It’s Us, Lord!
Boris Nemensky
1960
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Thursday, 12 April 2012
Mikhail Nesterov. A Wounded Soldier. 1915
A Wounded Soldier
Mikhail Nesterov
1915
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Подвиг есть и в сражени, подвиг есть и в борьбе, высший подвиг в терпени, любви, и мольбе.
Алексей Хомяков
There are great feats in battle, there are great feats in struggle, but the greatest feats are patience, love, and supplication.
Aleksei Khomyakov
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This is a postcard from the First World War (“The Great War”)… click here for the étude for this piece.
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Sunday, 13 July 2008
Mikhail Nesterov. Étude for “A Wounded Soldier”. 1915
Étude for “A Wounded Soldier”
Mikhail Nesterov
1915
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This is a soldier of the tsarist army, wounded in World War I. I find this picture to be a wonderful allegory of our Church in America at present. It’s wounded, it’s weakened; oddly enough, by those claiming to be friends. However, one can see that the soldier isn’t despairing; he hasn’t lost hope. Neither have we. People such as Alexander Schmemann thrust a bayonet into our vitals; yet, we still live on, and we’re ready to fight again. In fact, there’s a deepening cleavage between we “ethnic” Orthodox and some recent converts (one need only look at the writings of Joseph Honeycutt and Frederica Matthewes-Greene to see the difference). We wish to “go home”, whereas they wish to “play at Church” and try to use the Church as a laboratory for their notional ideas. That sounds much like the Catholic lefties of the 60s (no mistake, for Schmemann was friendly with radical Catholics). We’re wounded, yes, but we wish to rejoin our proper regiment and fight under our traditional banners. As for those who wish to do otherwise, I say, “Go, go in peace, and don’t bother the Church. The rest of us are going home where we belong”.
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