are confirmed rather than disabused. sected with a surgeon’s scalpel. Ireland a parody of its foundational ethos, and the
Since my teenage years when I read The (IRA, Provos, Protestant terrorists), Alge- BBC’s news and current affairs output is
Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad, it has been ria (FLNL Front de Libération Nationale), little short of a national disgrace.
my settled view that nihilists and violent Germany (Baader-Meinhof), Afghanistan, In his three volumes, Earthly Powers: The
anarchists (as terrorists were in that novel the Middle East, Italy and more are cov- Conflict between Religion and Politics from
and in those days) were then and are now ered, and it can seem singularly depressing the French Revolution to the Great War,
psychotic inadequates, feeble sociopaths how devoid of sense and feeling our fellow Sacred Causes: Religion and Politics from
who compensated for their internal fail- human creatures can be. There are, how- the European Dictators to Al Qaeda, (both
ings and sense of personal worthlessness ever, moments of gruesome and grotesque of which were well-received by others in
in envy and arrogance (rarely justified by humour, as when one terrorist attempts to ND) and now this one, Michael Burleigh
any intellectual pretensions) on a prodi- shoot another terrorist of a different alle- has written a vital and vivid commentary
gious and destructive scale. If they were giance, only to have the assassin’s bullet on the worst of humankind shown in con-
unable to share in society or to make a suc- ricochet off the head of the intended victim temporary history that will be a touch-
cess of their lives, they were determined to who had assiduously maintained his bald stone for future historians and cultural
destroy that society or to reduce others to and shaven pate with liberal and regular commentators. The trilogy is not merely
their own state, or to impose their own applications of spray furniture polish: do excellent history enthrallingly written; it is
warped ideas on a society to be encased in you laugh or weep? a powerful moral treatise, an indispensa-
a straitjacket of conformity and ideological It may be argued (and some review- ble tract for our dangerous and uncertain
purity. Theirs was, and is, a bleak view of ers have argued) that Professor Burleigh times. It is a noble achievement.
humanity. blunts his attack by an overly sustained
Alexander Fawdon
The Bolshevik revolutionaries who use of polemical language, and it is true
enslaved (literally) so much of Eastern that the epithets come thick and fast, and
Europe for so long were less ideologues by his palpable anger. There is no doubt
than sinister, sadistic gangsters. They pur- that his ire is fully engaged. However, his WORLDS AT WAR
sued their destructive course, a kind of anger, unlike that of the terrorists whom The 2,500-Year Struggle
state-sponsored terrorism, while mouth- he savagely depicts, comes from a genu- Between East and West
ing the empty and deceitful rhetoric of ine humanity and not from a blinkered, Anthony Pagden
equality, brotherly love, proletarian soli- narrow abnormality and the tragic lack Oxford University Press, 548pp, hbk
darity, freedom and peace; slogans which of basic human emotions. Perhaps more 978 0 19 9237 43 2, £20
were not dissimilar from the poisonous historians, and more of all of us, should
platitudes of the French Revolution of Lib- exhibit such righteous Anthony Pagden is
erté, Égalité, Fraternité, drowned out by wrath and indigna- Distinguished Profes-
the crash of the guillotine in the bloodbath tion at the unspeakable sor of Political Science
of the Terror. Ideology is a thin and brittle perversions and atroci- and History at UCLA.
carapace to shelter criminal activity, tor- ties with which we are This book expounds
ture and murder. confronted. Yet I can his belief that ‘the ori-
The book can be read as a series of remember a moment gins of modern secu-
case studies in terrorism, skilfully dis- when righteous anger lar democracy lie not...
was expressed more in Christianity but in
Over 40 Years Of Service
eloquently and pow- what Christianity bor-
erfully in silence on rowed from the ancient
To Orthodox Anglicans
the occasion when world’. He further asks
Published since 1962
Pope Paul VI (not far where that modern lib-
THE CHRISTIAN CHALLENGE from his own death) eral secular democracy
is the only independent orthodox
attended the Requiem is now heading in the
journal providing such comprehensive Mass for his friend, the light of the rise of radi-
news of the Anglican Communion and
Italian politician and cal Islam.
extramural Anglican churches. Plus,
former Prime Minis- To do this, he tells a
special reports/features, some general
religious news, humour and more.
ter, Aldo Moro, mur- series of stories to illus-
For New Directions readers, we are
dered by terrorists. trate the themes of the
pleased to accept annual subscriptions (6
His attendance and his participation was (possibly) tectonic clash between East and
issues, 32-44 pages each) at the discount a singular and moving personal protest, West – or, more accurately, Near/Middle
rates of: UK £18 pounds; Canada $25
even more eloquent in its silent witness, East and West, since for all the talk about
(US or equivalent Can $); US $22
against the evil and the sinister vulgarity Asia, most of Asia doesn’t get a look in – and
(slower mail) or $33 (first class mail-
recommended); other countries $28 (US
of the times. how the secular Stoic tradition of the West
or equivalent)
Professor Burleigh can from time to arose, how it was shackled by Christianity
Please send your name and address with
time allow his stinging prose to carry him and then broke free in the period between
check or money order (in US, British, away. Nevertheless, there are many who the Renaissance and the Enlightenment.
Canadian or Australian currency) or
will find his attacks on mendacious liberal This provides the great contrast with
VISA/MASTERCARD information to:
intellectuals, in the universities and in the Islam, for, according to Pagden, Islam has
THE CHRISTIAN CHALLENGE
media, who offer comfort and understand- no secular hinterland, it has no resources
1215 Independence Ave SE, Dept N,
ing to wanton acts of human destruction to break free from religion as the West has,
Washington, DC 20003 USA;
202/547-5409 - Fax 202/543-8704;
and more often than not indiscriminate and so, with the exception of Turkey, it has
www.challengeonline.org
destruction, more than welcome and no not produced any liberal democracies and
email: info@challengeonline.org
more than they deserve. Channel 4 has cannot enjoy the freedoms of the West. In
become a byword for tawdry vulgarization, his view there is no hope for Dr Williams’
April 2008
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newdirections
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27
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