Wednesday, June 15, 2011

From Pollyanna to Brutus to Bonhoeffer

As human beings we often face times of suffering. When we do, the temptation is often to deal with our suffering in an unbiblical way. In an article I wrote earlier in the year for the Charles Colson Center, I used the example of Dietrich Bonhoeffer as a springboard to explore two unhealthy approaches to human suffering.

One of these unbiblical approaches is what I call “the Pollyanna method.” In the above article I write that "This describes a person who pretends that everything is happy even when it is not. Such an approach is sometimes referred to as being 'sentimental' and amounts to a functional denial of the reality of evil."

In the same article I went on to talk about an approach on the opposite extreme called Stoicism. Stoicism was a school of Greek philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium [pictured on right] in the early 3rd century BC. The stoics held a pantheistic worldview which, in the words of Tom Wright, “[believed] that everything that exists is somehow either divine or impregnated with the divine.”  But it is the Stoic approach to suffering that concerns us here. For the Stoic, freedom from suffering lay in an emotional detachment from pain. The good life lay in transcending the “passions”, including the emotions caused by human suffering. Since each of us must learn to resolutely submit to our fate, the Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy observed that Stoicism provided “a psychological fortress which was secure from bad fortune.”
 
The character of Brutus in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar was a Stoic. Thus, when grief gets the better of Brutus and Shakespeare has him declare to his friend Cassius, “O Cassius, I am sick of many griefs”, Cassius replies, “Of your philosophy you make no use if you give place to accidental evils.”

Cassius, though himself an Epicurean, is reminding Brutus to be a good Stoic and not be affected by difficulties that only happen by chance (‘accidental evils’). Brutus responds as a Stoic, saying: “No man bears sorrow better.” His Stoicism reinforced, when Cassius latter expresses more sorrow than Brutus for the death of his wife, Brutus tells him to be quiet and speak no more of it.

If the Pollyanna approach is characterized by a constant artificial smile, the Stoic approach comes to us in the form of a perpetual stiff upper lip.
 
In my article 'gratitude and joy in the midst of suffering', I explain how Bonhoeffer teaches us how to navigate between these two escapist extremes towards the Biblical approach to suffering. To find out what that is, you'll have to click here.


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2 comments:

Susannah said...

Good points. I realize "Pollyanna" is common parlance for a person who denies the reality of evil or suffering, but I have often thought of her glad game as just a form of giving thanks in all things. Gratitude and spiritual contentment really are the basis for joy, even in the midst of suffering. Granted, one must know Whom to thank.

lovemydesignergenes said...

The two Pollyanna books --- especially the first "Pollyanna" were massive pre World War 1 hits. I have copies of the early versions...Pollyanna and Pollyanna Grows Up...likely the versions some of our grandmas (or great grandmas) clamored for...and got for those longago Christmases.

Yes, the "Glad Game" in the first Pollyanna book is a bit simplistic...and borders on annoying. Not even our post Y2K small children are as sheltered as that little pre WW1 town was!!!


But the second book (both written by the original author and not the hosts of imitators) "Pollyanna Grows Up" is more layered and a bit dark (I think it came out when the world was near or just entering WW1.) It even discreetly hints at the horrors of human trafficking! Both books are still worth reading, and are still quality examples of reasonably decent Christian fiction...and the Disney 1960 movie adaptation shows a host of quality actors telling this still charming story of how "...a little child will lead them".

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