But, in general, most chemical reactions will yield a mixture containing
more
or less of the various theoretically
possible intermediate products.]
should also be noted that only a small fraction of the theoretically quantity of useful work can be realized from the energy released by such a reaction. A large fraction of this released energy is It
maximum lost as
heat to the surroundings, and only
if
by steam
available, such as a turbine driven
very elaborate apparatus at extremely high
is
tempera-
can a larger fraction of the theoretical work energy be extracted from such a process. Such engineering equipment, while expensive and elaborate, is nevertheless often utilized, as in the burning of fuels for the commercial production of electricity. It should be noted, however, that at high temperatures reactions liberating energy seldom go as far tures,
as they could theoretically
go
at
lower temperatures. Therefore, man-
processes for conversion of chemical energy into
made
work are usually
relatively inefficient. If a reaction is to be carried out which never produces heat but rather which must absorb energy in order to go forward, the same considerations apply, except that external energy must be supplied continually
instead of just at the beginning of the reaction. Moreover, in this case,
much more energy must be energy in the
final
supplied than
is
stored as potential chemical
molecules synthesized.
The foregoing paragraphs have outlined how energy influence the
However, reaction tion
AB
A
in addition to the
is
energy
the outcome of any chemical
effect,
by the
also strongly influenced
considerations
in the nonliving world.
loss of orderliness, or
informa-
the gain in randomness or entropy).
(or
-^
outcome of a chemical reaction
-I-
B +
energy, as
energy release alone,
go to the
shown
in
this reaction
right, as written.
Consider the reaction, From the point of view of
Figure 3. should possess a certain tendency to
Conversely, the products
A and
B,
if
raised
energy barrier, should readily combine again, so as to reverse the reaction. But a mixture of activated molecules of A and B can do nothing by themselves until members of each kind meet with one another. On the other hand, an activated AB molecule at the top of the to the top of the
energy barrier could by
itself dissociate into
the
component
parts,
A and
AB
molecules have a higher degree of orderliness than the random combination of A and B atoms. This orderliness of the AB molecules is equivalent to an increase of information conB. Stated in other terms, the
tent over the
random assortment
of single atoms, because, in the molecu-
lar system, specification of the location of
information about the whereabouts of the of free atoms, this
is
an
A atom
B atom.
In the
also implies the
random mixture
not the case. For this reason, there
is
a greater
tendency of AB molecules to dissociate into individual A and B molecules than for the opposite reaction to occur. Thus the reaction of AB to form 201
The
Biological Sciences
ENERGY BALANCE
AB— A+B+ENERGY INFORMATION BALANCE AB-^A+B
ACTIVATION
ENERGY INITIAL
INFORMATION LEVEL (LESS
RANDOMNESS)
INITIAL
ENERGY STATE NET ENERGY LIBERATED
,0.0. 0*Q»O
^^^mm
FINAL
INFORMATION FINAL ENERGY STATE
LEVEL
(MORE RANDOMNESS)
3.— DEMONSTRATION THAT BOTH THE ENERGY AND THE INFORMATION BALANCE AFFECT THE DIRECTION IN WHICH CHEMICAL REACTIONS GO. REACTIONS WILL PROCEED SPONTANEOUSLY IN THE DIRECTION YIELDING THE LARGEST NET LIBERATION OF ENERGY AND THE LARGEST DECREASE IN INFORMATION. WHILE THE FINAL STATE ATTAINED DEPENDS ONLY ON THE NET CHANGE IN THESE TWO QUANTITIES, AN INITIAL INPUT OF ACTIVATION ENERGY MAY BE NECESSARY TO MAKE THE VELOCITY OF THE REACTION SUFFICIENTLY LARGE FIG.
the single atoms A and B has a greater tendency to go forward than that predicted on the basis of energy considerations alone (Fig. 3). It is easy to see why, for states with the same energy, that state with the greatest randomness or disorder will be favored. If the energy change great enough, as
in the reaction between carbon and oxygen yieldcan outweigh the randomness eflFect; but, in general, both factors must be taken into account in determining the outcome of the process of mixing any combination of reactants. Thus the speed and completeness of any chemical reaction depend on the amount of energy that is released in the process and on the degree of randomness is
ing carbon dioxide,
of the products
it is it
compared with
that of the initial materials.
For
this
reason, most reactions carried out in ordinary chemistry liberate energy
and yield products that tend to be smaller and simpler, and therefore poorer in information content, than the starting substances. For reactions
where these conditions are not achieved, other kinds of chemical or physical processes must be harnessed to drive the desired one forward. In summary, then, ordinary chemical reactions proceed almost entirely through random, molecular collisions. Only a small fraction of these are sufficiently energetic or properly oriented so as to be eflFective in producing chemical change. Therefore, a high temperature is needed for 202
Theodore Puck initial activation of
the molecules, even though the reaction itself
may
eventually yield energy. As a result of the combination of the randomness of the processes involved of different products
and the
initial
high temperature, a large mixture
produced, from which the desired molecules then
is
must be extracted and
purified. Finally, the reaction velocities usually
vary with time, since the velocity decreases as the reactants are used up
and the products accumulate; and elaborate mechanical and electronic equipment is needed if one wishes to maintain reasonably constant reaction rates over prolonged periods of time. If
the activation energy of a reaction could be lowered, the reaction
could be carried out at a lower temperature. In some purely chemical reactions, the activation energy can be appreciably lowered by use of a catalyst, a substance which is itself not used up in the reaction
itself
but which activates one or several of the reactants. However, the number of such catalytic agents
known
in nonliving chemistry
is
far less
than the
knowTi number of reactions; the efficiencies of such catalysts vary enormously; and most of them, like aluminum chloride, activate bonds in
many ucts,
be
is highly limited. Morepromoted by them usually contain a mixture of prod-
different molecules so that their specificity
over, the reactions
although with the best catalysts the extent of side reactions can
small. Finally, the
most
effective catalysts in nonliving chemistry
must
usually be used with systems of relatively high molecular purity to
prevent catalyst poisoning or other interfering actions.
THE CHEMISTRY OF BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS Biological systems
are
composed
of the
same atoms
that
make up
nonliving materials and very often carry on the very same chemical
combustion of carbohydrates. Yet the mechanism about chemical reactions in cells involves differences so great in degree as to make living chemistry appear to be different in kind from that of the test tube and the industrial retort. Living cells ingest molecules of many different kinds. These then enter into many thousands of different chemical reactions involving energy extraction and storage, molecular breakdown, and molecular synthesis of exceedingly complex structures. These latter often have an information content enormously greater than that of the initial substrates. In the combustion within the cell of energy-rich molecules, like carbohydrates, enormous amounts of energy are liberated. Indeed, in a fraction of a second, the energy liberated may be so large that were it applied in random fashion, it could cause extensive bond breakage and molecular
reactions, such as the for bringing
damage
composing the cell itself. The process can be burning of coal in a locomotive which is itself built entirely of wood. Yet, far from destroying the molecules that constitute of the structures
compared
to the
203
The the
cell's structure,
Biological Sciences
the energy so liberated
harnessed to carrying out the functions of
smoothly and
is
life.
The
eflFectively
reaction rates achieve
incredibly high velocities; yet
all the reactions occur at the very low temperature of the body. Further, each chemical transformation that is carried out is accomplished with a complete absence of side reactions.
That
each transformation produces one and only one product, despite many of the reactions release enormous amounts of energy and that thousands of diflFerent reactions take place side by side in the same cell. Again, when such energy-liberating reactions occur in living is,
the fact that
cells,
a fairly large fraction of the theoretical yield of useful
work
is
often obtained.
Another impressive aspect of living chemistry is the fact that an enorof reactions occurs producing molecules much more complex and richer in information than those of the starting materials. Finally, chemical reactions inside cells are carried on under the aegis of a system of powerful and automatic feedback controls that determine which reactions will occur at any time and modulate the reaction velocities at every moment to conform to the needs of the organism. Compared to the sophisticated mode of molecular manipulation of even the simplest living cell, modern nonliving chemistry seems to be in a still primitive level of development.
mous number
The power
of biological systems to direct molecular transformations
in highly specific tion.
A
ways
is
evident in the process of biological reproduc-
bacterial cell placed in a molecularly simple
in substances, like sugar
and
itself in billions of specific
salts,
medium can
and fashion a second
molecular
take
cell identical to
details. Essentially the
same process
occurs in every living form. But the degree of fidelity inherent in molecu-
systems of biological reproduction exceeds by many orders magnitude that of any man-made copying systems, regardless of whether these copy patterns are made by molecules, light, or sound. The life cycle of a virus provides an especially vivid example of the molecular power of living organisms. T2 bacteriophage, a virus which lar replicative
of
attacks certain bacteria,
is
a structure approximately 650
A
in
diameter
and 2100 A long, and consists of two types of chemical substance, protein and nucleic acid. The large protein headpiece forms a sac containing the nucleic acid material and terminates in a tail-like structure consisting of a hollow protein tube ending in a plate with pointed extensions. The structure consists of many millions of atoms, linked to each other by chemical bonds in a completely specified fashion. When placed in water or salt solution, the virus particles are completely inert, and each particle is buflPeted around by Brownian (random) motion exactly like any nonliving particle of the same size. However, if bacterial cells are now added to this nonreactive solution, an exceedingly complex sequence of events is
set in motion.
204
Theodore Puck At
first,
random motion
the virus particles continue in
as before, except
now colhde from time to time with the cells. If a virus collides with an immune cell, it bounces ofiF without change. But if it collides with that they
a cell capable of acting as a host, bonds are established with incredible rapidity bet\\'een molecules on the
formed head of the virus
two
in the wall of the host cell.
is
the
cell.
Then
is
surfaces.
The nucleic
body of empty protein on the outside. The injected
the hole in the cell wall seals up, and the
nucleic acid begins to cause
tion.
later a hole
acid contained in the
injected through the long tail-tube into the
capsule of the virus remains functionless
cell.
Moments
The virus first Then its own
new molecular
synthesis inside the bacterial
fashions molecular machinery for
its
own
reproduc-
nucleic acid and protein components are faithfully
an identity which extends and location of each individual atom. The protein and nucleic acid materials then become assembled to form new whole virus particles inside the cell. Soon thereafter, the entire bacterial cell wall is disintegrated and approximately a thousand new \'irus particles, each one indistinguishable from the original infecting particle, pour into copied, each molecule being rebuilt with
down
to the nature
the surrounding solution.
The
entire process,
from the
initial collision to
the final discharge of
the replicated viruses, has taken only twenty-five minutes. In this short
bonds are established in which each atom is made to occupy a particular place. An assembly process as complex and accurate as this one would be remarkable even if the individual components were an inch or two in length, so as to be readily manipulable. The fact that it takes place on the smallest possible scale for any stable material system, so that the individual atoms and molecules, which are the operative units, must participate in the randomness of thermal motion and quantum mechanical uncertainties, makes this behavior phenomenal. time, billions of specific chemical
individual
FUNCTION OF ENZYMES is
It of
IN
LIVING CELLS
obviously impossible for the kind of chemical activity characteristic the living cell to be carried out
by processes
those governing chemical reactions in the test tube.
as highly
How,
random
then,
is
as
living
chemistry accomplished?
Consider again the atomic and molecular composition of matter. Since the valence forces holding atoms stably together in molecules are strong forces, the
making
or breaking of these
bonds involves
\'ery large
energy
exchanges. But there are also other forces acting upon atoms which are
much weaker than
the valence forces. These interactions involve a variety
of difiFerent attractive forces electrically charged,
and
also
between atoms and molecules which are between neutral atoms which can become 205
The slightly polarized electrically
Biological Sciences if
brought closely enough together. Unless
the atoms are virtually touching, the
eflFect
of these forces
is
negligible,
because they decrease very rapidly as the distance between the atoms increases. Living systems have developed the power to use these extremely weak chemical forces to direct molecules in highly specific ways, so as to bring about only desired changes in their valence bonds, and they do this with enormous facility. Thus living systems do not rely
random collisions between molecules to produce an initial and on further random collisions to produce exchanges of valence bonds, some of which will constitute the desired chemical reaction. Instead, living systems begin by orienting the specific molecules which they wish to engage in a reaction. This orientation accomplishes two things: it allows only certain molecules to interact, and it insures that the reaction will be confined to the particular atoms designated only on blind, activation,
within these molecules.
Consider a reaction between two molecules, system would carry
and B
is
A
and
B, as a biological
low temperabetween molecules activate them, and, therefore, no spontaneous
out. Since the entire process occurs at
the energy resulting from
ture,
A
it
insufficient to
random
collisions
reaction occurs. However, a giant molecule
(i.e., a macromolecule) is present which belongs to the class of proteins and possesses regions on its surface specifically shaped to fit molecule A at one point and molecule
B
at another (Fig. 4).
The macromolecular
structure
fits
that of each of
the small molecules, both in shape and in distribution of electrostatic charges, so that a net attractive force
present.
is
The
tailoring
is
so
accurate that the individual atoms of the small molecule are brought into extremely close contact with those of the nest prepared in the large molecule. This approach between the two accurately fitted surfaces is
weaker binding forces previously described are brought because of this high accuracy of the fit that the resulting
so close that the into play. It
is
attachment process
is
so highly specific,
i.e.,
that practically
no other
molecule likely to be present in the cell can attach itself at the site designed for either the A or B molecule, since no other molecule could have a sufficiently close fit over a sufficiently large area to bring about stable attachment. The forces causing attachment of the substrate molecules to the giant molecule come from many diflFerent atoms. Each by itself is weak, but in concert they are strong enough to produce attachment
which cules
is
highly specific.
become attached
is
The
protein to which the small
A and B
mole-
called an enzyme.
As each small molecule becomes attached to its particular receptor site on the enzyme, one and only one of its original chemical bonds is weakened enough to expose its electrons to an interaction with the second small molecule, which also has been similarly and specifically activated in one bond. Thus the two molecules are brought into juxtaposition with 206
ENZYME
ENZYME-SUBSTRATE
COMPLEX
GALACTOSE
FIG. 4.— SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF HOW AN ENZYME MOLECULE BRINGS ABOUT CHEMICAL
REACTION IN A HIGHLY ORDERED INSTEAD OF A COMPLETELY RANDOM FASHION. THE ENZYME, GALACTOSE KINASE, IS A PROTEIN MACROMOLECULE TO WHICH BOTH THE ATP
MOLECULE (adenosine TRIPHOSPHATE) AND THE SUGAR ATTACH IN A SPECIFIC WAY WHICH LOOSENS A PARTICULAR BOND IN EACH MOLECULE SO AS TO EFFECT A PARTICULAR CHEMICAL REACTION, RESULTING IN A PHOSPHORYLATED GALACTOSE PLUS ADENOSINE DIPHOSPHATE (aDp). THE NET OVERALL REACTION IS: ADENOSINE TRIPHOSPHATE + GALACTOSE ^^^^'^^^ ^ GALACTOSE- 1 -PHOSPHATE + ADENOSINE DIPHOSPHATE + WATER
1 ENZYME
O H20
GALACTOSE-1-
PHOSPHATE
bond in each molecule oriented and energetically activated produce reaction, while all the rest of the atomic bonds remain undisturbed. Thus reaction results rapidly and smoothly, despite the low temperature. Moreover, upon completion of the resulting bond rearrangement, the products have a new spatial configuration because new bonds with different valence angles have been established. Also, a new electrical charge distribution may have been engendered in the newly produced molecules. As a result, the reaction products no longer fit with the required precision into the specially tailored sites on the original enzyme surface. Since they are no longer attracted to the site, they now fall off to be replaced by a new set of substrate molecules, which will again enter into the reaction cycle. Thus living systems have learned to guide molecules through chemical reactions by using enzymes which open up a single pathway for each molecule. a particular to
THE GENE AND THE ENZYME: INFORMATION STORAGE use of weak chemical The intimate
forces, specifically arranged to recognize the atomic architecture of each molecule which is to undergo
chemical reaction, makes
it
yond any that
is
enzymes to steer reactions in and energy conservation far be-
possible for
living systems with a specificity, speed,
achievable in the great bulk of nonliving chemical trans-
207
The formations. Virtually
all
Biological Sciences
chemical reactions in living
cells are
mediated
by enzymes. Therefore, in any living cell a huge collection of different enzyme molecules is present, each one promoting one specific chemical transformation. But the structure of each enzyme must be specified and
How does the cell manufacture these molecules such power over molecular transformation?
accurately controlled. that give All
it
enzyme molecules are proteins in nature (though not all proteins some form structural but nonenzymatic components
are enzymes, since
of cells). All proteins consist of linear chains of smaller molecules called
amino
acids.
Sometimes, two or more of these chains are cross-linked
together to produce the particular three-dimensional conformation needed to promote a given chemical reaction. The whole structure, which forms a giant molecule, folds up into a highly specific three-dimensional configuration that is uniquely shaped for its particular function— to promote
one
specific
chemical transformation of a particular
set of small molecules.
While an indefinite number of different amino acids can exist, only twenty of them are used to build the proteins of living organisms, and these twenty form the proteins which constitute the chemical machinery of all life on earth. Since protein may contain as many as a thousand or more amino acids, and since a different protein results from any change in either the order of the amino acids in the chain or their relative frequency, the possible number of different proteins
is
astronomical. Figure
5 presents the three-dimensional structure of one protein.
This detailed structural analysis was made possible by the use of X-ray diffraction analysis, a physical tool whose application to these biological problems has constituted one of the triumphs of molecular
same
biology. All cells of a given kind synthesize exactly the
and
until recently the
mechanism by which these
proteins,
giant molecules are
and over again without error has constituted one of the major biological enigmas. The discovery of this mechanism came about through the new conceptual synthesis between genetics and biochemistry which has resulted in the development known as molecular biology. The work of Gregor Mendel had established the existence of genesunitary factors that determine the inheritance of each of the characteristics that are passed on by living forms to their offspring. Later work established that the genes are contained in the nucleus of each cell and are strung in linear fashion, like beads on a necklace, on threadlike bodies called chromosomes, which constitute the bulk of the cell's nucleus. In chemical constitution, the gene belongs to the substance known by the formidable name of deoxyribonucleic acids, or DNA. For many years, two parallel developments in biology had gone along independently with little interrelationship. On the one hand, biochemists studying the properties and activities of enzymes in various living cells built over
became more and more impressed with 208
the great
power
of these macro-
Theodore Puck 5.— WIRE MODEL OF THE PROTEIN MYOGLOBIN, A COMPONENT OF MAM-
FIG.
MALIAN MUSCLE TISSUE THAT FURNISHES OXYGEN NEEDED FOR MUSCULAR CONTRACTION. THE STRUCTURE WAS DETERMINED BY X-RAY DIFFRACTION MEASUREMENTS ON CRYSTALS OF THE PROTEIN. THE WHITE CORD TRACES THE PATH OF THE AMINO ACID CHAIN. THERE ARE APPROXIMATELY 150 AMINO ACIDS LINKED IN A LINEAR ORDER IN THIS PROTEIN. THE RESULTING CHAIN, WHOSE TWO ENDS ARE DESIGNATED C AND N, THEN FOLDS UP INTO THE THREE-DIMENSIONAL CONFIGURATION SHOWN HERE, WHICH REPRESENTS THE BIOLOGICALLY' ACTIVE FORM. THIS MOLECULE, LIKE HEMOGLOBIN, CONTAINS AN ATOM OF IRON (DESIGNATED BY a) WHICH IS SPECIFICALLY ASSOCIATED WITH A WATER MOLECULE (b)
molecules in directing chemical reactions and became convinced that the secret of life lay in their structure and function. On the other hand, the geneticists were able to prove that in every living form the inheritance of each characteristic is regulated by a single and specific gene, and thus they were led to the conclusion that the genes were the principal chemical substances responsible for the uniqueness of living behavior. Eventually these two apparently conflicting viewpoints were resolved by the brilliant experiments of G. W. Beadle and E. L. Tatum. Working with the microorganism Neurospora, they were able to demonstrate, in an elegant and
simple set of experiments, that a one-to-one relationship exists between i.e., each enzyme requires a specific gene for its The one-gene-one-enzyme hypothesis welded genetics and
genes and enzymes,
for-
mation.
bio-
chemistry into a single discipline. While the hypothesis has undergone some small but significant modification, it has remained as the funda-
mental cornerstone of molecular biology. Tremendous impetus was given to this field by studies of the bacterial viruses, or bacteriophages, and their interactions with their host cells. Max Delbriick and his collaborators were able to devise a system capable of providing rapid, precise, and quantitative answers to the most searching questions concerning the processes of biological replication, protein for-
mation, and the regulation of biological reactions.
The
steadily increasing
and mounting excitement, which began about the year 1940, reached one peak in 1953 when J. D. Watson and F. H. C. Crick were able, through the interpretation of the X-ray diffraction data of M. H. F. Wilkins, to deduce the three-dimensional structure
acceleration of scientific progress
209
The
Biological Sciences
The picture they evolved is the now familiar double spiral, connected by crosspieces consisting of pairs of aromatic bases. These developments made possible understanding of how genes can replicate of the gene.
themselves, and
how
cells
can build the proteins which constitute their
chemical machinery. In the process of replication, the two strands of the
exposing the individual bases which,
when
DNA
separate,
paired together, form the cross-
linking pieces of the double helix. With the aid of the appropriate enzyme, each single strand of DNA then constructs its complement, whose bases in every case are the ones needed to complete the pairing process as necessitated
by the requirements
of close geometrical fitting previously de-
DNA, each strand separates from complementary strand and builds a new complementary strand. Hence, each new gene consists of one strand inherited from the parent and one newly synthesized strand which has been built to be the exact complement of it. Several ingenious types of experiments have demonstrated that replication actually takes place in accordance with this mechanism. Thus scribed. Thus, in the replication of the
its
biological copying resembles the duplication process of photography, in
which a positive object is translated into a negative image from which a new positive image is obtained and which in turn can make a new negative.
power many thousand times known human copying process. The resolving power of photographic copying is limited by the size of the light-sensitive crystal, which is about 10~"* cm. (0.0001 cm.) in diameter, whereas replication of DNA is exact down to the positions of single atoms, whose
Gene
duplication occurs with a resolving
greater than that of any
diameters are about 10 ~^ cm.
How
does each gene bring about the synthesis of
its
particular protein
chain? Obviously, the gene must contain somewhere within the detailed information
by which synthesis
its
structure
of the protein can be ac-
complished so exactly. The simplest way to achieve this end would be for the structure of the gene itself to spell out the instructions, i.e., the order of the different amino acids whose linear sequence constitutes the required protein chain.
The answer proved to be far simpler than early workers in the field dared hope. George Gamow first had the courage to propose the simplest possible model, which also turned out to be correct. The information specifying the sequence of the amino acids constituting any protein chain is encoded in the structure of the appropriate gene. All DNA molecules are identical except for the arrangement of the crosspieces, each of which consists of two pairs of bases. But since the spatial relations are such that either base of each pair can come first, each crosspiece can form one of the four possible arrangements, AT, TA, GC, CG, 210
as
shown
Theodore Puck
Q-\
'H
h
-^
G
^ -Q ^ -Q
/*'^
HL_
A
*r
y^k.^
DO- H D- ^ PH H ^D T
1***[Z
'^*«*^
T
1"
^^^
A**'^
••«
G
"*"'»««•
/"^ri
A
T
i
6.— ARRANGEMENTS OF BASE PAIRS IN DNA. TWO SINGLE STRANDS OF PHOSPHATE (P) AND SUGAR (pENTAGONs) CONNECTED TO ONE OF THE FOUR BASES, A, T, G, OR C (A=ADENINE, r=THYMINE, G=GUANINE, C = CYTOSINE, S^SUGAr)
FIG.
Elegant experiments by workers in Cambridge, England, demonstrated that each amino acid can be spelled out by an appropriate code consisting of three consecutive crosspieces. Thus, just as the Morse
in
Figure
6.
code uses two elements— a dot and a dash— the code of life uses four different elements, and each amino acid is specified by an appropriate series of three crosspieces in the chain. Hence, each gene must contain three times as
many
whose structure
it
amino acids in the protein addition to any base-pairs which may
base-pairs as there are
determines, in
be used as signals for starting or stopping the protein chain. Once this level of understanding had been reached, it was gloomily predicted that decades would be required to work out the exact code by which base-pairs spell out amino acids. Again, in an explosive series of logical steps, new approaches were derived. Teams of investigators, and primarily that led by Marshall Nirenberg, developed powerful methods for decoding virtually all of the possible arrangements of the four elementary coding units, taken three at a time. It was found that most of the amino acids could be spelled out by several alternative coding arrangements, just as some words in the English language can be specified
by two
different speUings. All of the sixty-four possible three-element
arrangements are shown in Figure
211
7,
together with their translated
UCU ^CC UCA UCG ecu c
nooo cccc
AUU AUC AUA
> 1
AUG
GUU GUG
FIG.
lieu
j
GCU °CC GCA GCG
}
UAA UAG
Probable Chain Terminating
}
11^
1
>
Codons
CGU
AAU AAC
-p.
'^^^ 1
l^'otisble I J
1
Cham
Terminating
Codon
Try
]
-'
Hi CGG
) 1
UGC ^^ UGG
"•
I
}
.,
.
ASPN
1
^^^ )
Met
)
^
/ 1
-°
ACU ACC ACA ACG
]
UAC
Ser ^^'
(
)
III GCG
CD>OC
i
\
i f
Ala A'^
AAA AAG
(
GAC
(
GAA GAG
j
^
I
Lvs
GGU
^^^
]
GGA GGG
r, °'^
\
°'V }
1
7.— THE CODE USED TO TRANSLATE TRIPLET BASE SEQUENCES INTO AMINO HERE IN TERMS OF THE BASES OF THE RNA MESSENGER. THE RNA
ACIDS, EXPRESSED
USES THE
SAME BASES AS THE DNA EXCEPT THAT THE THYMINE (T) IN DNA IS REPLACED BY A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT ONE, URACIL (U). RNA IS A LINEAR CHAIN OF SUCH CODING TRIPLETS WHICH SPELLS OUT THE STRUCTURE OF THE FINAL PROTEIN. THE RNA ATTACHES TO THE RIBOSOME, AS SHOWN IN FIG. 8, AND PROGRAMS THE FORMATION OF THE AMINO ACID SEQUENCE ON THE RIBOSOME, TO FORM THE CORRESPONDING PROTEIN meanings. In Figure
DNA
segment shown specifies in its leftamino acid sequence histidine-arginine. In addition to specifying the sequence of the twenty different amino acids out of which every protein is composed, coding signals specifying ending of the protein chain are included, these latter having been worked out simultaneously by different teams, led by A. Garen and 6,
hand Strand the coding
S.
Brenner, respectively.
the
for the
A number
of different experiments
now
exist,
which lead to the conclusion that all living forms on the earth utilize this same code for the specification of the order of the amino acids making up their particular and unique protein chains. all
of
Many of the intimate details of the formation of the protein in accordance with the code specified in the gene have now been delineated. The first step of protein synthesis involves making a working copy of the code contained in the DNA. This working copy or blueprint consists of another type of nucleic acid which is called RNA (ribonucleic acid) because it contains a sugar, ribose, of a slightly diflFerent structure from deoxyribose which
is
present in
DNA.
This
RNA
is
single-stranded but
formed under the action of an appropriate enzyme so that it faithfully duplicates the coded sequence in the DNA section along which it is
is
formed.
It
then
is
transported out of the nucleus into the cytoplasm. This
copy of the gene is known as messenger RNA because it transmits the message from the DNA to the place where protein synthesis actually occurs. It is like a blueprint struck from a master plan, which is sent out into the working section of a factory, to guide the actual constructional operation. The messenger RNA and the individual amino acids, each of 212
Theodore Puck
which has become attached attach
to
structures
to a carrier molecule, called transport
called
ribosomes,
which operate
RNA,
enzymatically
hook one amino acid onto the next in the order prescribed by the coded message (Fig. 8). In this process by which the cell's proteins are synthesized, the most exquisite molecular specificity is exhibited. While many details remain to be worked out, the picture already available to
demonstrates
how
biological systems are able to manipulate molecules
so as to leave
little
room
for
random molecular events
to distort the final
product. Proteins containing hundreds of thousands of atoms are synthesized with incredible rapidity by this fantastically precise assembly system.
While the discovery of how these cellular events are carried out has made a fundamental change in biology, it has also introduced totally new ideas into physics and chemistry. It was never before conceived coded information could be stored in layers 3.3 A thick and 30 A is done in the nuclear DNA. This means that each element of the code is stored in a volume of about 10 ~-^ cu. cm. Moreover, the information is stored in two separate copies, since each strand of the DNA can replicate the other and therefore by itself restore the entire structure. This provides an exceedingly important factor of safety, pro-
that
in diameter, as
tecting the integrity of the message. This fantastically efficient system of
information storage utilizes a volume that
needed
in the best
many
billions of times smaller
modern magnetic tape
than
or microfilm storage de-
by man. Furthermore, the information in DNA can be and translated into new molecular structures with phenomenal speed and fidelity. Conventional physics and chemistry, with their recognition of the randomness of molecular motions in all vices invented
replicated, transcribed,
atomic aggregates at ordinary temperatures, never anticipated the possibility of channeling molecular behavior in such a highly precise fashion. FIG. 8.— A MESSENGER RNA IS DEPICTED THREADING ITS WAY THROUGH A RIBOSOME. ADDITIONAL AMINO ACIDS, EACH WITH ITS APPROPRIATE CARRIER MOLECULE, ATTACH TO THE GROWING CHAIN WHICH THE MESSENGER RNA CAUSES TO FORM IN ACCORDANCE WITH ITS CODED SEQUENCE. THE NEW AMINO ACID WITH ITS CARRIER MOLECULE IS SHOWN APPROACHING THE RIBOSOME WHERE IT WILL DISPLACE THE OLD CARRIER MOLECULE AND CAUSE THE NEW AMINO ACID TO ATTACH TO THE PRECEDING ONE IN THE DEVELOPING PROTEIN CHAIN
DEVELOPING PROTEIN CHAIN
LOADED CARRIER
^MESSENGER RNA
DIRECTION OF TRAVERSE OF MESSENGER RNA
The
Biological Sciences
DNA replication and protein formation in living systems even more powerfully than in the preceding discussions of enzyme action, how living systems have overcome much of the inherent randomness of matter at the molecular and atomic levels and have learned to steer molecules through highly specific pathways with a precision far surpassing the manipulation of large bodies in the assembly lines of The
processes of
illustrate,
man-made
factories.
THE CONTROL OF PROTEIN SYNTHESIS
Even the simplest bacterial cell can potentially manufacture synthesized, the result
would be chaos instead
ordinated sequence of chemical events which
How,
thousands
were continuously
of diflFerent protein molecules. If all of these
of the beautifully colife
actually represents.
then, are these various chemical activities coordinated so as to
produce an orderly pattern of events, and
how
pattern in accordance with changes in
external environment?
Two
aspects of the
cell's ability to
its
control
already been uncovered. First, there
is
from among
all
cell to select for synthesis,
a
its
does the
cell
chemical
mechanism
of the proteins
only those which are needed in a specific situation.
modify
activities
this
have
that enables the
which
it
encodes,
The discovery
of this
two fundamental observations. change in their external environmacromolecular biosynthesis. For
control system arose, basically, out of It was found that ment by changing
example,
cells
can adapt to a
the pattern of their
cells of bacteria
grown
in a solution containing the
use this sugar exclusively as their fuel source. Such
cells
sugar glucose
do not contain
any of the enzymes needed to metabolize another sugar such as lactose. If such cells are suddenly transferred to a solution with lactose as its only fuel source, the cells are at first unable to grow. However, after a period of ten or twenty hours, the cells do begin to utilize the lactose, and growth is re-initiated. Examination of their enzyme content now reveals large quantities of the enzymes needed for lactose utilization. Apparently, then, the cells
all
along possessed the genetic capacity to synthesize the
enzymes but did not utilize that capacity until these enzymes became important in their economy. The second observation, which led to elucidation of these control lactose
mechanisms, consisted
in finding that the genes responsible for the various steps in a continuous reaction chain often lie contiguous to each other on the chromosome, and indeed often in the same order as that
by the respective enzymes. The significance of both these observations was grasped and synthesized into a conceptual scheme by investigators at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. It was of the chemical steps catalyzed
inferred that this highly specific gene arrangement could not be a coinci-
dence but must result from the existence of an operational unit among
214
Theodore Puck jEWMfeaise^-:
Y
I T I
NACTIVATING)
ENZYME
ENZYME
ENZYME Y
(INHIBITING)
NDUCER
FIG.
9.— A SCHEMATIC REPRESENTATION OF AN OPERON. TWO REGULATORY GENES, O, ARE SHOWN, CONTROLLING THE THREE STRUCTURAL GENES, X, Y, AND
R AND
THE AHSENCE OF AN INDUCER MOLECULE, ^\'HICH IN THE EXAMPLE DISIS LACTOSE, THE R GENE PRODUCES REPRESSOR MOLECULES WHICH TT.TRN- THE O GENE TO THE "oFf" POSITION, AND NONE OF THE ENZYMES ARE FORMED. \\TIEN AN INDUCER IS ADDED, REPRESSOR ACTION IS INHIHITED, AND THE O GENE SWITCHES BACK TO THE "on" POSITION, SO THAT ENZYME SYNTHESIS OF X, Y, AND Z IS INITIATED Z. IN
CUSSED IN THE TEXT
the genes. Further study revealed that two different kinds of genes exist in living cells. The first are called structural genes. These code the structures of each of the specific proteins transactions.
The
which the
other type of genetic unit
is
cell utilizes in its
chemical
the regulatory gene. It
is
the function of each of these to turn on or off a whole bank of structural genes, in accordance \\'ith the needs of the organism. Presumably these
genes also cause synthesis of protein, but these proteins function to reguThe regulatory process is ac-
late the action of the structural genes.
complished through the actions of two genes called the regulator and operator, respectively.
In Figure is
showTi.
9,
The
a t>pical arrangement of a functional unit or "operon"
three genes, X, Y, and Z, represent structural genes.
contains the code for a specific
enzyme which
is
Each
involved in the carrying
out of consecuti\^e steps of a particular chain of chemical events. The gene marked O is the operator gene, which acts like a switch that has two settings,
of
all
an "on" or an
"off" condition.
These
settings control the activity
three adjacent structural genes so that they are simultaneously
rendered either operative or nonoperati\'e. The gene marked R normally produces a repressor substance which turns the operator O to the "off" position. Howe\'er, in the presence of a particular small molecule, like that of the sugar lactose in our previous example, the action of the repressor substance
is
antagonized. Hence the button
position, the three genes X, Y,
Z become
synthesize the three enzymes necessary for
215
O
turns to the "on"
and the cell can now the metabolism of the sugar
functional,
The lactose.
Man
The system
Biological Sciences
constitutes a beautiful
example of feedback
control.
did not discover the mechanism of feedback control until the its need for regulating the speed of steam however, have been utilizing such systems for many
Industrial Revolution, with
engines.
Cells,
billions of years.
The second aspect of cellular feedback control which has been uncovered should be added to this catalog of molecular marvels. Cells not only can regulate the synthesis of their protein machinery in accordance with their needs but can also control the activity of those enzymes already synthesized, so as to bring about marvelously delicate matching of specific
reaction velocities to the needs of the cell at any
possess specific sites for the attachment
moment. Enzymes
and activation of
their substrate
molecules. In addition, however, they also contain other specific attach-
ment
sites to
which molecules of the products of the reaction chain can
be bound. This second set of
sites will attach molecules of a reaction product of an enzyme chain only when these products accumulate in concentrations higher than optimal. This situation implies that the given reaction is proceeding too rapidly, so that the products are supplied faster than they can be used up, a condition that is potentially pathological. In that case, molecules of the excessive product bind to the secondary sites on the enzyme and cause it to undergo a structural change such
enzyme decreases. Thus the reaction more balanced situation is restored. automated, chemical factories built by man in
that the catalytic efficiency of the velocity again falls until a
We are accustomed to which the velocities of diflFerent steps in a chemical chain are controlled by complex, electronic machinery. In the living cell, exceedingly sophisticated control of reaction pathways and velocities is secured by incorporating the control machinery directly into the architecture of specific molecules.
The mechanisms
just
described do not exhaust the molecular bag of
even the very simplest microorganisms. One eflFective pumping mechanisms capable of transporting highly specific molecules inside or outside of cells with an unbelievable efficiency and accuracy; or the production of bioelectricity by living cells, which still has not been adequately explained on a molecular basis. However, the data already presented should serve to make clear how elaborate and sophisticated is the art of molecular manipulation found in even the simplest living organisms. tricks
contained in
cells of
could discuss the enormously complex and
THE MAMMALIAN CELL
Until
now, we have been examining the universal chemical principles
operating in the simplest microorganisms and presumably in other cells as well. In these simple forms, each cell
216
is
by
itself
all
a complete
Theodore Puck
whose only function appears
be that of continuous repromammal, however, we find individual cells are united to form complexity: levels of many additional into separate tissues and organized whole, complex an exceedingly individual
to
duction. In considering an animal like the
organs.
The
functions,
separate cells
and
become highly
specialized to carry out special
the fate of the individual cells
the organism as a whole. Therefore,
and control become
operative. Cells
new
still
is
subordinated to that of
levels of
chemical regulation
carry on the fundamental chains
of chemical events involved in reproduction. In addition, however, the
resulting daughter cells often remain together instead of separating,
these
aggregates form geometric patterns and functional
units
and with
appearance and behavior. Finally, new and enormously more complex chemical chains are initiated that are specific for the cells of each tissue and enable them to carry out a particular chemical function difiFerentiated
serving the needs of the
body
as a whole.
The mammalian
cells are
more
than a thousand-fold larger than the simplest bacterial cells; they possess DNA equivalent to about a thousand times as many genes, and their life history
is
correspondingly more variegated.
much more
progress has been
made
of the bacterial cell than that of the
man
It is for
these reasons that so
in elucidating the
mammalian
chemical history
cell in general,
and of
in particular.
We have
already seen that the
new
revolution in biological understand-
ing began with the study of the simplest organisms, and with the amalgamation of two separate disciplines, genetics and biochemistry. The
problems of mammalian cell biology, however, present formidable obstacles which do not exist in the simplest cells. The first has been mentioned— i.e., the biochemistry of mammalian cells is enormously more
complex than that of simple organisms. The second involves the great difficulty in study of mammalian genetics, as compared with that of bacteria, fungi, and bacterial viruses. For one thing, mammals reproduce so much more slowly than the aforementioned microorganisms that experimentation requires much more time. Thus the generation time of an E. coli bacterium
man to
is
is
approximately twenty-five minutes, while that of is not free
twenty-five years. Moreover, in the case of man, one
make
those particular matings that
of genetic information, as one
is
would provide the greatest amount do in other living forms. Hence,
free to
of the twentieth century, while the study of the molecular biology in microorganisms was advancing at a furious pace, that of mammals, and of man, was only slightly influenced by these new de-
by the middle
velopments.
Microorganisms constitute superb material for molecular studies because of the ease with which they lend themselves to quantitative genetic and biochemical manipulation. A sample of such cell or virus populations can be introduced into a glass dish in a semisolid medium, so that every
217
The
Bioloaical Sciences FIG.
10.— COLONIES RESULTING
FROM SINGLE
BACTERIOPHAGE PARTICLES DEPOSITED ON A SEMISOLID NUTRIENT MEDIUM WHICH ALSO CONTAINS A LAYER OF THE HOST BACTERIA. THE WHITE BACKGROUND IS THE BACTERIAL LAYER WHICH IS DISINTEGRATED BY THE ADVANCING CIRCULAR COLONY OR PLAQUE OF THE VIRUS. SINGLE CELLS OF BACTERIA OR FUNGI CAN BE SIMILARLY PLATED ON SIMPLE NUTRIENT MEDIA TO FORM COLONIES. IN EACH CASE, THE COLONY FORMED IS A CLONE, I.E., A POPULATION DESCENDED FROM A SINGLE PARENT BY ASEXUAL REPRODUCTION. A CLONE IS THE MOST GENETICALLY UNIFORM POPULATION OF ORGANISMS POSSIBLE
individual cell grows in isolation to form a visible colony
(Fig.
10).
Because of this behavior, an accurate determination of the number of cells in any population capable of reproducing in a medium of any desired chemical composition is a simple, routine operation. It is also possible to determine precisely the eflFect of any physical or chemical agent on the reproductive process. Finally, this technique for single cell growth
permits one to inoculate dishes with huge populations of a million or
more
under conditions where normally growth is impossible. Howmutants present in the population that can grow under these circumstances, do so, and they form visible colonies. Thus it becomes possible to detect such mutations, to count them, and to isolate pure colonies of such mutant cells. The colonies which arise from single cells are called clones. Genetic experiments are possible only when one is able to observe the pathways of inheritance. Hence, cells with specific mutations serve as marker cells by which the genetic pathways can be traced. The availability of this simple and powerful technique was recells
ever, those rare
sponsible for
much
of the great acceleration in understanding of microbial
genetics during the last three decades.
In the middle of the 1950's, the kinds of biological analyses that had proved so successful in studying bacteria were extended so as to make possible similar studies with human and other kinds of mammalian cells. Thus a new approach to the study of molecular genetics in man and other animals was initiated.
A method was
devised for taking
cells
from any person or animal in routine fashion and with little discomfort. Means were found by which these cells could be reliably introduced into continuous growth in vitro utilizing the previously established techniques of tissue culture. Finally, conditions were developed such that these cells could be introduced in measured amount into dishes, and each cell would grow in isolation to form a discrete colony or clone. These
218
Theodore Puck
was mutant colonies could be recognized, isolated, and grown up into new stocks which made possible many kinds of genetic excolonies could be counted, so that quantitation of reproductive cells
possible. Moreover,
periments.
Figure 11 shows a tained from single
growth has been obmutant cell strain cannot the medium. If one adds
t\'pical dish in \\'hich clonal
mammalian
cells.
grow unless the amino acid proline a million of such cells to a
One is
typical
added
to
medium without
proline, occasional reverse
mutants appear which are capable of synthesizing the proline by themselves. These mutants can be picked and established into new stocks. Biochemical anahsis of these mutants established the identity of the gene that was involved in the success or failure of the respecti\ e forms to svtithesize the proline.
These quantitative techniques also make possible accurate study of the effects of \arious agents that affect
are
grown only
are obscured.
in
It is
mammalian
cell
growth, ^^'he^
cells
massixe populations, details of the growth dynamics difficult, if
not impossible, to distinguish effects due
to the ability of onl\- a limited fraction of the population to multiply
those due to \ariations in the growth rate of the single cell technique,
it
becomes
cells.
\A^ith
the
from
new
a simple matter to determine the frac-
tion of cells in an>' population able to multiply
and form
discrete colonies.
In addition, the growth rate can be obtained by observing the size of the colonies each da)' and plotting their
demonstrated
in
Figure
12.
The
number
in a
growth curve,
agents like antibodies and \iruses, and physical agents like further sections) have
now been
as
effects of a \ariety of drugs, biological
X
rays (see
elucidated.
Other tools ha\e also been de\"ised for the quantitatixe study of the growth and chemical behaxior of the mammalian cell. The dexelopment of these new techniques has opened up many new regions of research
FIG.
11.— GLASS DISH CONTAINING COLONIES,
EACH OF X\HICH HAS DEVELOPED FROM A SINGLE HUMAN CELL. THE PROCEDURE YIELDS AN ACCURATE MEASUREMENT OF THE NUMBER OF CELLS IN A POPULATION WHICH ARE CAPABLE OF REPRODUCTION AND COLONY FORMATION. EACH OF THESE COLONIES IS A CLONE JUST LIKE THOSE IN FIG. 10.
A MICROSCOPIC ENLARGEMENT OF
ONE SUCH COLONY
IS
SHOWN
IN FIG.
1
219
y"
2,000 1,000
-
500
-
/ '^
'
r
COLONY
-
Oo oi
•^r
o
PER
CO
^ ^
_
10 5
l
1
,.^
^ 40
^^ 1
80
1
1
120
1
1
1
160
1
1
200
240
1
280
TIME (HOURS)
FIG. 12.— GROWTH BATE OF SINGLE HUMAN CELLS INCUBATED IN A GLASS DISH WITH A NUTBIENT MEDIUM. AFTEB AN INITIAL DELAY OF ABOUT EIGHTEEN HOURS, THE CELLS START MULTIPLYING AND DOUBLE EVERY TWENTY HOURS. THE REPRODUCIBILITY OF THE PROCEDURE IS DEMONSTRATED BY THE CONCORDANCE BETWEEN THE SOLID AND HOLLOW CIRCLES WHICH REPRESENT RESULTS OF TWO SIMILAR EXPERIMENTS CARRIED OUT A YEAR APART
SO that
mammalian
cell
biology in 1967 has
become one
of the
most
active fields of science.
THE HUMAN CHROMOSOMES most dramatic developments out of the new Oneand the molecular applied man and other mammals has of
arising
studies as
cellular
to
been the
identification of the chromosomes. These bodies contain all the genes that determine the hereditary characteristics of animals like ourselves. In 1926, it was announced that the human chromosome number
was
48. This value appeared to receive confirmation in laboratories throughout the world, and it became accepted as one of the best known numerical parameters of the human species. However, during the intervening thirty years, almost nothing further was learned about these all-
important bodies. In the 1950's, the developments in molecular and cellular biology stimulated a new characterization of the genetic constitution of man.
New 1956,
techniques for visualizing chromosomes were developed, and, in H. Tjio and A. Levan, utilizing such advances, electrified the J.
world of biological science by publishing photographs demonstrating that in the several specimens which they had obtained from human abortions, only 46 chromosomes could be found. Papers appeared both confirming and challenging these studies, and it was even claimed that a chromosome number of 46, 47, or 48 could equally well exist in man. By 1958, these problems had been resolved by the clear demonstration that normal humans have only one chromosome number, 46, and that
220
n Theodore Puck
number
is the same for xirtually all of the somatic cells of the body. chromosomes were characterized and identified, and a standard numbering system was adopted by scientists throughout the world, which enormously facilitated the pooling of information gathered in
this
Finally, the
di\'erse laboratories.
These studies were carried on by investigators with the conviction that some application to problems of human health. No one was prepared, however, for the rapidity with which these results assumed vast, practical importance. \\'ithin a matter of several months after the first identification of all the human chromosomes, the important role of chromosomal disease in man began to be elucidated. Figure 13 is a picture of the normal human chromosomes arranged in a conventional manner called an idiogram. The association of chromosomal abnormalities with human disease was first demonstrated in the epoch-making report of J. Lejeune and his co-workers in 1959. They demonstrated that the condition kno\%ai as Down's syndrome (more commonly but erroneously referred to as mongolism), which had long constituted one of the profound medical enigmas, is the result of an error in chromosomal distribution such that, in the developing embryo, the cells acquire an extra chromosome of pair No. 21. {See Fig. 13.) Thus three instead of two of these chromosomes are present in each cell of the affected indi\idual. Very rapidly, thereafter, many other diseases which had long been recognized in medicine, but whose basic cause had never been understood, came to be recognized as representing specific chromosomal errors. A new branch of medicine has been created with extensive implications for new understanding of human disease. ultimately they \\ould ha\"e
IDIOGRAM OF HUMAN MALE
ii is {n 12 3
4
Hi
(
7
8
9
10
I
FIG.
5
6
11
12
t
n,
«
A
i
fi
X
A
4
18
19
20
A
A I
13
14
15
16
I 17
IN
ACCORDANCE WITH THE INTERNATIONALLY ACCEPTED SYSTEM. THE FEMALE CHROMOSOMES ARE IDENTICAL, EXCEPT THAT THE SEX CHROMOSOMES CONSIST OF TWO x's INSTEAD OF ONE X AND ONE Y
* b d X & & 6
13.— CLASSIFICATION OF THE NOR-
MAL HUMAN MALE CHROMOSOMES
21
22
1
Y
221
The
Biological Sciences
As studies of this kind developed further, some intriguing patterns began to emerge relating to the occurrence of chromosomal errors in human newborn populations. The magnitude of these is extraordinarily high. It is reasonably well established that chromosomal aberrations occur in approximately 0.5 percent of all live newborns. Moreover, all of these conditions produce the most deep-seated kinds of disease for which, at present, there is no cure. In more than two-thirds of these conditions, mental deficiency is included as one of the chief manifestations of the disease. When one considers the cost to the aflFected individual, to the parents, and to society, of each case of mental deficiency, the enormous social burden of these chromosomal aberrations becomes evident. There is also good reason to believe that these aberrations produce spontaneous abortion in an appreciable proportion of all human conceptions. There are few other spontaneous processes which exact so high a cost, in disease and fetal wastage. Studies of the nature of some of the more frequent chromosomal anomalies have shed light on the mechanism of sex determination in man. Previously, the only animal for which the chromosomal influence on sex
determination had been understood was Drosophila, the
fruit fly, which was then taken as a model for all other animals. In Drosophila there are almost no genes on the Y chromosome, so that an individual with only one X chromosome is a male, while two X chromosomes produce a female, regardless of whether any Y chromosomes are present or not. In man, however, individuals who have one X and no other sex chromosome are females but fail to complete their sexual maturation at puberty. A number of additional sex chromosomal abnormalities are known in man which have led to increased understanding of the development of the sex characteristics. Further studies will undoubtedly elucidate much of the biochemistry of sex maturation and provide important new tools for
medicine.
The role of chromosomal anomalies in cancer remains to be elucidated. However, one particular kind of malignancy has now been definitely associated with a specific chromosomal abnormality. Chronic myelogenous leukemia has been found to involve loss of a small piece of chromosome No. 21 (see Fig. 13), and the shortened chromosome resulting has been named the Philadelphia chromosome. The elucidation of the biochemical actions of difi^erent human genes and their mapping on the chromosomes will lead to fundamental understanding about many metabolic situations, and undoubtedly about the intrinsic cellular defect in various types of cancer.
The new
studies on
mammalian chromosomes have uncovered a new mammals
principle in genetics that appears applicable not only to the
but to
many
other multicellular organisms as well. This fundamental
contribution to genetic theory
is
known 222
as the Lyon-Russell hypothesis,
Theodore Puck
CELL FROM SHOWING THE BARR BODY, THE CONDENSED PORTION OF THAT X CHROMOSOME WHICH IS LARGELY INACTIVE FIG.
14.— TYPICAL
FEMALE FETAL
TISSUE
its two discoverers, and proposes a unique metabolic role for the chromosome. The hypothesis states that in no cell can more than one chromosome be completely active at any one time. The major portions of any additional X chromosomes are rendered inactive and are coiled up into a small mass at the edge of the nucleus, where they are known
after
X X
as Barr bodies, so
named
after their discoverer (Fig. 14). Since all the
X
chromosomes, a decision must and which inactive. According to the theory, the decision is made at some as yet unknown period which occurs early in embryonic development. At that time, the decision is made randomly in every cell. Thereafter, however, the fate of each cell and of all its progeny is fixed. As the embryo continues to develop, different cell lines proliferate, in which one or the other of the two X chromosomes is respectively active. As a consequence, then, every female contains a mosaic pattern of two different kinds of cells. This theory has been of great importance in explaining some of the cell behavior of cells of
every normal female contain two
be made
as to
mammalian
which of these
will
be active
females.
ACTION OF RADIATION ON the most Onemammalian biology
interesting applications of these
of
cells
and
tissues.
MAMMALIAN CELLS new developments
in
concerns the action of ionizing radiation on
The enormous
increase in exposure of
human
popula-
tions to high energy radiations— as a result of the increased uses of these
agencies in medicine, the growth of radiation industries, and the release of atomic explosions with their consequent
wide dispersal of
fallout
ma-
much concern about the possible consequences to man. Before 1950, the mode of action of ionizing radiation on mammalian cells was shrouded in mystery. The new techniques that have since been developed for these studies have greatly enlarged the scope of mammalian
terial—has aroused
223
The
Biological Sciences
radiobiology. Some new, fundamental generalizations have already emerged, and the means for the acquisition of much more understanding appears to be at hand.
On
cursory examination, the action of ionizing radiation on
would appear
mammalian
be exceedingly complex. These radiations transfer energies to the molecules in which they are absorbed in amounts much greater than the binding energies which tie atoms stably to their posicells
tions
to
inside molecules.
radiation produces
Therefore,
exposure of living tissues to such
random bond breakage and molecular
disorganization
wherever the energy absorption occurs. Since such an event is almost equally likely to occur to any atom of any molecule of any cell in any organ or tissue of the body, it is obvious that an exceedingly large array of difiFerent kinds of damage might conceivably result from such irradiation. And, indeed, the different kinds of pathologies that can occur when ionizing radiation strikes the
and include such conditions
mammalian body
hemorrhage, disorders of the gastrointestinal ating
wounds
are exceedingly diverse
as leukopenia, capillary fragility tract,
and internal
production of ulcer-
that fail to heal, cataract, cellular depletion in
many
tissues,
the occurrence of mutations and developmental abnormalities in offspring, cancer,
and death. Few agents produce
so
wide a variety of damaging
actions.
One amount
of the major uncertainties in this field of radiation exposure
malian body.
A
needed
was ignorance about the
to kill individual cells in the
variety of indirect estimates for the
mean
mam-
lethal dose
seemed to point to values lying between 20,000 and 200,000 rads as the dose needed to terminate a cell's reproductive life. (A rad is a unit of ionizing radiation absorption.) But these figures were not readily reconcilable with other facts. For example, it was known that the dose of radiation sufficient to cause death to a mammal when applied to its whole body lay in the neighborhood of 500 rads. Therefore, the problem arose of how to explain why the body itself is killed by a dose enormously smaller than that required to kill an appreciable fraction of its individual cells. In addition, many investigators, studying the fate of the different body tissues after exposure of animals to different doses of ionizing radiation,
found that the pathology developing in various tissues differed enormously in its intensity. Thus some tissues, like the bone marrow, revealed extensive damage after only 100 or 200 rads of radiation, whereas tissues like muscle and nerve showed little, if any, change even after exposures to a dose one hundred times greater. No clear basis was available to explain the existence of these large differences. Thus
biology for the
first
mammalian
radio-
half of this century consisted, in large part, in the
empirical cataloging of
all
the diverse effects that could be elicited in
the different tissues after exposure of animals to varying doses of radiation.
With
the development of
means
for
224
measuring the growth of single
2.0
i.
1.0'
2 o iz u
e wele in ]>e West lies. riche
With
to
\fe
Rome
ricchis
hym
swyj'e,
bobbaunce J>at burje he biges vpon fyrst, And neuenes hit his aune nome, as hit now hat Ticius to Tuskan and teldes bigynnes, Langaberde in Lumbardie lyftes vp homes, And fer ouer ]>e French flod Felix Brutus On mony bonkkes ful brode Bretayn he sette3 wyth Wynne, Where werre and wrake and wonder Bi syj>e3 hat3 wont }?erinne, And oft bo)>e blysse and blunder Ful skete hat3 skyfted synne. gret
;
10
15
Great Books Library
INTRODUCTION Gatvain and the Green Knight has been described as "one of the most original works in medieval romance." One must be widely read in medieval literature, however, to recognize and appreciate its originality. Much in the poem that is most strange, novel, and interesting to the modern reader derives from the literary tradition to which it belongs and can be found in any of the romances dealing with the world of chivalry and with the adventures of knight errantry. Sir Gawain, the hero of the poem, is one of the foremost Knights of the Round Table, the model of "old-time courtesy" for Chaucer's Squire, who also associates him with the land of Faery (The Squire's Tale, GBWW, Vol. 22, p. 340b). The setting of the story with its magic and
Sir
marvels, in the courts as well as in the forest, the incidents that initiate the action and carry
is it
traditional. So, too, are
to
its
climax— the chal-
lenge of the "beheading game" and the temptation by the lady of
Cawain's courtesy, purity, and sists
loyalty.
The
not in the elements that enter into
poem conway they are narrative poem
originality of the it
but in the
combined and worked into a new unity. The result is a and vividness often compares with the best
that in pace
The poem
latter part of the fourteenth
literature.
Yet
of Chaucer.
a product of the age of Chaucer, being written in the
is
it
is
century— the golden age of Middle English
outside the Chaucerian tradition. It
is
written in a
Midlands of England and not that of London, from which modern English has developed, and hence is not as easy to read in the original as Chaucer is. It employs as verse-form a long-line alliterative style which recalls the forms of Old English poetry rather than the courtly French models favored by Chaucer. The author of the poem is unknown. He is usually assumed to be the author of the three other poems found in the manuscript dating from about 1400 that is the source of the text of Sir Gawain. One, entitled Patience, relates the story of Jonah and the whale. Purity praises the virtue of chastity and the punishment of impurity by retelling the biblical stories of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Flood, and the fall of Belshazzar. Pearl, the third poem, which is an elegy on the death of the poet's twoyear-old daughter, describes a vision of the heavenly city. All three poems are thus explicitly religious in theme and tone. dialect of the northwest
The
Much
interpretation of the in the
for example,
poem
is
Gawain poem
obviously symbolic.
upon the symbolic meaning
that of the girdle. Yet the figure of the
is considerably more difficult. The poet comments expressly,
of the shield's decoration and Green Knight, presumably the
most important symbol of all, remains mysterious, despite attempts to identify him with sun and vegetation myths or fertility rites. But the
428
Sir Gaioain
story
is
and the Green Knight
the main thing, and his part
Gawain's success
and the account
in
meeting
is
his ordeal
of his adventures
is
to challenge and test makes him the model
Sir
Gawain.
of courtesy,
well described as "a chivalrous
Pilgrim's Progress." translation printed here— the most recent that has been made— by John Gardner, professor at San Francisco State College. In it, the translator has provided what is so far the closest approximation in modern English of the rhythm, tone, and complex verse structure of the Middle
The
is
English original.
CONTENTS The Challenge Two: Journey to the Castle Part Three: The Temptations at the Castle Part Four: The Test at the Green Chapel Part One:
431
Part
453 478 513
429
Sir
Part One:
Gawain and
the
Green Knight
The Challenge
1
After the siege and assault was ended at Troy,
The
battlements breached and burnt to brands and ashes,
who the trammels of treason there wrought, known for his wrongs— the worst yet on earth.
Antenor, he
Was
well
Aeneas the noble it was and his kingly kinsmen That afterward conquered kingdoms and came to be lords
Of well-nigh all the wealth of the Western Isles; For royal Romulus to Rome rushed swiftly
And with great splendor established that first of all cities And named it his own name, as we now know it; And Ticius to Tuskan went and built there his towers; And Langaberde in Lombardy lifted up houses; And far over the French flood Felix Brutus
On
the slopes of
many broad
hills established
with
Britain
joy,
Where war and wrack and wonder Have sometimes since held sway. And now bliss, now blunder. Turned like dark and day.
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Great Books Library
And
after Britain
was built by that brave baron,
Bold lords were bred there,
And
men who
loved battle.
time after time they would turn to the tools of destruction;
More monsters have been met on the moors of that land Than anywhere else I know of since earliest times. But of all who built castles there, of Britain's kings, Arthur was highest in honor, as all men know; And so I intend to recount a tradition of the region, A strange and surprising thing, as some men hold. And awesome even among the adventures of Arthur. If you will listen to my lay but a little while I
will tell
it all,
and
at once, as
I
heard
it
told
in town.
Rightly, as
it is
written,
A story swift
and strong
With
locked and linking.
letters
As scops have always sung.
432
Sir
King Arthur
With many
Gawain and
the Green Knight
Camelot over Christmas
lay at
a gentle lord, his gallant-hearted
men,
noble knights of the Roimd Table, names of renown, With great revels and good, and gladness of heart. Tournament trumpets rang there time and again.
The
And And
knights jarred knights, with jubilant hearts, in the joust. later they
For the
With
feast
all
came
was in
into court to dance caroles; full
swing for
fifteen days
the dinners and diversions devised by man,
Such explosions of Joyful din
all
joy, it
was beautiful to hear—
day long, and dancing
Happiness reigned on high there in
all
night;
halls
and
in
chambers
Where lords and ladies delighted themselves as they liked. With all the goodwill in the world they dwelled there together. The most renowned of knights— next to Christ himself—
And And For
the loveliest ladies that ever yet lived in the land. their king the coineliest king that
all
those excellent people were
still
had ever held court; in their youth
on that dais; Most highborn under Heaven, Their king of
all
kings best-
Where but
there has there been
A company
so blessed?
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Great Books Library
New Year was
While the
The
young— it was newly fallen—
still
nobles sat two to a serving on the dais,
For the king and
When
all his
come down to the hall chapel had come to an end;
knights had
the chanting of mass in the
up by the clergy and Praising Noel anew and naming it often;
Joyful cries were cast
And now
the great lords rushed about giving out handsels,
Cried out the
They debated
And
others.
gifts
on high and gave them about those
busily, briskly,
in person; gifts.
the ladies laughed, delighted, even though they lost
(And she who won was not
Thus
they
all
made merry
Then, when they
all
sorry, till
had washed, they went
Arranged by standards of rank,
Queen Guinevere,
you may be
as
seemed
to
to their seats,
them
right.
resplendent, seated in the center.
Placed on the blazing dais, adorned
With
sure);
dinner was made.
the finest of silks
on
all sides,
all
about
and streaming above her
A tapestry-tent out of world-famous
Tars and Toulouse
Embroidered and splendidly spangled with sparkling gems That might well prove priceless if anyone wanted to buy them some day; But the fairest of all to see
Was
the
gem with
Fairest of all
As
434
all
was
our poets
eyes of gray;
she,
say.
Gawain and
Sir
Now
the Green Knight
Arthur the King would not
eat until all
were served,
So brimming he was with youth and boyish high
He
loved
Either to
all
the luster of
lie in
bed
life,
late or too
and he long to
little
spirits;
liked
sit.
So busy his youthful blood, his brain so
lively;
And also for other reasons he waited there, restless: He had sworn by his sovereignty he would start no meal
On
the festival of the
Some
New
strange tale about
Year before he was given
some most mysterious
thing,
Soine Monstrous Marvel that merited belief.
Of Or
Old Ones, or of Arms, or of other adventures. until some stout lancer had sought of him some sure knight To join with him in the joust and in jeopardy lay the
Mortal His
life
against
life,
each leaving to the other
fling at the fairer lot, as
Fortime might fashion.
Such was the King's custom when the court came together
At each of the
fine feasts
he held with his freemen in the hall;
Therefore, bold in his manner.
He
stands at his place,
Waiting, yoimg on the
tall.
New
Year,
Laughing and talking with them
all.
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Great Books Library
There at his station the King stood, straight and proud, Taking politely of trifles to all the high table; The good Sir Gawain was stationed by gray-eyed Guinevere, And Agravain of the Gauntlet on Gawain's left, Sure knights both and sons of the King's own sister. Above,
And
at the
head of the
table, sat
Bishop Baldwin,
Ywain, son of Urien, ate with the Bishop.
All these were seated on the dais and served with distinction,
And down below many another knight ate at the sideboards. Then quickly the first course comes in, with a clarion of trumpets Hung brightly with many a blazing banderole. And now the kettledrums barked, and the brilliant pipes Warbled wildly and richly, awakening echoes That lifted high every heart by their heavenly sound.
Then
in flooded wonderful cates, the finest of foods,
Mountains It
was hard
The
of splendid meats, such a marvel of dishes to find places to place there, in front of the people.
vessels of silver that held all the various stews
on hand. Soon each
Turned
to suit his wishes
gladly, gay of
mind.
For every two, twelve dishes,
Cold beer and
436
brilliant wine.
Sir Gaiuain
But now
I
will speak
and the Green Knight
no more of their sumptuous banquet,
man must know, there was nothing missing. Another strain of music now sang through the hall For
as
every
Encouraging each of the nobles
And And
strangely, almost as soon as that
the
first
There haled through the door
From
his
wide neck
His loins and his I
must hold
For
And And
he might;
sound died out
course had been courteously served to the court,
A man as enormous as any
And And
to eat all
that
of that hall an
known on
to his rib cage so
legs so
man
yet for all that, a
ungodly creature,
earth:
square and so thick.
long and so loaded with power,
half giant
man
under Heaven—
he must
still
have been,
the handsomest creature that ever yet rode horseback; his chest
and
yet his waist
indeed
his shoulders
were huge
and
were worthily small.
all his
his belly
features were princely
and
as
any boulder
and
perfectly
formed
clean:
But astounded, every man there Stared at the stranger's skin,
For though he seemed
fine
and
fair.
His whole great body was green!
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Great Books Library
He came
there
all in
green, both the clothes and the man,
A coat, tight-fitting and long, fastened to his sides; On his shoulders a beautiful cloak that was covered inside With
pelts perfectly pured, resplendent cloth
Bright with a trimming of blaunner, and a hood to match,
Loosened now from
his locks
and lying on
Close-fitting, tightly stretched hose of that
his shoulders;
same vivid green
Clung to his calves; at his ankles himg gleaming spurs Of gold on embroidered bangles richly barred; The guard-leather under his legs, where the large man And everything on him, in fact, was entirely greenBoth the bars of his belt and the beautiful stones Artfully arranged over
all his
rode,
array
Upon
settings of silk on himself and the cantle of his saddle; would be too much to tell half the trimmings and trifles Embroidered in brocatelle, with birds and flies,
It
Gay
weld-glints of green gleaming gold at the center,
The beautiful bridle with its metal all brightly enameled, The stirrups the stranger stood on stained the same way. And the saddlebow also, and the mighty steed's fine skirts Where they glistered and gleamed and glinted, all of green For the charger on which he came was completely the color of the
A great And
Who
man—
horse huge and heavy
hard to keep in hand. bridled and bristled roughly
But knew the knight's command.
438
stones.
Great Books Library
Splendid that knight errant stood in a splay of green,
And
mane
green, too, was the
mighty
of his
destrier;
Fair fanning tresses enveloped the fighting man's shoulders.
And The
over his breast hung a beard as big as a bush;
beard and the huge
Were
mane burgeoning
forth
from
his
And
the
As
covered by a king's chaperon, closed roimd the neck.
if
head
clipped off clean in a straight line over his elbows,
upper
The mane
half of each
arm was hidden underneath
of the marvelous horse was
much
the same.
Well crisped and combed and carefully pranked with knots,
Threads of gold interwoven with the glorious green.
Now a thread of hair, now another thread of gold; The tail of the horse and the forelock were tricked the same And both were bound up with a band of brilliant green Adorned with glittering jewels the length of the dock, Then caught up tight with a thong in a criss-cross knot
Where many
a bell tinkled brightly,
So monstrous
Was
a
mount,
so
mighty
never once encountered on
a
man
all this till
His
And
all
burnished gold. in the saddle
earth
then;
eyes, like lightning, flashed,
it seemed to many a man. That any man who clashed With him would not long stand.
440
way.
Sir
Gawain and
the
Green Knight
10
But the huge man came unarmed, without helmet or hauberk, No breastplate or gorget or iron cleats on his arms;
He
brought neither shield nor spearshaft to shove or to smite,
But instead he held
in
one hand a bough of the holly
That grows most green when
And
held in the other an ax,
A pitiless battleblade
all
the groves are bare
immense and unwieldy,
terrible to tell of.
The head alone was a full ell-yard in length. The branching pike-steel of blinking green and gold. The bit brilliantly burnished, with a broad edge So carefully ground
it
could cut like the blade of a razor;
The stout shaft which the stern-faced hero gripped Was wound around with iron to the end of the wood And was all engraved in green with graceful figures; And a leather cord lapped around it to lock on the head And, below, lapped roimd the handle
And what seemed himdreds
On
to
hold
it
in tight;
of tassels were tacked to the cord
buttons of bright green, brocheed and embroidered.
Thus came
the dreadful knight to
King Arthur's
hall
And drove full tilt to the dais, afraid of no man. He never hailed anyone there but, haughtily staring, He spoke, and the first words he said were these: "Where is The ruler of this rout? For readily would I Set eyes on that sovereign and say a few words with him, man to
man."
He glanced at the company And looked them up and down; He stood and seemed to study Which knight had most renown.
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Great Books Library
11
All the lords sat silent
And
and looked
at the stranger
each duke marveled long what the devil
it
meant
That a hero and horse should have taken such a hue, As growing-green as the grass— and yet greener, it seemed; More brightly glowing than green enamel on gold. And every man there stood musing and came more near Wondering what in the world this creature was up to. For many a marvel they'd met with, but nothing like this. They thought it must be magic or illusion.
And
for that reason
Astounded
at the
many
a lord
sound of
was too frightened to answer;
his voice, they sat stone
a deathly silence spread throughout the hall
As
they had slipped off to sleep; their sounds sank away
if
and died; But some (I'm
From
sure) kept
still
courtesy, not fright;
Since this was Arthur's hall,
Let him address the knight.
442
still.
And
Sir
Gawain and
the Green Knight
12
King Arthur stared down at the stranger before the high dais And greeted him nobly, for nothing on earth frightened him. And he said to him, "Sir, you are welcome in this place; I am the head of this court. They call me Arthur. Get down from your horse, I beg you, and join us for dinner, And then whatever you seek we will gladly see to." But the stranger said, "No, so help me God on high.
My errand But friend, Your castle
The
is
hardly to
sit
at
my
ease in your castle!
since your praises are sung so far
stoutest
men
in steel
armor
that ever rode steeds.
Most mighty and most worthy of
And And
and wide.
and your barons
the best ever built, people say,
all
mortal
men
tough devils to toy with in tournament games, since courtesy
is
in flower in this court, they say.
All these tales, in truth, have drawn me to you at this You may be assured by this holly branch I bear That I come to you in peace, not spoiling for battle. If I'd wanted to come in finery, fixed up for fighting, I have back at home both a helmet and a hauberk,
time.
A shield and a sharp spear that shines like fire. And
other weapons that
But since
Now You
if
I
don't
know
come here
you are truly
will grant
I
me
as
pretty well
for battle,
bold
gladly the
little
my
people
as the
game
as
my
how
to use.
clothes are
mere
cloth.
all say.
that
I
ask
right."
Arthur gave him answer
And
said, "Sir
If it's a
noble knight.
duel you're
after.
We'll furnish you your fight."
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Great Books Library
13
"Good
heavens,
I
want no such thing!
I
assure you, Sire,
You've nothing but beardless babes about If I
were hasped
You
haven't a
And
so all
I
any
man
So bold in
my armor and that could
ask of this court
For the Yule If
in
man
is
bench!
my
horse,
match me, your might
is
New
and
here,
high on
this
a Christmas Year's,
is
so feeble.
game,
and here
sit
young men;
holds himself, here in this house, so hardy. his
blood— and
so brainless in his
head-
That he dares to stoutly exchange one stroke for another, I shall let him have as my present this lovely gisarme, This
ax, as
And
I
heavy
handle
as he'll need, to
as
he
will abide the first blow, bare-necked as
anyone here has the daring to try what I've Leap to me lightly, lad; lift up this weapon;
If
I
give you the thing forever— you
And
I
will stand
still
Provided you honor
for
my
may
think
A
let
your own; floor,
when my inning comes,
the respite be
twelvemonth and
a day;
Come now, my boys, let's What any here can say."
444
offered,
your stroke, steady on the right,
to repay.
But
it
likes, I sit.
see
Sir Gaioain
and
the
Green Knight
14 If
they were like stone before, they were
Every
last
lord in the hall, both the high
The stranger on his destrier And ferociously his red eyes
stiller
now,
and the low;
stirred in the saddle
rolled around;
He lowered his grisly eyebrows, glistening green, And waved his beard and waited for someone to rise;
When
no one answered, he coughed,
And drew
as
if
embarrassed.
up straight and spoke again: be King Arthur's court?" said
himself
"What! Can
this
the stranger,
"Whose renown runs through many a realm, flung far and wide? What has become of your chivalry and your conquest. Your greatness-of-heart and your grimness and grand words? Behold the radiance and renown of the mighty Round Table Overwhelmed by a word out of one man's mouth! You shiver and blanch before a blow's been shown!"
And
with that he laughed so loud that the lord was distressed;
In chagrin, his blood shot up in his face and limbs so fair;
More angry he was than
And And
likewise each
man
the wind.
there;
Arthur, bravest of men,
Decided now
to
draw
near.
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15
And But I
he
said,
since
"By heaven,
know no one here who's
Give
me
your request folly,
strange;
is
you may
I'll
it.
aghast of your great words.
grant you the gift you have asked to be given."
Lightly the King leaped
down and
clutched
it
quickly that other lord alighted on his
Arthur
as well find
your gisarme, then, for the love of God,
And gladly Then
sir,
you have come here for
lay
hold of the ax, he gripped
it
in his hand;
feet.
by the handle,
And he swung it up over him sternly, as if to strike. The stranger stood before him, in stature higher By a head or more than any man here in the house; Sober and thoughtful he stood there and stroked
his beard.
And with patience like a priest's he pulled down his collar, No more unmanned or dismayed by Arthur's might Than he'd be if some baron on the bench had brought him of wine.
Then Gawain, at Guinevere's Made to the king a sign: "I beseech you. Sire,"
"Let
446
this
he
game be mine.
said,
side.
a glass
Gawain and
Sir
the
Green Knight
16
my worthy lord," said Gawain to the King, "Would command me to step from the dais and stand with
"Now
if
you,
you
there.
That I might without bad manners move down from my place (Though I couldn't, of course, if my liege lady disliked it) I'd
For
be deeply honored to advise you before I
think
it
unseemly,
if I
all
the court;
understand the matter.
That challenges such as this churl has chosen to offer Be met by Your Majesty— much as it may amuse you—
When so many No men under Or I
better in
myself
am
bold-hearted barons
Heaven,
am
I
body on the
fields
My life would be least missed, Only
as
where
the weakest, of course,
you are
my
uncle have
if I
about the bench:
sit
sure, are
more hardy
battles are fought;
and
we
let
in wit the
any honor.
my body
I
And since And since
it first, let it fall
If I've
bear in
this affair that's befallen us
have asked for
reasoned incorrectly,
most feeble;
out the truth.
For excepting your blood,
I
in will
let all
here
is
slight virtue.
so foolish.
to
me.
the court say,
without blame."
The nobles gather round And all advise the same: "Let the King step down And give Sir Gawain the game!"
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Great Books Library
17
Then King Arthur commanded the knight to rise, And promptly Gawain leaped up and, approaching
his lord.
Kneeled on one knee by the King and caught up the weapon;
And gently the King released it and lifted up his hand And gave God's blessing to him, and bid Sir Gawain To be hearty both in his heart and in his hand. "Take
care, cousin," said the King, "as
For in truth,
I
think,
if
you
set to
your carving;
you tackle the matter rightly
much trouble the tap he returns." Then Gawain turned to the knight, the gisarme in his The Green Knight waited boldly, abashed not a bit. And then up spoke the knight in green to Sir Gawain:
You'll take without
hand.
"My friend, let's go over our terms here before we go further. And first, let me ask you, my boy: What is it men call you? Now let me hear the truth. Let me know I can trust you." "On my faith," said the noble knight, "Sir Gawain is the name Of
the baron
And And
who
gives
you
this
blow, befall what may;
now I will take from you another. you may wish— but from nobody else
twelve months from
with any blade
alive."
The Green Knight answered
then,
am proud, by Heaven above. To get from the famous Sir Gawain "I
Whatever he may have.
448
sir
Gawain and
Green Knight
the
li
"By
To
Green Knight
crimiis," the
be getting from your
said, "Sir
own hand
Gawain, I'm glad
the handsel I've asked.
my whole agreement— terms of my trade with the King-
You've recited without a mistake
Quite
glibly, in fact, all the
Except that you
To
seek
You
me
still
have to promise me,
yourself, alone,
will find
me
in all the
sir,
by your honor
wherever you think
wide world, and win there such wages
As you pay out today before
all
these princes
on the
dais."
"Where shall I seek you?" said Gawain, "Where is your castle? By our Lord, sir, I haven't the least idea where you live; I know neither your court. Knight, nor your name; But tell me your name, and tell me truly the way there, And I swear I will work all my wits to wend my way to you,
And
that
"That
is
I
can swear to you by
enough
Said the warrior "If If
I tell
you
you
lay
for the all
New
my
Year;
in green to the
truly, after I've
certain troth." I
need no more,"
worthy Gawain;
taken your tap—
on too lightly— if quickly
I tell
you
all
and country and what I am called, Then you may ask me my path and hold to your pact. And if I can bring out no soimd, all the better for you! You may linger here in your land and look no further Concerning
my
castle
and
relax;
Take up your tool, Sir Gawain, And let's see how it smacks." "Just as you wish,
Said
he— and
my
friend,"
stroked his ax.
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Great Books Library
19
On
the ground, the
Green Knight got himself into
His head bent forward a
little,
position,
the bare flesh showing,
His long and lovely locks laid over his crown
So that any
man
Gawain
laid
Sir
there might note the naked neck.
hold of the ax and he hefted
it
high.
His pivot foot thrown forward before him on the
floor.
And then, swiftly, he slashed at the naked neck; The sharp of the battleblade shattered asunder the bones And sank through the shining fat and slit it in two. And the bit of the bright steel buried itself in the ground. The fair head fell from the neck to the floor of the hall And the people all kicked it away as it came near their feet. The blood splashed up from the body and glistened on the green, But he never But
And
faltered or fell for all of that.
swiftly he started forth
Caught hold of the
And
upon
stout shanks
rushed to reach out, where the King's retainers stood. lovely head,
and
lifted
it
up,
leaped to his steed and snatched up the reins of the bridle.
Stepped into stirrups of
steel
and, striding aloft,
He held his head by the hair, high, in his hand; And the stranger sat there as steadily in his saddle As a man entirely unharmed, although he was headless on
He
That
baleful
body that bled.
And many were
When
450
his steed.
turned his trimk about.
all his
faint with fright
say was said.
and
Sir Gaxuain
the Green Knight
20
He
held his head in his hand
up high before him,
Addressing the face to the dearest of
And And
the
"Look
And
all
on the
dais;
and the eyes looked out, this much, as you may now hear:
the eyelids lifted wide,
mouth
that
seek
you
till
said just go. Sir
Gawain,
you find me,
as
good
as loyally,
my
as
your word,
friend,
As you've sworn in this hall to do, in the hearing of the Come to the Green Chapel, I charge you, and take A stroke the same as you've given, for well you deserve To be readily requited on New Year's morn. Many men know me, the Knight of the Green Chapel; Therefore
if
you seek
to find
me, you
shall
not
knights.
fail.
Come Then with a rough jerk he turned the reins And haled away through the hall-door, his head in his hand, And fire of the flint flew out from the hooves of the foal. To what kingdom he was carried no man there knew. No more than they knew what country it was he came from. What then? The King and Gaw^ain there or be counted a coward, as
Laugh
And
at the
yet, it
is
fitting."
thing and grin;
was an
Most marvelous
to
affair
men.
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Great Books Library
21
Though Arthur the highborn King was amazed He let no sign of it show but said as if gaily
To
in his heart,
the beautiful Guinevere, with courteous speech:
"Beloved lady, today be dismayed by nothing;
Such things are suitable
The
Christmas season—
playing of interludes, and laughter and song,
Along with the courtly Nevertheless,
For
at the
I've seen
caroles of knights
and
may now begin my meal. my marvel, that much I must
their ladies;
I
admit."
The King
glanced then at Sir Gawain, and gently he
"Now,
hang up your
On
sir,
ax.
You've hewn enough."
the drapes of the throne, above the dais, they
Where
every
man might
said,
see for himself the
hung
marvel
And tell of the wonder truly by that token. Then the two of them turned to the table together, The King and the good Sir Gawain, and quickly men With double helpings of delicacies, as was right, manner of meats, and minstrelsy as well; In joy they passed that day until darkness came
All
in the land.
And now
think well. Sir Gawain,
Lest you from terror stand
Betrayer of the bargain
That you have now
452
in hand!
it,
served them
and
Sir Gaivain
Part
Two: Journey
the
Green Knight
to the Castle
1
Such was the earnest-pay King Arthur got
When
Though words
Now
early,
men
the year was young, for his yearning to hear of daring
were few when they went
boast;
to their seats,
they have hard work enough, and their hands are
full.
Gawain was glad to begin those games in the hall. But if the end should be heavy, it ought not surprise you. For though men grow merry of mind when there's much to A year turns all too soon, and all things change: The opening and the closing are seldom the same. And so this Yuletide passed, and so the year passed,
Sir
And
drink,
each season, in order, succeeded the other:
For after Christmas, in came crabbed Lenten
That
And
tries the flesh
fish
and foods more
plain;
then the weather of the world contends with winter:
Cold clutches the
And
with
then the rain
earth, the clouds falls,
shining, in
lift
up;
warm
showers.
and flowers come. And green are the robes of the ground and all the And birds begin to build and sing on the boughs Falls
on the
For joy
as
fair plains,
summer's
softness settles
groves,
down
on the banks;
The
blossoms swell to flowers
By hedgerows
And deep
rich as kings;
in the fair forest,
Royal music
rings.
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Great Books Library
Now comes The
the season of
spirit of
summer;
soft are the
winds;
Zephyrus whispers to seeds and green shoots.
Joyful enough
is
that herb rising
up out
of earth,
When the dampening dew has dropped from all To bask in the blissful gaze of the bright sun.
her leaves,
But harvest time draws near and soon grows harsh And warns it to ripen quickly, for winter is coming;
With
draft,
he drives the dust along before him.
Flying up from the face of the earth to the sky. Wild winds of the welkin wrestle with the sun.
And leaves tear loose from their limbs and alight on And gray is all the grass that was green before; Then all that rose up proud grows ripe and rots, And so the year descends into yesterdays, And winter returns again as the world requires, we know.
Comes
the Michaelmas
moon
And winter's wages flow; And now Sir Gawain soon Remembers he must
454
go.
the ground.
Sir
Gawain and
Green Knight
the
yet while the holiday lasts he lingers with Arthur,
But
And
the King makes a festival of
With
rich
and splendid
it,
for Gawain's sake.
Round Table-
revels of all the
Courteous knights and the comeliest of ladies—
But
all
had leaden hearts
for love of the hero.
Nevertheless, they hid every hint of sorrow;
Though joyless, they made jokes for the gentle knight's sake. Then sadly, when dinner was over, he spoke to his uncle
And
talked of the trip he must take, and told
"Now, liege lord of my You know of the terms
life, I I
must ask
have taken.
I
him
simply,
to leave you.
ask no better.
my troubles would waste your time; I must leave to take my blow tomorrow at the latest. And seek the knight in the green as God may guide me." The noblest barons in the palace gathered together, Ywain, and Eric, and many another man-
To
worry you with
Sir
Dodinal
le
Sauvage, the
Sir Lancelot, Sir Lionel, Sir Sir
Duke
of Clarence,
Lucan the good,
Bors and also Sir Bedevere, big
And many
men
both.
another noble, with Mador de
This company of the court came nearer
To give
la Port.
to the
King
the knight their counsel, with care in their hearts;
Deep was the secret grief of that great hall That so worthy a knight as Sir Gawain should go on To suffer one sad stroke and strike no more
that quest,
that day. Sir
Gawain feigned good cheer
And
said,
From What
"Why
should one
fly
fortune dark and drear?
can
man do
but try?"
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Great Books Library
4
He He
stayed there
all
that day
and dressed the next morning.
asked them, early, for his arms, and
First a carpet of scarlet
all
were brought:
was spread on the floor
And covered with gilt gear that gleamed aloft; The strong knight stepped up onto it, handled
the steel,
Dressed in a costly doublet wrought at Tars,
On
his
head
a
hood made
craftily, closed at the top.
Lined and bound within with Steel sabots they set
And
on
that sure knight's feet,
they lapped his legs in lovely greaves of steel
With kneeplates pinned
And
a brilliant blaunner;
at the joints
and polished clean
cinched around his knees with knots of gold;
Cuisses, next, that cimningly enclosed
His thick and brawny thighs, they attached with thongs;
And Set
then a woven byrnie with bright
upon
steel rings.
a costly cloth, encircled the knight.
And beautifully burnished braces about both arms. And tough, gay elbow cups, and gloves of plate. And all the goodly gear that might give aid on Coat-armor of the
that ride:
best,
His gold spurs pinned with pride,
A sword On
456
the knight might trust
a ceinture of silk at his side.
Gawain and
Sir
And
tlie
Green Knight
A\hen the knight ^vas hasped in his splendid harness,
Every
last latchet
Worthily dressed
and loop as
gleaming gold,
all
he was he went
hear mass.
to
Made offering, honored his Lord at the high altar. Then Ga^\ain came to the King and all the court. And gently he took his leave of lords and ladies; They Avalked Avith him. kissed him, commended him
Now
to Christ.
Gringolet was ready, girt with a saddle,
Glorious, gleaming with
many
a golden fringe,
The riveting neAsiy ^vrought for the coming ride, The bridle bound about and barred with gold. The proud skirts and the breast-harness splendidly tricked, The crupper and caparison matching the saddlebows; And all was clamped on red cloth by golden nails That
glittered
and glanced
Then he caught up
A helmet It
like the
gleaming beams of the sun.
the helmet and hastily kissed
heavily stapled
and padded
it,
^vithin;
towered high on his head and was hasped in back,
With
a lightly hanging
\
Embroidered and bound
On
a
broad
silk
eil laid
fast
over the visor
with the best of gems
border, and birds on
Brightly painted parrots preening in
all
the
seams—
among
Love knots and turtledoves— so thickly embroidered
The Avomcn must have
^vorked on
it
seven Avinters
in the town;
But greater
Of
yet the price
the circlet
round
his croAvn:
A rich and rare device Of diamonds dripping down.
457
Great Books Library
Then
him his shield, of shining gules, With the pentangle upon it, painted in gold; He bore it up by the baldric and hung it on his neck, they showed
And that shield was fair And why the sign of the
to see,
and suited him.
pentangle suited that prince
I intend to stop and say, though it slows my tale: That star is the same that Solomon once set As an emblem of truth by its own just claim and For that fair figure is framed upon five points. And every line overlaps and locks with another,
And
everywhere
it is
endless— thus Englishmen
title;
call
it.
In every dialect, "the endless knot."
And
therefore
it
suited this knight
Five ways ever faithful on
and
his splendid arms.
five different sides.
Like purified gold. Sir Gawain was known for All dross refined away, adorned with virtues in the castle.
And thus on coat and shield He bore the New Pentangle; A man still undefiled. And of all knights most gentle.
458
his goodness,
Sir Gaiuain
First, in his five senses
And And
next, he was all his faith
and
the
Green Knight
him
they found
found unfailing
was fixed on the
faultless;
in his five fingers;
wounds
five
That Christ received on the cross, as the creed tells; And whenever this man was hard-pressed, in murderous His steady thought, throughout, was
battle,
this alone:
That he drew all the force he found from the five joys That the holy Queen of Heaven had through her child;
And
On
for this reason the hero
had handsomely painted
the inside of his shield an image of the Virgin,
So that when he glanced there his courage could not
And
these,
Fratichise
I
find,
were the
fifth five
and Fellowship before
flag.
of the hero:
all things,
And Clearuiess and Courtesy that none could corrupt, And Charity, chief of all virtues. These five things Were fixed more firmly in him than in all other men.
Now
all
these
fives, in
truth,
were firm
in
him
And each was locked with the other that none might And fashioned firmly on five unfailing points. No two on the same side, yet inseparable
fail,
Throughout and at every angle, a knot without end. Wherever the man who traced it started or stopped. And so on this shining shield they shaped the knot Most regally, in gold on a crimson field:
The
pentangle of perfection
it
was
to
men
of lore.
And now
Sir
Gawain gay
Caught up his lance of war; He gave them all good-day And thought: For evermore!
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Great Books Library
8
He
struck the steed with his spurs
and sprang on his way fire on the stone;
So swiftly that Gringolet's shoes struck
And And
all
who saw that sweet knight sighed in their man there said the same to every other,
hearts,
each
Grieving for that knight: "By Christ, it's sad That you, lad, must be lost, so noble in life! It would not be easy to find this man's equal on earth. It would have been wiser to work more warily; We might one day have made him a mighty duke,
A glowing lord of the people
in his land;
Far better that than broken like
Beheaded by an
elf for
Who ever heard of a
undue
this into nothing.
pride.
king who'd hear the counsel
Of addle-pated knights during Christmas games?"
Many were
the
When
handsome hero rode from
that
warm
tears that
watered their eyes the high hall
that day.
He
paused
But
swiftly
at
went
Down many As
460
all
no abode his
way
a devious road,
the old books say.
Sir Gaivain
and
the Green Knight
No^v through the realm of Logres rides the Sir
Gawain, servant of God.
Often he sleeps alone
Where he
finds at
No
at night,
lunchtime
lord,
pleasant game.
and
little
friendless,
enough
that he likes.
He had no friend but his horse in the hills and And no one but God to talk with on the way. Soon the knight drew near
And Over
to
forests
northern Wales,
he fared over the fords and past the forelands at
Holy Head
till
he came to the hillsides
In the wilderness of Wyral; few lived there
Who loved And
with
a
good heart either God or man.
always he asked of
all
he met
as
he passed
word of a knight of green. some nearby kingdom, a Green Chapel. But all of them shook their heads, saying never yet Had they heard of any hero with the hue
Whether
Or knew,
they'd ever heard in
of green.
He left the roads for the woods And rough-grown higher ground. And many would be his moods Before that place was found.
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Great Books Library
10
A
hundred
he climbed in foreign countries,
cliffs
Far removed from friends, riding as a stranger; At every hill or river where the hero passed He found— strange to say!— some foe before him,
And a foe so foul and so fell he was forced to fight. He met so many marvels in those mountains,
A
would be too tedious to tell. Sometimes he takes on dragons, sometimes wolves. Sometimes wood-satyrs dwelling in the rugged rocks; At times he battles bulls and bears and boars And giants puffing and snorting down from the hilltops; Had he not been sturdy and doughty, or served his God, He'd doubtless have died or been murdered there many times For if warring worried him little, the winter was worse, When the cold, clear water showered from the clouds tenth
And
froze before
Nearly slain by
it
could
sleet,
fall to
over;
the faded earth;
he slept in his irons
Many more nights than he needed in the naked rocks Where the cold stream fell down crashing from the mountain's crest
And
hung, high over his head, in hard
icicles.
Thus in peril and pain and terrible plights The knight roams all through the region till Christmas Evealone.
Earnestly that night
He To
lifted
up
a
moan
the Virgin, that she guide
His way, reveal some home.
462
Sir Gaioain
and
the
Green Knight
11
By
a
And
mountain
that
morning merrily he rides, and wild,
into an old, deep forest, weird
High hills on either hand, and below them a holt Of huge and hoary oaks, a hundred together; Hazel and hawthorn were twisted there all into one, And rough, ragged moss grew rampant all about. And many small sorrowing birds upon bare twigs Piteously piped there for pain of the cold.
Gawain on Gringolet glided along below them Through many a quagmire and bog, a man all alone Sir
Brooding on
his sins, lest
he never be brought
To
see the service of that Sire who the selfsame night Was born of a lady to allay all human griefs; And therefore, sighing, he said: "I beseech Thee, Lord, And Mary, mildest mother and most dear, Grant some haven where I may with honor hear mass And also Thy matins tomorrow— meekly I ask it— And thereto promptly I pray my Pater and Ave
and Creed."
He rode on in prayer And wept for each misdeed.
On
four sides signed the air
And
said: "Christ's cross give speed."
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Great Books Library
12
Nor had
the hero signed himself but thrice
Before he beheld in that wood a moated dwelling Above a lawn, on a mound, locked under boughs Of many a boar-proud bole that grew by the ditches:
The
comeliest castle that ever a knight had kept.
Ascending
With
like a prayer,
Surrounding many
The
and
a park all about.
a sharp-piked palisade, all thickly pinned, a tree for
more
tlian tw(j miles.
hero stared at that stronghold where
it
stood
Shimmering and shining through starlit oaks, Then humbly he took off his helmet and nobly gave thanks To Jesus and St. Julian, gentle lords both, Who had guided him courteously and had heard his cry. "I pray, let them grant me lodgings," said the lord.
Then
with his
Who chose,
gilt heels
goaded Gringolet,
entirely by chance, the chief of the gates
And brought
the hero in a
bound
to the
end of the bridge
in haste:
The The The
bridge was sharply raised. gate bars bolted
They
464
fast;
walls were well arrayed:
feared no winter's blast.
Gawain and
Sir
the Green Knight
13
On Of
white horse the warrior waited on the bank
his great
the steep double ditch that drove against the wall.
The rock went down in the water wonderfully And above, it hove aloft to a huge height:
deep,
Of hard-hewn stone it rose to the high tables Built up under the battlements, by the best law.
And above
stood splendid watch stations, evenly spaced.
With loopholes
craftily fashioned
A better barbican And
and cleanly locked.
he had never beheld.
then he beheld, beyond, the noble
Towers
built
hall:
on top branched thickly with
Finials floating
upward, fearfully
With carved-out
spires,
tall,
wrought;
capitals, ingeniously
Chalk-white chimneys his eye caught there in plenty Blinking on the high rooftops,
all
of white.
So many were the painted pinnacles springing up
Among the castle crenels, and they climbed so thick. The castle seemed surely to be cut out of clean white The If
freehearted knight on his horse thought
he might come safely
To
at last to the cloister
it
fair
paper.
indeed
within
hold up there in that house while the holy days
lasted,
in delight;
Then
there
A porter, Taking
He
came
to his call
courtly, polite;
his place
on the
wall.
hailed the errant knight.
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14
"Good
To
sir,"
called Gawain,
my
"would you kindly go
ask the great lord of this castle to take
me
errand
in?"
"Gladly, by Peter," said the porter; "I'm sure, in pure truth. You'll be welcome,
sir,
to stay here as
long as you like."
The serving man came back again to him swiftly And brought a great company with him to greet the They
let
down
the drawbridge,
and
knight.
joyfully they rushed out
And kneeled down on their knees on the cold earth To welcome him in the way that seemed to them worthy; They
And
yielded the mighty gate to him, swinging
it
wide,
he hurried to raise them up, and rode over the bridge.
Several
Then
men
steadied his saddle while he lighted,
stabled the dancing steed— men sturdy enough!
Knights and squires came
down
to Sir
Gawain then
To lead the bold knight blissfully to the hall. When he hefted off his helmet, men hurried to his side To snatch it from his hand, all too eager to serve him. And they took his sword of steel and his glinting shield. Then nobly the good knight hailed every one of those nobles. And many proud lords pressed closer to honor the knight; And still hasped in his armor they led him to the hall Where a fair fire burned fiercely on the hearthrock; And the lord of the castle himself came down from his chamber To meet with due ceremony the man on the floor. He said: "You are welcome to rest here as long as you wish; All
I
have
is
yours to use as you will
and "I
thank you,
"May
please."
Gawain;
Christ with words so free
Greet you."
Embraced
466
sir," said
The two good men
in courtesy.
Sir
Gawain and
the Green Knight
15
Gawain gazed at the lord who so graciously met him And thought it no common knight that kept that castle; An immense man, indeed, mature in years; Sir
A
beard broad and bright, and beaver-hued;
His stance was proud and staunch, on stalwart shanks;
His face flashed like Surely a
To
man
fire;
his speech
well suited. Sir
was
Gawain
free:
saw.
lead as lord in a land of gallant men.
The
lord led
him
Lads delivered
And
Who
to a
to the
chamber and quickly commanded knight as loyal servants.
soon there stood at his bidding servants a-plenty
brought him to
Curtains of clearest
a bright
silk
and
room with
the finest of beds;
clear gold hems,
Curious covertures with comely panels. Bright blaunner above, embroidered at the
The
sides.
draperies running on ropes by red-gold rings.
Tapestries tacked to the walls from Tars and Toulouse,
And under
his feet
on the
floor, fair
rugwork
to
match.
There he was unlocked, with laughing speeches. From his interlinked coat of mail and his colorful robes; And swiftly the servants sought for him splendid robes To put on or put aside, picking the best. As soon as Sir Gawain had chosen, and was dressed In one that perfectly
fit
him, with flowing
skirts.
He looked like Spring itself, as indeed it seemed To all who gazed at him: a glory of color Shining and lovely, and not a bare limb showing. Christ never had
made
a
more handsome knight than
he,
they thought.
Wherever on earth he were, It seemed that Gawain might Be prince and without peer In fields where bold men fight.
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16
A chair before Was
the hearth where charcoal
burned
readied for Sir Gawain, and suitable covering-
Cushions upon counterpanes, both quaintly wrought—
And Of
then a costly mantle was cast on the man,
a bright, fine fabric beautifully embroidered
And
fairly furred
within with the
All of English ermine, and a
finest of pelts.
hood
of the same;
And Gawain sat in that settle, handsome and shining. And soon he had warmed himself, and his spirit quickened. They
And
built
up
covered
it
a table then
on gilded
trestles
with a cloth of clean, clear white,
A napkin and a salver and silver spoons; When
he wished, Sir Gawain washed and went to his place. Serving men served him suitably enough
With stews of many sorts, all artfully seasonedDouble helpings, as was right— all kinds of fish. Some kinds baked in bread, some broiled on the coals. Some boiled, still others in stews that were sweet with spice,
And
all
of the sauces there skillfully
made
to delight
Again and again the good man called it a banquet, Most courteously, and the courtiers urged him on
and
said:
"Now take this penance, lad, And thou shalt be comforted!" And ah, what joy he had As the wine got into
468
his head!
him.
Sir
Gawain and
the Green
Knight
17
Then
they sought and inquired, in a delicate way,
By putting to him personal, casual questions, That he tell them in courtesy what court he came from; The knight confessed that he'd come from the court of King Arthur,
The rich and royal king of the Round Table, And that he who sat in their castle was Gawain himself, Come there that Christmastime, as chance had fallen.
When the lord of the castle learned what lad he had He laughed aloud, so pleased was he with his luck, And And For
all
the
men around him were
overjoyed
gathered together around Sir Gawain that instant,
all
mortal virtue, both prowess and perfect
Were summed up
He
there
in that
was honored above
name
all
other
taste.
universally praised;
men on
earth.
Softly then each courtier said to his comrade,
"Soon we
shall see
some ingenious examples
And faultless, mellifluent figures of What speech can achieve we'll soon For before us
God
To At
sits
the
embodiment
of tact,
fine conversation;
find out without asking,
of
good breeding!
has indeed been gracious unto us
grant us the gift of so grand a guest as Sir this
time
when
all
men
and
The whole
No It
art of
man's more
may
Gawain
take joy at His birth, and feast sing.
manners
fit
to bring;
be, too, his hearers
Will learn of love-talking."
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Great Books Library
18
By It
the time the dinner was
was
late
done and the knight stood up
enough; dark night was driving
in;
The chaplains made their way toward the chapel And rang the resounding mass bells, as was right, For the solemn evensong of Christmastide.
The And Sir
lord listened
and went
in,
and
also the lady,
reverently she walked to her closed pew;
Gawain
in gay robes
went gliding
after.
The lord took him by the sleeve and led him to a seat And looked after him kindly and called him by his name. And called him the welcomest man in all the world; And earnestly Gawain thanked him, and they embraced And sat there together soberly through the service. It
pleased the lady then to look at the knight.
And
with
all
her ladies in waiting she
Fairest of all was she of
body and
left
her place;
face.
Of shape and color and all other qualitiesMore lovely than Guinevere, Sir Gawain thought;
He
crossed the chancel to cherish her chivalrously.
Another lady led her by the
A woman much older
left
hand,
than she— an ancient, in fact—
Sir Gaxuain
And
and the Green Knight
highly honored by the nobles gathered around her.
Hardly similar were those
ladies in looks,
The younger ripe with vigor, the other one yellowed, The one shining radiant, rich red everywhere, On the other, rough, wrinkled cheeks that hung down One in sheer kerchiefs and clusters of clear pearls. Her
breast
and the
flesh of
her bright throat showing bare,
Purer than snow on the slopes of December
The
in rolls,
hills.
other one with a gorger covering her neck,
Her black chin hidden in the depths of chalk-white veils. Her forehead folded in silk and everywhere enveloped, Ornamented and trellised about with trifles Until nothing was
Her nearsighted
left in
eyes,
view but that lady's black brows,
her nose, and her naked lips
(Lips that were sour to see
A wonderful
and strangely bleared);
lady in this world
men might
well call her
—to God.
Her body was short and thick, Her buttocks splayed and wide; But
Of
lovelier
was the look
the lady at her side!
Great Books Library
19
When Gavvain's glance met the glance of that gracious lady He left the lord with a bow and lightly stepped to them; He bid good-day to the elder, bowing low, And he took the more lovely politely in his arms. He kissed her cheek and most courteously gave her greetings; They
ask to be better acquainted; he pleads in turn
That they make him their own true servant, if it please them. take him between them and, talking and laughing, lead him To the chamber, to the hearth, where they call at once For spices, which the servants speedily bring them Together with heart-warming wine whenever they ask it. Again and again the lord of the castle leapt up To make sure that all were merry on every side; He took off his hood with a flourish and hung it on a spear And challenged them all to capture it; for whoever
They
Should best please the company, that Christmas, should have
"—And
I
shall strive,
on
my
soul, to struggle
with the
best,
With my good friends' help, before I give up my clothes." Thus with laughing words the lord made merry In order to please Sir Gawain with games that night by the
fire.
Such, as the hours ran,
Was the Then at
reign of that good last Sir
Rose and prepared
472
sire;
Gawain to retire.
it;
Sir
Gawain and
the
Green Knight
20
On the morning when every man looks back to that When Christ was born to die to redeem mankind,
time
Joy wakes for His sake in all the world; And so it did there that day in due celebration; Strong
men
furnished the dais with elegant foods
All day long and again for the great, formal dinner;
The ancient woman was given the highest seat, And the lord of the castle, I trust, took his place
beside her;
Gawain and the lady gay were seated together At the middle of the feastboard, where the foods came
And
the rest were seated about
Each man suitably served
all
first;
the hall as seemed best.
in his degree.
There was such meat, such mirth, such marvelous joy That to tell of it all would soon prove tedious Even if I were to choose only striking details; Suffice it to say that the knight and that splendid lady Found one another's company so amusing, Through their courtly dalliance and their confidences. Their proper and courteous chat— all perfectly chaste— That to play like theirs no other fencing sport compares.
Kettledrums and brasses Rattled and sang on the
Each man minded
And
they two
stairs;
his business.
minded
theirs.
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Great Books Library
21 Pleasure
And
filled
the palace that day and the next,
the third day passed, as pleasing as the others;
Their joy on the day of St. John was cheering to hear, But then fell the close of the feast-time, as all of them knew;
The guests would go So
all
off
again on the gray of the morning.
that night they stayed
And danced
wide awake, drank wine,
their courtly caroles continuously.
when it was late, they took their leave, Each one to wend his way down his wandering road. Gawain too said good-day, but the lord drew him back And led him to his own chamber, and to the chimney. And there he held him awhile and heartily thanked him At
last,
For the pleasure and the great prestige he'd brought by
his presence
In honoring the house at that holy season
And ornamenting
the castle with his courtliness.
"As long
in truth,
as
I live,
For Gawain's being "I
thank you,
my
sir," said
I'll
be the better
guest at God's
Gawain; "but
own let
feast!"
me
assure you,
The honor is all your own. May God defend it. And I am your servant, my lord, to command as you In large things and in small, for
my is
The
great."
lord of the castle said,
"Then
stay
another night!"
But Gawain shook It lay
474
debt to you
his head;
outside his might.
will
Sir
Gawain and
the
Green Knight
22
Then most kindly the lord of the castle inquired What dire and dreadful business drew him out From the court of the king, and at Christmas, to ride
alone
Before the holiday holly was hauled out of town. "Indeed,
A high For
I
That
the knight,
sir," said
and hasty errand hales
am summoned I
"it's just as
me from
you've guessed;
the hall,
in person to seek out a place
haven't the faintest idea where to turn to find;
Lord help me, I must somehow make it there by the morning of New Year's. And for that reason, my lord, let me ask you this: For
all
the length
and breadth
of Logres,
That you tell me truly if ever you've heard any tale Of a Green Chapel, and where on God's earth it stands,
Or
the knight
who
keeps that chapel, a
man
all
of green.
For there was established between us a solemn agreement
man in that place, if my life should New Year's morning is now no great while off. And by God's son, I'd be gladder to greet that man Than any other alive, if God will allow it. And so, by your leave, I'd better be looking for him. That
For
I
look for that
I've barely three days left to
be done with
last;
this business,
And by heaven I'd rather fall dead than fail in this." Then the lord laughed. "I insist that you linger, now; For
I'll tell
you the way
to the place
when your time
is
up.
Worry no more about where you will find the Green Chapel: For you
shall bask in bed,
my
boy, at your ease.
While your days pass, and put out on the And come to your mark by mid-morning
first
to
of the year
do
as
you
like
out there. Stay
till
New
Year's day,
Rest and build up your cheer;
My man will It's
show you the way;
not two miles from here."
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Great Books Library
23
Gawain grew jubilant
Sir "I
now
thank you
For luck
To
is
with
stay or to
The And
for this
me
then.
He
laughed for
above everything
at last;
shall
I
be
at
joy.
else,
your
will,
do whatever may please you most." arm around him and sat down beside him,
lord threw his
he asked that the ladies be called,
There was happiness then on
to
all sides as
bring
still
more
joy;
they sat there together,
And the lord of the castle let out such explosions of laughter He seemed half out of his wits, hardly sure who he was. Before long he called to the knight, and cried out loudly,
"You've sworn you'll be
my
servant and do as
say:
I
Will you hold to your hasty promise here and now?" "Certainly,
my
"As long
I'm here in your
as
lord," said the
"You've had a hard
good
Sir
Gawain,
I'm yours to command."
castle,
trip," said the lord,
"and you've come
a
long
way.
And
On
I've kept
you cavorting
all
night; you haven't caught I
You shall therefore loimge in Tomorrow till time for high mass, and then
When And
you wish, along with
keep you company
And
as for
my
till I
me,
wife, who'll
I'll
rise
Gawain grants
And
all this
bows, as does the other.
ease
take your dinner sit
beside you
come back to court. You stay here;
At dawn and play the hunter."
476
up
know for a fact. your bedroom and lie at your
either your food or your sleep,
Sir
Gawain and
Green Knight
the
24
"—And one
thing more," said the lord; "we'll
Whatever
win
And
I
in the woods,
I
will
make
it
make
a pact:
yours.
anything you may win you'll exchange with me;
is the swap, my sweet. Swear on your word, Whether the bargain should bring you to better or worse." "By God," said the gallant knight, "I gladly accept;
Such
And
I'm glad to discover milord has a gambling heart!"
"Who'll bring us the beverages
bind
to
this
bargain?"
The lord of the place called out. The people all laughed. They drank and dallied together and dealt in small talk. and ladies, as long as they liked. And then, in the French manner, with many pretty words, They stood and said bonsoir and spoke in whispers,
Those splendid
lords
Kissed with great courtliness and took their leave.
Attended by
and flaming torches, the last to his bed
fleet-footed servants
Each of the company came
at
for rest;
But often before they go
The lord brings up the jest; No man knew better how
To
entertain a guest.
'•St
1
H\
^^^H|l' ;^^^^^^^|
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Great Books Library
Part Three:
The Temptations
at the Castle
1
Early, before
it
was daylight, the hunters
The guests who wanted
Who
to go,
and called
arose. to their grooms,
bustled about and saddled the big white horses.
They trimmed
their tackle
and
tied
up
the saddlebags
And fixed themselves up in their finest attire for the hunt. Then leaped to their horses lightly, lifted their reins, And turned, each man to the hunting trail he liked best. The lord of the land was by no means the last of those Arrayed for riding,
his retinue
around him;
When he'd heard hunters' mass and had snatched a hasty He flew with his hunter's bugle to fields of bent grasses; By
the time the day's
He and
his
men were
Kennelmen keen
rays had dawned on the hills, mounted and ready to ride.
first
all
in their craft
now coupled
the hounds,
Caught up the kennel doors, called out loudly to the Blew mightily on their bugles three bare motes,
And And
the
hounds bugled back— bright music
in the
hunters were there, I've heard;
all
of the best.
The keepers took their posts And signaled the hounds' release; And hard on their bugle blasts,
A roar rose up in
478
dogs.
morning!—
those that dashed off too soon were driven to place.
A hundred
breakfast,
the trees.
hunters
Sir
At the
first
Gawain and
the
cry of the quest all the wild creatures quaked;
Deer drove down through the
Raced
Green Knight
dales, half crazy
with dread,
for the ridges, reversed again in a rout.
Driven back by the bellowing shouts of the beaters.
They
And
let
the harts with their high-arching antlers escape
also the brave old
bucks with their broad-palmed horns.
commanded. No man should make so much as a mark on the males; But the hinds were all held in with a "Heigh!" and a '"Ware!"
For in close season, the lord of the
And
the does
You could For
all
see
castle
driven with a din to the depths of the vales.
on
all sides
the slanting of arrows,
at every turn in the forest a feather flashed,
A broad steel And And And
Christ,
head
how
bit
deep into hurtling brown,
they brayed and bled and buckled on the bank!-
always the kennelhounds howling on their heels,
hunters with horns lifted high not a rod behind,
Thfeir clear bugles cracking as
if all
the
had exploded;
cliffs
And any deer that escaped the arrow Was dragged down into its death at the dog
stations.
Driven there from the high ground, harried
to the
So
skillful
were the
men
So great the greyhounds
And
at the
who
savagely shook out their
lower
water-
stations,
got to the deer in a flash life,
more
swift, I swear,
than sight!
The
lord
now
leaped like a boy.
Now riding, now And
running
in delight;
thus he drove, in his joy.
Bright day into dark night.
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Great Books Library
Thus
plays the lord of the
And good young Gawain
hunt
at the
lies in his
edge of the limewoods,
gay bed:
While daylight slides down the walls, he lies concealed Under a quaintly made coverture, curtains drawn. As he lay there half asleep, there slid through his thought
A delicate sound at his door.
It
was
softly
drawn open;
He squirmed his head up stealthily from the bedclothes And caught up a corner of the curtain just a little And peeked out warily to see what it was. In slipped the lady of the
hall, so lovely to
behold.
And silently, secretly, drew the door closed behind And bore toward the bed. Sir Gawain blushed. He lay back craftily, letting on that he slept. She soundlessly stepped to him,
stole
up
her
close to his
bed
And lifted the curtain and stealthily crept in And softly seated herself on the bedside, near him. And stayed there, watching to see the first sign of his Sir
Gawain
lay
still
for a
Studying in his conscience what
Might lead
to or
And
mused
yet he
waking.
good long while this situation
mean. Something most strange, he was to himself, "It
certain.
might be more seemly
To ask and find out in plain words what it is that she wishes." And so he awakened and stretched and turned toward her And unlocked his eyelids and let on that he was surprised. Exclaimed and signed himself
to
be
safer,
through words,
with his hand.
Red and white together Her pretty cheeks and chin; Lightly she leaned nearer.
With laughing
480
lips,
to begin.
Gawain and
Sir
"Good morning, my good
the Green Knight
Gawain," the gay lady
Sir
"You're an unwary sleeper to I've taken
you
just like that!
let
one
said;
slip in like this;
You'd better
call
'Truce'
Or I'll make your bed your prison, believe you me!" Thus the lady laughingly let fly. "And good morning to you, gay lady," said Gawain with up
"I give myself I
surrender
my
to
your
arms
at
will,
and glad
to
a grin,
be caught!
once and sue for kind treatment—
That being, if I'm not mistaken, my only course," Thus Gawain replied to the lady and laughed as he spoke; "But lovely lady, if you would grant leniency And unlock your prisoner and allow him to rise, I'd be glad to be free of this bed and be dressed somewhat better, And I might enjoy even more exchanging terms." "No sir! Not on your life!" that sweet one said, "You'll not budge an inch from your bed. I've a better idea: I'll lock you up even tighter— inside my two arms.
Then For
I
I
can chat
all I
see that, sure
Whom all
this
please with the knight I've caught.
enough, you're the sweet Sir Gawain
wide world worships, wherever you
ride;
Your honor and handsome bearing are highly praised By lords and ladies alike, and by all that lives; And now here you are, I find, and we're all alone: My lord and most of his men are miles away, The others still in their beds, and my ladies too, And the door is closed and locked with a good strong bolt. Since here in I'll
my
make good
house
use of
lies
my
whom all the world my time may last,
the knight
time, while
loves,
with chatter. You're welcome to
Do
my
body:
anything whatever.
Of absolute
necessity,
I'm yours, and yours forever!"
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Great Books Library
"Upon my soul!" cried Sir Gawain. "I'm certainly honored!— Though alas, I'm by no means the marvelous man you speak of; I'm wholly unworthy to soar to such splendid things
As you've
just suggested;
But God knows
To
I
know
be glad,
I'd
if
it
myself,
I
you thought
assure you.
it
good,
contribute to the pleasure of your virtue
By speech or some other low
"Upon my
soul, Sir
service. I'd
Gawain," said the
think
it
sheer joy!"
lady,
"If I did not prize the princely glory and prowess That please all others, I'd be guilty of puffed-up pride! There are lovely ladies enough, my lord, who would liever Have you, dear heart, in their clutches, as I have here—
To
dally with,
draw out thy pretty nothings.
Take comfort from,
Than keep As sure I
have
as
at
I
all
find ease for all their
sorrows—
the gold or great estate they own.
love that Lord
hand what every
who rules your life, woman hopes for through grace."
No
one could be pleasanter
Than
she so fair of face;
But always Gawain answered her In turn, with perfect
482
taste.
Sir Gaxvain
"Madam," For
No
truly,
said I
merry
find
and
Sir
the
Green Knight
Gawain, "may Mary defend you,
you freehearted, the noblest of women;
doubt there are men who deserve their renown
But
as for myself, the praise
exceeds
You're so good yourself that you see
my merit; in me only
for their deeds,
the good."
"By Mary," said the beauty, "I beg to differ. Were I as worthy as all other women alive
And were And were
the wealth in the world within
all I
have
to
my
my
grasp
choice of the husband I'd cherish.
In the light of the lordly virtues that
Handsome, courteous, debonair
as
lie
here in
you—
you are
(Virtues I'd only heard of before, but believed in)—
Then
I
swear
I
would care
for
no sovereign on earth but sweet
Gawain." "Alas," said the knight, "you have chosen
Biu I'm proud
my
better already.
you put upon me.
of the noble price
And I swear myself your servant and you my sovereign, And may I become your true knight, and Christ give you Thus
And But
they chatted of this and that
always the lady Sir
on
Gawain remained,
Though Even
let
I
were the
so, his
till
joy."
mid-morning.
that she loved
him most
dearly.
in his graceful way, en garde.
loveliest lady in the land, she thought.
mind would be drawn
to the
dark that he need not
long await.
The
stroke that
Swift
and sure
must destroy him.
as fate.
When the lady asked He did not hesitate.
to leave him.
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Great Books Library
The And
lady gave
"May He who But
him good-day, then laughed and looked him with stern words:
sly,
as she stood she surprised
as for
speeds our speech pay you well for
your being the brilliant
"Why?" asked
Sir
the knight at once, in
my
pleasure;
Gawain— I wonder."
some
distress,
Afraid that perhaps he had failed at some point in his manners.
But the lady blessed him and brought out no charge but "So good a man as Sir Gawain is granted to be
this:
Could not easily have lingered so long with a lady Without ever asking a kiss— in courtesy's nameBy means of some delicate hint between dainty speeches." Sir Gawain answered, "Indeed, it shall be as you wish: I shall kiss at your command, since knights must obey.
And
no more." With that she came more near him and caught him in her arms. Lovingly leaned toward him and kissed him on the lips; also for fear of displeasing you. Plead
it
Then courteously they commended each other to Christ, And without a word more, the lady went out through the Then good Sir Gawain prepared in all haste to get up.
door.
Called to his chamberlain, picked out his clothes for the day,
And as soon as he had himself dressed, hurried down to hear And then to the splendid breakfast the servants had set him; All that day till the moon rose, Gawain made merry with pleasure.
There never was a knight more bold Between two ladies more clever. The young one and the old,
And
484
great was their joy together.
mass
Gawain and
Sir
the Greeji Knight
8
And still the lord of the land looked The hunt of the barren hinds in the
after his sport,
holts and heaths. By the time the sun went down he'd slain such a number Of does and other deer you'd have doubted your eyes. At the end of the hunt, the game was gathered up quickly And all the slaughtered deer stacked up in a pile; The hunters of highest rank stepped up with their servants
And And
selected for themselves the fattest of the slain
broke them open cleanly,
as the
code required;
They checked
a
And found on
even the leanest two fingers of
They
slit
sample of those that were
the cut
still
deeper, seized the
set aside
first
fat;
stomach
And cut it with a sharp knife and scraped the white Then they struck off the legs and stripped the hide.
flesh;
Broke the belly open and pulled out the bowels Deftly, lest they loosen the ligature
Of
the knot; they gripped the gullet
and disengaged
The wezand from the windhole and spilled out the guts; Then with their sharp knives they carved out the shoulders And held them by small holes to preserve the sides Intact, then cut the breast
and broke
it
in two.
For the next stage they started again with the
Opened
it
gullet,
neatly, as far as the bright fork,
Flicked out the shoulder
fillets
and
after that
Clipped away the meat that rimmed the ribs; They cleaned the ridge of the spine, still working by rule. From the center down to the haunch which hung below; And they hefted the haunch up whole and carved it away
Reducing
it
to
"numbles"— a word I
By
the fork of
They
all
all
too apt,
find.
the thighs
cut the folds behind;
At last they split the sides Making the back unbind. 485
Great Books Library
They
cut
off,
after that, the
head and the neck.
And then they swiftly severed the sides from the chine. And they flung the corbies' fee far up in the trees; Then finally they thurled each thick side through By
and hung them on high by the hocks of the legs, each man there got the meat he had coming to him. From one of the finest of the deer they fed their dogs the ribs
And
With
the lights, the liver, and the leather of the paunches
Mingled
in with bread that
was soaked in blood.
They blew the call of the kill; the kenneldogs bayed; Then the men took their meat and turned toward home, Their bugles striking out many a brilliant note. By the time all daylight was gone, the hunters were back Within the walls of the castle, where Gawain awaited their call.
Joy and the hearthfire leap;
The
lord comes
When
home
to the hall;
he and Sir Gawain meet
Their cheer lends cheer
486
to all.
Great Books Library
10
The lord then commanded the people all called to the hall And summoned the ladies downstairs, and their ladies in waiting, To stand before those now assembled, and he sent his men
To
haul in the venison and to hold
it
high;
Then gaily, in his game, he called to Sir Gawain And told him the tally of those tremendous beasts And showed him the fine meat they'd cut from the ribs. "What do you think of our sport? Have I earned your praise? Have I duly proved myself your "You have indeed," said he; "so I
dutiful servant?"
hunt
fine a
haven't seen in the winter for seven years."
"I give
it all
to you,
Gawain," the man said then,
"For according to our contract,
it's
"So
I
it is,"
What I'll
I
said the knight,
have honorably
"and
won
yours to claim."
say the
same
to you:
within your walls
be equally quick to acknowledge wholly yours."
With
that he closes his
And gives him
arms round the
the sweetest kiss he can
lord's
neck
summon
"There you have my achievement today. That's I swear if there were more I'd make it yours."
"Hmmm. But
it
Very nice," said the
might seem better yet
Whom you
won
if
this treasure
lord, "I
up. it.
thank you kindly;
you'd breathe in
from by your
my
ear
Avits."
"That was not in our contract," said he, "ask no more. You've gotten what is yours; more than that you must not bid."
They laughed
And
in their
When
and good;
they turned then to their dinner
They found no
488
merry manner
their talk was clever
lack of food.
Sir Gaiuain
and
the
Green Knight
11
Later they gathered in the chamber, by the fireplace,
Where
And
servants waited
on them, bringing
in wine;
after a while, in high spirits, they settled again
On the same contract for tomorrow as they'd made today. That as chance might fall, each would exchange with the other Whatever he won that day, when they met at night. Before all the court they agreed upon the covenant, And, laughing, saluting once more with wine, they sealed it. At last, late, the lord and the knight took their leave, And every man there inade his way in haste to his bed. By the time the cock had crowed and cackled but thrice The lord had leaped from his bed, as had all his men; The hunter's mass and breakfast were both behind them And the company dressed for the woods before any light showed, for the chase;
With himters and with horns They cross the meadow brush; Unleashed, among the thorns.
The hounds
are rimning in a rush.
489
Great Books Library
12
Soon by the
The
side of a
quagmire the hounds
hit a scent;
hunting-lord cheered on the hounds that had hit
it first,
Shouted out wild words with a wonderful noise;
And when those hounds heard him shout they hurried And fell on the trail in a flash, some forty at once, And then such a howl and yowl of singing hounds Rose up that the rocks
all
around rang out
like bells;
Hunters cheered them on with their horns and their Then, all in a group, they surged together
Between a pool in those
\\
forward
voices;
oods and a rugged crag.
The
dogs in a scrambling heap— at the foot of the cliff By the quagmire's side where rocks had tumbled roughlyRushed to make the find, and the men rushed behind them. They surrounded the knobby rocks and the bog as well— The men— for they knew well enough he was hiding there someplace,
The beast whose trail the bellowing bloodhounds had They beat the bushes and shouted "Get up! Up!" And angrily out he came to attack the menOne of the most amazing swine ever seen,
An ancient
loner who'd long ago
left
caught;
the herd.
For he was an old one, and brawny, the biggest of them
A grim old devil For the
first
when he grunted, and he grieved them made threw three to the earth
all,
plenty,
thrust he
And gave their souls God-speed as quick as that. The hunters hollered "Hi-y" on high, and cried out "Hey! Hey!' And lifted their horns to their mouths to recall the hoimds; Many were the bugle notes of the men and the dogs
Who bounded
after that
boar with boasts and noise for the kill;
Again and again,
at bay.
He rushes the hounds pell-mell And hurls them high, and they. They yowp and yowl and 490
yell.
Sir Gaivain
and
the
Green Knight
13
Up
stepped sturdy
And
men
to shoot at
their arrows hurtled at
But hitting
him,
him and
hit
him
like rain.
arrowheads failed
his plated hide, the
And their barbs would not bite in through the bristles of his brow Though the force of the blow made the smooth shafts shatter to bits;
Then, insane with anger, he turns on the Goring them horribly
And
as
archers,
he hurls himself fonvard,
not a few were afraid and fled before him.
But the lord on
his light horse
lunged in after the boar,
Boldly blowing his bugle like a knight in battle;
He
rallied the
hounds and rode through heavy
Pursuing the savage swine
Thus
till
the sun
thickets
went down.
they drove away the day with their hunting;
And meanwhile
our handsome hero
Lies at his ease at home, in
all his
lies in his
bed,
finery so bright.
The lady by no means forgot him Or to bring him what cheer she might; Early that day she was at
him
To make
light.
his heart
more
491
Great Books Library
14
The Sir
lady came up to the curtain and looked Gawain welcomed her worthily at once,
And And
at the knight;
quickly the lady returned his greeting with pleasure
with a loving look she delivered these words:
Gawain,
"Sir, if you're really Sir
A man whose every act
is
surely most strange—
it's
the apex of virtue
And And
yet
All
I
taught yesterday you've forgotten already,
Or
so
if
who has no idea how to act in company; someone teaches you manners they slip your mind;
it
seems to me, by some very sure signs."
"What's that?" said the knight. "I taught you,
"Where For such
favor
"I swear,
still
in the dark.
sir,
of kissing," said the lady gay;
conferred, you should quickly claim
is
it.
the practice prescribed by the code of Courtesy."
is
"Away with
you,
my
sweet," said the sturdy knight,
"I didn't dare ask a kiss for fear you'd If I
I'm
stand as you say, I'm sadly at fault."
If things really
deny
it.
asked and you refused I'd be most embarrassed."
"Well mercy!" said the merry
wife,
"how could
I
refuse you?
You're a great strong knight; you could take what you wished,
you wanted— If a
woman were
so churlish as to refuse you."
"True, by God," said Gawain, "your reasoning's good;
But where
Or any I
I
gift
come from
start
is
not
much
not given with free good
stand at your
Come,
force
commandment,
whenever you
like,
favored.
will.
to kiss
when you
and stop whenever you please."
She bent to him with a smile
And gently kissed his face; And now they talked a while Of
492
love,
its
grief
wish;
and
grace.
if
sir
Gawain and
the Greeyi Knight
15 "I should like to
my
know, milord," the lady said then,
you—what is the reason young and so valiant as you are now, So courteous and so knightly as you're known to be, [Has said not one single word of his struggles for Love,] "—If
asking were not to annoy
That one
When Is
the
For Is
so
in all the
game
romance of Chivalry, what ground of all deeds
of love, the
to tell of the desperate
both the
title
and
gambles of trusty knights
their lives for their ladies' love,
them long and dreary, doleful hours, avenged them valiantly, casting out grief,
for
And later And brought
by their
own
joy, joy to all the hall.
that you're the
It's said, sir,
most splendid knight of your time;
You're raved about and honored on every Yet I've
And
I
sat
side;
beside you here on two occasions
haven't heard from your
Neither
most praised
of arms?
text of every tale-
How lords have ventured Endured
is
less,
mouth
so
much
as a
mumble.
nor more, on Courtly Love.
You who are so keen Ought to be eager to
in advice,
and so courteous, young thing some guidance
give a poor
And teach her some trifling details of true love's craft. Why? Are you ignorant, really, for all your renown? Or is it perhaps that you think me too stupid to learn? For shame! I
come here alone and
To
learn. In heaven's
sit
name.
Come, teach me by your wit While my lord's away on his game."
493
Great Books Library
16 "In good It's a
faith.
so
worthy
as
But
Gawain, "may God preserve you!
game enough,
you would come
man
take such pains for so poor a
With your knight with
To
said
very great pleasure to me, and
That one
And
Madam,"
to take such travail
to
me
as to play
looks of any sort. I'm charmed!
on myself
touch on the themes of that
as to tell yoii of
text,
or
tell
love-
of love's battles,
You who, we both know well, know more of the tricks Of that art by half than a hundred such men as I Know now or ever will know in all my life— That would be manifold folly, my fair one, I swear. Whatever you ask I will do, to the height of my power. As I'm duty bound, and for ever more I'll be Your ladyship's humble servant, as God may save me." Thus did she tempt the knight and repeatedly test him To win him to wrong (and whatever things worse she plotted). But so fine was his defense that no fault was revealed,
Nor was
there evil on either side or ought
but
bliss.
They laughed and chatted At last she gave him a kiss
And said she must And went her way
494
long;
be gone with
this.
Sir Gaioain
and
the Green Knight
17
Then Gawain got himself dressed to go to his mass, And soon after that their dinner was splendidly set, And so the knight spent all that day with the ladies; But the lord again and again limged over the land Pursuing
And
Where he
And So
his
wretched boar that rushed by the
cliffs
broke the backs of the best of the hounds in two stood at bay, until
forced him, like
fast their
arrows
it
fle^v
bowmen broke
the deadlock
or not, to fight in the open;
^vhen the archers assembled—
Yet sometimes the stoutest there turned
tail
before
him—
That at last the boar was so tired he couldn't run But dragged himself with what haste he could to a hole In a moinid beside a rock where water ran; He gets the bank at his back and he scrapes the ground And froth foams at the corners of his ugly mouth And he whets his huge white tusks. The hiuiters around him Were tired, by this time, of teasing from a distance, But brave as they were they didn't dare draw nearer that swine;
He'd hurt
so
many
before
That none was much inclined
To
be torn by the tusks of a boar
So mighty and out of
his
mind,
495
Great Books Library
18 Till
up came
the lord of the hunt himself,
on
his horse,
And saw him standing at bay, the hunters near by; He steps from his saddle lightly, leaves his mount. Draws out
his sun-bright
Wades through
sword and boldly
But the creature saw him coming, sword
And
his
And
lies in wait.
in hand.
back went up, and so brutal were
That many
strides close,
the water toward where the beast
his snorts
there feared for their lord, lest the worst befall him.
then the boar came rushing right straight at him
So that baron and boar were both of them hurled in a heap In the wildest of the water; but the boar got the worst;
For the Coolly
man had marked him
set his
And rammed
sword in the it
well,
and the minute he
slot of his
in to the hilt, so
it
hit.
breastbone
split the heart.
Squealing, the boar gave way and struggled from the water in a
A
fit.
himdred hounds leaped
in
And murderously bit; Men drove him up on the land And the dogs there finished it.
496
Gawain and
Sir
the Green Knight
19
From many
a blazing
horn came the
blast of the kill,
And every man And all the bloodhounds bayed as their masters Those who were chief huntsmen in that chase. Then the lord, who was wise in woodcraft,
there hallooed on high in triumph,
Began the butchering First
he hacked
off the
of the
mighty boar.
head and
Then roughly opened him
bid.
set it
on high,
up, the length of the backbone.
Scooped out the bowels and cooked them on hot
And mixed them
in with bread to
Next he carved out the flesh in And drew out the edible inner
And And
afterward this
hung them
to
his
hounds;
broad cuts
parts, as
he fastened the sides together,
Now with And The
reward
fine
coals,
still
is
in
proper.
one
piece,
swing from a sturdy pole.
same swine they
started for
home.
before the lord himself they bore the boar's head. lord
who had won him
himself in the stream by force alone.
The
great lord could not rest
Until his prize was shown;
He called, and Came to claim
at
once
his
his guest
own.
497
Great Books Library
20
The
and merrily laughed
lord was loud with mirth
When
he saw Sir Gawain, and cheerfully he spoke;
The noble ladies were called and the court brought together, And he showed off the slices of meat and told the tale Of
the might and length of the boar, and also the meanness.
And And
praised
it
as a
He'd never
When And,
hunt most generously
up
good man
beast, the
nor the sides of
seen,
they held
his
proof of remarkable prowess,
For so much meat on a
a
for the lord's sake, said
swine so enormous.
it
By
we made,
it is,"
said
All I've gained
I'll
after a
"And now Since
you
to death!
yours.
is
recall."
just as surely
of the castle, he kisses
moment he
gives
him
a second
him
sweetly.
kiss.
we're even," said Gawain, "for this evening.
first I
came, up to now, I'm in no respect in
"Good
St.
Keep on
And
I
like this,
you'll
your debt."
Giles," said the lord,
"You're the best
498
game
it
give to you, and at once."
Embracing the lord
And
as
Gawain, "and
him
half scared
said the lord, "this
the covenant
said,
the huge head, our hero praised
"Now Gawain," "So
woods where he'd
the fight that beast had fought in the
Gawain commended
Sir
ever met!
on
be a rich
my word, man yet!"
fled.
Sir
Gawain and
the Green
Knight
21
They
raised the tables to the trestles then
And covered them with
linen cloths. Clear light
Leaped up the length of the
Were
walls,
where the waxen torches
set by the servants sweeping through the hall.
There was soon much merriment and amusement there In the comfort of the fire, and a good many times At supper and later they launched some noble song, Old and new caroles and Christmas carols And every kind of enjoyment a man could name; And always our handsome knight was beside the sweet lady.
And
so
remarkably
warm were
her ways with him,
With her sly and secret glances designed to please. Our Gawain was downright alarmed, and annoyed with
himself,
And yet in all courtesy he could hardly be cool to her; He dallied, delighted, and nervously hoped he'd escape disgrace.
They amused themselves in the And, when it suited their taste. Went with the lord, at his call.
To
sit
by
hall
his fireplace.
499
Great Books Library
22
The two men Of playing
talked there, sipping their wine, and spoke
the
same game again on
But the knight asked the
New
Year's Eve;
lord's permission to leave in the
For the twelvemonth-and-a-day was drawing
The And
lord said,
would not hear
"Now
of
it;
way
My lad,
Year's Day, a
on
New
to the
to a close;
he implored him to stay
my word
swear to you on
I
You'll find your
Chapel
to finish
as a knight,
your business.
good deal before prime;
So come now, relax in your bed, catch up on your
And And
I'll
go and hunt
later
For
I've tested
But
it's
you
twice,
my
all
and hold I
chase
friend,
to
my
Eat, drink,
bargain
down and
bring
and found you
in.
faithful.
and be merry, boy! Carpe diem!
no time." he would stay.
goes hunting for grief, he'll get
was true enough, Gawain saw, and he said
it
in
Bright wine was brought to them, and then to bed
by torches' Sir
Gawain
Soft
and
Before
That
500
rest.
always the third strike that counts; so think of tomorrow;
The man who It
in the holts
exchange with you
morning,
lies
still all
it's
and
sleeps
night;
dawn, up leaps
crafty older knight.
light.
Sir
Gawain and
the Green Knight
23 After mass the lord and his
A
men made
breakfast—
morning it was!— and he called for his mount; And every hunter who'd ride to the hounds behind him Was dressed and horsed and waiting at the door of the hall. beautiful
The fields were fine to see, all shining with frost, The sun rising brilliant red on a scaffold of clouds.
Warm and
clear, dissolving the
clouds from the welkin.
The hunters uncoupled the hounds by the side of a holt And the rocks in the undergrowth rang at the sound of their Some few of the dogs fell at once on the scent of the fox,
A trail that is often a traitoress, tricky and sly: A hound cries out his find, the hunters all call The other hounds rush And they all race off in
to the
to
horns.
him.
young hound busily
sniffing.
a rabble, right at last.
hound leading the pack. They found the fox quickly And when they spied him plain, they sped in pursuit, That
first
Fiercely
and angrily shouting with voices
of outrage.
He twists and turns through many a tangled thicket And he doubles back or he hides in the hedges to watch At
last
And And
by a
stole
little
them;
ditch he leaped a thorn-hedge
out stealthily
down
the long slope of a valley
laughed, believing his wiles had eluded the hounds;
But before he knew
Where suddenly
it
he'd
come
to a
him
there whirled at
all
He quickly bounded And his heart leaped But taking another
To
the
hunting post three hounds at once,
gray!
back,
high in dismay;
tack.
woods he raced away.
501
Great Books Library
24 Lord,
When
how
sweet
it
was then
to hear those
the whole of the pack had
met him,
hounds, all
Such scorn those hounds sang down on that
mingled together!
fox's
head
seemed as if all the high cliffs had come smashing to the ground; Here he was hallooed when the huntsmen met him, Yonder saluted with savage snarls. And over there he was threatened and called a thief— And always the hounds on his tail to keep him a-running. Again and again when he raced for the open they rushed him And he ran for the woods once more, old Reddy the sly; He led them every which way, the lord and his men, Over hill and dale, that devil, until it was middayWhile at home the handsome knight lay asleep in his bed, In the morning's cold, inside his handsome curtains. It
But
Or
for love's sake the lady could not let herself sleep long
forget the purpose so firmly fixed in her heart;
She rose up quickly and hurried
to
where he
lay,
And she wore a splendid gown that went clear to And luxurious furs of pelts all perfectly pured. No colors on her head but costly gems
the floor
All tressed about her hairnet in clusters of twenty;
Her
beautiful face and her throat were revealed uncovered.
And
her breasts stood
all
but bare, and her back
as well.
She glides through the doorway and closes the door behind her.
Throws the wide window open and calls to the knight And warms his heart at once with her glorious voice and cheer: "Lord, man,
When
the
how can you
sleep
morning shines so clear?" in gloomy sleep,
Though sunk
He
502
could not help but hear.
Sir
Gawain and
the Green Knight
25
From
the depths of his mournful sleep
A man who was
vSir
Gawain muttered,
suffering throngs of sorrowful thoughts
Of how Destiny would that day deal him his doom At the Green Chapel, where he dreamed he was facing Whose blow he must abide without further debate. But soon our rosy knight had recovered
the giant
his wits;
He struggled up out of his sleep and responded The lovely lady came laughing sweetly, and fondly kissed him; Gawain welcomed her worthily and with
in haste.
Fell over his fair face
Sir
He found So
pleasure;
her so glorious, so attractively dressed,
faultless in every feature,
Welling joy rushed up
her colors so fine
in his heart at once.
Their sweet and subtle smiles swept them upward
And
all
that passed
between them was music and
and
How
sweet was
Their
talk,
how
now
like
wings
bliss
delight.
their state!
loving and light!
But the danger might have been great Had Mary not watched her knight!
503
Great Books Library
26 For that
our poor hero so hard
priceless princess pressed
And
drove him so close to the line that she
But
to take the full pleasure she offered or flatly refuse her;
He
feared for his name,
lest
men
But he feared even more what If
call
evil
he dared to betray his just diuy
him
a
left
him no
common
might follow
choice
churl,
his fall
as guest to his host.
God help me, thought the knight, / can't let it happen! With a loving little laugh he parried her lunges, Those words
of
undying love she
Said the lady then, If you'll lie
"It's surely a
with a lady like
let fall
from her
lips.
shameful thing
this yet
not love her at all—
The woman most Is
brokenhearted in all the wide world! someone else?— some lady you love still more whom you've sworn your faith and so firmly fixed
there
To
Your heart that you can't break free? I can't believe it! But tell me if it's so. I beg you— truly— By all the loves in life, let me know, and hide nothing with guile."
The knight said, "By St. John," And smooth was Gawain's smile, "I've pledged myself to none.
Nor
504
will I for awhile."
Sir
Gawain and
Green Knight
the
27
"Of
all
the words you might have said," said she,
"That's surely cruellest. But Kiss I'll
me
and
kindly, then,
mourn through
alas,
I'll
life as
I'm answered.
go from you.
one who loved too much."
She bent above him, sighing, and
"But
him;
softly kissed
Then, drawing back once more, she
said as she stood,
my love, since we must part, be kind to me: me some little remembrance— if only a glove-
Leave
To
bring back fond memories sometimes and soften
"Truly," said he, "with I
had here with
me
all
my
heart
I
my
sorrow.'
wish
the handsomest treasure
I
own,
For surely you have deserved on so many occasions
A gift more fine But It
as to
my
would hardly
A glove
than any
gift
I
could give you;
giving some token of trifling value. suit
your great honor
as a treasured
keepsake and
to
gift
have from your knight
from Gawain;
I've come here on my errand to coimtries imknown Without any attendants with treasures in their trunks;
And It
sadly grieves me, for love's sake, that
But every
man must do what
it's so.
he must and not
murmur
or pine."
"Ah
no,
my
prince of
Said she so fair and
all
honors,"
fine,
"Though I get nothing of yours. You shall have something of mine."
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28 She held toward him a ring of the yellowest gold
And, standing
From which
aloft
on the band,
flew splendid
And mark you
well,
it
lady gay,
I
Having nothing refused
it,
gifts at
the
moment;
wrong to take gifts in turn." more earnestly, but again
to give, I'd be still
and swore on
it
replying in haste,
can hardly take
She implored him again,
He
like the light of the sun;
was worth a rich king's ransom.
But right away he refused
"My
beams
a stone like a star
his
knighthood that he could take
nothing.
Grieved that he "If taking
And I'll
my
much
being so
would not take it, she told him then: wrong on accoimt of its worth,
still
ring would be
my
in
debt would be bothersome to you,
give you merely this sash that's of slighter value."
She swiftly unfastened the sash that encircled her waist.
Tied around her It
fair tunic, inside
was made of green
silk
Embroidered along the This too she held out
To
take
it,
trifling as
But again he
her bright mantle;
and was marked of gleaming gold
edges, ingeniously stitched.
to the knight, it
was, to
said no, there
and she earnestly begged him
remember her
was nothing
at all
Neither treasure nor token, until such time
by.
he could take.
as the
Had granted him some end to his adventure. "And therefore, I pray you, do not be displeased, But give up,
for
I
cannot grant
it,
however
fair
or right. I
know your worth and
price.
And my debt's by no means I
swear through
To
506
fire
and
slight;
ice
be your humble knight."
Lord
Sir Gaiuain
and
the
Green Knight
29
"Do you
lay aside this silk," said the lady then,
"Because
it
seems unworthy— as well
Listen. Little as
it is, it
seems
less in
it
may?
value,
But he who knew what charms are woven within Might place a better price on it, perchance. For the
man who
As long
as
No man
goes to battle in this green lace,
he keeps
it
looped around him,
under Heaven can hurt him, whoever may
For nothing on earth, however imcanny, can
The
knight cast about in
This might be
The blow If
it
the gift
a treasure
distress,
and
it
kill
came
try,
him."
to his heart
indeed when the time came to take
he had bargained to suffer beside the Green Chapel. meant remaining alive, it might well be worth it;
So he listened in silence and suffered the lady to speak.
And she pressed the sash upon him and begged him to take it. And Gawain did, and she gave him the gift with great pleasure And begged him, for her sake, to say not a word. And to keep it hidden from her lord. And he said he would, That except
would never be known man.
for theinselves, this business to a
He thanked her earnestly. And boldly his heart now ran; And now a third time she Leaned down and kissed her man.
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30
And now
she takes her leave and leaves
him
there,
For she knew there was nothing more she could get from the man.
And when
she was gone from him, Gawain got up and got and arrayed Rose himself in his richest robes,
And And
he laid away the love lace the lady had given hid
Then,
it
where
well,
at once,
purify his
Both major
and make plainer
sins
to
do
to
for
him
be saved and see Heaven.
sins in full,
spoke of
all his
misdeeds.
and minor, and asked God's mercy,
him and made him as spotless of guilt Day of Doom were to fall the next morning. Gawain made more merry,
priest assoiled if
the
after that Sir
Dancing
Than
caroles
and joining the
ever before in his
life,
hall's
entertainments,
until dark,
when
sang low.
And all who saw him there Were pleased, and said: "I vow, He was never so debonair Since
508
waiting;
he asked the priest for perfect absolution.
As he would
And
it still
and asked him there
a priest in private
life
What a man had He confessed his
And The
later he'd find
he went on his way to the chapel
And approached
To
dressed,
first
he came,
as
now."
the owl
Gawain and
Sir
the Green Knight
31
Now let us leave him
and may love be with him! For the lord of the hunt is still riding, and all his men. And behold, he has slain that fox whom he hunted so long! As he leaped
a
there,
bramble
to get a
good look
at the villain.
Where he heard the hounds all hurrying Reddy along, Who should appear but Renard himself from a thicket,
And all the rabble in a rush, and right on his heels. The hunter was quick to spot him, and oh, he was sly! He waited, half hidden, then whirled out his sword and struck. The fox darted back— he intended to turn for the trees— But
a
hound
right behind
him
shot forward before he could
stir.
And there, just ahead of the horses' hooves, they hit him, And they howled, and oh, how they worried that wily one! The lord came down like lightning and caught up his legs And snatched him up in a flash from the teeth of the dogs. And he held him up over his head and hallooed like a fiend And all the hounds there howled at once. The hunters came galloping up with their horns all blaring, Sounding the
recall
on high
till
they
came
to the hero;
When the whole of the kingly company had come close And every last baron that had him a bugle was blowing And
all
of the others
who
didn't have horns were hallooing.
Right there was the merriest music a
The hymn
that
went up
and
They
And And And
man
for the soul of
ever heard.
Renard from horn
throat.
grant the hounds their reward
fondle their heads and dote;
then they take Renard part
him from
his coat.
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32
And And The
then they headed for home, for night was near, splendidly they sang with their shining horns; lord alights at last at his well-loved home,
Finds a
fire
The good
awaiting him there, and his friend,
Sir
Gawain, so gay tonight in the
Brimming with mirth and
He wore
a blue robe with skirts that swept the flagstones.
His surcoat was
And And
his
hall,
love with the merry ladies;
softly furred
and suited him
well.
hood, of the same material, hung on his shoulders.
both were bordered
all
about with white
fur.
In the middle of the floor he met the lord
And
him
greeted
"I shall for
We swore
gladly,
once be
first
and graciously
said to him:
to fulfill the pact
one another and sealed with wine."
to
Then Gawain embraced the lord and kissed him thrice. The sweetest and solemnest kisses a man could bestow. "By Christ," said the elder knight, "you're quite a man In business, "Yes. Well,
if all
your bargains are good
no worry
there," said
as they
Gawain
"Since I've paid in full and promptly
all I
seem."
at once,
owe."
"Mary," the other answered him, "mine's not worth much.
For
I
Was It's
hunted
all
day long, and
this foul-smelling
all I
fox— the
got
devil take
him!—
hardly decent pay for such precious things
As you've kindly pressed upon me,
these kisses so sweet
and good."
"Enough now," "I
said Sir
Gawain,
thank you, by the rood."
Then how the fox was slain He told them as they stood.
510
Sir
Gawain and
the Green Knight
33
With mirth and minstrelsy, and meat at their pleasure, The two made as merry as any man living might— With the laughter of the ladies and lighthearted joking, Both the knight and the
drunk or
madman
Only
a
They
laughed, and
a
all
noble lord, in their happiness-
hall's
could make more merry.
the hall laughed with
Until the time came round at
When
And now my
parting.
last for
were forced
finally they
them and joked
to turn to their beds.
sweet knight says adieu
first
to the lord.
Bowing humbly and graciously giving his thanks: 'Tor the splendid welcome you've given me here at your home, At Christmastime, may the King of Heaven reward you. I'll make myself your servant, if you so desire; But tomorrow, milord, as you know, I must move on; But give me someone to show me the path, as you promised, The road to the Green Chapel, where as God sees fit I must meet on New Year's Day my appointed fate." "In good faith," said the lord, "I'll do so gladly. All I may ever have promised, I'll pay in full." He assigns a servant to Gawain to show him the way And guide him in through the hills, that he make no mistake. And show him the easiest path through the woods to the green one's cell.
The
lord thanks
Gawain gravely
For more than he can
Then Sir
to each
Gawain
tell;
highborn lady
says farewell.
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34
With sorrowing
heart and with kisses he spoke to
And urged the two to accept his undying thanks, And they returned the same again to Gawain, And with heavy sighs of care they commend him Then Gawain said goodbye to all the hall; To every man he'd met he gave his thanks For
his service
With which
And
to Christ.
and companionship and the kindness
they'd
all
attended his every wish;
the servants there were as sorry to see
As they'd been
them both
if
he'd lived with them
all
him go their lives as their lord.
Then the torchbearers took him upstairs to his room And led him to his bed to lie down and rest. And did he sleep soundly then? I dare not say! There was much concerning the morning our knight might in his thought.
Then
let
He
near to what he's sought;
is
him
lie
there
If you'll listen for a I'll tell
512
still:
while,
what morning brought.
turn
Sir Gaxvain
Part Four:
The Test
at the
and
the
Green Knight
Green Chapel
1
Now New Year's Day draws near; the night slides past: Dawn drives out the dark, as the Lord commands; awaken outside on the earth; the North Wind's needle to trouble the naked;
But the wintry winds
And
down
clouds cast
There's enough of
of the world
their chilly load
down to make wild creatures cower, And howling winds come hurtling down from the heights Snow and
sleet hurl
And drive huge drifts to the depth of every dale. The young man listened well, where he lay in his bed, And although his eyelids were locked, he got little sleep; By every cock that crowed he could tell the hour. He was up and dressed before any faint sign of dawn. For there in his chamber there flickered the light of a lamp.
He called to his chamberlain, who cheerfully answered. And he bid him to bring in his byrnie and the saddle of The other was up at once and arranging his clothes. And he dressed our knight at once in his noble attire. First
he put on
And
then
all
rings of his rich byrnie all
was
off the cold.
other equipment, carefully kept:
His chest- and belly-plates,
The And
ward
soft cloth to
all his
as fresh as at
polished to a glow.
rubbed
first,
free of all rust;
so that well his
He
his horse;
might he thank
men.
put on every piece.
All burnished
till
they shone.
Most gay from here
And
to Greece;
he called for his horse again.
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Great Books Library
When Gawain garbed His cloak with
The
its
himself in his handsome clothes—
crest of
gleaming needlework,
velvet cloth set off by splendid stones,
Brightly embellished and
boimd by
l^rilliant
seams,
Beautifully furred within with the finest of pelts-
He by no means left behind that lady's gift, The last thing on earth it was likely he'd forget!
When he'd lightly belted his sword to He circled the sash around him twice.
his lean hips
Winding the girdle around himself with relish, That green device that seemed only gay decoration
On
the
But
Or
it
proud and royal red of Gawain's robe;
wasn't because of
pride of
its
its
worth he wore that
sash,
pendants, polished though they were.
But in hopes of saving his head when he had to endure Without argument, when the time came for that ax to fall.
Now
Gawain, tan and proud.
Works his way through the hall, Nodding and bending to the crowd And once more thanking them all.
514
Sir Gawaiyi
and
the
Green Knight
And now the great, tall Gringolet was ready, The war horse carefully stabled while Gawain was here. And how that proud steed pranced in his rage to run! Gawain stepped up beside him, inspecting his coat. And said, "Here's a castle that knows how to keep its guests; Good fortune to the man who maintains such groomsmen,
Sir
And the lady of this place, may love be with her! May they who see to their guests so splendidly And welcome them so well be richly rewarded— And all of you here— when you come to the Kingdom of Heaven! And if I may stay alive awhile on earth. May I see some way to repay you at last for such kindness!" He steps in the stirrup and strides aloft; They show him his shield, and he swings it onto his Then touches Gringolet once with his gilded heels,
And
shoulder.
the charger lunges, lingering no longer to dance.
High on his horse he
Armed with
his spear
rides,
and
lance;
"This castle be kept by Christ!"
He
cried,
"May He
give
it
bonne chance!"
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Great Books Library
They dropped Unbarred the
the drawbridge down, and the
men
at the gates
and both halves opened wide; blessed the company quickly and crossed on the planks.
He And
blocks,
he praised the porter
Praying to
And thus The man
God
that
he rode
off
He
who
grant
before
knelt by the prince of the hall,
all
good fortune
dawn with
to
Gawain,
his single servant.
show him the path to the place appointed Gawain was doomed to suffer that sorrowful stroke.
sent to
Where Sir They rode by
hills
where every bough hung bare
And climbed in the bloom of cliffs where coldspots hung— The dark sky overcast, the low clouds ugly; Mists moved, wet, on the moor, and the mountain walls
Were damp,
every mountain a huge
man
hatted and mantled;
Brooks boiled up muttering, bursting from banks
all
about them,
And shattered, shining, on the stones as they showered down. The way through the wood wound, baffling, out and in Till the
hour of sunrise came and the sun rose cold
and
bright.
They rode on a high hill's crown. The snow all aroimd them white; The servant beside him then Reined up and stopped the knight.
516
and
Sir Gaivain
the
"Sir," the servant said, "I've
Green Knight
brought you
this far.
You're pretty near right up on top of that famous place
You've asked about and looked for
while;
all this
my lord— because I know you. And because you're a man I love like not many alive— If you'll take my advice in this, you'll be better off. But
let
The And For
me
say this,
place you're pushing to
the
man who
he's mighty,
holes
and
up
is
a perilous place,
in those rocks
he's cruel,
and he
the worst in the world.
is
kills for
No man between Heaven and Hell is a match And his body's bigger than the best four In Arthur's It's
hall,
or Hector, or anyone
there he plays his game, at the
pure
else.
Green Chapel,
Where no man passes, however proud in battle. But he cuts him down for sport by the strength of He's a
man
joy;
for that monster.
his
arm;
without moderation, a stranger to mercy.
For chaplain or plowman, whoever goes past that chapel-
Monk, mass-priest, mortal of any kind— That green man loves his death as he loves
his
own
life.
sir, as sure as you sit and you go to your grave, as the green man likes; Trust me, for if you had twenty more lives, he'd take them too.
So
Go
I
say to you,
in
your saddle.
there
How long —Or who But
sir,
he's lived,
God knows!
he's cut in two;
against his blows
There's nothing a
man
can do.
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Great Books Library
"And
so,
milord,
Go home some
I
Ride through some
And And By I'll
I'll
me
me
keep
your
I
country, and Christ be with you!
promise you on
God and by
all
all that's
man
honor.
the beloved apostles. all
say never a
other oaths—
word
living that ever
I
heard
thank you," said Gawain, and grudgingly he added:
for
my
to you,
your keeping the
friend, for wishing
secret,
But however well you held
I'm sure
it in, if I left
Flying in fright from the place, as you
I
me
well;
believe you;
here
feel
I
should,
I'd
prove myself a cowardly knight and past pardon.
I'll
make my way
And
to the
have what words
Whether
I
Chapel
as
To
meet what
I'll
one you
try
my hand
on
this hill.
he may be,
However quick
God
to
will with the
for better or worse,
Cruel
518
my
holy— and
and
secret, sir,
from any
fleeing
"Good fortune As
by
wounds and by
Of your "I
far-off
go back home,
swear
the
him alone! own side-
plead with you, leave
other route, by Christ's
to kill,
can find the way
save me,
if
He
Avill."
I
must
tell of.
of."
Sir
Gawain and
the Green Knight
7
"Mary," the other
As
man
said, "since
said you've set your heart
on
you've as
much
suicide,
would please you, who can prevent Here's your helmet, then, and here's your spear. Ride on down this road past the side of that rock Till it sets you down in the stones on the valley floor; Look down the flats to the left a little way
And
losing your life
it?
And there, not far away, you'll find the Chapel And the burly knight that keeps it not far off. And now goodbye, by God's side, noble Gawain. I
wouldn't ride further for
all
the gold on earth—
Or walk even one step more in these weird woods." With that the serving man jerked at his horse's reins
And And
stabbed his horse with his heels with galloped along the land and
left
all his
might
our knight
alone.
Gawain now,
"By
Christ," said
"I'll
neither whine nor moan;
To
the will of
And make
God
I
bow
myself His own."
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Great Books Library
8
He
put his spurs to Gringolet, plunged
down
the path,
Shoved through the heavy thicket grown up by the woods
And rode down the steep slope to the floor of the valley; He looked around him then— a strange, wild place. And not a sign of a chapel on any side But only
steep, high
And great, rough That scraped
banks surrounding him,
knots of rock and rugged crags
the passing clouds, as
it
seemed
him.
to
He heaved at the heavy reins to hold back his horse And squinted in every direction in search of the Chapel, And still he saw nothing except— and this was strange—
A small green hill all alone, a sort of barrow, A low, smooth bulge on the bank of the brimming creek That flowed from
And
the foot of a waterfall,
the water in the pool was bubbling as
if it
were boiling.
Gawain urged Gringolet on till he came to the mound And lightly dismounted and made the reins secure On the great, thick limb of a gnarled and ancient tree; Then he went up to the barrow and walked all around it. Wondering in his wits what on earth it might be. Sir
It
had
And And Or
at
each end and on either side an entrance,
patches of grass were growing all
over the thing.
all
hollow— an old, old cave some ancient crag, he couldn't tell which
the inside was
the cleft of
it
was.
"Whoo, Lord!" thought
the knight,
"Is this the fellow's place?
Here the Devil might Recite his midnight mass.
520
and the Green Knight
Sir Gaxvoin
"Dear God," thought Gawain, "the place
And
it's
ugly enough,
Well might
To
do
In
my
VV^ho's
May
it
amuse
all
brought
fire
and
I
me
deserted enough!
that marvel of green
his devotions here, in his devilish five senses
is
overgro'tvn with weeds!
fear to
way!
the Fiend himself
it's
meet him here
ftiry befall this
murder me.
to
fiendish Chapel,
came across!" With his helmet on his head and his lance in hand He leaped tip onto the roof of the rock-walled room And, high on that hill, he heard, from an echoing rock Beyond the pool, on the hillside, a horrible noise. As cursed
a kirk as
I
ever yet
Brrrack!
It clattered in
A sotnid
like a grindstone
Brrrack!
It
Brrrrrack!
And For
then:
me— a
the
whirred and rattled It
rtished
cleave them,
cliffs as if to
grinding on a scythe!
and rang
like
till
water on a mill wheel!
your blood ran cold.
"Oh God," thought Gawain, blade prepared for the blow as
my
"it grinds, I think,
I
must take
right!
God's will be done! Btit here!
He may But I
still,
well get his knight,
no use
Avon't fall
in fear;
dead of fright!"
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Great Books Library
10
And
then Sir Gawain roared in a ringing voice, "Where is the hero who swore he'd be here to meet me? Sir Gawain the Good is come to the Green Chapel! If any man would meet me, make it now. For it's now or never, I've no wish to dawdle here long." "Stay there!" called someone high above his head, "I'll pay you promptly all that I promised before." But still he went on with that whetting noise a while. Turning again to his grinding before he'd come down.
At
last,
from
a hole by a rock he
Came plunging
into sight.
out of his den with a terrible weapon,
A huge new Danish ax With
came out
to deliver his
blow with,
a vicious swine of a bit bent back to the handle.
Filed to a razor's edge and four foot long,
Not one inch less by the length of that gleaming great Green Knight was garbed as before.
lace.
The
Face, legs, hair, beard,
That now he walked
The
all as
before but for
the world on his
this:
own two
ax handle striking the stone like a walking-stave.
When
the knight
But vaulted
Came
came down
across
on
his ax,
to the
water he would not wade
then with awful strides
fiercely over the field filled all
around
with snow.
Gawain met him there And bowed— but none too low! Sir
Said the other, "I
You go where you
522
legs,
see,
sweet
sir,
say you'll go!
Sir Gaiuain
and the Green Knight
11
"Gawain," the Green Knight
said,
You're very welcoine indeed,
sir,
You've timed your
You At
recall the
travel,
my
"may God be your guard!
here at
my
place;
friend, as a true
man
should.
terms of the contract drawn up between us:
time a year ago you took your chances.
this
And I'm pledged now, this New Year, to make you my payment. And here we are in this valley, all alone. And no man here to part us, proceed as we may; Heave
And
off
When
you severed
"Never
Me
your helmet then, and have here your pay;
debate no more with
fear," said
life, I'll
raise
But take your
And
my
me
than
head from
did then
I
my
neck with a single swipe."
Gawain, "by God who gave
no complaint
single stroke,
at the
and
I'll
grimness of
stand
it;
still
allow you to work as you like and not oppose
you here."
He bowed toward the ground And let his skin show clear; However his heart might pound. He would not show his fear.
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Great Books Library
12
man
Quickly then the
in the green
made
ready,
Grabbed up his keen-ground ax to strike Sir Gawain; With all the might in his body he bore it aloft
And sharply brought it down as if to slay him; Had he made it fall with the force he first intended He would have stretched out the strongest man on earth. But
As
Sir
it
Gawain
glided
cast a side glance at the
down
him
to give
his
ax
Kingdom Come,
And his shoulders jerked away from the iron a little. And the Green Knight caught the handle, holding it And mocked the prince with many a proud reproof: "You
Gawain," he
can't be
A man who's never been
"who's thought so good,
said,
daunted on
hill
or dale!
For look how you flinch for fear before anything's I
never heard
/ never
moved
a
My head
I
that Sir
never so
fell off at
my
But you! You tremble
much
feet, yet
I
as
winced.
never flickered;
at heart before you're
I'm bound to be called a better
man my
touched!
than you, then, lord."
Said Gawain, "I shied once:
No But It
524
felt!
Gawain was ever a coward! muscle when you came down;
tell
In Arthur's hall
back,
more. You have if
my
head
my
falls to
cannot be restored.
word. the stones
Sir Gaxuain
and
Green Knight
the
13
"But be
brisk,
my doom
Deal out
For
I'll
man, by your if
you can, and do
stand for one good stroke, and
Until your ax has hit— and that
"Here
and come
faith,
I
goes, then," said the other,
it
to the point!
at once.
I'll
start
no more
swear."
and heaves
it
aloft
And stands there waiting, scowling like a madman; He swings down sharp, then suddenly stops again. Holds back the ax with
his
hand before
it
can hurt.
And Gawain stands there stirring not even a nerve; He stood there still as a stone or the stock of a tree That's wedged in rocky ground by a hundred roots.
O, merrily then he spoke, the
man
in green:
"Good! You've got your heart back!
May
all that
Now
I
can hit you.
glory the good King Arthur gave you
now— if
can— And save your neck." In rage Sir Gawain shouted, "Hit me, hero! I'm right up to here with your threats! Prove
Is it
efficacious
you
that's the
"Whoo!"
said the
No pauses,
then;
it
ever
cringing coward after all?"
man
I'll
in green, "he's wrathful, too!
pay up
my
pledge at once, I
vow!"
He takes his stride to strike And lifts his lip and brow; It's
not a thing Gawain can
like,
For nothing can save him now!
525
Great Books Library
14
He raises that ax up lightly and flashes it down, And that blinding bit bites in at the knight's bare neckBut hard
as
he hammered
it
down,
it
hurt him no more
Than to nick the nape of his neck, so it split the skin; The sharp blade slit to the flesh through the shiny hide. And red blood shot to his shoulders and spattered the ground. And when Gawain saw his blood where it blinked in the snow He sprang from the man with a leap to the length of a spear; He snatched up his helmet swiftly and slapped it on, Shifted his shield into place with a jerk of his shoulders,
And snapped
his
sword out
And, mortal born of
his
faster
mother
than sight; said boldly—
that he was.
There was never on earth a man so happy by half— "No more strokes, my friend; you've had your swing! I've stood one swipe of your ax without resistance; If
you
With
offer all
me
any more,
the force and
I'll
repay you at once
fire I've
got— as you will see.
I
take one stroke, that's
all,
For that was the compact we
Arranged
in Arthur's hall;
But now, no more
526
for
me!"
Great Books Library
15
The Green Knight remained where Settled the shaft
And And
he stood, relaxing on his ax-
on the rocks and leaned on the sharp end—
studied the young
man
standing there, shoulders hunched,
considered that staunch and doughty stance he took.
Undaunted
And
yet,
and
he liked
in his heart
it;
then he said merrily, with a mighty voice—
With
a roar like
rushing wind he reproved the knight—
"Here, don't be such an ogre on your ground!
Nobody here has behaved with bad manners toward you Or done a thing except as the contract said. I owed you a stroke, and I've struck; consider yourself Well paid. And now I release you from all further duties. If I'd cared to hustle, it may be, perchance, that I might Have hit somewhat harder, and then you might well be cross!
The I
first
time
I
lifted
my
ax
merely feinted and made
n^)
For you kept our pact of the
And
was lighthearted mark,
first
as
was
sport,
right,
night with honor
abided by your word and held yourself true to me.
Giving I
it
me
all
you owed
as a
good man should.
feinted a second time, friend, for the
my
You
kissed
And
so for the
pretty wife twice first
two
days,
morning
and returned me the
mere
feints,
nothing more
severe.
A man who's
true to his word.
There's nothing he needs to fear;
You
failed
me, though, on the third
Exchange, so
528
I've
kisses;
tapped you here.
Sir Gaioain
and
the Green Knight
16
"That
My own I
know,
wife gave too, of
And my It
was
I
to you, as
it
your
kisses
a pearl
all
man
myself arranged them.
I
that ever
walked
a little, sir;
Gawain stood
all
you were
was not for the sash
But because you loved your Sir
know.
to
this earth.
of greater price than dry white peas.
But you lacked it
me;
your words
So Gawain indeed stands out above
But since
to
sent her to test you. I'm convinced
finest is
ought
I
and
wife's advances, for
who
You're the
As
you wear by your scabbard belongs
sash
less
than loyal;
or for lust
itself
life, I
other knights.
blame you
less."
in a study a long, long while.
So miserable with disgrace that he wept within,
And And The
all
the blood of his chest went
up
to his face
he shrank away in shame from the man's gentle words. first
words Gawain could find
to say
were
these:
"Cursed be cowardice and covetousness both, Villainy and vice that destroy
all
virtue!"
He caught at the knots of the girdle and loosened them And fiercely flung the sash at the Green Knight. "There, there's my fault! The foul fiend vex it! Foolish cowardice taught me, from fear of your stroke,
To
bargain, covetous,
The
selflessness
Here
I
and
stand, faulty
and abandon my kind.
loyalty suitable in knights;
and
false,
much
as I've feared
Both of them, untruth and treachery; may they
and I
can't
My
deny
them.
see sorrow
care!
my guilt;
works shine none too
Give
me
And
henceforth
fair!
your good will I'll
beware."
529
Great Books Library
17
At
that, the
Green Knight laughed, saying
"Whatever harm
now
Since
And I
I've had,
I
hold
it
graciously,
amended
you're confessed so clean, acknowledging sins
bearing the plain penance of
my
point;
consider you polished as white and as perfectly clean
As
if
And
you had never I
give you,
For the cloth
is
sir,
fallen since this
green
as
first
you were born.
gold-embroidered girdle, as
my gown.
Sir
Gawain, think
On
this when you go forth among great princes; Remember our struggle here; recall to your mind This rich token. Remember the Green Chapel. And now, come on, let's both go back to my castle And finish the New Year's revels with feasting and
not I
beg you," said the
And
said,
She'll
A
530
"As for
strife,
lord.
my
wife,
be your friend, no more
threat against your life."
joy,
Sir
Gazvam and
the
Green Knight
18
"No,
And
sir," said
the knight,
quickly removed
it,
and
seized his helmet
thanking the Green Knight,
"I've reveled too well already; but fortune be with you;
May He who gives all honors honor you well. Give my regards to that courteous lady, your wife— Both
to her
Who with It's
and the
other, those honorable ladies
such subtlety deceived their knight.
man is made a fool of woman won to sorrow;
no great marvel that
And
through the wiles
a
them fooled Adam, here on earth. And several of them Solomon, and Samson, Delilah dealt him his death, and later David Was blinded by Bathsheba and bitterly suffered.
Thus one
of
What bliss it would be them— if only one could!
All these were wrecked by their wiles.
To For
love all
And
them but never believe
those heroes were once most
happy and
free
the greatest thinkers that ever walked this side of Heaven.
Yet these were
Through If I
I,
too,
think
I
all
defiled
faith in lovely
women;
was beguiled,
must be forgiven.
531
Great Books Library
19
"And
your girdle," said Gawain, "God reward you! gladly, and not for the gleaming gold
as for
and
I'll
take
Or Or
for wealth or
it
the weave or the silk or the pendants on
its
side
renown or the wonderful ornamentation But instead as a sign of my slip, and I'll look at it often When I move in glory, and humbly I'll remember The fault and frailty of the foolish flesh,
How
tender
And when
A glance at But
it is
to infection,
am tempted
I
the sash will once
I'd like to ask
how
to pride
easily stained;
by
more
one other thing,
my
prowess in arms,
soften if it
my
heart.
doesn't displease you:
Since you are the lord of the land where I've visited
And
received such splendid welcome (for which
Who sits on What
is
"I'll tell
high upholding the heavens repay you).
your true name?
you
truly,
"I'm known in
Through (Oh,
this
many
I'll
ask nothing else."
Gawain," the other
said,
land as Bertilak de Hautdesert.
the might of
Well versed
may He
Morgan
in the occult
Fay,
le
and cunning
who in
lives in
my
the marvelous arts she's learned from Merlin,
For she dallied long ago with the love
Of
that crafty old scholar, as all your knights are aware at
'Morgan the goddess'
And
it's
home—
she's called,
thus she got her name:
There's none, however bold,
That Morgan cannot tame—)
532
castle.
magic
Gawain and
Sir
the Green Knight
20
"—Through Morgan's might
To
test its pride, to see if
I
came
in this
form
to
your hall
the tales were true
Concerning the great nobility of the Round Table. She worked
charm on me
this
to
rob your wits
Queen Guinevere might be shocked my game and the ghastly man who spoke
In the hope that
At
sight of
to her grave
With his head held high in his hand before all the table. It's Morgan you met in my castle— the old, old woman— Your aunt, as a matter of fact, half-sister to Arthur, Daughter
to the
King Uther got But come,
I
Make merry
Duchess of Tyntagel, on his
urge you, knight, come in
my
whom
famous son King Arthur. house, where
my
visit
your aunt;
servants love you.
And where I will love you as well, man, I swear. As I love any lord on earth, for your proven honor." But Gawain again said no, not by any means, And
To
so they
embraced and
the Prince of Paradise,
kissed
and commended each other
and parted then in the cold;
Sir
To
Gawain turned again Camelot and his lord;
And as for the man of green. He went wherever he would.
533
Great Books Libra ry
21
Now Gawain rides through the wild woods On Gringolet— a man given back his life Through
grace.
Sometimes he
of the
slept in houses,
world
sometimes
Not. In every vale he fought and conquered,
But of all that I've no intention to tell. By now the cut in his neck was whole once more And over the scar he wore his shining sash
Bound
And As
to his side obliquely, like a baldric,
tied with a
knot on his
a sign that he
left,
had been taken
below
his
arm,
in untruth;
And thus he comes, alive and well, at last To court. What cheer there was when the Round Table learned That good Sir Gawain had come! The King was joyful. He clutched him and kissed him, and Guinevere kissed him then, And many a stalwart knight stepped near to hail him. And they all asked what had happened, and he told his story. Recounted
his hardships, all his fears
The adventure of the Chapel, The love of the lady, and, last
He showed them
all
and
griefs.
the green man's actions. of
all,
the sash.
the scar on his naked neck.
Left by the Green Knight's ax
when he was found to
blame;
He told of his disgrace And moaned his fallen name; The blood rushed up in his face As he showed
5M
his
badge of shame.
Sir Gaivain
and
the
Green Knight
22 "Look,
my
lord," said
Gawain, holding the love
"Here's the heraldic bend of the brand on
my
The
lost,
Of
The I
sign
and symbol
token that
must wear
For
I
this
this sign,
of
something valued
and cowardice
the coveting
as
long as
once attached,
is
me—
that caught
have been taken once in
emblem
my
lace,
neck,
faithlessness.
life
attached for
may all
last,
time."
The King and the court all comforted the knight; And laughing gaily, they graciously agreed That all the lords and ladies of La Table Ronde, And all in that brotherhood should bear a baldric. An oblique heraldic bend of burning green. And wear that sign forever in honor of Gawain. Thus was the glory of the Round Table given to the sash And what marked Gawain's shame made Gawain's glory Forever, as all the best books of Romance Record. These things took place in the days of King Arthur,
As the ancient Book of the British has borne After bold King Brutus founded Britain, After the siege and assault was ended at
witness,
Troy
at last.
And many
a
man
Adventures such
Now He
has found as this.
that bore the
Of thorns bring
us to
crown
bliss!
Amen.
HONY SOYT QUI MAL PENCE
535
Great Books Library
NOTE TO THE READER the works of Chaucer In greatest achievements of
and Dante, the
medieval hterature are included in Great Books of the Western World. Much about the chivalric ideal,
which Sir Gawain is the pattern, is to be found in them, especially in the figures of the Knight and the Squire in The Canterbury Tales. Also it should not be forgotof
that
ten
chivalric
Cervantes
set
romances only
out to
satirize
to
the
end up by turn-
Don
Quixote into a tragicomic represenGibbon, too, discusses chivalry in his account of the First Crusade. The ideal of knighthood exalts a particular conception of honor. The reader interested in investigating the different conceptions of honor can find much material in Great Books. Chapter 35 of the Syntopicon is devoted to ing
tative
of the chivalric virtues.
This book
is
Honor, and the Introduction
ing
its
economic and
political
cited
536
background.
under State 10c.
Gawain and the Green Knight makes extensive use of religious images and symbols. One school of criticism maintains, in fact, that Sir
medieval literature cannot be fully understood apart from the methods and teachings devel-
oped by the great Christian theologians for the analysis of Sacred Scripture and of religion. A wide range of materials on these subjects is contained in Great Books, the references to
which are given under Sign and Symbol Symbolism in theology and religion.
W. A. Dwiggins. The type was by SSPA Typesetting, Inc., Carmel, Indiana, and the book was printed and bound by Kingsport Press, Inc., Kingsport, Tennessee
set
chapter
Passages bearing upon the feudal state are
set primarily in Caledonia, a typeface
created by the late
to that
many
references arranged under the various Topics should be consulted. Chivalry is an outgrowth of feudalism, and understanding of it is deepened by consideras well as the
5:
Homer Aeschylus
H^|^B I^B
^
Nicomachus Ptolemy
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Marcus Aurelius
Herodotus
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Augustine
Hippocrates
Thomas Aquinas
Aristophanes
Dante
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Montaigne
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Tacitus
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Pascal
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Locke
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Swift
J.
Berkeley
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Adam
Smith
Kant
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S.
Mill
William James
Freud