C. S. Lewis = TACT

I'm planning to relaunch the weekly

C. S. Lewis breakfast reading club
(also known as TACT)

in November as I move to Tehtaankatu. For more information, drop me a note. New members are welcomed too.

Facebook Killed Blogging

Lately I've been wondering why I have so little motivation for blogging anymore. I came to the conclusion that Facebook is to "blame". Why? Because it has been an efficient way of keeping in touch with people and being up-to-date with what's happening with who. I will have to do some soul-searching and decide which course to take. If I keep my 21st Century Pilgrim blog, I'm pretty sure I need to invest more time and effort: increase both the pace and the level of quality of posts. 

Brainstorming in Jyväskylä

I just returned from a weekend spent in Jyväskylä, central Finland. It had been years since I last visited that beautiful city. My friend Jussi and I hopped on the Helsinki-Jyväskylä train on Friday and returned a few hours ago.

[Photo of me and Jussi taken by Jani Salokangas.]

Our mutual friend, Jani, who lives in Jyväskylä turned out to be the best of hosts. We ate well, listened to excellent music, took refreshing walks, and - the main purpose of our visit - held several brainstorming sessions together (a creative joint project). Jani lived in Tanzania for two years with his family: that's where we first met. Jani's wife, Laura, spent the weekend at her parents' place with their little girl, Noela, and let us guys take over the house.

Gone Hunting

Gone hunting. Be back Sunday night. Friends, nature, game, and Internet detox.

Hyvejohtajuus Published

Alexandre Havard's Virtuous Leadership (New York: Scepter Publishers 2007) was finally published in Finnish as Hyvejohtajuus (Providentia 2009).

The book publishing event took place at the legendary and elegant Cafe Aalto, downtown Helsinki. Approximately 100 people followed the panel discussion. Among the panelists were Alexandre Havard himself, who flew in from Moscow, the Finnish MEPs Timo Soini and Sari Essayah (from Brussels), and Providentia's economist Oskari Juurikkala. Jan Ahonen, as the interviewer and host, did an excellent job.

The topic of the discussion -- virtues, leadership, and their interplay in the modern society -- is very serious. Yet the panelists were able to discuss it in a very encouraging and positive way: not unfrequently were there roars of laughter. The host read exerts (is that the word I'm looking for?) from the book and asked a follow-up question, often a very pointed one, say, about the differences of men and women in leadership.

The panelists (from left to right): Oskari Juurikkala, Jan Ahonen, Timo Soini, Alexandre Havard, and Sari Essayah.

The contents pages and the introduction can be read online here. It can be ordered here. For those who pre-order the book, the price is 29,00 € (norm. 39,00 €), this includes delivery in Finland. I saw some people who ordered five copies. I wonder what they'll do with them?

Overheard in the Sauna, part 2

I, my father, and our Teemu (9) had a sauna the day before yesterday. Our conversations ranged from hunting to birthdays.

My father: Teemu, do you know how old Vaari [my dad's father] would be today if he was still alive?

Teemu: No. How old would he be?

My father: 89. Who is going to bake a cake for him in heaven?

Teemu: God of course [Jumala tietenkin].

Overheard in the Sauna, part 1

I, my father, and our Teemu (9) had a sauna yesterday. Our discussions ranged from hunting to birthdays.

Teemu [to Jason]: Who is older, you or Danny?

Jason: I am. One year older. Danny is 28.

My dad: Not yet, he'll turn 28 in November.

Jason: So Teemu, how old am I then?

Teemu: 29.

Jason: Very good.

My father: How old is Cathy?

Teemu: 26. And Simon is 30.

Jason: Good Teemu!

My father: How old is Mami [Lori, my mom]?

Teemu: Uhm... 80?

Hardware Score

Cathy and Simon were at K-rauta, the hardware store, today.

They stroll around the busy store with their two children. Joshua (3) is running around and Kayleigh (0.3) is doing her thing. Cathy and Simon see lots of stuff for sale: tools, car parts, kitchen supplies, bathroom artefacts, like toilets.

One toilet in particular catches their eyes.

Joshua is peeing into it.

Overheard in Soukka

My dad drove his grandson Benjamin to Soukka, where Benjy's second set of grandparents live. While they were waiting for the door to be opened, an elderly neighbor-lady took notice and started a conversation.

Neighbor-lady: How old are you?

Benjy: *Shily raises three fingers*

Neighbor-lady: And what is your name?

Benjy: Ben-ja-min.

Neighbor-lady: A great name! Benjamin, you must be bilingual. Do you speak Swedish as well as Finnish?

Benjy: Yes. And English, Swahili and Kenyan too. [Joo... ja myös englantia, swahilia ja keniaa.]

Hyvejohtajuuskirja.fi

Sorry I'm boring, the Virtuous Leadership posts keep on coming. I promise to write something non-leadershipy after the book publication event is over.

Anyway, here's an excellent link with all the relevant information. You can also use the link to advertize the event that takes place at the legendary Cafe Aalto downtown Helsinki.


Exciting news: The book will also be published as a free ebook chapter by chapter during the following 12 months. So students etc. with a low budjet: keep track of the updates. Even an audio book has been planned (podcast).

Hyvejohtajuus: Alexandre Havard (Providentia/Otava 2009)

The book I translated is finally being published. The publishing event is on September 7th (Monday) at 2.00pm downtown Helsinki at Cafe Aalto, the cafeteria designed by Alvar Aalto.

For those of you who understand Finnish, below is the relevant information that I copy-pasted from the invite.

Among the panelists are Mr. Alexandre Havard himself (flying in from Moscow), the Finnish MEPs Mr. Timo Soini and Mrs. Sari Essayah (flying in from Brussels) and representing Providentia is the economist Mr. Oskari Juurikkala.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

KIRJANJULKISTAMISTILAISUUS

Alexandre Havardin Virtuous Leadership (New York: Scepter Publishers 2007) julkaistaan 9. käännöksenä suomeksi Hyvejohtajuus viikolla 37. Sitä ennen pidetään kirjan tiimoilta paneelikeskustelu.

Julkaisia: Providentia
Painotalo: Otava
Design ja taitto: Nordenswan & Siirilä
Suomentaja: Jason Lepojärvi
Myyntiin: viikolla 37

Tervetuloa aistillisen eleganttiin, Alvar Aallon sisustamaan Cafe Aaltoon kirjanjulkistamistilaisuuteen maanantaina 7. syyskuuta klo 14--15.30.

PANEELIKESKUSTELU

Mukana: johtajuuskirjoittaja Alexandre Havard, europarlamentaarikot Timo Soini (PS) ja Sari Essayah (KD) sekä taloustieteilijä Oskari Juurikkala (Providentia). Tilaisuuden juontaa toimittaja Jan Ahonen.

Teemana on johtajuus, hyveet ja niiden yhteispeli nykymaailmassa -- ts. "hyvejohtajuus". Aihe on äärimmäisen ajankohtainen myös Suomessa (vaalirahasotku, talouspetokset).

Yleisöllä ja lehdistöllä mahdollisuus esittää kysymyksiä. Tilaisuuden kieli on suomi.

ALEXANDRE HAVARD

Alexandre Havard (s. 1962, Pariisi) on johtajuuskouluttaja ja Havard Virtuous Leadership Instituten (HVLI) perustaja. Hänen kehittämänsä hyveisiin perustuva hyvejohtajuusmalli soveltaa klassista näkemystä ihmispersoonasta nykyajan organisaatioiden tarpeisiin.

Havard itse luennoi englanniksi, ranskaksi, espanjaksi, venäjäksi -- ja Suomessa asuneena jopa suomeksi.

KIRJASTA POIMITTUA

"Talousskandaaleja seuraa poikkeuksetta vaatimuksia valtiollisen sääntelyn vahvistamisesta, kaupan hallinnon reformista ja eettisten sääntöjen uudistamisesta. Näillä kaikilla on hyötynsä, mutta ne unohtavat jotain olennaista. Talouspetosten kyhäilijät ja muut lainrikkojat tietävät varsin hyvin, että se, mitä he tekevät, on väärin. Kyse on luonteenviasta." (JOHDANTO s. ix.)

TAKAKANNESTA

"Johtajuus on ensisijaisesti luonteen asia -- ei sen, mitä ihminen tietää tai osaa, vaan mitä hän on. Ihmisen luonnetta voidaan vahvistaa, sillä se on vapaan tahdon aluetta, toisin kuin temperamentti, joka on pitkälti jotakin synnynnäistä. Luonteen ytimessä ovat hyveet, toisin sanoen hyvät luonteenpiirteet, jotka näkyvät teoissa.

Hyvejohtajuus tarjoaa hyveissä kasvamisen metodologian jokaiselle. Johtajuus ei ole varattu vain jollekin eliitille, vaan se on monien kutsumus. Kirja sisältää esimerkkejä hyveiden ja johtajuuden yhteispelistä yhteiskunnan joka alalta: liike-elämästä, politiikasta, journalismista, koulutusalalta, uskonnosta, lääketieteestä ja myös vanhemmuudesta. Suomessakin asunut Havard mainitsee mm. saunan, Mannerheimin ja Helsingin Sinebrychoffin puiston."


KIRJASTA SANOTTUA

"Pidin kirjaa äärimmäisen kiehtovana, sillä se meni suoraan asian ytimeen: meidän tulee perustaa päätöksemme todellisuudelle, ja se taas vaatii todellisen käsityksen ihmispersoonasta."
--Francois Michelin, CEO emeritus, Group Michelin

LINKIT

Johtamisblogi hyvejohtajuus.fi.
Hyvejohtajuus Facebookissa.

Sleeping Guards

(This is a Virtuous Leadership article originally published in Finnish here.)

A story about sleeping guards reveals a fundamental problem in society. What’s to be done when control and security measures fail? Character is making a comeback.


A friend of mine who works for the Finnish Embassy in Tanzania built a real sauna in his backyard with a view of the Indian Ocean. One morning he found footprints, dark boot-size stains, on the wall at the end of the long sauna bench. He figured that the night guards had been sleeping in the sauna, so he decided to inspect the following night.

He was right: he found not only a guard in the sauna, but two guards in fact. But he recognized neither of them. Why was this? It turned out that the men were the security firm’s internal inspectors whose job was to visit locations to make sure the guards were present – and preferably awake too. In other words, the guards whose obligation was to make sure the night guards weren’t sleeping, were themselves sound asleep in a Finnish Embassy sauna.

The morale of the story is quite significant. It reveals a certain societal problem that pertains to families, schools, jobs, entire states – and not only in Africa, but also in Western countries.

Control mechanisms fail

The guards are sleeping, and the guards guarding the guards are sleeping. What can one do in this situation? Send more guards patrols to inspect the guards guarding the guards? And what about when these, too, find a comfortable sleeping place, say, the Swedish Embassy sauna? Send another higher patrol to inspect the inspectors of the guards guarding the guards? Clearly this would be an absurd, ineffective waste of resources. Sooner or later we reach a limit.

What should we conclude from this? That security and control mechanisms and procedures are all a waste of time? Certainly not. But alone they do not suffice. There must be another way.

We must understand that the root of many problems in society is not a technical one, something that can be fixed or cured “technically”. The root is, in many cases, fundamentally a moral one. If leaders and people in charge are not people of good character, no level of security and control measures suffice. Everything can be bypassed. There will always be an “inspector” of some sort who will decide to go to sleep – or look elsewhere as others are sleeping.

Alexandre Havard explains: “The business scandals of our time invariably give rise to calls for increased government oversight, reform of corporate government, and revision of codes of ethical conduct. These things may have their place, but they miss the essential point. The perpetrators of corporate wrongdoing invariably know that what they are doing is wrong. And yet they do it anyway. This is a failure of character.” (Virtuous Leadership, New York: Scepter, 2007, p. xiv.)

Competing anthropologies

If we neglect our inbuilt pull towards evil – towards “sleeping” – we will try to fix our societal problems and dysfunctional human behaviour by social engineering and various control mechanisms. We forget a fact humanity has always known to be true: evil is intrinsic to human nature – as is goodness.

T. S. Eliot said that some people “dream of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good” (The Rock, New York: Harcourt Brace, 1934).

Nicholas Capaldi is right: a most alarming problem of modern Western societies is the widespread presence of the “failed or incomplete individual”. He writes:

“What really inhibits these people is a character defect, a moral inadequacy… What they end up with are leaders who are their mirror image: leaders who are themselves incomplete individuals and who seek to control others because they cannot control themselves.” (Decadence: The Passing of Personal Virtues and its Replacement by Political and Psychological Slogans, London: Social Affairs Unit 2005, p. 145.)

Back to character

Havard explains that these kind of societies and people replace virtues with political slogans and psychobabble:

“Tolerance, understood as moral relativism, replaces the virtue of justice, statistics and probability theory replace prudence, avoidance of nicotine and trans fats and other dietary fads replaces self-control, self-esteem replaces magnanimity, self-criticism replaces humility – and democracy replaces God” (Virtuous Leadership, p. 51).

The result is a pervasive boredom – to quote George Weigel, “not simply boredom of the day-in, day-out, quotidian sort but boredom on a transcendent, even metaphysical plane: a kind of boredom with the mystery of life itself”. A boredom that, in D. B. Hart’s words, “renders the imagination inert and desire torpid” (Virtuous Leadership, p. 51).

The homes, schools, companies and states that focus and invest in character building (without forgetting control mechanisms) exercise prudence and are the major players of the future. They have understood the reality of things and made decisions accordingly. Others still live and function in an illusion, and over and over again, will be surprised to find failing mechanisms and sleeping guards.

Finnish Police in Vancouver

This was an interesting. The Vancouver Sun reported an incident involving Finland's police hockey team. The headline was: "Fight to the Finnish: Finland's police hockey team halts assault on Vancouver bus driver."

You can read the entire article here. Apparently the Finnish policemen, visiting Vancouver for a police hockey tournament, witnessed a busdriver being mugged. They run after the villain and pinned him to the ground. Vancouver Sun comments: "Surrounded by what looked like odd assortment of fair-complexioned, blue-eyed Canadians, the man was shocked."

"He was very surprised," said Det. Sgt. Antti Karhola. "He had no chance. We felt pretty good about that."

I'm sure they did feel good, considering that they had just been eliminated from the tournament in the first round. But mark my words: this will not happen to the Finnish National Team in the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010.

Office Space

Great news. I got some office space from the Department of Theology that is in the heart of downtown Helsinki, on Aleksanterinkatu 7. The Faculty of Systematic Theology, my faculty, is on the 6th floor. I'm very happy about this, for it gives me an opportunity to study in a very productive and supportive atmosphere. In addition to fulltime research I will be teaching philosophy and ethics for a small group of first-year students. This will keep me pedagogically active, so I don't totally neglect my teaching vocation.

R.I.P. Näppä Pilvi

We found a bird at our summer cabin, a tiny swallow (or marlet?), that had injured one if its wings. A healthy swallow is one of the fastest flying birds in Finland. We found it just as it was going to drown--it was slipping down a slope into the lake. At first it would jump out of your hands and spiral down to the inevitable crash. But soon it calmed down and began to enjoy our company. It would actually hop into my palm or sit on my shoulder.


Teemu and the girls took over and showed it much love. They even called animal rescue but could find no-one who would take it in. The little bird only lived for two days. Teemu was very sorry, the sobs were deep. But Julia found a little wooden cross (branch) and together with her friend Sini they built a grave with pretty flowers around it. The tomb was encircled with hay and straw, an obvious symbol, I think, for its heavenly nest. Näppä Pilvi--christened posthumously by Teemu--died July 23rd.

On Holidays

There hasn't been a blog post for a couple days and neither will there be for the next couple of days. Over the next week I'll be on semi-holiday: Helsinki -- Nurmijärvi (2 days) -- Kerimäki (3 days) -- Tampere (3 days) -- Helsinki. On Friday the 24th of July my brother and his family are coming to Finland for 5 weeks.

Monkey Thieves

We drove through the Serengeti National Park on our journey to Lake Victoria. We make a quick stop at the exit gates. Danny goes to show the documents to the park officials. He buys us drinks and chocolate bars, and we decide to sit down for a while before continuing on. A family of vervet monkeys seem to be interested in our car.

Tanzanian car inspection (=stealing our oil filter).

"Wait, I think he saw us..."

"False alarm. I'll move on the the bolts, you take the side mirror."

"I look goood."

We were enjoying this "car inspection". The monkeys were cute. But cuteness was part of their devious plan. For soon I hear Danny behind me shouting something, "Shooo!". I turn around and he says, "They took your snickers bar!" Apparently their cousins had been lurking behind as all along, just waiting for an opening. If Danny hadn't reacted quickly, I'm sure the little rascal would have my coke bottle in his other hand.

City Magazine: Ask a Catholic

"City" is a Finnish metropolitan lifestyle magazine. Or that's the general image. In truth it's one over-extended restaurant and club advertisement with sporadic sex-related articles to lure in readers. ;-)

Anyway, recently they surprised their anti-religious readership by publishing an article "Ask a Catholic". Readers sent in questions, all were difficult ones and some a bit sarcastic, and Emil Anton, a young Catholic apologist, answered them.

Emil is actually a close friends of mine. His apologetics blog Hyviä uutisia (Good news) has hundreds of hits daily. This is quite impressive considering the articles are only in Finnish (although Emil himself speaks 20 languages, really, he's a polyglot-freak). Emil just published his first theological book, A Catholic Paul (KATT 2009).

City's article confirms my conception of him: Emil is not afraid of critical questions, even hostile ones. Here are some questions that he answers in the article:

Who gets into heaven? Do Catholics argue about it as we do in the Lutheran church?
Woman, 29

What does the "Devil's advocate" do and how can I become one? Is my gender an obstacle?
Devil's advocate(ss), 19

Why is it that we constantly hear of new paedophilia crimes committed by Catholic priests?
Gay sex legal, paedophilia a crime, 24

Every now and again one hears of Catholic priests who have started a family. How many percent of priests break their vow of celibacy?
Priests are hot, 25

How do Roman Catholics in Finland feel about Papal power? Isn't replacing God by one supposedly infallible person against both reason and the Scriptures?
Paptiti, 28

Considering the obtuse ban against contraception, why don't we see huge Catholic families ... with 16 children or so? How many children do Catholics in Finland have?
Woman, 34

According to the Catholic Church's teaching of the Eucharist, the bread and wine become Jesus' REAL body and blood. Not symbolically, that is. Do you really believe you are swallowing blood and human flesh? Wouldn't it be enough to look at it as a symbolic act of rememberence?
Gross, 24

The Catholic Church does not allow/recommend divorce in any circumstances. This can be fatal. What should you do if you spouse drinks and abuses you and it's obvious that he will not change his habits?
Glad I left, 33

What are the relations between Catholics and Jews? Are you ashamed of the Pope's actions in World War II, or was he infallible then too?
Woman, 32

I couldn't stop laughing after reading his answer to the Eucharist question. The comments are worth reading too. Although I wonder whether the most vocal atheist is actually a Christian just pretending to be an obnoxious atheist so as to downplay and embarrass the case of atheism. In case you missed the link above, the article is here.

Summer Courses for Men

NOTE: DUE TO THE COMPLEXITY AND DIFFICULTY LEVEL
OF THEIR CONTENTS, CLASS SIZES WILL BE LIMITED TO 8 PARTICIPANTS MAXIMUM

Class 1
How To Fill Up The Ice Cube Trays--Step by Step.
Slide Presentation.
Meets 4 weeks, Monday and Wednesday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.

Class 2
The Toilet Paper Roll--Does It Change Itself?
Round Table Discussion.
Meets 2 weeks, Saturday 12:00 for 2 hours.

Class 3
Is It Possible To Urinate Using The Technique Of Lifting The Seat and Avoiding The Floor, Walls and Nearby Bathtub?
Group Practice.
Meets 4 weeks, Saturday 10:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 4
Fundamental Differences Between The Laundry Hamper and The Floor.
Pictures and Explanatory Graphics.
Meets Saturdays at 2:00 PM for 3 weeks.

Class 5
Dinner Dishes--Can They Levitate and Fly Into The Kitchen Sink?
Examples on Video.
Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning At 7:00 PM

Class 6
Loss Of Identity--Losing The Remote To Your Significant Other.
Help Line Support and Support Groups.
Meets 4 Weeks, Friday and Sunday 7:00 PM

Class 7
Learning How To Find Things--Starting With Looking In The Right Places And Not Turning The House Upside Down While Screaming.
Open Forum.
Monday at 8:00 PM, 2 hours.

Class 8
Health Watch--Bringing Her Flowers Is Not Harmful To Your Health.
Graphics and Audio Tapes.
Three nights; Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 9
Real Men Ask For Directions When Lost.
Real Life Testimonials.
Tuesdays at 6:00 PM, location to be determined.

Class 10
Is It Genetically Impossible To Sit Quietly While She Parallel Parks?
Driving Simulations.
4 weeks, Saturday's noon, 2 hours.

Class 11
Learning to Live--Basic Differences Between Mother and Wife.
On line Classes and role-playing.
Tuesdays at 7:00 PM, location to be determined.

Class 12
How to be the Ideal Shopping Companion.
Relaxation Exercises, Meditation and Breathing Techniques.
Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.

Class 13
How to Fight Cerebral Atrophy--Remembering Birthdays, Anniversaries and Other Important Dates and Calling When You're Going To Be Late.
Cerebral Shock Therapy Sessions and Full Lobotomies Offered.
Three nights; Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 14
The Stove/Oven--What It Is and How It Is Used.
Live Demonstration.
Tuesdays at 6:00 PM, location to be determined.

Virtuous Leadership Blog

Our Virtuous Leadership Blog www.hyvejohtajuus.fi (in Finnish) got a new layout. Go check it out! We publish virtue and leadership related articles weekly; links to thought-provoking leadership articles weekly; a Guestbook Article monthly; and news from time to time.

The next big thing will be the Finnish translation of Virtuous Leadership called Hyvejohtajuus (Providentia Leadership and Otava kirjapaino 2009), which will come out later this summer. Will keep you posted.

Mad Mustang Driver

The other day I got the opportunity to test drive the new Ford Mustang GT coupe. I believe it is the only one in Finland at the moment. My friend Simon won the car (for a test drive, that is) and asked me to join him. Although the "prize" smacked a little of a direct marketing plot (for a fast-cars car rental shop), driving the thing was much fun. I just may have exceeded the speed limit, for a second... Below is a picture of the car. The one we drove was pitch black. I still think that the Audi A5 is the most beautiful sports car out there. It doesn't look fragile like most sports cars do, and it is suprisingly spacious inside.

True-to-being Memory

(This is a Virtuous Leadership article originally published in Finnish here.)

A leader has a good memory. By memory (Lat. memoria) I mean much more than just our natural ability of recollection. Neither am I referring to some “mnemo-technical” capacity not to forget.

A good memory means above all “truthful” memory. Josef Pieper calls it “true-to-being” memory.

This means that we remember real events and real things as they were and are, truly, not as we would like them to be. Whereas a truthful person speaks the truth, truthful memory remembers the truth.

An obvious truism?

Does this sound obvious to you? Let’s think about it.

A young boy whose tendency to exaggerate, by the time he’s an adult, has got out of control… A young couple who never seem to agree over the details of past arguments… A leader whose autobiographical memoir is a petrified epitome of self-admiration…

Truthful memory is not a truism!

At the heart of wisdom

According to Thomas Aquinas truthful memory is the first prerequisite of prudence. It is the cornerstone of wisdom. It is easy to see why this is so.

Prudence, the virtue of the decision maker, springs from the ability to grasp reality. Prudence seeks to base all action and decisions securely on reality. Reality is the objective world – the real things, events and experiences – in which we live.

But the truth about these things, events and experiences, the truth about the world, is “contained” in the truthful memory.

The pitfalls of “bad” memory

This is actually an important observation. For if truthful memory is the cornerstone of prudence, untruthful misconstruing memory is the stumbling block of prudence.

Josef Pieper writes: “Nowhere else is the danger so great as here, at the deepest root of the spiritual-ethical process, the danger that the truth of real things will be falsified by the assent or negation of the will.”

He continues:

“The peril is the greater for its beings so imperceptible. There is no more insidious way for error to establish itself than by this falsification of the memory through slight retouches, displacements, discolorations, omissions, shifts of accent. Nor can such falsifications be quickly detected by the probing conscience, even when it applies itself to this task.” (Prudence, ch. 2.)

How to train our memory?

Before I introduce a few practical guidelines it is important to remember that, if the fault lay in the foundation, mere white-washing the walls will not suffice.

Again Pieper: “The honesty of the memory can be ensured only by the rectitude of the whole human being which purifies the most hidden roots of volition. Here it becomes apparent how greatly prudence, upon which all virtue depends, is in its turn dependent at its very fundaments on the totality of the other virtues.” (Prudence, ch. 2.)

Alexandre Havard writes: “At the heart of the virtue of prudence is the relationship of a leader’s character to his ability to grasp reality. In other words, the relationship between being and perception, between what we are and what we see.” (Virtuous Leadership, p. 68.)

“The good man judges each class of things rightly, and in each the truth appears to him” says Aristotle (Nichomachean Ethics, III, 4).

Havard elaborates: “The proud man, on the contrary, judges as true whatever flatters his pride; the intemperate man, whatever may grant him power, money, or pleasure; the small-minded man, whatever justifies his cowardice or laziness.” (Virtuous Leadership, p. 68.)

Read Aristotle’s quote and Havard’s comment again but replace the word “judges” with remembers.

We see, interpret and remember things through the lenses of our character. By strengthening our character, in other words by strengthening our virtues, we develop our memory purified by truth.

Practical advice

Because memory is at the heart of prudence, much what applies to the training of prudence in general applies to the training of memory as well. Steps (1) and (2) are from the Virtuous Leadership article “Prudence”.

1. Avoid rationalizations at all costs.

To rationalize is to twist objective data, consciously or unconsciously, to make them fit our pre-conceived notions. Rationalization is a psychological process that distorts reality until it accords with our passions and interests.

2. Recognize and put aside your prejudices.

Rationalization has roots in cowardice. Prejudice stems from ignorance.

Overcoming prejudices requires the training of the virtue of humility, that can be called “the habit of living in the truth”.

Stephen Covey explains: “One of the characteristics of authentic leaders is their humility, evident in their ability to take off their glasses and examine the lens objectively… Where there are discrepancies (prejudice, ignorance, or error), they make adjustments to realign with greater wisdom.” (Principle-Centered Leadership, p. 20.)

3. Practice objective testing.

Heidi Robert’s Virtuous Leadership Guest-article “A Pound of Prudence” includes to practical advice which support the practice of truthful memory as well.

Roberts writes about emotionally charged signals.

“Emotional signals have the tendency of disfiguring the interpretation, making it selective and adjusting emphases in accordance of the receiver’s preferences… One can practice objectivity by, for example, trying to remember the details of a certain event, such as a conversation, without emphasizing the emotional response.”

Much depends on our ability to “adjust our emotions so as not to allow a single emotionally charged message to wholly usurp our thoughts”. Or our memory, for that matter.

Confessions of leaders

Earlier I mentioned the sugar-coated autobiographies. To counterbalance their influence I can wholeheartedly recommend an autobiographical classic that was published recently, about 1600 years ago.

Reading it will confirm in your mind the truth of the platitude “There’s nothing new under the sun”. I’m talking, of course, about St. Augusine’s Confessions.

As the title implies, the confessions are far from being sugar-coated. It is the exemplar of the development of truthful memory. The reader is in for a full treat.

Further reading:
St. Augustine, Confessions.
Heidi Roberts, “A Pound of Prudence” (in Finnish 2009).

Ngorongoro Camo Zebras

This zebra is preparing to jump. We have completely stopped the car to enjoy the episode. There are several other zebras behind this one waiting for their turn.


The zebra, unlike most animals, cannot trust its hide coloring for protection against the probing eyes of the predators. The zebra's defense lays in numbers. The black and white stripes, easily visible against a green background, may distract the predator, make it difficult to single out an individual member from the pack, especially when the pack is on the run.

Ngorongoro Water Buffalos

On our drive to Lake Victoria through the Ngorongoro and the Serengeti National Parks my brother and I, because of the dense morning fog, failed to see the Ngorongoro Crater and its famous black rhinos. We were at the gates of Ngorongoro at six, when they open, and the fog hung heavily during our careful 20km/h drive up the spiraling mountain road. By the time the fog gave away, at around nine, we were already past the crater area.

But it was an experience in itself. Visibility was horrible, so we took our time -- where the road ended a steep deadly drop began, 30 meters or 300 meters, you couldn't tell. Our windows were open so that we could hear the morning sounds and breathe in some of that crisp morning air. Every now and then a group of water buffalos (or zebras, as you will see in the next post) would appear out of nowhere. The warm-blooded buffalos seemed to steaming and exhaling smoke in the cold air. Anyone who has seen these beasts knows what power they weild.

Suomi kutsuu

(Photo: somewhere between Arusha, TANZ, and Nairobi, KEN.)

Time's up, Suomi kutsuu (Finland's calling). On Monday I fly back to Finland. Unfortunately I won't make pit-stops in Ethiopia and Sudan as promised by my original itinerary, because the flight operator just cancelled that route. So instead I'm flying via Switzerland and Germany. It actually works better for me, since the layovers are shorter and I'll have one long uninterrupted night flight.

There will be no more posts till Finland since my to-do list prior to my departure is crammed. In fact tomorrow morning I'm flying to the island of Zanzibar, thus far one of my favourite places in East Africa, for the weekend. It will be the last field trip before returning to Finland. I'm going with my brother and a Finnish-Canadian Fida-worker from Uganda, who is holding an HIV-Aids workshop in Dar es Salaam this week. We plan to visit some Zanzibarian spice factories and locate Freddy Mercury's childhood home.

In case anyone is wondering, VALMET is a Finnish company (VALtion=State's METalli=Iron). My late grandfather owned a Valmet tractor. When you start seeing Valmet signs in some bush in the middle of Africa, you know it's time to go home. (Although I doubt the reference is intentional, probably the shop owner just saw it somewhere.) That, and a phone call from Finland saying the beautiful Finnish summer has begun, settles it. See you soon.

Serengeti and Lake Victoria

Tomorrow morning my brother and I are leaving for a five-day roadtrip. Our final destination is Mwanza, a city on the coast of Lake Victoria, quite near the Ugandan and Kenyan borders. Fida has a large youth center there which I will be able to visit.

We have decided to drive through the Serengeti national park, which is on the way. I've been to the Mikumi national park but never to Serengeti. Apparently the wildebeests and zebras etc. are migrating. If we're lucky (or if we're told the real-time coordinates), we'll stuble upon them in herds of thousands. Ngorongoro, the crater famous for its black rhinos, will have to wait for another time, as it would double the entry fee and cost us an extra day.

We'll be back on Tuesday. The following weekend I'll fly to Zanzibar for a mini vacation, just before returning to Finland on the 1st of June. My time in Africa is soon over. Six months has gone past quickly.

Virtuous Leadership -- Hyvejohtajuus

Inspired by Alexandre Havard's magisterial book Virtuous Leadership (Scepter 2007) and our leadership center, European Center for Leadership Development, a few friends and I created a blog in 2008, www.hyvejohtajuus.fi ("virtuous leadership" in Finnish).

We publish Weekly Articles on virtue, leadership, and everything in between. In addition to these weekly articles by our regular writers, a Guestbook Article is published monthly by a visiting guest. Thus far we've had doctors, businessmen, writers, teachers etc. submit though-provoking articles. Ever since we launched this project a little over a year ago our readership has grown exponentially. Those of you who read Finnish, I can heartly recommend the site.

Our regular contributors are:

Oskari Juurikkala: An economist and a lawyer, Oskari is doing his PhD at the moment. His interests include theology and philosophy. He's also a talented musician.

Santiago Martinez: An MBA and political scientist, Santi is a Spaniard who has lived in Finland for nearly 20 years. He runs a developmental organization with close ties to Kenya.

Jussi Ruokomäki: A web consultant and specialist, he works for Smilehouse, one of the biggest (or the biggest) e-commerce companies in Finland. Jussi is married to Hanna and they have a 3-year-old son, Oskar, who is my godson.

Jason Lepojärvi: That would be me. I'm a teacher of philosophy and theology, but for the next few years I'll be concentrating on my dissertation on love.

In addition to us four, a fifth regular contributor has just joined us, Markku Lepojärvi: He is the principle of Albertinkoulu, the school for the hearing-impaired in Helsinki, a foster-father of three, a biological father of another three (myself included), and a young grandfather of four.

Here are the relevant links:

Hyvejohtajuus.fi
European Center for Leadership Development
Virtuous Leadership (the book, soon to be published in Finnish)
List of articles (2008-2009)

Safari Game

(Benjy with Oskar, my godson, in December 2008 in Dar es Salaam)

I'm babysitting again. Danny and Sirkku are entertaining their Finnish guest, who flew in from Sri Lanka, in the night clubs of Dar es Salaam.* Babysitting is much fun, because the kids are so lovely and easy. Daniella, after her late night snack (usually porridge or noodles), falls asleep peacefully at around seven-thirty or eight. Benjy stays up longer, till about nine.

Tonight we were supposed to play the "Safari Game" (safarileikki) again. You know, pretend your car breaks down during a safari, climb to the nearest baobao tree (=sofa) for safety, shoo(t) off the wild beasts circling around, and eventually call a friend to pick you up with the helicopter... But poor Benjy fell asleep on the sofa, at eight-thirty, before our car broke down.

*Just kidding. They're at a restaurant enjoying a civilized discussion.

Benjamin, Benjamin, Benjamin

As my time here is approaching its end, I find my self missing little Daniella and Benjy - a little prematurely. After all, I haven't left! Oh well, I guess this is not uncommon.

This has got to be one of the best pictures I've seen of Benjy. It was taken about five months ago, courtesy of Hanna Ruokomäki who visited us with her family.

Benjy is extremely smart and multitalented. I can't wait to see him grow and find his vocation. It's exciting, what will he be? What kind of choises will he make? On the other hand, he could remain a little boy indefinitely. I doubt the grand-parents would object.

Can You Fit a Plane in the Trunk?

Indeed you can. While traveling around Tansania you become the witness of some of the most funny scences (and sometimes the not-so-funny ones, like car crashes).

Hmm...how can we get this Cessna from here to there?
Hey, I know! How'bout we take off the wings and put them on the roof, and stick the chassis in the trunk?
*Murmur of agreement*
Abdullah, you are wise.

Notice me with the camera? The mirror broke when someone tried to rip it off. Many mirrors have the car register number carved on it, as you can see, but sometimes even that doesn't keep the thieves at bay.

Daniella, Daniella, Daniella

Happy little girl, eh?


One Sunday afternoonn, Daniella's dad dressed her up all nicely.


While he took photos, her uncle made faces.

Disorientated Bat

One morning we woke up to see a bat hanging upside down from our garage roof. Apparently this fella was a bit disorientated. Not only because it wasn't spending the day in some sea-cliff cave like the rest of his friends, but also because he stayed in that garage, without moving, for three days and three nights. The reason for this is that the garage light was on nonstop, so our poor doubly disorientated bat probably thought it was a very, very long day, and kept waiting for the night to arrive. It did arrive in the form of a power-out and the bat was not seen anymore.

In the evenings you can see tons of bats: they fly out of their hiding places in long, unbroken formations that last for hours. Although these bats are considerably larger than their Scandinavian cousins, we're literally pounds away from the dog-size screaming devils I saw in the jungles of Malaysia.

Scuba Diving Course

It would have been smart to take a Swahili course at the beginning of my stay here in Tanzania. But I was way too busy with everything, mostly with my studies. However, I have now completed all the courses I intended to and I ran out of books.

But it wouldn't be wise to do a language course now, just before leaving again for who knows how long. So instead I have decided to take the PADI open water diving course. It's something I've wanted to do since I first tried out snorkeling in the Similan Islands in Thailand.

Africa needs God, says Atheist

Matthew Parris, the columnist for Times magazine and former English politician, published a controversial online article some time ago titled, “As an Atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God”. You can read it here.

His main argument is this.

“Missionaries, not aid money, is the solution to Africa's biggest problem – the crushing passivity of the people's mindset.”

Parris, who as a boy lived in Malawi, explains.

“Anxiety – fear of evil spirits, of ancestors, of nature and the wild, of a tribal hierarchy, of quite everyday things – strikes deep into the whole structure of rural African thought. Every man has his place and, call it fear or respect, a great weight grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity. People won't take the initiative, won't take things into their own hands or on their own shoulders.”

What exactly does he mean by this?

“How can I, as someone with a foot in both camps, explain? When the philosophical tourist moves from one world view to another he finds – at the very moment of passing into the new – that he loses the language to describe the landscape to the old.”

But he tries to give an example: the answer given by Sir Edmund Hillary to the question: Why climb the mountain?

“‘Because it's there,’ he said. To the rural African mind, this is an explanation of why one would not climb the mountain. It's... well, there. Just there. Why interfere? Nothing to be done about it, or with it. Hillary's further explanation – that nobody else had climbed it – would stand as a second reason for passivity.”

Christianity is offered as the antitode to the African tribal collectivism/passivity. But Parris seems to misrepresent Christianity as being purely individualistic.

Although it is true that Christianity stresses the importance of the individual person, who was made in the image of God, the individual person finds his self and purpose in relationships. Above all with his Creator, and secondly with other human persons.

In the Bible God's relationship to mankind is expressed as Father to children and Bride to Bridegroom. The Christian God is not an Absolute solitarity, but a Love Community between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And man is made in this image, not in the image of absolute individualism.

I would be very interested in hearing what others thought of the article. What do you think, did he misrepresent the African rural mind? Or did he hit on a certain truth?

Last Month in Africa

Five months has gone since I arrived in Tanzania on December 1st of last year. It's been a wonderful experience. Although I wouldn't vouch for my hosts, it feels like time has gone by quickly. My return flight, June 1st, is more exotic than usual: Dar es Salaam - Addis Ababa - Khartoum - Frankfurt - Helsinki. This will be my first time in Sudan... Hey, it could be worse, as in Darfur.

As you can see from the photo, I'm very happy. I'm also a bit tanned, so at least I won't immediately get a sun-burn in Finland (sic). (Photo by Jani Salokangas, whose daughter has placed her hand gently on my shoulder. I didn't cut her out, I swear, her dad did.)

Grilled Seafood

As we live beside the sea, there are a lot of local fishermen doing their thing from dusk till dawn. They work very hard, sometimes they don't catch anything, sometimes their nets are full. Some time ago Danny bought two kilos of fresh, king-prawns directly from the fishermen. They got a higher profit than normally, but they did all the cleaning up for us. They were big. We grilled them and they tasted delicious.


Unfortunately I don't have a picture. These photos are from Good Friday, our Easter dinner. The one above was taken by Jani Salokangas who came over with his family. It's not lamb, it's beef tender-loin with big chucks of onion, with chicken and baked potatoes. Danny was (and is) the Grill Master. We've been using the grill much more at the new house.

Grandpa in the Trunk

Some time ago my parents visited us here in Tanzania. They had been invited by Fida International to participate in a one-week Disability Forum Seminar in Northern Tanzania, Tanga. Naturally, the prospect of spending time with the grand-children was attractive too.


I stayed at home in Dar es Salaam as the rest of the family drove up to Tanga for the week. It was quite crowded in the car, so Vaari (Grandpa) got his own little space in the trunk, literally. Getting in and out was a bit challenging, but apparently the "seat" itself was quite snug.

Mystery Bird

My "office" is a roof-sized terrace on top of my brother's house. I spend hours there each day, reading, writing, drinking coffee. Or just chilling, shooting crows, contemplating. The senery is superb: turquoise ocean, white beach, fishing boats, palm trees, and a multitude of different kinds birds.


One of the most beautiful birds that live in the near vicinity is the King Fisher. I still haven't caught it on camera. But there's another bird too, a very pretty one, that is almost always in sight. Here is a couple that were flying around our neighbor's roof top. Who can tell me what bird it is? I cannot recognize the species.

Maisha Poa

Maisha Poa (engl. The Good Life), a Fida-sponsored centre for street children in Nairobi, Kenya. I had the privilege to visit it a while back. Paula Konttinen (in photo) is one of my brother and his wife's collegues. A native Kenyan, Paula Konttinen has studied and lived in Finland for several years, speaks fluent Finnish and, as some of you guessed, is married to a Finn.

Maisha Poa's mission includes empowering youth by way of education and work. One project which is still on the experimental level is artefact-production, bags, boxes, and cards from hand-made paper. The paper is made from elephant dung, and I was shown the process. Hopefully soon they can start making a profit. For those of you who speak Finnish, click on the photo and check out the label text on this bag.

Obligatory Update and Photo

I've been home alone since Monday. Everything's gone extremely well. I put in 8 hours of intense study and writing each day and take it easy in the evenings. Today I saw a movie with Ellam, The Fast and the Furious 4. Not really my "thing", if you know what I mean, but Ellam is into characterless fast pace action movies. (I'm exaggerating.) After finishing this post I intend to walk upstairs to the roof terrace and enjoy a Cuban cigar. The moon is spectacular tonight and it will light up the beach and ocean brilliantly.

I have to finish writing soon, because my battery is dying -- the electricity is out after several days of unproblematic current, and I don't want to use the oversized generator. Anyway, this is just an obligatory update. And this photo is the obligatory photo for the grandparents. Yes you, Grandma and Vaari, Mummi ja Pappa.


Daniella and Benjy love dogs, as you know, although they are also a little afraid of them. In this picture Daniella is meeting Sheba, the blind dog I blogged about last week, for the first time. Daniella is very courageous, as you can see. (I on the other hand am a bit apprehensive, hence Sheba's tight collar. I have a firm grip of it with my hidden right hand, just in case).

Blind Shepherd

This is Sheba. She is our neighbors' German Shepherd. They have another dog, Spot, a white Jack Russell named after the black patch on her back. When you take Sheba (and Spot) with you for a walk or a jog on the beach, Sheba will place herself between you and anyone in the vicinity, a fellow jogger running towards you or any person chilling at the beach. If someone comes too close, Sheba will gently push them away (while on the move). What makes her special is that she is blind.

Shooting Crows

Domestic Tanzanian crows are fine birds. They're like Indian black crows (in the picture) but a bit larger and have white chests. Their Indian cousins, however, are a true menace. Originally imported from India for their "handy" ability to keep the streets clean, or so the story goes, they are simply everywhere nowadays. They're noisy, arrogant, and like most crows extremely intelligent. They're also egg-thieves, as we say in Finnish, for they destroy the nests of smaller birds.


So Danny and I found a new hobby. Crow-shooting. We have an airgun (or bee-bee gun) which we borrowed from a friend. Whoever has used an airgun knows that it's nearly impossible to hit a flying bird. But of my "hits" 25%, three crows in total, have fallen from the sky. I won't say what my total count is though... Danny made an incredible shot today. He hit a flying crow from 15 meters in the eye. But I won't post an illustrative photo for fear of losing friends.

Babysitting Benjamin

Danny and Sirkku went to have dinner with a few Finnish colleagues from Fida International. There's a nice restaurant just half a mile from the new house called Mediterranean. I decided to stay at home with Daniella and Benjy. Quite soon after her parents had left and after her late-night noodles, Daniella fell asleep peacefully. Benjy and I stayed up to watch movies.

But lo and behold, Sirkku and Danny returned home early! They made it to the restaurant, but no one else ever came. Apparently the rain earlier today had been so heavy that many roads were still cut off completely. So the other Finns enjoyed a meal in a separate restaurant closer to town while Danny and Sirkku spent quality time together at Mediterranean. And me, what did I have for supper? Fresh prawns, bought directly from local fishermen off the beach (and then grilled) in the backyard. No complaints here.

What is Worship?

Part I, Part II, Part III

This is an article on the nature of worship. References are to Jaroslav Pelikan's five-part marathon history of the development of Christian doctrine. Reference 4:45 would mean book 4, page 45.

-- -- --

To begin with, we should be careful with liberal uses of the word “worship” when addressed to saints. Historically it has been used for a lack of a better word before “veneration” became the proper word to express a devotional disposition towards saints.

But some, like Jean de Gerson, went as far as to straightforwardly suggest “adoring” Mary and saluting her as “the goddess of love” is “not going too far” (4:41-42). This, to me, blurs the distinction between “adoration” and “veneration” and undermines the “absolute qualitative distinction” between God and man that was mentioned above.

“Superstitions and abuses” concerning, for example, the relics of saints included “trafficking” and selling them (3:179), historically called the sin of simony. “Idolatry” included treating a creature with greater honor than is his due, namely, said Socinus, “honor that is clearly divine, and requiring from him those things that can and should be requested from God alone” (4:329). It is not explained what kind of honor is “clearly divine”, so this begs the question – yet again.

But elsewhere we find an instance of what can be requested from God alone: it was “essential to avoid … the notion that saints conferred grace” or that they “could rescue souls from hell” (4:261).

But it was as essential to avoid the opposite extreme too, “the hoary objection that the veneration of the saints was idolatrous” (4:261).

The potential threat of devotional practices to the integrity of monotheistic worship has not, of course, gone unnoticed. Counter-measures against excesses of devotion have taken many forms. Above all it has been necessary to remember where the true origin of saints’ honor lay.

The opening verse of the Latin version of the last psalm read: “Praise the Lord in his saints” (Ps. 150:1, Vulg.) and what this meant, explained Bernard of Clairvaux, was that “if I discern something in the saints that is worthy of praise and admiration, I find, when I examine it in the clear light of truth, that though they appear to be admirable and praiseworthy, it is Another than they who is really so, and I praise God in his saints”

The saints’ virtues had their origin in God, not in the saints themselves (4:177). Furthermore, saints are venerated “not for their benefit, but for ours,” since “the saints have no need of our honors, nor do they gain anything as a result of our devotion” (4:176).

One Catholic friend of mine, a layman, offered a few possible symptoms, concrete examples that would imply an unhealthy disposition towards saints. Among these were: “one does not pray directly to God anymore”; “does not understand, that the role of the saints is to direct us to Jesus – see Mary’s advice at the wedding at Cana: ‘Do whatever he says’ (John 2:1-11)”; “is attached to a saint but forgets God”; and “neglects the sacraments and the reading of Scripture through which one gets to know Jesus.”

Clichtove’s treatise from the sixteenth century, The Veneration of the Saints, traced the development of the practice of veneration, Pelikan comments, “with such balance and care that, despite Protestant attacks, it continued to serve as a model” (4:260) for a considerable time. Through a proper veneration of the saints, Clichtove urged against critique, the glory of God was not diminished but magnified (4:261).

(We find an echo of this in the order of loves. The type of love that pertains to Christian love is charity or agape, divine self-sacrificing love, the word John used when he said that “God is love [agape]”. When we love, agape, our neighbor, we love them through God, who is the source of love, and we love God through them, who are images of God, provided the order of our loves is proper. In this way Christ’s two commandments form one “great commandment”. They are two sides of the same coin.)

All we can take away from the above is that “worshipful adoration” of God means worshiping him for his own sake; whereas “worshipful respect” of saints means honoring them not for their own but for God’s sake.

In light of the degree/quality distinction, this, strictly speaking really amounts to neither. They’re not different qualities of worship, nor are they worship of different degree. Rather, there’s a difference in one’s basic attitude and understanding of why one worships. Does one worship the object for its own sake or for the sake of something beyond the object?

One could say that if this – one’s basic attitude – is really what we are looking at, if this is the only distinction, it is no wonder that the “accusation of idolatry and the response to it struck at a deep and sensitive point in Christian belief” (2:127). But, as with sacrifice, one’s basic attitude may make a greater difference than we may think. To this too, then, I shall have to return later.

From degree to quality: sacrifice and “basic attitude”

Let’s recap again. Here is the crux of the problem set in a historical context:

“From Augustine’s City of God came the explanation of the fundamental difference between the cult of the saints and the Pagan practices to which Protestant critics were comparing it. The ‘adoration’ paid to the Creator pertained to him alone, the ‘adoration’ of saints was that appropriate to God’s creatures; strictly speaking, ‘the church does not adore saints … but honors them.’ Christ was the only ‘Mediator of redemption,’ but the saints were ‘mediators of intercession.’” (4:261.)

It is probably clear by now that I find this distinction of “adoration to God only” and “veneration of saints” only partly helpful. It differentiates between the object of honoring, but it does not substantiate as to how the acts of honoring differ except as far as their object goes. So Augustine’s “explanation” begs the question. Over and over again I have pressed for a difference in the acts themselves, not only in their objects.

But we haven’t said all that can be said about “sacrifice” as a constituent of worship.

I said earlier that sacrifice belonged to both worship and veneration, if – but only if – the difference between them was only a difference of degree. And in this case sacrifice had to be defined vaguely as “something” that could be offered to both God and man. But, as it is, theologically sacrifice is defined as something that belongs to God solely. And in this case, what follows is that the difference between worship and veneration is not, after all, merely a difference of degree, but of quality as well.

Everyone agrees that “the merit of salvation” (4:261) belongs solely to Jesus. There is such a sacrifice which belongs to worship only. We are talking about the sacrifice for the atonement of sins. Offering such a sacrifice to a creature rather than to the Creator would be idolatry. And asking for forgiveness of sins from a creature rather than from the true God would be idolatry.

The cult of the saints did not imply that “the church offers sacrifices to the [saints], but only to the one God, the God of the [saints] and our God,” explained Remigius of Auxerre centuries ago (3:176). The only one to whom Christ could “offer the sacrifice of his passion,” said Robert Pullen, “was the One whom he was obeying by his suffering” (3:139).

It is the “sacrifice of his passion” (3:139), the “body of Christ” (3:136). The Catholics believe that in the Eucharist the power of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice – for Christ is not, to be sure, “crucified” each time anew – becomes manifest. (For Christians who don’t hold onto the sacrificial character of the Holy Communion such talk is likely to sound odd, if not blasphemous.)

But it is not only Christ’s suffering that is sacrificed to God only. Worship implies the “sacrifice” of each person’s life to God, understood as “a total commitment” to him only.

One Catholic friend of mine, a priest, explained what “a total commitment” meant for him. A worshipful disposition toward God includes at least the following (which, he was at pains to emphasize, can never be said of a saint): “acknowledging that the recipient of worship is the Creator and thus the rightful Lord of every creature”; “’letting God know’ that he is the rightful Lord of one’s being”; “knowing that you have been created and accepting it, and the voluntary transformation of this knowledge into worship”; “the coming together of humility and freedom in forming your inner attitude”; and “worshiping God unreservedly, that is, obeying him unreservedly.”

In Catholic tradition “worship” is clearly sacrificial in character, whereas other “types of reverence” which are directed to the saints are non-sacrificial. Of the latter, a further distinction is made between ordinary reverence (“dulia”) to saints in general and a higher form of reverence (“hyperdulia”) to Christ’s mother. This said, my friend said that it was important to remember that “hyperdulia” was not a “third” form of reverence in between sacrificial “adoration” and non-sacrificial “dulia”, but it belonged fully to the category of “dulia”.

We finally come to the end of this article. We shall close with saying something about the “basic attitude” which, as noted earlier, affects a difference between worship and veneration. But earlier I questioned its significance: I asked whether “mere attitude” can make the crucial difference.

But at the end of the day, when all outer criteria for evaluating the “purity” of one’s worship fails, isn’t one’s attitude – largely hidden from observers and fully seen only by God – at the heart of this issue after all?

Does not one’s attitude make all the difference in one’s spiritual – and moral – life? What happens outwardly is not unimportant, but it is secondary; an echo of what takes place in the soul. Isn’t one’s attitude what distinguishes murder from accident, authentic friendship from selfish manipulation – and worship of God from self-love (the story of the praying Pharisee)?