123 Christian Anthropology and the (W)Holistic Approach 3 This focus changed, however, when Comenius, displaced and on the run from Roman Catholic, Habsburgian troops, meditated on finding rest and renovation. Hábl (2017) expressed this in the chapter title ‘The Depths of Safety’. The content of this chapter was largely borrowed from Comenius’ The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart (1623/2021). Real spiritual renovation starts with hearing God’s voice inviting the restless sinner to ‘return to the place from whence thou came, to the home of your heart, and shut the door fast behind thee’ (Comenius, 1623/2021, p. 245). Here, Comenius centralised the Latin word resignare: to resign. Practically, this means resignation to the grace of God and starting to follow Christ. This return to God He himself made possible when He made Himself visible to human beings through Christ the Savior. The way back was revealed. The one who wants to find his centre of safety must rely fully on Christ. The key concept in this turning is resignare. (Hábl, 2017, p. 21) Hábl (2017) described this resignation as ‘hopeful resignation’ that starts within the person (p. 23). Normally, resignation does not sound like something hopeful and positive, but according to Comenius’ spiritual view on man and the world, this resignation does not mean less than a return to the lost paradise, a giving up of resistance to the transcendent and a decision to let yourself be guided into reconciliation and the renewal of life. It is like the return of the lost son to the Father (Luke 15). Therefore, it simultaneously means the start of a totally new beginning. Hábl (2017) cited from Chapter 10 of Comenius’ forementioned book a list of nine elements that cause this renewal and help to enable it: The resigned have 1) peace with God; 2) spiritual security in spite of physical dangers; 3) perpetual good-heartedness; 4) a safe distance from worldly confusions; and they 5) do not fear any harm; 6) bear suffering with praising of God; 7) are amazed by God’s benevolence; 8) do not fall harmfully; 10) die joyfully. (Hábl, 2017, pp. 22-23) Remarkable congruence can be observed with the life and work of Augustine in the narrative Comenius employed at this point. This becomes clear from the central lemma of Augustine’s life, as presented in the first part of his Confessions: ‘Our hearts are restless until they find rest in You, oh God’. Hábl (2017) juxtaposed the resignation that accompanies this truth with the archaic Czech term samosvojnost, which means ‘having one’s ultimate goal and end in oneself’ (p. 22). The beautiful theatre of the good creation has fallen apart in an obscure labyrinth in which man is an obscure labyrinth himself, but the light comes in when the unbridled quest for happiness through maximum selfdevelopment based on a fundamentally egoistic attitude is given up and man
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