Every life begins with great promise. How this promise grows depends on our willingness to accept the challenge of grace in all its tragedy, comedy and unique wonder.
Every person knows what fearful destiny waits us; namely death. Nevertheless, in the final analysis of being a creature deserving of God’s love, such a gift of life can be defended only if the individual has more to offer than life has; if one is able to plead a meaning that is stronger than death, than the unknown horrors that await us and turn that promise into a curse.
The single most significant point for Western Christian Humanism is this: Anticipatory (unasked) gifts are inevitable; they present themselves in one form or another along with the gift of life. This is lost in our current age where control seems to dominate. We strive to remember that life itself is uniquely designed for such unasked gifts in both heredity and milieu. The entire corpus of Dostoyevsky wrestles with the complete rejection of anticipatory spiritual gifts, with grave consequences.
Given the inevitability of grace, their can only be one question: Which gifts are defensible in view of the freedom, dignity and inalienable right of being human?
The answer is simple: those gifts that are least likely to treat the future as something foreign, gifts that fortify courage in opening freedom to itself; in a sentence: Gifts that make man human.
The believing Christian is convinced that optimal and consequently inwardly binding grace is the way of faith! The Church is acknowledged to be that historical context, that ‘milieu’ in which humanness is truly made free. Where we strive to make present a real answer to the demand of a life that corresponds to the Creator.
This blog is undertaken in the spirit that the gift of self to Him Crucified and Risen reveals meaning that is alone capable of withstanding the fate of an unknown future.
William Holland
William Holland 
Dear William,
Thank you for coming to my site, and to you keep up the good fight, He who has started the passion in you will take you all way.
My our Father, through Christ empower you with the Holy Spirit to guide you through.
Yours In Christ
Prayson
Very profound thoughts, that have stilled my mind as I’m reading them (a rare occurrence). Thank you, William.
There’s good food here. I’ll be back for more, William. Thank you for stopping at my blog and posting. Please offer your insights to my postings. I welcome your thoughts, and appreciate your perspective.
-Lisa
Thank you for visiting my blog, keep up the interesting comments. Your blog looks really interesting, i have subscribed now.
highheeledhistorian
http://highheeledhistorian.wordpress.com/
Waiting for your thoughts and insights about Solzhenitsyn’s attitude towards the Kazakhs since he spent time in Kazakhstan. I know he didn’t hold Ukrainians in high regard, yet I still appreciate his writings on the dilemma Russians found themselves in during the Soviet period. Of course, the Soviet Union impacted many more nations than just Russia. We need a writing phoenix of Kazakh ethnicity to arise out of the ash heap of Kazakhstan’s tragic history, too much silence from this vast land. I’m waiting for a voice to speak out or at least write more about what happened in Kazakhstan during the Soviet period.
Appreciate your writing very much, thank you for your most erudite insights on American politics!!! Like you, I see too many close connections to the failed experiment in the Soviet Union lining themselves up in our great country now. Only a merciful act of God can redirect the ultimate calamity we are bound for with present day politics. There I said it, I’ll get off my soapbox now.
I am sorry to keep you waiting, but I don’t think Solzhenitsyn is the first place you ought to look for any critical guidance on Kazakhstan. Although he taught math there for a while, and had spent much time in the Gulag there, he never spoke badly of its people. If you go to the index of his ‘Gulag Arc.’ you will find many references to Kazahastanian intellectuals. I do not think he had much critical to say regarding Kazakhstan. However, there are two significant people whom you should try to contact via email for extensive bibliography regarding Kazakhstan and Solzhenitsyn: James Billington is the Chief Librarian of Congress in Washington D.C. I am sure you can find a contact to receive extensive bibliography regarding your interests. Robert Conquest “Reflections on a Ravaged Century” is the best single volume essays on Solzhenitsyn, Kazakhstan and many other relevant topics, he works at the Hoover Institution at Standford University in California, he is considered the world’s leading authority on Solzhenitsyn, Kazakhstan and its relation to Soviet Union. Try those two or at least Conquest’s text.
I don’t think you will find extensive correspondence between Kazakhstan and Solzhenitsyn. Your interest is better served if you tack a broader field of interest outside of Solzhenitzen.
Peace,
wjholland.wordpress.com
Also, I forgot to add whether or not you’re familiar with the Kengir Uprising? Let me know.
Peace,
wjholland.wordpress.com
Thanks for this!
Great blog and thank you for posting at mine. Most of what I’ve read here, however seems to be a bit over my head. I’m no Jack Handy, after all.
Roxy 😉
Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving such a charming comment. I’ll keep tabs on yours – looks very stimulating.
Ellen (www.janedigby.wordpress.com)
Very interesting blog. I shall be checking in regularly!
Let me know what you think of mine . . . http://apieceofcoffee.wordpress.com/
Keep on writing!