8 June
1978 A.D. Alexander
Solzenhitzn Delivers a Commencement Speech at Harvard University
Mr. Graves tells the story.
The fight for our planet,
physical and spiritual, a fight of cosmic proportions, is not a vague matter of
the future; it has already started. The forces of evil have begun their
decisive offensive. You can feel their pressure, yet your screens and publications
are full of prescribed smiles and raised glasses. What is the joy about?"
These perceptive and challenging
words were uttered by one of the great Christians of the 20th century in the heart of a commencement address at Harvard
University. Alexander Solzhenitsyn was in exile in America after suffering
years in Communist prison camps for criticizing Stalin. He had found faith in
the "Gulag Archipelago," the Soviet Union's cruel prison system which
devoured alive millions of individuals who opposed or circumvented the
atheistic regime.
The result of his suffering was
a masterly documentary, Gulag Archipelago, which exposed the
brutality of the Soviet regime. At one point in this massive work he showed how
utterly different his thought had become from the complacent pleasure-seeking
of the West. "Bless you, prison, for having been in my life!" He
could say this because in prison he had recognized his spiritual danger and
found time to consider the claims of God and Christ. "God of the Universe!
I believe again! Though I renounced You, You were with me!" he wrote in a
poem.
Solzhenitsyn's Harvard address
was given on this day June
8th, 1978. It was an attack on Western complacency. The speaker was
equipped with the lens of one culture to see the essential flaw of another. In
the West that flaw was foundering courage. He said: "A decline in courage
may be the most striking feature that an outside observer notices in the West
today. The Western world
has lost its civic courage ... Such a decline in courage is particularly
noticeable among the ruling and intellectual elite, causing an impression of a
loss of courage by the entire society."
He went on to analyze how
legalism has eaten up morality. "The West has finally achieved the rights
of man, and even to excess, but man's sense of responsibility to God and
society has grown dimmer and dimmer. Must one point out that from ancient times
a decline in courage has been considered the first symptom of the end?"
Although greeted by much
applause during its delivery, Solzhenitsyn's speech generated considerable
adverse commentary in the press. To have survived the Gulag, he must have had
to compromise a good deal, grumped critics. So who was he to preach at us?
Solzhenitsyn apparently had expected such a reaction. In the first paragraphs
of his speech he commented, " ... truth seldom is sweet; it is almost
invariably bitter. A measure of bitter truth is included in my speech today,
but I offer it as a friend, not as an adversary." Long before, Solomon
said something about that, too. "The kisses of an enemy may be profuse,
but faithful are the wounds of a friend."
Bibliography:
1. Muggeridge, Malcolm. "Alexander Solzhenitsyn" in Chosen
Vessels : portraits of ten outstanding Christian men; edited by
Charles Turner. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Vine Books, 1985.
2. Nielsen, Niels C., jr. Solzhenitsyn's Religion. New York: Pillar, 1976.
3. Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. "A World Split Apart." (Speech Given
at Harvard Class Day Afternoon Exercises, Thursday, June 8, 1978).
4. -------------------------------- The Gulag Archipelago, Volume 2. New
York: Harper and Row, 1975.
Last updated April,
2007.
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