WHO WAS NIXOS KAZANTZAKIS ?
Nikos Kazantzakis (1878-1957) was a Greek writer who wrote novels in the mid-20th Century. His most well-known works are Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ both of which were made into very popular films. Kazantzakis was born and raised on the island of Crete, studied at the University of Paris, and wrote literally dozens of books ranging from many first-rate novels to travel guides and political tracts. He was also occasionally and temporarily involved in representing Greece in various international situations.
While traveling in the far east Kazantzakis contacted a deadly disease and died on his way to Germany. His wife brought him to Crete to be buried in great honor even though the Greek Orthodox Church had excommunicated him for the questions he raised about the church and the Bible. Thousands of Cretan citizens gathered for his funeral in Heraklion, Crete where he was buried on the ancient Venetian wall that surrounds the city. His books continue to be popular all around the world. I actually had the opportunity to spend a day visiting with Helen Kazantzakis, Nikos’ wife, in Geneva years ago.
Kazantzakis’ creative autobiography, Report to Greco, is a fascinating account of his youth, years of study, and travels with friends. It also contains a number of his insights into world affairs and intellectual developments. The title for this book reflects its dedication to El Greco the artist who also came from Crete. Kazantzakis thought it appropriate for him to dedicate his autobiography to the other Cretan artist. The motto for this book is: “Reach What You Cannot”, focusing Kazantzakis’ belief that one should always be striving for something higher, more fulfilling than that which one has already achieved.
Perhaps Kazantzakis’ most profound book is his final effort to express the above motto in his magnum opus: The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, wherein he undertakes to expand on the journey of Odysseus by accompanying him travelling around the world. Even here, Kazantzakis refuses to acknowledge that there is ever an end to the journey, indeed, the struggle, to go beyond whatever one has already achieved. Incidentally, this book consists of 33,333 lines of iambic pentameter in Greek.
The actual motto of Kazantzakis’ Odyssey is “I hope for nothing; I fear nothing; I am free.” In this way he sought to convey his belief that the only way to be absolutely free of all that would inhibit one’s growth is not to have any hopes or fears. Only then would a person be totally free. Then there would be no disappointments, no false sense of fulfilment. Rewards and punishments are then out of the question and one is free to pursue life for its own sake. Kazantzakis had this motto inscribed on his gravestone on the Venetian wall in Heraklion.
I have pondered these issues and mottos many times ever since I first encountered the writings of the “crazy Greek.” As Zorba says to “the Boss” in both the film and the novel: “Boss, you’ve got to learn to cut the string that ties you to the petty things of this world.” The big question here is not only whether this is at all possible, but whether it is in fact desirable. Does not such withdrawal sap life of its vital meaning? Clearly, neither Kazantzakis nor Zorba actually lived as if this were so. Is it not possible to live both postures at the same time?

GOD and the World!
Over the years what I think about “God” has continued to shrink. I began as a teenager fundamentalist in the 1950s, continuing to broaden my understanding of theological issues through college and through my graduate school years and my 60 year teaching career. The primary influence in forming my current, and likely my last, thoughts on the subject of God have been strongly influenced by the thought of Alfred north Whitehead in his book Process and Reality, especially the final chapter entitled “God and the World.”
As I see it reality is comprised of two complementary dimensions, the creative and the dis-creative. These two dimensions tend to work against each other forming the warp and weft of both cosmic and world history. God serves as the positive pole and what we call “evil” serves as the negative pole. The history of religions in the world is the result of the tension between these two poles. In my view the Christian religion, focused in the person and teachings of Jesus, with all of its many flaws, constitutes the as yet highest form of spirituality in the world. Jesus should be distinguished from the Christian Church as such.
Whitehead distinguishes between views of God those that stress its power, those that stress its morality, and those that stress its primordial character. He then speaks of what he terms “the Gallian origin of Christianity”, namely the person and teachings of Jesus, which “dwells upon the tender elements of the world, which slowly in quietness operate by love; and it finds purpose in the present immediacy of a kingdom not of this world. Love neither rules, nor is it unmoved; also it is a little oblivious as to morals. It does not look to the future; for it finds its own reward in the immediate present.” (p.343)
Whitehead goes on to describe God as “dipolar”. “He has a primordial nature and a consequent nature. The former provides the structure and character of reality and the latter provides its connection with history and everyday human experience. The point of contact between these two is God’s infinite patience and “tender care that nothing be lost” in the push and shove of universal history. In this divine patience “tenderly saving the temporal…by the completion of its own nature” God functions as “the poet of the world, with tender patience leading it by his vision of truth, beauty, and goodness.” (p.346)
Throughout this ever on-going, eternal process “God is the great companion- the fellow sufferer who understands.” (p.351) Whitehead goes on to speak of “objective immortality.” He states that throughout the eternal vicissitudes of life are “refreshed by the ever-present, unfading importance of our immediate actions, which perish and yet live for evermore” in the eternal and loving memory of God. As was mentioned earlier, in Whitehead’s view “nothing is ever lost” in the loving and eternal memory of God.
It is this vision, both of the cosmic processes of reality and the human dynamics of history, that draws me to the insights of Whitehead. It starts with what he calls “the Galilean origin of Christianity”, the deep, healing insights and deeds of the person of Jesus calling us to an ever yet higher mode of life and ends with the confidence that in the end “nothing will be lost”. At one place Whitehead speaks of God as “the lure” of the universe toward the fulfillment of reality itself. (p. 344) This is how I now understand God and the Divine role in the universe, both cosmic and historical. I try to discern what seem to be the forces for good in the universe and work hard to embody them in the way I live.