Onward or Backward or Both?

Onward or Backward or Both? In the contemporary western world "morality" is often thought to have lost any normative connotations. The sophisticated concepts embraced by such phrases as "information revolution,'' "environmental protection," "nuclear disarmament,'' "human rights,'' and "third world" assault our traditional touchstones with abandon. The mere contexts in which ethical decisions are demanded are evolving at such a dramatic pace that individuals, governments and institutions are hard pressed to comprehend (let alone plot humanitarian strategies to absorb) them. The university, long applauded as the secular conscience of its society, is increasingly pressed into the service of technology, the supreme agent of modern change, while those critical disciplines in the arts and social sciences, which might once have been expected to analyse and make sense of both change and context, are progressively undermined and dismissed as irrelevant. "Hardware" and "software '' gradually begin to constitute the poles of ideological discourse and the voice of moderation is reduced to rationalizing the essential nature of both. But values have the advantages of longevity and resilience. They die hard. Despite the trendy fits and starts of conventional wisdom, traditions (no matter how irrational or myopic they may superficially appear) speak out from the depths of our collective memory, posing problems for haste. What, they beg us to know, is this condition we're rushing ever onwards toward? For those wishing to pursue it further, Hugh MacLennan's newest novel, Voices in Time, affords a telling exploration of the question. Although facile equations of relig,ion and morality must be abjured, it is obvious that many of our traditional moral values have in some way been moulded by the church. If the institutional church has failed to unravel the protean dilemmas of our age, it can never be faulted for having lost sight of its commitment to the human soul. The essence of Canada's religious traditions, transported through time in denominational and sectarian luggage over myr.iad geographical and cultural landscapes, has touched our lives in perplexing ways. We have responded to religion - whatever its content, however received - as individuals living within the constraints of personal circumstances. Despite the best efforts of theologians to devise consistent, even ecumenical, doctrine, the soul's salvation remains the only unifying issue begging the attention of h,uman beings, regardless of their professed faith, regardless of their circumstances. While theologians worry themselves about church doctrine, and while the professoriat anguishes over the fate of a beleaguered university, our authors continue to wrestle with the human condition in a language accessible to all individuals. In their work they aspire to cut through semblance, reaching always for the souls of their people. And to this extent all serious literature is profoundly religious. In 1963 the American writer, Flannery O'Connor, found the following premises essential for a critical examination of the religious contexts of literature. The novelist begins his work where human knowledge begins - with Journal ofCanadian Studies Vol. 18, No. 2 (Ete 1983 Summer) 3 the senses; he works through the limitations of matter, and unless he is writing fantasy, he has to stay within the concrete possibilities of his culture. He is bound by his particular past and by those institutions and traditions that his past has left to his society. The Judaeo-Christian tradition has formed us in the west; we are bound to it by ties which may often be invisible, but which are there nevertheless. It has formed the shape of our secularism; it has formed even the shape of modern atheism. Twenty years later, and remembering what events the intervening period has brought to reshape and challenge our values, we might even marvel at the durability of this perspective. But of course we don't - and for some inexplicable reason we also know why. It is our hope that the essays on religion and literature which highlight this issue of the Journal will, at least in some measure, reflect O'Connor's criteria. JOHN WADLAND 4 Revue d'etudes canadiennes ...