AR 386 - arguments

AR 386

When I once looked about in the spiritual world,

I heard what sounded like the gnashing of teeth,

and like a thumping, too,

intermixed with a harsh noise.

So I asked what I was hearing,

and the angels who were with me said,

"There are clubs, which we call taverns,

where people argue with each other.

This is the way their debates sound at a distance,

but close by they sound only like arguments.

I went over and saw cottages constructed

of interwoven rushes, with clay for mortar.

I wanted to look through a window,

but there wasn't one.

I looked for a window

because I was not permitted to enter through a door,

as light from heaven would then flow in

and befuddle people.

[5]  . . . The particular arguing that sounded like

the gnashing of teeth came from those

who were espousing faith alone;

the arguing that sounded like a thumping

came from those who were espousing charity alone;

and the intermixed harsh noise came from the syncretist.

I heard their voices at a distance thus

because they had all argued in the world,

but did not refrain from any evil

and so did not do any moral good that was spiritual.

Moreover, they also did not know at all

that the totality of faith is truth,

and that the totality of charity is goodness,

and that truth without goodness

is not truth in spirit,

and that goodness without out truth

is not goodness in spirit;

thus that one must form the other.

(From the footnote in the translation by N. Bruce Rogers:

A syncretist is someone who has a system of belief

that attempts to reconcile differing

religious and philosophic positions.

The term was applied especially to the view

of George Callixtus, a Lutheran theologian

in the 17th century, and his followers.)