I have blogged this morning at a
different site about my love for Les Miserables the musical, and my growing
appreciation for Les Miserables the novel as I read my way through it for the
first time during Advent and in anticipation of the movie’s release on
Christmas Day. I mentioned in that post that the musical is for me a powerful
embodiment of Christian humanism, a theme recently explored by Roger Olson at his blog. As I was working on my post I came across a profound meditation on the novel and its author, Victor Hugo, at the website of Touchstone Magazine.
The author of the lengthy article, Addison Hart, carefully analyzes the religious themes
in Les Miserables and on the religious convictions of Hugo. Hart shares details of Hugo’s long life
that point to the conclusion that Hugo was “a man of blemished
religious and moral character by basic Christian standards”, but he goes on to
demonstrate how affected Hugo was by the Gospels and how Les Miserables's themes
are rich reflections of Christian humanism.
Hugo, with all his
Romanticism, panentheism, theosophical musings, spiritualism, and moral
struggles, still managed to come closer to the practical heart of Christ’s
gospel than many authors of a more orthodox faith. To step across the threshold
into the world of this vast novel is immediately to encounter the three
greatest themes in all literature: God, mankind, and the human soul…
The themes of Les
Misérables…are Christian themes, themes that would be inconceivable without
the unique revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Victor Hugo consciously drew on
these “sentiments abstractly Christian,” even though he himself stood on the
boundaries of the Christian faith. If nothing else, this very fact testifies to
the inherent power of the themes themselves, no matter what the limitations of
the writer might be. Hugo was a heretic, but his book is a path leading us back
to the God who became man and redeemed us. It is a book that may even provoke
us to pray and live as better Christians. And, finally, it is the vision of
God’s love that Les Misérables conveys, so close to the heart of the
gospel, to which people respond in their hearts for reasons they might not
fully understand. Christians could do worse than recognize the nature of its
inherent appeal and consider how we ourselves present to others the love we see
in Christ.
I read this quote from Hugo today:
ReplyDelete“When I go down to the grave I can say like many others ‘I have finished my day’s work.’ But I cannot say, “I have finished my life.’ My day’s work will begin again the next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley; it is a thoroughfare. It closes on the twilight, it opens on the dawn.” We shall go on living and living.”
It sounds like a Christian view of death.
I have met non-Christians who have Christian views of death, and Christians who have non-Christian views of death. That means nothing, it only says he was influenced by the church most likely actually. Not that I know anything, but that quote proves nothing one way or the other. My father was a Christian, but now says himself he is not, and yet he remains profoundly influenced by God's word, even though he does not believe it anymore...
DeleteInfluence is not belief.
Ummm Well Heresy is a catholic term anywhere. But Paul and John and others in the NT confronted erroneous beliefs that came against the gospel. It is not opinion if it is based on God's, that makes it fact.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to separate feelings,but if we encounter something that opposes the gospel, and if Hugo did, they by definition would be anti-christ, even if he had some Christian beliefs, and therefor in the loose definition a heretic, those statements are completely accurate.
People like you are truly the problem. Getting angry when people point out serious doctrinal issues, only for you to turn around and condemn those people not on biblical, but personal grounds. Sorry, you are the one at fault, not Greg or the author of the article about Les Miserables.
The book was on the big screen years before the musical. Liam Nisan was in it and the performances were remarkably better then the musical. You should see it. Anyway the story is a remarkable word picture of the love of God in all situations. God is very good. I believe that Victor Hugo had to have experienced the love of God. The story is too personal.
ReplyDeleteInteresting comment, I like The Notre Dame of Paris.
ReplyDeleteMay I share an Interview with Victor Hugo (imaginary) in https://stenote.blogspot.com/2018/07/an-interview-with-victor.html