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 MEflEftjhH r/lflCHMK C/lOPEhCKOr XFHLUTiflhCTBA 
 
 Christianity and War 
 
 Letters of a Serbian to his English Friend 
 
 5t!l> 
 
 i^' 
 
 c 
 
 3 
 
 hbyjOPh -- 1915 
 
 3 

 
 t\(-f\ II' ' 
 
 tlOW quickly have flown these last seven years, my 
 dear Friend, since we bade each other Farev/ell at 
 the University. Soon after our parting I was able to 
 greet you as an English clergyman, and not long after- 
 wards you had the opportunity to greet me as a Serbian 
 clergyman. And our correspondence has continued unin- 
 terrupted till to-day. Can you remember how beauti- 
 fully you wrote to me once: "For the true friendship of 
 two men there exists neither distance, time nor space; 
 neither does national frontier, or difference of Govern- 
 ment, or difference of Confession, or of race play any 
 part here." In this I agreed with you. Such a friend- 
 ship in truth existed between us. But it is better to have 
 and to feel this friendship than to describe it. The chief 
 thing is that we were friends even at that time when our 
 respective nations were not yet allied, and that we are 
 friends to-day, and that we shall be friends to-morrow 
 whatever may be the constellation of the stars in heaven 
 or of the nations upon the earth. But we must both 
 confess that this War has brought ^ considerable change 
 in our soul-life: it has strengthened our friendship. For 
 it is a rule that War inakes kinsmen more akin and 
 friends more friendly. As birds driven by the storm 
 gather together in companies, nestling each under the 
 other's wing, so we mortals before this terrible storm of 
 War gather together more closely to one another, under- 
 stand one another more intimately, and more intimately
 
 mHBA I^PKBA 
 
 do we question each other. 'What do you think about 
 the War?' I asked you, and you sent me your sermons 
 and addresses edited during this War. From these I 
 have perceived how every nerve of yours has quivered 
 under these catastrophic events. 
 
 And you put to me the same question. On Christ- 
 mas Day I received from you an American periodical, 
 Everybody's Magazine, in which I found an article un- 
 derlined by you: 7/ the Christians fight, are they still 
 Christians?' I have for some months delayed my 
 answer. For meanwhile Serbia was living through a 
 second devastating crisis: diseases (the first crisis was 
 the inrush of the Austrians). Therefore I was wholly 
 absorbed by the frightful misery in the midst of which 
 I found myself. Permit me please, my Friend, to give 
 you now an answer in the form and style which you 
 desired. 
 
 II 
 
 Is it not true, my Friend, that Europe to-day must 
 stand a little asham^ed before Asia? Xot that Asia has 
 given all gods to humankind and Europe none, but be- 
 cause Europe is to-day waging a war which Asia could 
 only describe — in the most imaginative apocalyptic form. 
 Europe, which only the other day shone so lustrously be- 
 fore the v.-orld, to-day is shedding around herself only 
 red and black rays — red from blood and black from sin. 
 Nation is rising against nation, race against race, faith 
 against faith, account against account, earth against 
 heaven — and, it seems, heaven against earth. Hungry 
 Chronos devours unsparingly his children. All previous 
 catastrophes of Nature from which humanity suffered
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 
 
 were but pin-pricks in comparison with this one which 
 men have brought upon themselves. All the earthquakes 
 and deluges, all the conflagrations and plagues of the 
 past two or three hundred years have not consumed so 
 many human lives, and brought to those who survive, so 
 much pain, suffering and despair as this European War 
 has already done. Has the earth perhaps slipped her 
 axis ? the wise men ask themselves. Or is it that the oc- 
 cult powers of evil have so beclouded the brain of the 
 European peoples that they know not what they do? 
 others are asking. Hov/ can it be that men who have 
 risen to nail their neighbours on the cross do not per- 
 ceive that while they crucify others they are crucifying 
 themselves? And that, in causing pain to others, they 
 must inevitably cause the same pain to themselves ? And 
 that in destroying the lives of others they are also 
 destroying their own lives? "For we are members one 
 of another." (Ephesians IV. 25). 
 
 Where is religion, where Christianity? Where, in- 
 deed, is Christianity? How can Chrstianity be recon- 
 ciled with War ? Why does not Christianity stop War ? J 
 The whole world is perplexed and troubled by these ques- 
 tions ; questions for which they find nowhere a clear an- 
 swer. Reading American journals, I notice that the New 
 World ponders these questions with not less pain than 
 Europe — even more painfully than Europe! — as a 
 daughter is more grieved by the sufferings of her mother 
 than is the mother herself. But nobody in all the world 
 feels the load of such questions like the ministers of 
 Christ and the preachers of His Gospel. Be assured, my 
 Friend, that the Christian people and their ministers in 
 Serbia 'live not by bread alone', but also search sincerely 
 and painfully for the answers to the above questions. On
 
 JKHBA EiPKBA 
 
 that account allow me both as a minister of the Gospel 
 and as an eye-witness of the War to give the same 
 answer to you that I have given to my Serbian flock, im- 
 pelled as I am by the same spiritual needs as all religious 
 men of the Old and New Worlds. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Where is Christianity? That is the first question. 
 My answer is: Oyily there zvhere suffering is. If I say 
 that, I do not mean unmerited suffering only, but merited 
 suffering too. For all suffering purifies and ennobles. 
 Suft'ering for righteousness is always suffering caused 
 by others and suffering for unrighteousness is always 
 suffering caused by ourselves. The righteous man al- 
 ways suffers, either for those who have lived before 
 him, or for those who will live after him. The cause of 
 a good man's suffering lies outside him ; the cause of a 
 bad man's suffering lies Vv'ithin him. Just as suffering 
 strengthens the good man in his goodness, so it weakens 
 the bad man in his wickedness. The man who never suf- 
 fered either in soul or in body Vvas never a Christian 
 man. The history of Christianity is the history of suf- 
 fering in all its myriad forms. The Church suffered 
 either from the persecutions or the favours of the State; 
 either from outside tyranny or internal pride; either 
 from philosophers or from fools; either from fanatics 
 or apostates; from hindrances either without or within. 
 All Church history is interwoven with suffering, — and 
 that, the suffering of sinners and of saints. The sinners 
 suffered in the doing of the sin; the saints as they re- 
 garded it. Not Judas alone suffered because of his great
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 
 
 sin, but many and many others, yesterday and to-day, 
 who have become conscious of the enormity of his sin. 
 In respect to Judas, I think that his soul was very near 
 to Christianity in the moment when he suffered those 
 agonies of remorse. And the Apostle Paul suffered 
 when he merely saw the idolatry of Ephesus and the im- 
 m.orality of Corinth ; as indeed he suffered, too, when he 
 beheld in spiritual vision the sufferings of this travailing 
 creation. (Rom. VIII. 22). All great souls in pagan as 
 well as in Christian times have best loved to dwell in 
 their melancholy solitude (Homer, Heraclitus, Or- 
 pheus, Pythagoras, Plato, Virgil, Seneca, Basil, Dante, 
 St. Bernard). When I asked one of my pupils : 'How do 
 you imagine the great Fathers of the Church?' He re- 
 plied: ''As men who never smiled," and I did not object 
 to the answer. Indeed, it is very difficult for us to con- 
 nect a smile with the mouth of Chrysostom, Athanasius, 
 or Knox; even as it is also equally difficult for us to dis- 
 connect a smile from the lips of the priest of Dionysus. 
 But behold : as have been those great men who expressed 
 Christianit}^ in ethical-dogmatical formulae, so have 
 been also the men who expressed it in verse, in colours, 
 in woodwork or in stone. Dante, de Vinci, Michael 
 Angelo and the great builders of Rheims Cathedral, of 
 Notre Dame and of Westminster Abbey lived, as is well 
 know^n, in the same secret melancholy as the first Fathers 
 of the Church. Such were the great modern representa- 
 tives of Christianity too: Butler, Lammenais, Solovief, 
 Nevrman. Such were, finally, the great exponents of 
 Christianity in literature: Tolstoy, Dickens and Dosto- 
 jevsky. There has never been in the world any saint 
 happy under the shadows of his neighbours' sins. Why 
 must all great souls be melancholic? Because great
 
 m H B A U P K B A 
 
 souls always suffer in the sufferings of their fellow men. 
 But no matter how dark may be the melancholy of a 
 pure Christian soul, it is never darker than the clouds 
 through which pierce the rays of the sun. Christian op- 
 timism, like the distant sun of our universe, penetrates 
 those melancholy garments which enrobe the good and 
 suffering souls of earth. Thus Christianity is not a 
 light v/hich dazzles by the brilliance of its burning rays, 
 but rather a mild and tender light which comes through 
 clouds to meet and greet our longing souls. 
 
 Is there any Christian spirit among the European 
 peoples who are fighting now? That is the question. 
 Yes, my Friend, I say Yes. However paradoxical it 
 may seem, I maintain that in this War, in which from 
 day to day are being killed tens of thousands of human 
 beings, more Christian spirit is being shown than in the 
 peace of yesterday. 
 
 IV 
 
 Do you not think, my Friend, that the first quality 
 of the Christian spirit is humility f The name of the peace 
 of yesterday w^as Pride. Proud were the men of science 
 of their knowledge, the artists of their art, the nobility of 
 their titles, the rich of their riches, — and all living men, 
 in general, proud of their fancied immense superiority 
 in the scheme of things! (cf. Jeremiah IX. 23.) Be- 
 fore this War the men of science imagined that they 
 knev/ all things; the nobility that they alone possessed 
 noblemindedness ; the rich that they had all riches, and 
 every living man, in general, that human life was of in- 
 finitely more value than any other kind of life in Nature:
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 
 
 'Our great scientific mind can save humanity from all 
 calamity,' said the men of science. 'Our wealth is the 
 greatest good of humankind,' thought the rich. 'Our 
 traditional manners and prestige keep Society in 
 equilibrium, imagined the nobility. Our life is by far 
 the greatest thing in Nature, without us Nature would 
 be blind and dead,' — such was the conviction of the ma- 
 jority of living men. People were talking about the 
 Over-mind, the Over-might, the Over-state (v. Bern- 
 hardi), the over-Man (Nietsche). Meanwhile, the 
 mighty Alps beheld wth scorn all human works, opinions 
 and generations which were one after the other, down 
 at their foot, marching to their oblivion and their grave. 
 The spirit of humility was banished to the peasant's 
 hut and dwelt amongst the poor and little. Truly the 
 crowded Cathedrals remained in the cities, but the people 
 in their pride were as cold as the ancient pillars. The 
 spirit of humility was absent from politics, science, art, 
 factory, and even from theology. Religion had been 
 reduced to theology, theology to science, and science to 
 conceit. This spirit ruled most of all in Germany. 
 Nietschianism, which was only the final phase of Ger- 
 many's gradual rise in pride and fall in humility during 
 the last 100 years, had penetrated, as water penetrates 
 a sponge, the whole intellectual and social life of Ger- 
 many. In more than twenty German Universities was 
 preached and taught essentially Nietschianism. I speak 
 as a witness who has himself sought light at German 
 Universities. In these Universities all principles, re- 
 ligions, social, philanthropic, and ethical, were destroyed 
 more radically than the howitzers of to-day are destroy- 
 ing the monuments of culture, through which, as 
 through their eyes, look down upon us the generations
 
 }KIIBA IliPKBA 
 
 who have gone before us on this planet. BibHcal cri- 
 ticism — these sad docta ignorantia — left behind nothing 
 of the Bible, as Lange rightly says, but the covers. 
 Philosophical criticism either created idols, or agitated 
 for idolatry, or exposed the great thinkers only to ridi- 
 cule. Literary criticism has done nothing but sow hot 
 sand upon the green meadows. Juristic criticism has 
 eaten into and corrupted the solid juristic conceptions of 
 thousands of years and stopped only with respect be- 
 fore the monstrous theory of the Ueberstaat (Over- 
 State), which the ambition of neurotic men created for 
 a day. Social criticism — even in the middle of the 19th 
 century — resulted only in the watchword: der Eincige 
 und sein Eigenthum (Max Stirner).*) 
 
 The other nations of Europe were somewhat out- 
 distanced by Germany in her foolish destruction of the 
 good and her construction of monstrosities. But England 
 and Russia remained farthest behind upon this road, 
 along which Germany tugged the whole world to certain 
 ruin. Even in these latter countries, however although 
 they were the most sober, there was room enough for 
 pride, — scientific, comercial, artistic, political. 
 
 Then came the War. 
 
 I don't know the man who could convince me that 
 in the peace of yesterday there was more Christian 
 spirit than in the War of to-day, — I say in the peace of 
 yesterday, when a man had regularly only his one selfish 
 sorrow, than in the War of to-day, when a man has 
 many sorrows about many thousands of human beings, 
 his brothers and compatriots. 
 
 *) The single individual and his possessions. 
 
 8
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 
 
 Then came the catastrophe, and pride went away. 
 The man of science found himself in the same trench 
 with the ignorant man; the peer with the fisherman, the 
 millionaire with the beggar. What a merciless contrast 
 to the peace ! What a sudden change in souls and hearts. 
 What a rapid reconciliation in the appreciation of the 
 new standards of worth ! The scientific man perceived 
 that he was not much wiser than the ordinary man. The 
 peer was astonished by the unexpected nobility of soul 
 which he found in the fisherman. The millionaire felt 
 himself under the same fate as the beggar. Humility! 
 A certain Professor, very proud of his great knowledge, 
 who was for a long time in the trenches at Belgrade with 
 the simple peasants, told me once : "I was a long time in 
 the trenches and I am sorry to leave them. I am greatly 
 disappointed now. I am convinced that these simple 
 peasants have much more knowledge and noble feeling 
 than I ever supposed; while I have come to see that, in 
 comparison with them, I myself know much less, and feel 
 much less nobly, than I ever imagined." That was a 
 sincere confession. I suppose, my Friend, that to you, 
 too, such confessions are not unknown in your parish. 
 
 V 
 
 But look, my Friend, how wonderful is this! Be- 
 sides the humility of man to man that has been shown in 
 this War, there has arisen another kind of humility,— 
 even the humility of man to all Nature. A whole year 
 now have men been close to their animals, sleeping by / 
 their horses and eating alongside their oxen. A whole 
 year now have millions of the healthiest men in the
 
 }K II B A It P K B A 
 
 world sat and lain under the earth, with their face rest- 
 ing on the soil and embracing the wood and stones in 
 their sleep. A whole year now have men looked at 
 herbs and plants, and even the roots of plants, touching 
 them in the closest intimacy, breathing in them, living 
 with them, and whispering with them. From this in- 
 timacy of man with Nature nothing is excluded : neither 
 W3.te\' nor light, neither the starry heavens, nor rain nor 
 fog; nor height of Carpathians, nor depth of the Atlan- 
 tic. In this close fellowship with Nature, every man has 
 experienced the same disappointment that the Professor 
 of whom I spoke told me he had felt among the Serbian 
 peasants in the trenches at Belgrade. That is to say, 
 every man has looked deeper into Nature; into her life, 
 into her very soul ; and, looking deeper, he has perceived 
 that Nature also lives; lives, and suffers and thinks; 
 even thinks by some secret transcendental organ, as he 
 himself does, — he, the boasting king of nature. And 
 further, every man who puts his ear to the heart-beat 
 of Nature perceives yet more: that the life of Nature 
 is more healthy and harmonious than the life of man. 
 And this precious experience leads to humility. I per- 
 sonally have had this experience — and so, as I have 
 found inquiry, have many and many who have spent at 
 least some weeks of intimacy with the earth and her 
 silent children — the elements. Nature silently suffers. I 
 was in the trenches as a military chaplain. I listened to 
 the breathing of the earth, and I felt the harmony of 
 life amid the plant-world; I felt, too, the pain of the 
 trees torn and ripped by lead and iron, and I understood 
 the infinite submission of ox and horse to higher, foreign 
 will. And as I had listened to all, felt all, understood all, 
 I put to myself the question which many others have 
 
 10
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 
 
 put to themselves: Is indeed Man greater and better 
 than Nature? Have you put this question to yourself, 
 my Friend? Humility! 
 
 VI 
 
 Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord! 
 Are we not in the depths — in deeper depths than was 
 even the poet of the Psalms, my friend? But have no 
 fear; in these very depths religion will be born. Often 
 very often, when men are in the deepest depths they are 
 nearest God. I will speak now upon the third kind of 
 humility, which is born in the depths, — humility towards 
 God. Der Einsige und sein Eigenthmn, i. e. proud man 
 has lain hidden behind a heap of earth under a rain of 
 lead and iron, has watched the ants in this heap, and 
 thought that his own life was not much surer, that he 
 was no more the lord of his life than the ant which was 
 under his foot. One must know that the man who is 
 hidden in the black earth, and surrounded with a music 
 of lead and iron, has a philosophy of life quite dififerent 
 from that of the man who, in peace-time in a great town, 
 in the drawing-room after lunch sits and quietly thinks 
 over his business. Millions of things which have great 
 worth for the latter are for the former quite worthless. 
 By the former, love, money, ordinary business, most of 
 the affections, most of the ambitions — these are all for- 
 gotten. In the battle of Valevo an Austrian officer was 
 seriously wounded. He died on the battlefield. He was 
 found lying on his back with hands clutching the photo- 
 graph of a little child. To this man had returned before 
 he died the recollection of his family. The past came 
 
 II
 
 mHBA I1,PKBA 
 
 back to him just before his death. In general, however, 
 men in the trenches hve exclusively in the present, and 
 have in eye only two things: life and victory. But these 
 two things of worth are so little dependent upon the men 
 themselves! They feel it; they are convinced of it 
 They feel that these two values are valueless before some 
 Third which dominates all. That is an age-long ex- 
 perience of the human race in War. In ancient times 
 God was called "the Lord of hosts",— the Lord of ar- 
 mies, in modern speech. And indeed nowhere else does 
 one feel so intensely that God is near as on the field of 
 battle; that He is so overwhelming, so irresistible, so 
 omnipotent. Even the man who in time of peace never 
 believed in God feels that a Third, one unknown, is in- 
 tervening in human life and is taking into His hands 
 the bridles of all human movement. I personally have 
 experienced this, that War has converted many of the 
 most fierce unbelievers into believers. The Socialists in 
 Serbia fought as bravely as the most ardent Nationalists. 
 I heard from many of these Socialists that during this 
 War they had come to believe in God. Travelling from 
 Nish to Belgrade, a Socialist soldier told me of the suf- 
 ferings he went through during the War and he closed 
 with these words : "As a Socialist I considered that I 
 must be an Atheist too. That was my mistake. Now 
 I have new thoughts, a new soul. Believe me. War gives 
 a new soul to a man. God, Who had the last place in 
 my thoughts, now^ occupies the first." I am sure that 
 no missioner has converted so many unbelievers as has 
 this War. War is the greatest missioner. If Heaven 
 sends War to Earth, it sends it as a missionary to turn 
 the eyes of Earth towards Heaven. And so, to the ques- 
 tion, 'Where to-day is Christianity?' we need not give a 
 
 12
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 
 
 despairing answer. We can reply: It is there, where 
 it was, and even where it before never was.' Where it 
 was it is now strengthened, and where it was not it is now 
 springing up. Where is Christianity? Are you agreed 
 with me, my Friend, when I say it is always there where 
 suffering has created humility of man to man, of man to 
 Nature, and of man to God? 
 
 VII 
 
 But so soon as we have said what we have said we 
 are up against another important question: ^ow is 
 Christianity to be reconciled with War?' The answer: 
 in no v.ay at all. Yes, my Friend, Christianity can in 
 no way be reconciled with War. Christianity is white; 
 War is black. Christianity is midday; War is midnight. 
 Therefore, perhaps, the men who find themselves en- 
 circled by black are longing for white; they who are en- 
 circled by midnight are longing for midday. Without 
 doubt War strengthens the religious consciousness of 
 men like all great catastrophes. And yet Christianity 
 neither causes nor requires nor reconciles itself with 
 War. Doubtless, too, Christianity gains by War many 
 more followers, and yet Christianity never desires to 
 gather followers by this manner. Never in the world's 
 history existed so sincere a desire for Christian peace 
 and love as now exists in contemporary Europe. Never 
 did the ideal of Christ seem to enlightened humanity so 
 sublir.^e over all other ideals, so true, so indis.pensa])le 
 as it is now in this time of cataclysm. But the man who 
 awaits the cataclysm of War for the benefit of Chris- 
 
 es
 
 m PI B A U P K B A 
 
 tianity will be similar to the old sceptic of Galilee who 
 asked a miracle of Christ before believeinj^ in Him. 
 Blessed are they who have seen no miracle, and vet have 
 believed ! Blessed are they who before this cataclysm of 
 War reached this religious consciousness and Christian 
 ideal ! They are the men built of better material. Christ 
 did not work miracles for the sake of those who believed, 
 but for the sake of those who did not believe. The 
 miracle of War, too, God allows not for the sake of the 
 believers but for the unbelievers. Aliracles are never 
 anything other than inferior aid to belief — an inferior 
 aid for inferior natures. Such an aid for such natures 
 is the War too. But for the superior intelligence and 
 the noble heart Natur is the chief aid to belief, and a 
 miracle only incidental and exceptional; the whole of 
 Nature is, indeed, one great "miracle", and all other lit- 
 tle miracles are only tedious methods of education for 
 lower intelligence and the less noble souls. Men of har- 
 monious soul feel God in the midst of peace as intensely 
 as the man of unharmonious soul feels Him in the midst 
 of War. For the former one ray of the sun is sufficient 
 to write before their eyes the name of God; whereas the 
 later cannot read the great Name unless it be written in 
 thunder and lightning, by eclipses and earthquakes and 
 rivers of blood, and by all the misery of War. Hun- 
 dreds of those who, before the War, could not see God in 
 Nature have met Him in the War. Thousands of those 
 who in time of peace looked down upon the Gospel from 
 their lofty heights sought it in War with longing and su- 
 perstition, that they might protect their heads from the 
 enemy's bulles. All those who had ridiculed Religion in 
 peace time stopped silent after the miracle of War had 
 come: Silent they go into Church, silent they visit ceme- 
 
 14
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 
 
 teries, silent count the graves of their friends, and cal- 
 culate their own place alongside them. Their soul is suf- 
 fering a shock; their silence should be respected as we 
 respect a death-chamber, because in their souls an old 
 world is dying to give place to a new. In humiliation 
 now they perceive that all their one-sided preaching on 
 'scientific ethics' and 'emancipation from religion' was 
 only empty phraseology; but they perceive, too, that this 
 War has brought the greatest benefit to themselves : the 
 War has rescued them from their errors and delusions, 
 for now they know the center point of the universe to be 
 not in themselves, but God. The War has brought them 
 to sobriety and to punishment. This punishment con- 
 sists in their shame that they could not perceive in peace 
 time the presence of the unseen powers of the Universe; 
 that they had dethroned God and defied man; and that 
 they allowed their personal pride to make them incapable 
 of humility towards Nature, Man and God. This War 
 has come as poison against poison — poison from outside 
 as antidote to poison inside. Christianity does not use 
 evil against evil. By evil, indeed, a man sometimes comes 
 sooner to a good goal, but that very goal itself ceases 
 then to be good, since it was attained by evil. To be 
 first in the race is in itself a good thing, is it not? You 
 may stand and applaud the champion in the competition. 
 But imagine that in this very moment you get the as- 
 surance that this champion had during the race dug a 
 knife into the ribs and back of his horse that he might 
 cover the ground more quickly; and imagine, still fur- 
 ther, that in the moment of the rider's triumph, the 
 horse sinks down to earth by reason of his wounds ! I 
 suppose your great applause would be changed into an 
 outburst of fury against this horseman. Suddenly his 
 
 15
 
 Hi I! B A I^ P K B A 
 
 good c-^oal will seem no longer good to you, but horrible 
 in the moment of your new experience. St. Paul called 
 his life a race. ^^lethinks that the whole history of 
 Christianity represents a race. In this race to the best 
 goal in the world one should go by the best ways, but in 
 the long history of Christianity men have gone by both 
 good and evil ways, and men have used good and evil 
 methods. It was a great mistake to think that men 
 could come by Pagan methods to real Christianity, as 
 it is a mistake to fear that by Christian methods we are 
 going to Paganism. I am sure Christianit}' has never 
 failed in regard to the goal, but she has sometimes 
 failed in her nictJiods. Therefore the race of Christianity 
 has been so long. For evil methods only seem to bring 
 us near to the good goal ; in reality they take us farther 
 away from it. For this reason, however, much apparent 
 and momentary benefit may accrue to Christianity by 
 War, she cannot accord with War. She cannot readily 
 accord with War either ( i ) regarding it as a Miracle or 
 (2) as Evil. Unfortunately, during many centuries 
 Christianity has been often supported by two methods. 
 Miracles and Evil, by tw^o quite unnecessary and super- 
 fluous methods, which she ought not to have need of — 
 especially after 19 centuries of her existence. When 
 we were still at the University w^e had this conviction — 
 do you remember, my Friend? — and this conviction is 
 now strengthened by War. 
 
 VIII 
 
 But — novv^ comes the last question — when Christianity 
 cannot be reconciled with War why does she not hinder 
 the War? Let me answer frankly: Simply because she 
 
 16
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 
 
 cannot. Christianity is not yet grown strong enough suc- 
 cessfully to offer resistance to all the evil in the world. 
 Christianity has not yet become such a power that she 
 can prevent all oppression. She is still, even now, more 
 of an external than an internal force ; she is still, now, a 
 Beautiful cathedral which men regard more from outside 
 than feel and built in themselves inside. 
 
 Why, for instance, did not Christianity prevent the 
 bloody circus games of Nero? Because she was too 
 weak to do it. As soon as she became stronger she did 
 it. Why did not Christanity prevent the crimes of the 
 Christian Byzantine kings, and the many dark sins of 
 her own chief representatives? Because she was not 
 ethically grow^n enough to do it. Why did not Christian- 
 ity suppress the Slave Trade earlier than the 19th cen- 
 tury? Because she lacked the power to do it. And fin- 
 ally, why does not Christianity in the 20th century stop 
 the World War? Because she is to-day, too, weaker 
 than the opposing forces. Christianity came into the 
 world not like a finished and polished statue, which like 
 an idol has to produce miracles; but she came as seed 
 which has to "die", to germinate, to grow, to be trodden 
 down, to be lost, — in a word, to suffer all those manifold 
 and painful vicissitudes, through which every seed must 
 go. Christianity has come from the supernatural world 
 by a natural way into this world, and by a natural way, 
 like every seed, she has developed and grown in this 
 world. She does not yet dominate the world, but she 
 does serve the world. She is not yet the full inspirer of 
 politics, but she has a ministry in politics. She does 
 not yet lead the world; because she is still too weak suc- 
 cessfully to resist its animal motives by her spiritual 
 motives. Many and many individuals have reached 
 
 17
 
 KHBA I^PKBA 
 
 Christian perfection, but human society has reached it 
 not yet. But she grows and strengthens. For the 
 largest and noblest tree in history, as is Christianity, it 
 is not too long a time yet, this 2,000 years, that it has 
 take to spread its branches and to begin to bring forth 
 fruit. 
 
 During this War Professor Baumgarten, Professor 
 of Theology in Kiel, has delivered a lecture in which he 
 explained the relation between Christianity and the great 
 War of to-day. He said : "The words of Christ were ad- 
 dressed to his disciples ; they contained no reference to 
 the demands of public life, but concerned solely the re- 
 lationship of the individual soul to the individual soul and 
 to God. Christ's train of thought cannot be accepted as 
 being applicable to us Germans, for our political situa- 
 tion is very different from that of his audience. Further- 
 more, Christ never represented his realm of peace as 
 being attainable by historical development. He described 
 it as a wonderful achievement of God's. And, as a mat- 
 ter of fact, such a realm of love and peace has its place 
 in a higher world ; it is the region of the personality and 
 has nothing zvhatever to do zmth political or public 
 matters." 
 
 To so dreadful an exposition of Christianity has the 
 last hundred years of Biblical Criticism brought theo- 
 logical science in Germany. In its extreme results, this 
 German Biblical Criticism represents Christ as a maniac 
 who has nothing in common with the political and social 
 life of man. And the truth lies in a diametrically oppo- 
 site direction ! No normal m.an sows a seed, physical or 
 spritual, without expecting growth, development and 
 fruit. And Christ — were he nothing higher than an or- 
 dinary and normal man — must also have expected some 
 
 18
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 
 
 historical development from the seed which he sowed. 
 Moreover, Christ, as the conscious founder of a new re- 
 ligion, could not but see the very close connection be- 
 tween religion and public life. The Kingdom of God 
 must first be within you before it can exist among you; 
 such is the true teaching of the Gospel. Even with the 
 Jews, never were politics and religion separated, and 
 throughout human history there has existed no religion 
 which has not had its influence on politics. Politics are 
 the resultant of the religion, the morality and the edu- 
 cation of a nation. Politics is the practical side of the 
 whole spiritual disposition of a society. If religion be 
 separated from politics, religion becomes fruitless, and 
 politics become narrow-hearted and selfish. Religion 
 must inspire politics. And when politics become Chris- 
 tian, then the world will have become Christian. And 
 when the world shall have become Christian, then War 
 will be impossible — either as means or end. But if so 
 terrible a War as we see today is not to occur in future, 
 then neither must such a peace as we had yesterday still 
 be possible to-morrow. For Christianity is not less at 
 variance with the War of to-day than with the Peace 
 of yesterday. The War of to-day is the consequence of 
 the Peace of yesterday. Every man who regards his- 
 torical events sine ira et studio will in this agree with 
 me, and I suppose with you, too, my Friend. / 
 
 IX 
 
 What have we seen with our eyes in the Peace of 
 yesterday? We have seen men thinking only about 
 themselves, or at most about themselves and their re- 
 latives. We have seen men who had only two thoughts 
 
 19
 
 mil B A D; P K B A 
 
 in their head: gain and pleasure. We have seen strikes 
 for gain, intrigues for gain and pleasure, and lies and 
 baseness for pleasure and pleasure. We have seen un- 
 scrupulous oppression for the weak by the strong. Have 
 we not seen yesterday too — in time of peace — the slaugh- 
 ter and murder of men? Have we not seen the foolish 
 pride of man towards man, and towards Nature and 
 towards God; the pride of the Present towards the Past; 
 of Science towards Religion, and of Art towards Labor: 
 of Town towards village and of the wdiole earthly planet 
 towards the cosmos. Shall I mention the monstrous so- 
 cial, economic, national and ecclesiastical differences? 
 Enough! Perhaps I have asserted some things which 
 are uncertain, but one thing is certain : If we had asked 
 anyone in yesterday's Peace: "Is this peace Christian or 
 not?" we should have received a negatve answxr. 
 
 What do we see to-day in the War? We see greater 
 humility of man towards man, of man towards God and 
 of man tovrards Nature, W^e see, too, a widening of 
 every m.an's horizon, for behold ! now, every Englishman 
 who had plagued him.self about himself and his own af- 
 fairs has novv a nobler ;:orrow concerning some 50 mil- 
 lions of his fellow-countrymen, and of many times 50 
 millions of Allies of England. His narrow and con- 
 stricted sympathies have now widened out over more 
 than a half of our planet. Moreover, we see now such 
 self-sacrifice in all belligerent countries as we could 
 never have dreamed of during the peace of a few months 
 ago. And we see a great drawing together of men to 
 men; a great desire to work in common for the com- 
 mon good; diminished selfishness and less craving after 
 pleasure; a stronger altruism and self-denial. We see 
 in Moscow^ now^ no more drunken people and in Paris no 
 
 20
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 
 
 more unworthy bacchanalia. Of course we see, too, that 
 the price of this moral upHft of men is very, very great: 
 blood, agony, devastation, hunger, disease. In the peace 
 of yesterday, truly, there was less suffering, but less vir- 
 tue too: less courage, less solidarity, less compassion, 
 less self-sacrifice, less humility. Virtue is more precious 
 than rubies, but the sparks of virtue can only be pro- 
 duced by the hammer of suffering. Christian ascetics 
 ■did not flagellate themselves out of mere foolishness, 
 but to strengthen the Christian spirit in themselves. By 
 selfimposed sufferings they accomplished in themselves 
 what Nature and Destiny, by the flagellation of this 
 present War, are accomplishing in the human family. 
 For the War is nothing other than the self-flagellation 
 of humanity. You will say: 'But, alas! hov/ many are 
 dead!' Yes, but great ascetics, too, put to death a great 
 part of their being, in order that they might strengthen- 
 the remaining part. Humanity, in truth, is one Being, 
 in spite of the one and a half milliards of its parts upon 
 the earth. Humanity is no abstract notion; it is a fact 
 — one fact, a unity ; just as when we see at night a star, 
 upon which perhaps may live countless beings, which yet 
 to our eyes appears as only one single fact in the uni- 
 verse. Plato's pan-anthropos is not mere poetry, but a 
 natural, scientific, social and spiritual truth. We are 
 <:onnected with the earth v/hich bears us through the 
 cosmos, v/ith the atmosphere v;e breathe, with the food 
 we take, with the language wc speak, v/ith the thoughts 
 we think, with the feelings v c feel, and with the occult 
 radiation which encircles us. In a word, we all are one. 
 Therefore the many killed and dead represent only the 
 •mortification of a part of the pan-human organism for 
 the welfare of the other part. 
 
 21
 
 mHBA UPKBA 
 
 When I say that humanity is a unity, a whole, I mean 
 not only humanity in the present, but also in the past 
 and in the future. The present always works only half 
 for itself and half for the future. Every generation 
 bears in itself more than a half of the past. And thus 
 more than a half of the sin of the present War belongs 
 to the peace of the past. Therefore we have just as 
 much cause to revolt aganst the peace of yesterday as 
 we have to weep over the War of to-day — and everk 
 more; I say more, because the peace of yesterday 
 caused the War of to-day. Is the boulder to be blamed 
 for rolling down the mountain slope, or the person who 
 set it in motion? If we wish to free ourselves from evil 
 consequences, we must keep clear from their causes. 
 Why do we today kill each other's bodies? Because 
 yesterday we were destroying each other's souls. Yes- 
 terday indeed there were more living bodies in the world,, 
 but fewer living souls. And to-day there are more liv- 
 ing souls and fewer living bodies. War does spiritualise 
 
 X 
 
 Who is against War? I could not tell you, my 
 Friend. When, in 1908, War seemed imminent between 
 Serbia and Austro-Hungary Tolstoy was yet living. He 
 wrote then passionately against War. Amid all the talk 
 about World War, many authors expressed themselves 
 strongly against it. But now that we have been launched 
 into a World War I could not give you one name of any 
 great man who has openly declared himself against this 
 War. I don't know Vv'hether Tolstoy, if he had lived to* 
 see it, v;ould have been antagonistic to this War. Me- 
 
 22
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 
 
 thinks that against this War are — nobody and every- 
 body! 
 
 Let us put upon one side the General Staffs. The 
 Poets and Artists are not against this War: e.g: — 
 
 Hauptmann and KHnger defended the Kaiser and 
 German people as the champions of righteousness and 
 culture. 
 
 Maeterlinck placed himself at the disposal of the 
 Belgian military authorities that they might use him 
 against the Germans. 
 
 Anatole France, an old man of 75 years, clothed in 
 military uniform, wrote: "Soldiers of France, now shoot 
 into the German flesh !" 
 
 Maxim Gorky, although ill, set out from the Island 
 of Capri for Russia in order to join the Russian Volun- 
 teers. 
 
 Shaliapin, the celebrated Russian opera singer, sang 
 in the streets to gather money for the volunteers. 
 
 Kipling, in his letters to a French friend, expressed 
 himself for a decisive struggle against Genriany. "What 
 is to be done with the Germans? The same thing as 
 with a mad dog. When the dog is mad, it should be 
 killed." 
 
 D'Annunzio is the chief instigator and supporter of 
 Italy's war with Austro-Hungary. 
 
 The Socialists are not against the War. E.g. So- 
 cialistic leaders in the German Reichstag shook hands 
 with the Kaiser after he had read the proclamation of 
 War. The Nationalistic agitation of Liebknecht 
 throughout the course of the War is well known. 
 
 Gustave Hervey wrote in his organ La Guerre So- 
 ■ciale "Vive le Tsar!" along with many patriotic and 
 l)ellicose articles. 
 
 23
 
 5K II B A I^ P K B A 
 
 The Socialists in England and Russia are now 
 poured into one mould with their nations in heart and 
 soul and spirit, and without a protest and without con- 
 tradiction to their principles, are now fighting" on the 
 battlefield. 
 
 The Socialists in Serbia have lost in this War their 
 best representatives, who have been complimented upon 
 their extraordinary bravery on the battlefield. 
 
 The women are not against this War. At the 
 Women's International Congress in Paris they agreed 
 by resolution that the women approve this War, and de- 
 mand that it should continue until national ideals are 
 realised. 
 
 The Suffragettes in England have several times ex- 
 pressed themselves in favour of the continuation of this 
 War. 
 
 The German women are fiercely preaching a na- 
 tional and holy war. 
 
 A mother in Serbia distributed a card In Memoriam 
 of her killed son, in which she stated : — Glad that I could 
 have a son to offer in this War against Austria." 
 
 The Churches are not against the War. 
 
 The Russian Holy Synod gave an order to the 
 clergy at the beginnng of this conflict to create enthusi- 
 asm for the War, and to pray for Russian victory. 
 
 In Serbia at every religious service, prayers are of- 
 fered for victory over the Enemy; and if a Bishop cele- 
 bates a Liturgy he, with Holy Host in hand, mentions 
 the Serbian King, the English King, the Russian Tsar^ 
 the Belgian King and the French Government. 
 
 The Archbishop of Canterbury addressed a letter to 
 Mr. Asquith in which he, as Primate of the English 
 
 24
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 
 
 Church, placed at the disposal of the nation all the forces 
 of the Anglican Church. 
 
 The Bishop of Lx)ndon declined to consider the ap- 
 plication of any candidate for ordination unless that 
 candidate was unable to serve for the War. 
 
 The Bishop of Pretoria went to the battlefield, and 
 reported to the English public upon the condition and 
 needs of the English Army. 
 
 All the clergy of Great Britain, English, Roman 
 Catholic and Presbyterian pray, preach and work for the 
 victory of the English arms. 
 
 The Belgian Cardinal, Mercier, wrote a patriotic 
 €pi£tle to the Belgian people, on account of which he was 
 arrested by the Germans. 
 
 The Archbishop of Cologne edited a Pan-Germanic 
 manifesto for his flock. 
 
 A Jesuit Father in Munich declared that the words 
 of the Kaiser are beyond all discussion. 
 
 Erzberger, one of the leaders of the Catholic Cen- 
 tral party, wrote : ''Nur keine Sentimentalitaet." 
 
 The Court Bishop of King Victor Emmanuel blessed 
 the Italian flag in Rome on the declaration of War. 
 
 In Italy, "Bishops and priests addressed patriotic 
 .advice to their flocks, while Socialists and others en- 
 listed," as Premier Salandra mentioned in one of his 
 war- speeches. 
 
 Intelligence has not been against the War. Thou- 
 sands of students from Cambridge aid Oxford went oflF 
 to the Front. The youth of the Serbian University led 
 the Army on Rudnik, and gave an example of self-sac- 
 rifice. Amongst the Russian students, where was al- 
 ways a great contingent of Nihilists and Socialists, ap- 
 peared the greatest enthusiasm for the War.
 
 m n B A I^ P K B A 
 
 The simple folk have not opposed the War. The 
 peasants go and are silent. They fight and are silent. 
 They die and are silent. They bear the heaviest bur- 
 dens of the War upon their shoulders. The working 
 classes, like the peasants, like the Russian Cossacks and 
 Hungarian farmer, go obediently and stoically to death. 
 
 Now, who is against the War? 
 
 All the zi'orld! All those whom I have mentioned 
 above, and all others whom I have not mentioned. These 
 last three years I have been with the Army, and during 
 the whole period I have not met a single man who loved 
 the War, no single man for whom the War was a poetic 
 enterprise. Be sure, my Friend, that all men hate the 
 War, even those who become by War rich and famous. 
 Only those can love the War who regard it coldly from a 
 distance and from the time of Peace. Our generation 
 might very wxll be fascinated by the Trojan War, by the 
 Crusades, by the Napoleonic campaigns, but in no wise 
 could this present generation fall in love with the War 
 of to-day. Those Wars were foreign sulTerings, and 
 foreign suffering regarded from a distance is beautiful 
 as a sunset — as a sunset seen through a London fog. But 
 this present War is our own siiifering, our own tears, 
 our own dying, — who could see anything beautiful in his 
 own tears? — except he looked through a mist of years! 
 
 How much less beautiful were human history with- 
 out Gethsemane and Golgotha ! The beauty of Golgotha 
 grows wath the years. The beauty of the present War 
 will be perceived by the people of future centuries. But 
 for us, now, only what is far from us is beautiful — the 
 Peace ! But no one of us craves for the Peace of yester- 
 day, for such an un-Christian peace during which War 
 was prepared, explosives and howitzers were gathered, 
 
 26
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 
 
 submarines and forts were built; a peace in which War 
 was preached and in which nobody was content. 
 
 XI 
 
 Our 'orientation' in this War will depend upon our 
 general views of life. There are only two views of life: 
 religious and anti-religious. But the worst religious view 
 of life is better than the best anti-religious. Have you 
 seen, my Friend, in the British Museum those African 
 and Asiatic idols? Be sure that those idols made those 
 men more happy than any Atheist has ever been made 
 happy by his most cultivated Atheism. Whatever kind 
 of religion it may be, it comforts, encourages, and incites 
 to self-sacrifice, and they are three things which pure 
 Atheism can never suggest. However primitive may 
 be the religion, it is always the greatest good possessed 
 by the believer. Think how immense a good is the Chris- 
 tian religion for our generation. Think if the Christian 
 religion had gone under in her century-long conflict with 
 evil and unbelief, with what now could we console our- 
 selves, encourage ourselves and gird ourselves for sac- 
 rifices? Would it be perhaps by scientific morality? 
 Or by metaphysics, or by material interests? All these 
 together without Christianity do not give life, but kill 
 it. Think further that our religion is given us not to be 
 an ornament in our times of happiness, but rather to be 
 a support in our suffering. And as a support in suffer- 
 ing Religion always shows herself — and in this time of 
 War especially — excellent. She is potent where suffer- 
 ing is, as a medicine is potent where sickness is. Do not 
 all Christ's words sound in your ears like those of a doc- 
 tor to a sick man. Joseph de Maistre was terribly embit- 
 
 27
 
 5K n B A d; P K B A 
 
 tered against Rousseau and Voltaire on account of their 
 superficial theism. That is the age-long contest between 
 Augustinianism and Pelagianism. Suffering is in the 
 essence of all creatures. St. Paul was not alone in this 
 conviction. With Paul stands Augustine, with Augus- 
 tine Jansen, with Jansen Pascal. Of this conviction 
 were Joseph de Maistre and Dostojevski. I would say 
 that life is tragic rather than sick. I don't know what 
 drama is being enacted on other planets, but on our 
 planet — I see it clearly — is played Tragedy. In the 
 myriads of minor tragedies consists the one great trag- 
 edy of this Earth. The web and woof of this great life 
 tragedy is woven of pain, tears, fears, ignorance, hero- 
 ism, death. In this is interwoven the War, too; the War 
 of man against things, against plants and animals: of 
 man against man; and man against God. Christianity 
 comprehends life as a vivid, intelligent drama, and never 
 as a perpetual metaphysical, deaf and blind repetition. 
 Every drama has its beginning and its end. The drama 
 of man's history, too, had its beginning and must have 
 its end. Geology and astronomy agree in this point with 
 the Bible. The earth came into being, has developed, 
 and v/ill vanish. Man's drama upon the earth was from 
 the beginning tragic. Whence came this element of 
 tragedy? The Bible has an answer and an explanation. 
 Physical science begins to have an answer too, in accord 
 with the Bible. To this question the Bible answers :— 
 Because in the beginning Man was poised midway be- 
 tween God and Nature ; he lost the balance, he turned 
 his face from God, and plunged himself wholly into 
 Nature. Hence, says the Bible, because to man came 
 a Satanic thought, that he could become God. But man, 
 in his attempt at realising this dream, instead of coming 
 
 28
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 
 
 face to face towards God, wandered away with his back 
 upon God and more and more into things. 'Bhus, in- 
 stead of becoming God — or even getting nearer to God 
 — he began to worship things and became himself a thing 
 amongst things. When this human tragedy had been 
 played for ages upon the earth, came Christ to open the 
 final act in the world drama. Now begins the return to 
 God. But this return is long and painful. Easier was 
 it for man to mount to pride than to return from pride to 
 humility. Behold, one thousand years have passed, and 
 a second thousand nearly ended, and still the Christ- 
 period in the human drama is not near the end. (The 
 Christ-period comprehends the time from Christ des- 
 pised on Golgotha to Christ glorified in God's Kingdom 
 upon earth.) Christ's glory is still far off. Instead of 
 listening to angelic voices, we are deafened by the roar 
 of guns and the clash of swords. Involuntarily now we 
 recall the words of Victor Hugo : — 
 
 One thing, O Jesus, One mystery 
 Doth frighten me: 
 The echo of Thy voice grows 
 Ever weaker to our ear. 
 
 ("This Century".) 
 
 But so it appears only. In truth, the voice of Christ 
 becomes clearer and clearer. And far clearer in the War 
 of to-day than in the Peace of yesterday. For the peace 
 of yesterday was not His peace, and therefore, in this 
 peace was felt so much unrest of Soul ; therefore, every 
 man who sought a true peace was forced to take refuge 
 within himself, as we do to-day. Still, we take good 
 heart of hope. Christ was ever going through the world, 
 invisible; through the deeps, through catacombs. We 
 
 29
 
 m H B A H P K B A 
 
 will hope that after this storm upon life's ocean will 
 come a peace like unto the peace of Christ, i.e. a peace 
 which will never be the cause of a new War, but the 
 preparation for a better and more God-like peace. Now 
 more than ever true Christians feel Christ's presence 
 on their stormtossed vessel. They feel Him standing 
 in their midst; they hear His voice: 'O ye of little faith, 
 wherefore do ye doubt? The end of all will still be 
 good,' Or as Browning sad: ''The best is yet to be." 
 
 Life, from the Christian point of view, is essentially 
 an optimistic tragedy. Christianity sees the dark clouds 
 enveloping human life ; but through these cloud-tragedies 
 perceives the warm brilliance of a heavenly light. There 
 are in movement everywhere the hosts of War, but over 
 all is the Lord of Hosts, and wherever the presence of 
 that LORD is felt, there is Optimism. 
 
 xn 
 
 In this letter, my dear Friend, I would fain have 
 written to you about the Odysseus — wanderings of the 
 human soul. But I must break off here. The War 
 snatches my pen from my fingers, and War's miseries 
 attract my hands and my thoughts elsewhere. 
 
 I would fain have written to you as to how the soul, 
 as it wanders away from God, is overclouded with un- 
 rest and how, returning to God, it returns to peace — 
 to the only real peace. Certainly you know this, my 
 Friend, as St. Augustine knew it. I would fain have 
 written to you of my War experience. I would like to 
 have proved to you that all the beauty and sweetness of 
 this world, where "we see through a glass darkly", 
 makes a man who is without faith as unhappy as possi- 
 
 30
 
 CHRISTIANITY AND WAR 
 
 ble, and that the world, with all its charms, makes a 
 man who has faith half-happy. A whole happiness be- 
 longs not to this tragical world. All this world repre- 
 sents unrest, but with faith it represents the half-rest. 
 A whole rest belongs to another more godlike world. I 
 would write you — but let us leave that for another time 
 — I would write you how many, many men midst this 
 war-storm have found by faith their half-happiness and 
 half-rest, how many through the blackest clouds have 
 looked and seen the shining stars, and have had the same 
 feeling as one of the greatest men of Western Christian- 
 ity who said: Domine inqiiietum est cor nostrum 
 
 donee reqniescat in Te!'^) 
 
 *) O Lord, our heart is ne'er at peace till it find 
 rest in Thee. — St. Augustine's Confessions. 
 
 31
 
 ^