Life in Community-rabbits
Latino Leadership Circle blogs on the rabbits in Watership Down and the church.
"Richard Adams, in his book Watership Down tells the story of a warren of rabbits that used to tell one another rabbit stories. They would tell of the great mystical prince of rabbits, and how he would appear and disappear, escaping perils and dangers. As a result of sharing theses stories with one another in community, these rabbits were fast, quick and cunning, which you have to be in order to survive in a rabbit world. One day this warren of rabbits decided to go in migration in search of other rabbit communities and they came upon a community of rabbits that did not know rabbit stories. As a consequence this community of rabbits had grown fat and slow. And we all know that rabbits that are fat and slow find themselves in a skillet or the mouth of a predator. Essentially this is a story of community – that place where stories are exchanged, where our souls come to be exfoliated."
and finds a way to the Nazis from there
"We must also be aware that there exist false or pseudo-communities. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book Life Together poses an important caveat to us, “Those who love their dream of Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community, even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest and sacrificial.” We must keep in mind that in Nazi Germany there existed, side by side two churches, the confessing Church and the professing Church; one a genuine community of faith, the other in league with the state apparatus. There have always existed false or pseudo-communities, from the community of Nimrod in Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), to the community of the Roman pagan state (Romans 1: 18-32) and even to the Aryan community of Hitler’s Germany."
worth the read.
"Richard Adams, in his book Watership Down tells the story of a warren of rabbits that used to tell one another rabbit stories. They would tell of the great mystical prince of rabbits, and how he would appear and disappear, escaping perils and dangers. As a result of sharing theses stories with one another in community, these rabbits were fast, quick and cunning, which you have to be in order to survive in a rabbit world. One day this warren of rabbits decided to go in migration in search of other rabbit communities and they came upon a community of rabbits that did not know rabbit stories. As a consequence this community of rabbits had grown fat and slow. And we all know that rabbits that are fat and slow find themselves in a skillet or the mouth of a predator. Essentially this is a story of community – that place where stories are exchanged, where our souls come to be exfoliated."
and finds a way to the Nazis from there
"We must also be aware that there exist false or pseudo-communities. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book Life Together poses an important caveat to us, “Those who love their dream of Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community, even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest and sacrificial.” We must keep in mind that in Nazi Germany there existed, side by side two churches, the confessing Church and the professing Church; one a genuine community of faith, the other in league with the state apparatus. There have always existed false or pseudo-communities, from the community of Nimrod in Babel (Genesis 11:1-9), to the community of the Roman pagan state (Romans 1: 18-32) and even to the Aryan community of Hitler’s Germany."
worth the read.
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